Khartoum, Sudan, May 31, 2014 / 03:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The husband of Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death for allegedly abandoning Islam, says his wife is standing by her faith despite possible execution.
The rest of the story is here followed by the petition:
I was wondering about this recently:
If Job’s counselors were probably more mature than the majority of Christians today, what does that mean about the advice we regularly receive from others?
As Americans, we take many things for granted. For example, we tend to think the answer to poverty in developing nations is getting them adequate resources. Of course, things like food and medicines are badly needed. But there is something more foundational that we tend to miss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/opinion/brooks-the-republic-of-fear.html
Here is my interview with Tim Keller on his latest book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2014/02/04/tim-keller-on-suffering/
According to Christopher McDougall (Born to Run, p. 11-12), there were three times in American history where there was a big jump in the popularity of distance running:
During the Great Depression
Right after Vietnam
And right after 9/11
Running obviously is a way we cope with stress.
kintsugi — “Strong in the Broken Places” (HT: Leonard Sweet)
See the wonderful description below!
This short music video is not for the faint of heart.
I am praying it increases our compassion and our awareness of our own sin, especially socially and religiously acceptable sins.
HT: Patrick Schreiner
I was talking with a friend recently on the subject of disappointment with God. What do you do when your experience makes it clear that your view of God can’t be correct. It got me thinking about the options people take. And there seems to be four of them:
Keep dutifully doing the right things when inside you are seething with anger.
Go insane, and yes, I mean literally. I do know a few who chose this tragic option when God did not act the way(s) they expected.
Chuck the Christian faith. It seems the best option for the person who wants to stop the charade when they no longer trust God.
And fourth…
Slowly, painfully, but redemptively realize one’s view of God was wrong. Get to know the true God better and find that He is still trustworthy even amidst all the struggles, pain, and unanswered questions.
I’m afraid we have too many choosing one of the first three options because option four is simply too messy for our sanitized vision of sanctification.
A short time ago I read an article about a former pastor who became a skeptic. The post 9/11 world did not make sense to him. He figured there could be no God in such a world. This is nothing new.
Andrew Delbanco has famously said Americans went from believing in the providence of God prior to the Civil War to believing in luck after it. Too much carnage took place for one to keep believing in a God who is good and in control of all things.
I also struggle to make sense of these realities, yet I am perplexed by those who choose to bail on the Christian faith.
The Bible makes it clear that we are living in a broken world where the most hideous things imaginable will take place. Make sure to digest that important truth. If “delicate women” will boil their own children for food (see Deut. 28:53-57), we know there is the capacity for all kinds of evil.
Further, if God had not made it clear that I will not understand many things this side of heaven, I also would consider bailing on the Christian faith. However, God has made it clear we will only understand very little this side of heaven when it comes to processing evil and suffering. There is quite a bit underscoring this reality in Scripture (for example Deut. 29:29; Job 38-42; Isa. 55:8,9; I Cor. 13:12)
Luther, like the Psalmists (note plural), struggled with the silence of God, even the God who seems to hide Himself at times.
So I wonder what Bible the pastor turned skeptic was reading. I trust you are reading and digesting the entire Bible!