Witnesing from the bible?

[AMK]

Every day I go to work. My working companion and I talk about everything under the sun. He is not christian,But has no problem with me talking about my faith because he knows it just comes natural to me. He asked the question about why does God let inocent children suffer. My answer was that this is something he would have to ask God about, Since I don,t know how God thinks on this one? I said to that people are good at blaiming God for everything. My freind said: Ok what if a child was lying in a hospital bed in agony most of his or her days because of something someone else did. Why then does God not fix the problem even though its not his fault? I said that God does not always do what we want God to do. God is in complete control and we have to beleave that he is. My freind said I must be off my rocker to beleave this. I realy don,t know why God does a lot of what he does But I am not god. Sadly to get a non christian to see it from my perspective just does not float I was just wondering what the bible had to say?

[LossForWords]

Christa Wells wrote some lyrics to a song that Natalie Grant sings on the Christian Radio station here. Christa Wells wrote the song in response to some very difficult losses. There are obvisouly things in life that we can't understand or explain. God never promised us we'd always be okay, and happy, or that life would be easy. Faith doesn't protect you from pain, it provides you with peace. God only promises that when we do suffer, when we are in pain, we will be held in His arms through every circumstance.

Two months is too little

They let him go

They had no sudden healing

To think that providence

Would take a child from his mother

While she prays, is appalling

Who told us we'd be rescued

What has changed and

Why should we be saved from nightmares

We're asking why this happens to us

Who have died to live, it's unfair

This is what it means to be held

How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life

And you survive

This is what it is to be loved and to know

That the promise was that when everything fell

We'd be held

This hand is bitterness

We want to taste it and

Let the hatred numb our sorrows

The wise hand opens slowly

To lilies of the valley and tomorrow

This is what it means to be held

How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life

And you survive

This is what it is to be loved and to know

That the promise was that when everything fell

We'd be held

If hope is born of suffering

If this is only the beginning

Can we not wait, for one hour

Watching for our Savior

This is what it means to be held

How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life

And you survive

This is what it is to be loved and to know

That the promise was that when everything fell

We'd be held.

I love Jesus...

[Ryan Dillard]

Just explain to him suffering falls on the just and unjust, recently I had a friend ask me that big question too he said, "why do bad things happen to good people and I said there is none good you should be asking how come good things happen to bad people."

Here is what I have been found so far to be the best scripture on the subject and that is deuteronomy 30:15-19

This passage shows us that suffering is essential in developing a righteous character hope I have been a bit of help.

[darski]

This article might be a beginning to the discussion:

http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5629

[Guest Biblicist]

Every day I go to work. My working companion and I talk about everything under the sun. He is not christian,But has no problem with me talking about my faith because he knows it just comes natural to me. He asked the question about why does God let inocent children suffer. My answer was that this is something he would have to ask God about, Since I don,t know how God thinks on this one? I said to that people are good at blaiming God for everything. My freind said: Ok what if a child was lying in a hospital bed in agony most of his or her days because of something someone else did. Why then does God not fix the problem even though its not his fault? I said that God does not always do what we want God to do. God is in complete control and we have to beleave that he is. My freind said I must be off my rocker to beleave this. I realy don,t know why God does a lot of what he does But I am not god. Sadly to get a non christian to see it from my perspective just does not float I was just wondering what the bible had to say?

Hello AMK,

This is a difficult question indeed. Here is a popular verse that helps to answer this question for me.

Romans 3:10 As it is written, "There is no one righteous; no, not one.

11 There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.

12 They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one."

Praise the Lord for this open door for witnessing. May He grant you wisdom as you offer the Truth to this coworker. May he soften the persons heart and open his eyes to understanding.

[cjrose]

Every day I go to work. My working companion and I talk about everything under the sun. He is not christian,But has no problem with me talking about my faith because he knows it just comes natural to me. He asked the question about why does God let inocent children suffer. My answer was that this is something he would have to ask God about, Since I don,t know how God thinks on this one? I said to that people are good at blaiming God for everything. My freind said: Ok what if a child was lying in a hospital bed in agony most of his or her days because of something someone else did. Why then does God not fix the problem even though its not his fault? I said that God does not always do what we want God to do. God is in complete control and we have to beleave that he is. My freind said I must be off my rocker to beleave this. I realy don,t know why God does a lot of what he does But I am not god. Sadly to get a non christian to see it from my perspective just does not float I was just wondering what the bible had to say?

My heart goes out to you AMK and I believe you answered appropriately as to why there are children suffering with affliction and disease and why, why so innocent does God do this to these children? God doesn't do this to these children, it is the world we live in that does it. If God could snap His fingers and make it all perfect so there is no strife or illness or war, or violence and so on then we would have a perfect world. But it is not God's world in a sense as satan is on the loose and knowing God will be Victorious in the end. And those children who are suffering will become perfect beings without anymore pain when our Lord returns.

I don't believe that quoting Scripture to a non believer will make your point any more valid since they don't believe in the Word. So, you can just be an example of love and ask this person, if he is so concerned about God "allowing" this to happen, why doesn't he (your co worker) go and volunteer to cheer them and at least put a smile on their face with a story or a stuffed animal, even just his presence will let them know they care. It truly annoys me that those who condem the Lord for such suffering and then go on about their own daily business without contribution are hypocritial. We can all show God's love in this evil, selfish, power hungry, misguided world we live in today by putting ourselves out there and doing something for others. You never know what difference it can make in their lives.

You can also say that, this is the world, but it is the Lord that keeps their suffering from getting worse and I truly believe that Jesus touches the children with a special and most precious gift that we don't even know of. He loves little children and such a loving God would never purposely allow suffering. But He does fill them with a love, I believe, that counteracts such suffering and softens the pain that otherwise may damage their spirit as well as their bodies.

[AMK]

Just explain to him suffering falls on the just and unjust, recently I had a friend ask me that big question too he said, "why do bad things happen to good people and I said there is none good you should be asking how come good things happen to bad people."

Here is what I have been found so far to be the best scripture on the subject and that is deuteronomy 30:15-19

This passage shows us that suffering is essential in developing a righteous character hope I have been a bit of help.

I my case and the case of Paul I can agree that suffering strengthens us too. But for a baby to suffer who is not to blame for its circumstances and although God is neither to blame, god could still remove the pain? The first replier here included a thoughtfull poem. Yours and taht reply give some food for thought, But I already know how my work companion will reply before I ask!

Thankyou for your post all the same

[AMK]

Every day I go to work. My working companion and I talk about everything under the sun. He is not christian,But has no problem with me talking about my faith because he knows it just comes natural to me. He asked the question about why does God let inocent children suffer. My answer was that this is something he would have to ask God about, Since I don,t know how God thinks on this one? I said to that people are good at blaiming God for everything. My freind said: Ok what if a child was lying in a hospital bed in agony most of his or her days because of something someone else did. Why then does God not fix the problem even though its not his fault? I said that God does not always do what we want God to do. God is in complete control and we have to beleave that he is. My freind said I must be off my rocker to beleave this. I realy don,t know why God does a lot of what he does But I am not god. Sadly to get a non christian to see it from my perspective just does not float I was just wondering what the bible had to say?

My heart goes out to you AMK and I believe you answered appropriately as to why there are children suffering with affliction and disease and why, why so innocent does God do this to these children? God doesn't do this to these children, it is the world we live in that does it. If God could snap His fingers and make it all perfect so there is no strife or illness or war, or violence and so on then we would have a perfect world. But it is not God's world in a sense as satan is on the loose and knowing God will be Victorious in the end. And those children who are suffering will become perfect beings without anymore pain when our Lord returns.

I don't believe that quoting Scripture to a non believer will make your point any more valid since they don't believe in the Word. So, you can just be an example of love and ask this person, if he is so concerned about God "allowing" this to happen, why doesn't he (your co worker) go and volunteer to cheer them and at least put a smile on their face with a story or a stuffed animal, even just his presence will let them know they care. It truly annoys me that those who condem the Lord for such suffering and then go on about their own daily business without contribution are hypocritial. We can all show God's love in this evil, selfish, power hungry, misguided world we live in today by putting ourselves out there and doing something for others. You never know what difference it can make in their lives.

You can also say that, this is the world, but it is the Lord that keeps their suffering from getting worse and I truly believe that Jesus touches the children with a special and most precious gift that we don't even know of. He loves little children and such a loving God would never purposely allow suffering. But He does fill them with a love, I believe, that counteracts such suffering and softens the pain that otherwise may damage their spirit as well as their bodies.

I did not say that my freind does not contribute towards suffering children??? He does and even more, He can prove it. I know he does myself,so he is not a hypocrite. What he is though is a human being who does not understand God. Of course he doesn,t. I don,t either most of the time. The difference between me and him is that I received the milk before the meat. That made my transition into knowing Jesus much easier in the beginning. He in the other hand gets the meat first and as a simple human cannot grasp the concept of a caring God!

[AMK]

This article might be a beginning to the discussion:

http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5629

Good link. The four step response was good. All rounded up even better This freind however is not your avarage steemroller. What I mean is is that he is not steemrolling me like the radio presenter was on about. My freind and co worker is someone I have a lot of respect for. He is never rude and even appologizes if he butts in on my explanations. However this link you have posted has some good reading. Thanks

[irishcowboy]

that which does not kill us, only makes us stronger.

struggles are a part of daily living.

as a very wise 9 year old girl ( yes, nine year old) once said, she had a very rare form of lukemia, and it was advancing faster then the treatments were able to keep up, her parents wanted her to stop the treatments cause of this, not doing any good, she asked her parents.......How do we know that God is done teaching these doctors?...... and later, she turned and told her parents, All of Gods children get healed, some of them get healed here, but all of them get healed in Heaven.....

we can also look at when Christ was entering the City....... he directed his deciples to go in to this place and untie this colt that was there, and then if anyone asks what they are doing, they are to reply, the Lord has need of it.......

when a person that is called home, whether they are young or old, if they are a child of God, we can be assured that THE LORD HAS NEED OF THEM.....

the owner could have rebuked them for taking the colt, and held out, rejected their answer, but did not, he did not hold the colt out, nor did he try and substitute a colt that had already been riden for the brand new one that had never been riden.

when i am on my death bed, please do not pray me to stay here, allow me to be used by the Lord, allow the Lord to call me for the purpose He has.

I lost a brother when he was 6 months old. The Lord Had A Need for him. Frankie had fulfilled his purpose on this earth. Frankie strengthened mom, taught us compassion and taught us how to love people even more, forwe never know when they will not be here to see, talk to, hold, and love on this earth.... we still love those that have gone on before, but we can no longer build on the relationship with them. We can, however, continue to build our relationship with the Lord God.... since Jesus is the Bridge over the gap, we can develope that relationship.

suffering equates to trials or test or even quizes..... these are times we can learn from our short comings, we know where we are weak, where we fail, and sometimes trials are there to help develop these weaknesses into strengths.....

as to why God chooses a child, well, there can be several thoughts on this..... what life is the parents living? what life is this child living in? are the parents living for God? or are they rebelling????

do we really know what Gods plan is for the child?

David sinned, and a child was born through this sin..... this child became ill, and died because of the sin..... David wept, fasted and prayed during the illness....... David very much loved this child.... God had need of this child.........

Later, David had another child, this child was not born from sin, and this child grew and became the "wisest", and said to have been the "Richest" man that ever lived.

not all suffering comes from sin....

Don't you know that Abraham was suffering when the Lord called him to take Isaac to sacrafice him to the Lord, don't you know this had to be the hardest thing for him to do, but through his trust in God, the sacrafice was provided in the place of Isaac..... God called abraham to give up his most prized posession he had, his very own son, his only true son. that the Lord had provided.

there are many times we do not understand what the Lord has instore for us, but, we can be sure about one thing, the Lord God has our best interest at hand. and the Lord will provide as needed.

whether the Lord allows a child to die, or protects them, they are on this earth to Glorify God, for God's purpose, not ours.... we have many plans for our chidren, many desires, and lots of love..... I pray God have HIS way.....

my son is now almost 2000 miles away, and i will see him again for about 2 days (God Willing) New Years Eve and day. then i have no clue as to when i will see him again, or even know where he will be until he shows up again.... ( he just finished Submarine school for the USN) when he goes out, he will be as the prodigal son, i will have no clue to his where abouts.... He does have his sword with him, and his shield and fortress, his helmet, and the rest of his armor.......

Yes, i love him, and yes, i miss him. but he is in Gods hands, and i accept that.... i like that.... no matter what happens, i know he is in Gods hands.....(not satans)...

mike