suffering

545) Suffering Builds Character (part two)

     (continued…)  If one looks only on the surface, only at whether or not the people in the story get what they want, then God’s distribution of blessings and afflictions in the Bible and in all of life is indeed strange, and not at all fair.  II Kings 15 tells of the reign of […]

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544) Suffering Builds Character (part one)

     Years ago when my kids were at home and would tell me their troubles, I’d listen sympathetically.  I would give them whatever advice I could come up with at the time, and then I’d say, “And don’t forget, as the Bible says, suffering builds character, so in the long run all this trouble

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494) Buddhism and Christianity

Buddhism says, “Those who love a hundred have a hundred woes.  Those who love ten have ten woes.  Those who love one have one woe.  Those who love none have no woe.” Christianity says, “He who does not love remains in death.” –Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, page 92. ******************************* John 13:34-35  —  (Jesus said),  “A

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279) Real Choices Without Consequences?

By Randy Alcorn, from his January 3, 2014 blog at http://www.epm.org      In this conversation from my novel Deception, Jake and Clarence challenge Ollie’s desire for both freedom to choose and freedom from evil’s consequences: ——————————————————— “You believe in free choice?” Jake asked. “Yeah.” “Doesn’t free choice demand the freedom to choose evil?” “Not

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112) On Why We Must Be Afflicted

By C. S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain      My own experience is something like this.  I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly godless condition, absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends or a bit of work that tickles my vanity, a holiday, or a new book,

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41) Liana Rose

Today’s meditation is again from the book “Sometimes Miracles Hide” by Bruce Carroll (see meditations #39 and #40).  It is another of the letters that Carroll received from someone with a handicapped child. Dear Bruce,      My life is in your song.  When I first became pregnant, I had no idea what the Lord

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34) Two Slave Preachers and Their Masters

Pictured above:  Scars of a whipped slave named Peter, photo taken at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863. In his own words, “Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped, and he discharged the overseer.” The slave pictured here escaped from a plantation

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