Christian Suffering

January 1, 2012

Christians of a bygone era prepared themselves for trouble. They expected hard times and a difficult life. They understood that entrance into the Kingdom of God was strewn with days of tribulation.

Today, new gospels are preached that tell Christians to expect the world to be laid at their feet. Our forefathers, however, knew that Jesus had warned us "In the world you will have tribulation ... "

The book of Job is a book about suffering in this present world. It is about a man who loved God and yet experienced a day of suffering like none of us has ever experienced. In one day Job lost his source of income, and everything he had set aside for retirement. He not only lost his income, he also lost all of the tools that he needed to do his work.

Worse of all, Job's children, all of them, were killed in a wind storm. Today's preachers who teach that only good comes to those who love the Lord, can never take their texts from the book of Job.

You may be reading this and saying, "I have had a terrible week this week." You may be saying, "In fact this has been the worse week of my life." You may be crying to yourself, grumbling to your friends and even complaining to God, but before you continue acting like that, read the book of Job.

Read the first two chapters and you will see what happened to Job. Read the last five chapters (38 - 42) and you will hear God answering Job's complaints about having to suffer. -Paul

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