Monday 13 October 2008

When we need reasons...

Sorry I’m late with my Blog this week – I’ve got Man Flu. Guys, I’m sure you’ll understand, I mean I’m just about incapacitated, out of action, dying! Of course, the female species have no understanding of how we suffer, but there it is.
If you’re anything like me, when you get flu of some infection, you can’t help trying to work out how & where you picked it up – I’ve been thinking back over the last 3 or 4 days looking for someone to blame! Who was it who wheezed & coughed all over me….?? What a sad case I am, I mean, what difference does it make?

Speaking of the reason for pain (sorry, that was a really bad intro to the subject) it would be true to say that this quest for an answer to one of life’s greatest challenges is often a pivotal issue for people exploring the Christian faith: “If there is a God and he is good, why….??” For years, the best response to this has been C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain, which is a great book, and the result of his own searching and confrontation with pain. Another very readable book that I’ve recently come across is a book entitled: ‘The Reason for God’ by Tim Keller.
A few months ago I was in New York visiting my friend Byron Brenneman at his home church in the Bronx, and we attended a conference at which Tim Keller was speaking, along with Mark Driscoll, C.J Mahaney and others. What impressed me about Tim Keller was that he is clearly a very intelligent and widely read guy, and yet he communicates in a very easy manner. Maybe that explains why he has been able to grow a church from zero to several thousand attainders in multiple congregations in New York. Their website is well worth a look: www.redeemer.com It's a great website.

Anyway, back to his book. It’s called: ‘The Reason for God – Belief in an Age of Scepticism’ and as well addressing the issue of suffering, there’s chapters on injustice, hell, science & the Bible and a lot more! If you have an enquiring mind and like a book that’s well written & easy to read, then just buy it. We have it on the Kings Bookstall at a bargain price! I’m taking my sick body off to bed to finish reading it!

Have a good week.

Goff

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