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WelcomeMy Name is Who you arewhere you liveone event that has happened recently that put a

smile on your raceIntroduce myself

Me Organizing pastor of Chain of Lakes NCDLast 16 yearsAmy & Hannahgoing to some HS graduations parties of friendsSold our house in Rochesterbought a new houseclosing on June 15 th Learn about meread my blogwrite an almost daily blogLove to visit with everyone herevisit in your homedont want to do

thatgo to a coffee shop, or come to our office. In our visitshare my story and learnabout your story

Chain of Lakes NCD

Core group that were calling the Emerging Communitymet everyWednesday since Ash WednesdayHad a couple of large group eventsMeet the Pastor and Agape Feast

on Maundy Thursday?Why seriesJune 28 th celebration of summer/blessing of animals

(Golden Lake)Retreat on Saturday, May 30 th to develop our Purpose StatementStart weekly worship on first Sunday in Advent

What we are going to do in this ?Why seriesQuestions well look at

Take a ?Why card and give it to your friend$5 gas cards to Holiday stationgive one to your friend

What were going to do tonightMe talk and set this question upBreak into groups or groupMe talk some whereQuestion and response time

Devotion and OutlineOutlinegiven you an outline of my talk

Write stuff downGod might give you an idea that you want to save write it down

DevotionScriptures that relate to the question were looking atId like to learn more about the Biblethis is one way. If you dont have a Bible, wellgive you a Bible for FREEjust ask us. 5 minutessay a prayerread the scripture read what I wrotesay a prayer. Your devotional reading prompts an inspired thought or more questiongive me a call, or send me an E-mail.

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How did this ?Why series come to be? We got a group together and started

talking about a large group event in May. While we were together we started talking

about the questions of faith that many people had. I just asked them, If Jesus came into

the room and said you could ask him one question that started with the word, why what

would that question be. We started writing questions. We had fun at it. So we asked a

lot of other people to do that. We had people do it at our Agape Feast and some other

places. We came up with about 60 questions. Our group came together and whittled the

list down to four questions.

One of my dreams for our new church is we develop a distinctive type of disciple,or follower. What I mean is we want people to have a deep relationship with God

through Jesus Christ. This relationship could be described as knowing God with our

mind, loving god with our heart, serving God with our feet. All three dimensionshead,

heart, and feet are important. Its rare to find a church that emphasizes all three

encourages all three.

To know God with our mind means we are willing to encourage peoples

questions. In fact we are willing to start our ministry with questions. Almost everyone

has questions.

Now it wouldnt surprise me if some of us here might wonderis it okay to ask

God a why question. We might have grown up in a church that discouraged our

question, or a family that told us not to ask the hard questions. If you grew up in a church

or a family like that, I want to say its okay to ask questionsthe hard questionsthe

why questions. I am confident that God can handle our questions; and I am even

willing to say that God might even encourage our questions.

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I want to read a short story from the Bible to share a response to this question of

whether it is okay to ask God a why question. Its a short story of Jesus dying on the

cross. This comes from Mark: Mark 15:34-35

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. Atthree oclock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? whichmeans, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.

Did you hear what word Jesus used when he asked that question? The word, why. If

you take one image from our time together tonight, take this one. Jesus dying on the

cross, in terrible pain, saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. In Mark

these are the last words of JesusIf it was okay for Jesusfully God, fully humanto ask a question with the

word, why, then I think it is okay for us to ask why questions.

Why questions are hard questions. When my daughter, Hannah, asks me a why

question there is part of me that wants to say to her, just because. Can we relate to that.

Why questions force us to think, they force us to come up with an explanation, they are

hard questions. Some why questions dont have answers.

Theres one more part of this story of Jesus dying on the cross that I want to

emphasize. What did Godthe Father or Creator or First part of the Trinitysay to

Jesus when Jesus asked, My God, my God why have you forsaken me. What did God

say in response? Do you remember? God didnt say anything. Maybe God said

something, but it wasnt recorded. Maybe God said something that only Jesus recorded.

We dont have that. God didnt offer an answer. Some of our questions dont have

answers.

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When we were putting together this series, one person on our planning group

asked me, So Paul are you going to come up with the answers to these questions.

I said, were going to share a response.

Theres a difference between a response and an answer.

When my daughter does math problems she comes up with answers. When she is

asked the sum of 2 + 2 she says the answer is 4. An answer is something certain. We are

certain that 4 is the sum of 2 + 2.

But when it comes to God there is always an element of mystery. Coming up

with an answer to the question of why doesnt God intervene to stop suffering especiallyamong children is different than coming up with an answer to the question of what is the

sum of 2 + 2. Because we cant be completely certain when it comes to some questions

about god. Because we arent certain we cant label what we say as an answer.

But just because we say that we dont have an answer doesnt mean that we dont

offer something to the question. We arent going to be mute in fact of hard questions.

The church has a long tradition of wrestling with these questions. Theres a long tradition

of people who have wrestled with this same question about which were talking. We both

dont offer the definitive answer, and we will offer a response.

Two more points before I get to the question.

How do you come up with responses? What sources do I use to come up with a

response to this question? By what criteria do I test the response that I share with this

question. I have four sources. The founder of the Methodist Church was a man by the

name of John Wesley. He lived in England in 18 th century. Some of his followers came

up with something called the Wesley Quadrilateral. Wesley Quadrilateral says that the

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way to test responses to these questions is 1. Scripture; 2. Tradition; 3. Reason; 4. Our

own experience. So you shouldand this is a moral imperativetest my response by 1.

Scripture; tradition; reason; our own experience. If my response doesnt measure up to

those four areas, then we certainly can keep coming up with more responses.

Tonights question is a hard question. Its a hard question. I want to make sure

that we have proper respect for this question. Anyone who has gone through undeserved

suffering doesnt think that this is an academic exercise. The question is surrounded by

terrible pain. Im guessing that all of us here have experienced tragedies; some of us here

tonight might be suffering from undeserved suffering. Were not here to do some sort of mind game. For this question hits us in the heart. By responding to this question were

standing on sacred ground. I know that to open up discussion on this question were

opening up a box of tremendous emotions. I respect that.

I also know that this question stops many people from having a relationship with

God and the church; and it stops people from going deeper from God. This might be one

of the greatest obstacles to belief and faith.

Its important to address itits important to address it with tremendous

sensitivity.

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Is God in charge? Is God in charge of the world? The assumption behind this

question is that God is in chargein fact that God is in charge of everything.

As Presbyterians we say that God is in sovereign. In fact when I was studying for

my ordination exams I was told by many people to say many times that God is sovereign.

I passed with flying colors.

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I believe that God is sovereign.

Is God in charge of all reality?

To explore this question lets me share an example. If I hit my nose--------did

God cause me to hit my nose. What do you think. Lets press it a step further. Did God

know from before the start of the universe that on Sunday, May 17 at ___ in the early

evening in Blaine Minnesota in Abundant Life Church in the United States of America on

earth, in the Milky Way galaxy that Paul Moore would hit his nose?

Is God in charge of everything that we do? Does God know before the start of the

earth what we are going to do?Throughout history there are a couple of ways that people have responded to this

question. One is the Hyper Calvinist view. Calvinists are people who base their thoughts

and beliefs on their interpretation of John Calvin. Who is John Calvin? John Calvin was

a Protestant Reformer who started a religious movement in what we know as Geneva

Switzerland. Presbyterians look at Calvin as the ancestor of the Presbyterian tradition.

Just as Lutherans look to Luther as their ancestor and Methodists look to John Wesley.

As a sidenote this is the 500 th birthday of John Calvin. As part of his birthday

there are a lot of celebrations of Calvin within the Presbyterian Church. One of our

seminariesPrinceton Seminaryhas set up a web site that encourages people to read

through Calvins most famous workthe Institutes. Every day on the web site is a

reading. Ive been doing that this year. I took a class on Calvin in seminary and read the

Institutes; now Im reading through the Institutes in 2009.

Calvinist is different than Calvin. Calvinist are the people who developed

doctrines based on the teachings of John Calvin. Many people believe that there is a big

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difference between Calvinist and Calvin. When I say Calvinist I am not necessarily

saying this is what John Calvin believes.

Hyper Calvinist believes that God knows everything that happens and causes to

happen in fact God knows what was going to happen before the start of the world. A

Hyper Calvinist would say that God knew before the start of the world that Paul Moore

would hit his nose on ____ at the Abundant Life church in Blaine, Minnesota, USA,

earth, milky way. God knows everything and causes everything. A Hyper Calvinist

would say that God would not only cause a child to suffer, but knew that this was going

to happen before the start of the world. There are many Hyper Calvinists in the world.Some prominent Hyper Calvinists are

On the other hand of this spectrum are the Deists. A deist believes that God

created the world, but since creation God is not involved. God created us and then let us

go. God is not a personal God that is involved in our daily lives. God had nothing to do

with me hitting my nose on _________. Some deists are Benjamin Franklin, Thomas

Jefferson, Napolean. A deist would say that God didnt cause a child to suffer; life

happens in a terrible way. Things happen.

Where would you put yourself? In terms of God causing events, would you

describe yourself as more of a Hyper Calvinist or a Deist. In fact think of a continuum.

If a Hyper Calvinist was a 10 and a Deist was a 1what number would describe your

view. How deeply do you believe that god is involved in the world. Is God in charge of

every event. Does God know from the start of the world what is going to happen. Did

God create us and just let us be. Or if you dont find yourself on either extreme, where

would you put yourself. What number

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Theres another way to think about this question. All powerful versus all loving

spectrum. Some people believe that God is all powerfulGod can do anything that God

wants to; God controls the world. People start using these large words when they talk

about God as all powerfulomnipresentgod is everywhere; omniscientGod is.

Some people believe that God is all loving. God is lovinggod loves us and this

is the most important characteristic of god.

People who have made this division between all powerful and all loving would

say that God cant be both. God cannot be both all powerful and all loving.

Those who believe that God is all powerful would respond to this question bysaying that God isnt all loving. God does control the world, but terrible things happen

because God doesnt love us enough to intervene to stop children from suffering.

Those who believe that God is all loving would respond to this question by saying

that God isnt all powerful. God loves us and always loves us, but God doesnt have the

power to intervene to stop children from suffering.

Powerful/living split.

There are many other ways that our church tradition has looked at this question. I

dont have the time tonight to share all these ways. But I provided two waysand both

can be seen on a continuum

Hyper/Calvinist versus DeistAll powerful God versus all loving God

There are all sorts of Scriptures that partially address this question. One of the

challenges or problems in coming up with a response is we dont have a record of Jesus

being asked this question. No where in the bible do we see Jesus being asked, why

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doesnt God intervene to stop suffering, especially among children. Paul doesnt

address it directlythe Old Testament doesnt address it directly.

This does not mean at all that the Scriptures cant inform us to develop a response

to this question. We have to piece together a few things.

I want to briefly talk about two responses

John 9:1-5

The disciples were walking with Jesus and as they were walking Jesus saw a man who

was blind from birth. The disciplesthe followers of Jesushad some questions. They

asked Jesus, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.You see there was a belief in Jesus day that people deserved their suffering.

People believed that people suffered because God was punishing the people for

something they did. So when the disciples saw something that was obviously wrong and

heart breaking they assumed that somebody had sinned. They asked Jesus the question.

Essentially they were asking Jesus, who was responsible for this man being born blind?

Do you remember how Jesus responded?

He said that no one was responsible for this man being born blind. No one had

sinned and was being punished. Jesus basically saying that suffering is not a punishment

from God for our sins.

We can take this teaching and apply it to this question. God is not punishing

people for their suffering. God is not punishing children when children suffer.

Im guessing that we would all agree with that. Then Jesus went on. When Jesus

was talking about the man born blind he said, he was born blind so that Gods works

might be revealed in him. We have to be careful with the so that in this story. Jesus

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wasnt saying that God caused the man to be born blind so that Gods glory could be

shared. Its not like God caused a bad thing to happen so that God could look good. That

doesnt make sense, does it. To think that God would hurt us so God could look good in

healing us?

What Jesus did say was that Gods goodness can work through the mans

blindness. He was saying that the mans blindness didnt have to have the final word.

Jesus went on to show that the mans blindness didnt have the final word. Jesus went on

the restore sight to the man. There was all sorts of confusion in the story about the mans

healing, but the basic point was Jesus redeemed the mans suffering. The mans sufferingdidnt have the final word.

Theres one more Bible passage I want to look at, then Im going to share a

personal story, and then well take a break.

This story is in LukeLuke 13:1-5. A terrible thing had happened. The political

leader had mixed the blood of people he had killed with the religious sacrifice that some

others had happened. Its hard to imagine what had happened as we sit here close to 2000

years later. The point was something terrible happenedsomething that the disciples, the

followers of Jesushad a hard time understanding. Kind of like us not understanding

why children have to suffer. Jesus started out addressing the question by saying that the

Galileans werent being punished by god for what had happened. The same point that

Jesus was making in the story of the blind man. Then he used another example. There

was a public works tragedy that happened. A tower fell on people and 18 people died.

The tower was called the tower of Siloam. Jesus asked a questiondo you think that the

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people who died in the falling of the tower of Siloam had sinned and were being punished

for their sins. The exact quote was

Do you think that they [the victims of the tower of Siloam] were worse offenders than

all the others living in Jerusalem?

Jesus was asking a question. He then answered the question. Do you know what the

answer was? Jesus said no. The people werent being punished because they had died in

a natural tragedy. He then basically went on to say that everyone dies and unless we turn

to Godrepentwe will perish like they did. Turn to God.

Im going to wrap up this first part of this talk by sharing a personal story. Then

Im going to encourage all of you to talk to each other.

Give an example of how our tradition has addressed this question, how the

Scriptures have addressed it, my own experience.

I havent suffered terribly in my life. My parents are still aliveall of my

grandparents have lived until their 80s. One of my grandparents is still aliveshes in

her mid 90s and still golfs. No siblings have died. I havent suffered from terrible health

problems and my family hasnt either. Weve had a decent income.

I am very fortunate.

I do have a storyin a way its a silly story.

I was in seminary. The story involved a girl. It was my last year of seminary in

New York City. I made the mistake of falling for a girltwo semesters before I was

going to graduate and probably leave New York City. Love is not always rational, right.

We started a relationship. We dated for two semesters. Then it came time for me

to decide what I was going to do after I graduated. I asked the girl if she could make

some sort of commitment to me. She said no. That should have been my first red flag.

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She wasnt willing to break up with meshe just wasnt sure about the future. Love

does strange things to us in terms of making smart decisions. So I made a strategic

decision. I decided to stay in the New York City area and try to find a job in the New

York City areain hopes that maybe we could stay together; because I wanted to stay

together. If I left there was no way we would stay together; if I stayed there was the

possibility that we could stay together.

There was another piece to this relationshipit was my prayer life. Ive always

believed in prayer and about that time I started to pray daily. The relationship didnt

cause me to pray daily. But I was praying for about 15 minutes a day. In fact I waskeeping a journal of my prayers. I was becoming serious about my prayers.

I obviously prayed for this relationship. I prayed for a lot of things, but I prayed

over this relationship.

Fast forward about seven months. Things werent working out well between us

not surprisingand I went home to Minnesota for about three weeks. When I came back

the worst thing that I could imagine had happened. Not only did this woman decide to

leave our relationship, she started another relationship without my knowing, and she

brought this new person to our seminary and paraded this relationship in front of all my

friends.

I dont want to share all the tawdry detailsno more than any other relationship

gone sour.

But I was very angryI was suffering. I didnt deserve this. I had sacrificed my

own life to try to make this work. She didnt have an obligation to be in relationship with

me, but she didnt have to embarrass me. Part of my anger was directed at God. I had

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some passionate prayers. I shared with Godwhy did this happenthis wasnt

supposed to happenI prayed about this. You teach me God to pray about this and not

only did you not answer my prayer, but this relationship has worked out in the worst

possible way that I could imagine. I thought that ask and you shall receive; seek and you

shall find; knock and the door shall be opened. I asked, seeked and knocked through my

prayers and my prayers werent answered. This is not right, God, I cried out. Why?

Unanswered prayer is just as difficult to understand as undeserved suffering.

I went through three months of difficult grief. My friends provided all sorts of

responses to my questions. Some said that maybe I wasnt praying in the right way, or God answered my prayer just not in a way that I expected. I had many people say that I

was going to be a better person because of what I was experiencing. Some people told

me I would be a better pastor because of what I was experiencing. Some people said I

would be better off in the long run because I wouldnt want to be with a person who

treated me like that.

Let me tell youas a person who was sufferingnone of these responses were

satisfying to me and definitely not pastoral. I still remember being in counseling and

someone shared that I would be a better person; I would learn from this. I replied in

anger. If this is the way God wants me to learn, then I dont want to learn.

Were going to take a short break15 minutes. I want you to havle some

discussion. What Ive tried to do is to share some ways that people have responded to

this question. I shared a couple ways from church tradition, I shared a couple bible

stories, I shared a story from my own personal experience. I havent at all provided a

response to the question, but I wanted to give you a framework for coming up with a

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response. I realize that Im just touching the surface. Theres a lot more. I want you to

have some conversation.

Where do you find yourself

Hyper Calvinist/DeistAll powerful/all lovingDo you believe that suffering is a punishment from godDo you believe that some people deserve their sufferingDo you believe that suffering can be redeemedlike the blind manDo you think that God causes us to suffer so that we can be better people?

Take 15 minutes to talkuse these questions. You might have some other questionscome up. Cant think of anythingtalk about the Twins.

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What Im going to do is to start sharing a response to the question, wrap up, and then let

us have some conversation. I want to start this out by sharing another Scripture. This

one is from Romans 8

If God is for us, who is against us? God who did not withhold his own Son, but gave himup for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything against Gods elect. It isGod who justifies. Who is to condemn. It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised,who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us fromthe love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or

peril or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I amconvinced that neither death, no life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor thingsto come, nor powers, nor height, njor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be ableto separate us form the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I served for about 16 years as a pastor in Plainview I would guess I did almost 100

funeralsor it seemed like it. I shared this reading at almost every funeral. Because it is

so comforting. Let me just share one brief point about it.

Gods love is the most powerful force in the universe. The apostle Paul is writing

that there is nothing that we can do that can separate us from the love of God. God

always loves us. It doesnt matter if we go to worship 52 times a year, or weve hardly

been in church for yearsGod still loves us. This is a non-negotiable part of faith and

belief and practice and of the church. God always loves us. God never stops loving us.

This has profound implications for people who go through undeserved suffering.

Ive been asked the why question many times in my ministry. Usually I am asked the

question when someone is going through terrible suffering. So as a pastoral act I dont

take time to give a long lecture about Gods response. What I do say is God loves the

person. I cant always share an answer to the why question, but I can share an answer to

the how questionhow can we keep living. We can do that by knowing that God loves

us. This provides tremendous comfort.

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Now you can ask, how can you know that. The best way I know it is from the

bible. Look at Jesus. Jesus always loved people. Jesus is the best example of Gods love

that weve ever had. If we could describe Jesus ministry we would describe it as divine

love.

Theres no doubt in my mind that if Jesus was present with a child who had

suffered Jesus would love that child. He loved people like this all throughout his ministry

in many situations.

Now I dont accept the dichotomy between God as all powerful and God as all

loving. Just because I believe that God is all loving doesnt mean I believe that God isnot all powerful. I think God shares power in a way that we humans dont always

understand. We think of power as armies, and missles, and fighting wars and conquering.

God shares power through loveand often we see this love when people suffer.

Often times we miss the amount of suffering that people who follow God endure.

Look at the Bible. Can anyone name a single character that followed God seriously who

didnt suffer? Think of some of the significant people in the BibleAdam, Abraham,

Sarah, Moses, Miriam, David, Ruth, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Esther, the disciples, the apostle

Paul. They all suffered terribly. Suffering is a part of the journey of faith.

I know that there are some who promote a health and wealth gospel. A health and

wealth gospel teaches that if we follow a formula that we will be healthy and wealthy. I

would love it if everyone would be healthy and wealthy. But having a passionate

relationship with Jesus Christ is not an insurance policy that will protect us against

suffering.

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If we believed in a health and wealth gospel why was Jesus so poor? And why

did Jesus suffer so much on the cross. Gods only Son died in a terrible waynaked,

abandoned by most of his friends, with just a few family members by his side, between

two very common criminals. Jesus died in a slow and tortuous way. He suffered terribly.

His health certainly wasnt protected because he was Gods Son.

Now Im not trying to scare anyone away from the faith. Im not saying follow

Jesus and you will suffer terribly. What I am saying is we shouldnt be surprised if we

suffer while we are following God; God doesnt intervene to stop suffering from

happening; this doesnt mean that we will suffer, but suffering is a part of faith. Just look at the main characters of the Bibleespecially Jesus.

But heres the key pointas Christians we believe that suffering can be

redeemed. Let me ask you some simple questions. These are not trick questions. What

is the worst event in human history? Let me give you a hint. It happened on Good

Friday. The crucifixion of Jesus. What could be worse than the murder of God. What do

we celebrate on Easter Sunday? The resurrection of Jesus. What do we celebrate at the

resurrection. God took Jesus from death. The power of death is overcome. Jesus

suffering is redeemed.

I dont know how many people went to worship on Easter this past year. Im sure

there were billions of people who went to worship on Easter. Think about this. Here we

are almost 2,000 years since the murder of Jesus, and billions of people are celebrating

that Jesus was taken from death and put at the right hand of God in heaven. Jesus

suffering on the cross was redeemend.

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We have hope. Suffering, death, painit doesnt have the last word. Ive seen

this transition from suffering to joy happen many, many times in my life. Ive

experienced it myself in my own life. Remember the story I shared about this woman

who sexually betrayed me. The two of us never got together again, but we kept talking to

each other. We were so committed to staying as friends that we went to counseling. I let

go of my anger that I had towards her. I still count her as a friend. She traveled to

Rochester, Minnesota and attended my marriage. My suffering was redeemend.

Any pain that we experience can be redeemend.

Now I am not trying to minimize the tragedy of suffering. Terrible things havehappened to people; evil things have happened to people. Not everyone experiences

redemption from suffering here on earth. Some people carry wounds that never heal

and that is a tragedy.

So let me ask a final question. Is God responsible for human suffering.

I dont mean to ask the question callously because suffering is terrible. But is God

responsible for our suffering.

I was in the San Francisco earth quake in 1989. I was talking to my daughter

about it this past week. It was a terrible event. Remember when part of the Bay Bridge

fell into the water. Remember that overpass on I-880 that fell down and people who were

driving underneath it died. I drove under that I-880 over pass every day. I drove over the

Bay Bridge every day. Was God responsible for the moving of the earth which caused

the Bay Bridge to swing and a piece to fall into the water? Of was God responsible for

the design of the I-880 bridge that fell? No. We humans were responsible for that.

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I know that there are preachers and teachers who think that God controls natural

disasters so tightly to get our attention. Pat Robertson once taught that God moved a

hurricane to get the attention of people on the East coast. But is God responsible for

natural disasters? Was God responsible for the levees bursting in New Orleans during

Katrina. No. That was human failure. It doesnt make the failure any easier for those

who suffered, but God is not responsible.

Is God responsible for our illnesstake cancer for example. One of my best

friends from childhood died this past February. His name was Jeff Gravon. He had a

terrible lymphedemia. He battled his cancer for two years. I often would sit with him ashe got chemo treatments at the Mayo Clinic. I sat with him as he waited in a small room

to hear the results from a body scan. Let me tell you there is nothing more terrifying than

to sit in a small room and wait for a doctor to tell you if you are going to live or die. Is

God responsible for our cancer? Was God responsible for Jeffs cancer?

Im not a doctor or a biologist. I believe that someday doctors will discover that

some people get cancers because of faulty cells. I think people will find scientific

explanations for cancer. I believe that science will share a cause. I dont think that God

sits in heaven and decides who gets cancer.

AgainIm not trying to minimize suffering. I sat with Jeffs family in the

middle of a cold night in February when Jeff died. I officiated at both of his funerals and

gave hugs to hundreds of grieving people. His two children who are teenage years and

under lost a father and had to leave their hometown to live with their mother in Colorado.

The suffering was tremendous. I dont think God was responsible.

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I dont think we can find a responsible agent for every type of suffering. But I do

believe that we are too easy to blame God for our terrible sufferings.

All rightlets get to brass tacks. What is my response to this question?

God always loves usThrough Jesus God understands our sufferingGod doesnt cause all our sufferingA lot of suffering that takes place is caused by us as humansSuffering can be redeemedSome undeserved suffering is ultimately a mysterySuffering is a test of the churchwill we consistently respond with love and care andcompassion?

Some pieces of ?Why questions dont have answers. We can continue to probe

and askbut ultimately the answers are shrouded in mystery. Another question that we

can take away starts with the word, how. How can we help. How can we be Jesus to

people who are suffering. How can we help, care for them, wrap them with love, be the

community that bears with them during difficult times. How

This is the type of church were going to create. A church that passionately cares

for people who are suffering.

If anything suffering should turn us more towards God and not away from God.

Because God provides the resources to help us help those who are suffering.

We can wrestle with the questions of ?Why and its appropriate to wrestle with thosequestions.God becomes real when we live out the character of Christ.

Prayer Thank you

For gathering us tonightCall to create this new church in the Blaine/Lino Lakes areaGuided and upholded by your Spirit

Thank youFor every person who came here tonight

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Some of us here might be hurtingWe pray for themThey might know of your comfort and care and graceHelp them receive your care at the greatest source of their painExperience your presence

All of us know someone who is sufferingMay we reach out in love and compassionLord, were going to take some time for silence. Reflect on one person

who we know who is suffering. Give us an idea on how we can respond in compassion.

Empower us this week to respond in compassionPray for this ?Why series. Pray that well all be back here in two weeksThank you for the gift and example of Jesus

Cried out in pain on the crossand compassionand loveLords Prayer