God is Still Good Even in Tragic Situations (Part 2)

0:00 I Am Yours, I am yours, I am yours and me, Lord, I am your. Welcome to the Gospel Center pro life podcast. We're going to take right up where we left off on part one of the episode about the goodness of God. This will be part two. We think it will be a blessing you as well, so stay tuned. Me, Lord, I felt show pass touchs your home. Use Me, Lord. So another one is maphibush chef. Yeah, that's how he's try and say that ten times. That's that's a tough name. Mephibish chef. So he was the son of Jonathan, grandson of Kings Saul, and he had a life that from the beginning was almost completely filled with danger, trauma and suffering.

0:53 Yeah, he was only five years old, I think, when Saul was killed. So his grandfather is killed. Yeah, and and it's father and his son's all were killed the same and his father and the nurse. Then, as David's army is coming in, the nurse, math phibish chef's nurse fears for her life and Mathhibishchef's life because she doesn't know David's hard and I think she thinks David's going to come get revenge on the House of Saul. Yeah, which would be natural that you would think that. So she flees with little little maphibus chef in our arms, drops him and cripples him. Yeah, at age five and he's crippled for the rest of his life.

1:34 He cannot walk. So well, I'm not sure if you can't walk or what the good seems like that. Yeah, actually, I'm just in my time with the Lord in the mornings. I've been reading through Samuel, first and second Samuel and read this story. I've read it before, but just kind of read it a fresh and seems. Yeah, he's crippled, he can't walk. He I don't know what the mechanisms for people who were handicapped in that way were. Yeah, what did they do back then? Have wheelchairs that they don't think it. Not only is he dropped and crippled, but you know, he's lost his father, he's lost his grandfather and he's lost his inheritance. Yeah, he was an inher right. He was.

2:15 He was the grandson of the king. He had all this probably wonderful stuff coming to him and all of a sudden he doesn't know, but he thinks he's lost at all yeah, but then that's not the end of he suffers. There's no doubt from an early age he suffers. Yeah, but at that's not the end of the story for from a fibish no, no, thankfully for him it's not. David ultimately at one point says, is there any descendant of Saul, of Jonathan? I think he says, is there anyone from the House of Saul, descended of Jonathan, that I might bless for the sake of Jonathan? Yeah, and ultimately finds my fibish if and one of his right hand man says, Hey, yeah, there's this there's this kid. I guess at that point he was older. I don't know how old he wasn't the Bible says, but he brings them into his house and provides for him and later on there's there's some more to the story and we won't get into that. But ultimately it's redemptive right, and I think it again. It should encourage us then, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of things that go on in our lives that I mean really blows down to things that are done to us that are not really as a result of our own sin. The one decisions. I think we can.

3:31 We can understand when things then, when bad things happened to us because we've sinned or because we made dumb decisions. You know, I think that's easier to take. We know we brought it on ourselves. It's when it's unexplained I think that it is harder. Yeah, absolutely, and that's exactly the story here. This this man, didn't do anything wrong. This young this five year old kid, and do anything wrong. Yeah, but there's redemption in that. Yeah, and I think we can say, well, okay, well, where's my redemption? These moms come into the abortion center. Okay, well, I've had this terrible life. Yeah, and now I'm pregnant. And how in the world, I mean, God allowed that, he allowed this, he allowed this, and now he's allowed me to get pregnant. What is going on here with that? They're only seen to that moment, yeah, up to the pregnancy, and not seeing beyond what God's plan is and what he what he has in store. And and I know when we're in any terrible situation, it feels like this is where I'll be the rest of my life, and that's never the truth. Right. Yeah, well, I remember now I'm not trying to at all compare my story to the story of the young lady you shared when we started out. Certainly what is horrific as that I'm I was blessed and thankful that I had parents who who did the right thing in so many ways. But I remember finding out when my wife was pregnant. You were in high school, and I remember one of the first things I did, and it was in my own selfishness, but I remember blaming God. Right, I remember saying out loud God, why did you allow this to happen? Yeah, and I remember

5:04 saying specifically God, you hate me. I know you hate me because you allow this to happen. Yeah, did he answer? He didn't answer. He didn't answer directly. But in reflection I'm thinking how selfish I was. Now again, my scenario was was a good bit different, but I remember crying out to God and even blaming God for that whole situation. But now I look back and at that time my life was over. Right, here I am in high school, got a baby. How in the world is this going to work out? Right, yeah, my life is over. Yeah, little did I know that was the best thing for me. My life needed to be over, because the life that I was living was was full of selfishness and sin and the Lord's use that, you know, unwanted pregnancy air quotes. Yeah, to really turn my life around. Yeah, we've got a daughter who is a blessing. She's twenty two years old.

5:53 She's a blessing to our family. Yeah, me and my wife are married, eight kids now. So I see the redemption of God. Yeah, that situation that I thought was the end of the world actually turned out for my good. Yeah, I couldn't see that the time. Now I'm telling you, at the time, if you would have tried to tell me that there would be any good that would come out of that, that whole situation, I'll to called you a liar right now. I was doubting the goodness of God. Yeah, yeah, but but there was light at the end of that tunnel. Like, yeah, that thing is when you're in the tunnel, it's pretty dark, it's pretty tough to see. Yeah, yeah, you know, I think one of the things it is helpful and as we encourage people and we're doing trainings, because we do trainings with sidewall counselors and really get into some of the hard cases. That's I think that's really where a lot of the fears lie in people like, what do I say if someone says they were raped? What do I say if someone lays out this story like what we laid out in the beginning? How do I answer this? And one of the encouragements that we give is sharing testimonies. Sharing testimonies is so powerful and there are so many testimonies because God is so good and has brought redemption in so many situations. Yea, you'd be hard pressed to find a situation that's not comparable, a current situation in somebody's life that's not comparable, comparable to a pass situation that has redemption in it. Exactly.

7:12 And you're talking about testimonies of the people that we know, and the Bible, obviously, is also filled with testimonies of people who who suffered, struggled and ultimately did see redemption. Yeah, so. So both, I think, are very, very, very bad, valuable, the biblical stories and then the the stories of people here and now that that we know, maybe maybe even ourselves. Yeah, absolutely so. How about the beggar crippled from birth? Okay, he was another one who xthree tells the story of that man. But so from birth he's got it even worse than a Phibish chef. Yeah, Miss Phibis chef at least had five years that he could walk or crawl or whatever, but this man in in act three had been crippled from birth. So his entire life, from infancy to adulthood. When we meet him in xthree he's an adult begging outside the temple and he's in complete dependence on others to care for his needs. In fact, he had to be carried each day to where they I don't know who carried him, friends or whatever. Family would carry him to the gate called beautiful, spot at the gate called beautiful and the Temple Gate, and his only manner of taking care of himself was to beg. He would beg for alms and he did this his entire life. That was his life to be crippled and to be carried where he could he could beg for alms. So, you know,

8:43 total dependency on others, no hope for a normal life at all. He knows he's got a, you know, a lifelong crippling condition, and he couldn't even take care of himself. He couldn't. He had no employment other than being being a beggar. Yeah, so that's a pretty dismal outlook. Yeah, absolutely pretty, especially if you think about in that day and age, right, you didn't have social ware Welfare Systems. You basically had to beg for money, you had to beg for food. If you didn't have the means to be able to work and you didn't have family that was going to provide for you, then you had to rely on the goodness of people that were passing by. Yeah, have whatever these social warfare programs welfare programs are. You didn't have disability. You can draw a disability in those days and you really beholding to the people that were walking by every day.

9:35 Yeah, yeah, so, you know, he has to have wondered about is. Is God good? He's outside the temple, so I assume he at least had some sort of knowledge of God. And then he sees Peter and John and are we going there? Did you want to look at look at that? Just one of you know, every every Bible study class as a kid, you probably heard this story. But when I don't know that I ever thought much about what a terribly depressing place he was coming from. When he sees Peter and John Entering the temple and he asked them for charity.

10:18 Yeah, he reaches out his hands and ask asking for alms. It's what he did day by day. And Peter and John Look at him and say, silver and gold, we don't have. What we do have, we give to you. Rise up and walk in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this man rises up and walks and ultimately the redemption, of course, is in the fact that he is healed. Right, but it goes beyond that. And here's where I think again testimonies are so important, and we're talking to abortion minded women at the abortion center, sharing testimonies with them, because this guy ultimately is a sign to the people in the temple and when everybody looks and they noticed this man, this is the guy who was out in front of the gate day by day and he couldn't walk.

11:03 Now he's leaping for joy. What's going on here? Right, tension is drawn to him and ultimately attention is drawn to James Or, I'm sorry, to Peter and John, and they preach the Gospel Right, and this guy's life and the redemption that comes even through the suffering, and I believe this guy that point was forty years old. So forty years of not being able to walk, forty years of really, I'm sure, a lot of rejection, but most people passing by are probably not given him alms. He's reaching out his hand and they're smacking it down. Yeah, and yet this guy's life is not just redeemed in the fact that he can walk, but it's redeemed in the fact that God is using him as a testimony and people are going to get saved through this guy's healing. That's right, Sony in turn a life to so many people through the suffering and then redemption of the man crippled young birth. So, and these stories are in the scriptures for that purpose. Yeah, to show us God's redeeming power, to show us that there is no situation that God can't intervene and that God can't move in.

12:07 And again, I know the question is, well, God didn't intervene at this point, right? God could have? Could have intervened even with mafibish if right, he's five years old. His cod image of the nurse drives these care taker. Yeah, could have. God could have sent an angel to steady her. God, there's all kinds of things that we can think, well, God could do this and God could have dod that and God didn't. So why? And is he good because he didn't? And again we're not going to answer that question. We're not going to bring an answer to the age old question of evil and all of that. But what we do have to do is look at the scriptures, look at the testimonies, look at what God has done and what God, I believe, because he doesn't change, can do in a person's life. And sharing from that perspective.

12:52 Here's what I think of folly for US sometimes. And so if you guys don't grab anything else from this, just just remember this little point here. When someone is sharing with us their grief, right, we always want to try to give an answer, but a lot of times people are not looking for an answer. And even when they're talking about the goodness of God, as God good because he allowed this, in this what they really want is for you to identify with their suffering. Yeah, to identify with their pain, to hear them, to hear them, that be a listening ear, yeah, and to say I'm sorry that you went through that, like I've did that, even with some of the pro abortion people out here in the side of yeah, they I've had some of them pour out their story to me and they're asking me, so, why did your God allow this?

13:39 Yeah, and one of my answers is you guys might not appreciate this, but it was kind of trying to connect on the level that they can understand. Is One young man that was sharing with me some of the things that had gone on in his life and he asked me why. I said, you know what, I'm not sure why, but sometimes life sucks. Yeah, sometimes life just sucks. Yeah, and there's no explanation for it. I can't give you some big theological explanation for it, but I think theologically we can say life sucks sometimes. Yeah, stuff happens. Yeah, and it happens to everybody, some to varying degrees, on different levels. But when someone's pouring out their heart, when you talking to an abortion minded Moma and she's laying out this just terrible story of what she's gone through, really what we need to do is enter into that suffering. Yeah, I've touched on this before, but the Lord really spoke this to me some years ago, the word compassion. You know, the Bible says that that Jesus looked on the multitudes with compassion. We've got to have compassion on people.

14:43 And that word, if you break it down, the prefix calm is with and then passion, Calm Passion. What is passion? Passions not just we think of. Maybe passion is just this love, this, you know, heart pounding love. That's not what the word actualally means. We think about passion. You remember the the movie The Passion of the Christ. The word actually, at a root, means suffering. So we're supposed to suffer with calm passion when someone is suffering, when someone sharing with you their story of suffering, we're supposed to suffer with them. Yeah, we're supposed to grieve with them. Yeah, and then, of course we can bring Jesus into that situation, because he has compassion on us, so much so that he came to this earth, and I think sharing the story of Jesus and the suffering that he went through for our sake is a way to redeem that in to show that God has entered in. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ came and suffered. Yeah, that he was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sense. So he came and entered into humanity suffering and ultimately dies so that human beings could could not experience eternal suffering. Yeah, separation from God. Yeah, and what you were talking about there. With that, it's so important to sometimes just enter into the suffering with them.

16:03 I think. I think it's the last example that we were going to talk about was job. It is so so job. Remember his three friends and how they did everything wrong right. They did the things that you just identified as being dangers. Of when someone is suff frame that they're not necessarily looking for you to solve it or to to even identify what is causing it. Be At your sinner whatever. Job Just wanted to vent. He kind of J he was suffering and he would he see. Basically told them, would you just be quiet? Would you just be silent? Yeah, because they they were true. They first, well, they were wrong. They said it was a result of his sin, but and and they were just basically saying, you know, man up and just deal with it and repent and turn from whatever. And then he's got the wonderful wife who who says you should just curse God and die. Support job is not getting. There's no one with true compassion. Yeah, who enters into that suffering situation? So, as our last example of someone who suffered, job isn't he's a little bit different from the others in that he had led the first half of his life. It sounds like an incredible, just abundant blessing. He had a wonderful wife, although I wonder about that. Yeah, that might not have

17:34 been a wonderful but he had lots of kids, he had lots of crops, he had tons of money, he was well respected, he loved God, he was a righteous man. Yeah, he was like the you know, Mr Wonderful Exams, like from from the description of job, which is probably why Satan went after him. Yeah, he'd you know, this would be a good one to attack because he's so revered and he loves God so much. And Satan poses what I think is a very good question for all of us. Do you love God because of all the wonderful things, the things he's given you, and if those were gone, would you still love God? That's basically Satan's premise. Yeah, that job would no longer love and follow God if God removed the wonderful things from job's life. And God agrees to let Satan have that job. And so, from my perspective, not being the one who's going through the suffering, I'm thinking, you know, job needed to know that. This was a lesson. Job needed to learn, ultimately, if his relationship with God was truly based on his love and trust and and glorifying of God for who God is instead of what God gives. He couldn't find that, I don't think, in in his prosperity.

19:04 Yeah, and and so God took, well, not God, but God certainly gave Satan permission to take everything except job's life, right, yeah, that's right. Job Loses his crops, his children. Interestingly enough, God left jobs. Why? Yeah, I think that's an indication. I don't think the devil even touched his wife at all, as indication that maybe she might have been working alongside the devil man. But yeah, his health even was under attack. Right. And so I guess job had every right to be crying out like, Lord, why? And he did cry out. Why, you did it? Why are you doing this? And God never answers why. But what God does is is talk about what God has created. Yeah, and how he has programmed or designed his creation for all of these amazing things like the geese that flies south. I can't remember if he used geese, but it was something. And when you know the birds that that no when to migrate and where to lay their eggs, and the crocodile that nothing can really harm the the perfect design of their armor. Yeah, or even he had. He in turns it around and ask asks job a series of questions of which job can't answer. Job Can't begin to answer

20:34 what God knows, y what God does, and it's in seeing the magnificence of God that a change happens. You know, I know one example that I've heard oftentimes and I'm sure you have to it's kind of Corny, I guess, but the more I ponder it, the more I'm like that's seems to be how how it is with life and suffering and all the stuff. You've ever heard the example of someone who's is it crocheting or whatever? You know, how you have like a piece of cloth and then you weave into it and you have a design, right, but if you look at it from the bottom side it looks like a mess because there's all the knots.

21:17 Said, there's all the knot yeah, it's all them. Yeah, and all that color come together. Than Yeah, if you look at the top side of it, right, it's a beautiful picture. And, yeah, can be a house or a dog or you know whatever I mean. There's all kinds of things that I've seen that people knit into fabric and it's like that, right. Yeah, it's a matter of perspective. Yeah, God sees the top side. Yeah, beautiful entire plan and always see her. The Not always see this is the junk, the struggles, and God is actually weaving a beautiful picture in our lives and I think we have to help it. Again, it's a matter of perspective and we have to help these MOMS that we encounter, the abortion centers, these DADS, even some of these pro boats, and even ourselves. We have to encourage each other that God is doing something. He's doing something from an eternal perspective that we only kind of grasp or see from a temporal perspective. Yeah, and it does require for us to trust. And what else are we really stuck with, though? Yeah, we're stuck with do we trust the Lord, yeah, or do we trust this temporal world that, within itself, is all of this mess, sin, destruction and death? Are we willing to trust the Lord and and really we don't have a choice. If we look at the scriptures and we see this God who made the heavens and the earth, we must put our trust in him. Ultimately, he is the one in control.

22:41 Ultimately, he is the one that holds our eternity in his hands. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and that's really do. The perspective is the eternal perspective. Yeah, when we are stuck with our roots and in our eyes and our minds and our hearts in this world and this world only. Yeah, then there's every reason to be depressed, every reason to be discouraged, every reason to think, what's the purpose? Yeah, that's why I think, what's the point? And just let's just end it all, and that's what we hear the pro socalled pro choice crowd say, is why bring a child that you know is entering a family of suffering, entering a world of suffering? Why? Why let's just kill the baby now? Yeah, yeah, one of the reasons why? Just looking at statistics. We were talking a little bit about this. Yeah, suicide statistic and depression. The more and more kind of an atheistic, secular mindset takes a grip on our society the more and more these things increase, suicide rates, depression and all of this. Because if there is no eternal perspective, if all there is is this life and, as a said earlier, sometimes life sucks. Yeah, then what is the point? Right? So we have this assurance that we've got, even though we're in this temporal world, we've got this eternal perspective that this eternal God lets us see from, and we get that perspective from his word and we get that perspective from being in relationship with him.

24:12 And what we need to do as ministers of the Gospel, as Sydwalk ministers, is to help bring that eternal perspective to these MOMS that are in crisis, to let them know that there's a God that has compassion on them, like he has experienced the suffering that you're experiencing now, the stuff, the struggles that you're in right now. God knows about it. He hasn't turned a blind eye, he's not distant in some kind of deistic God. You know, the DST think that there's a god, but he really has no relation to his creation. Kind of started everything in them. Yeah, he kind of wound it up and let it go. That's not the god of the Bible. The God of the Bible is relational. He's in it, he sees it. Why he doesn't stop it and understanding all of that. I don't know. I don't see the history he sees. I think he sees so often we're if you stop that beautiful thread before it's finished, the pattern, that it's no longer that beautiful and resolve. Yeah, but we don't see that. We don't always see that. Sometimes we just have to trust that he does right. Yeah, and with people who are in the midst of that struggle and the midst of understanding or trying to understand it, is God really good? Yeah, listening, like we said, having compassion on them and then helping them to see from an eternal perspective, not in some self righteous way. I was like, we just need to look at God's word, you just need to read your Bible. Yeah, but in a very gracious way. We I think we can help them see. And again, I think it's sharing testimonies, yeah, sharing what God has done in our lives, that we've seeing God and saying you're not you're not alone.

25:45 Look at not only in our stories, but look at through the Bible, the Bible. I I turn people to Psalms solve a time. Yeah, when they talk about I'm all alone in this, God just he doesn't care about me. But then I'll say, you know, there's so many people in the Bible that said this same thing, that had the same struggles that you're having and the same sorrows and questions and they cried out to God. Yeah, and his book is a story of redemption. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, and we see the summation of it all in the revelation, right, which is pretty rough story itself. Do you get to the end? Yeah, when you see that the Lord has redeemed it all and ultimately Jesus Christ, the greatest king there ever has been or ever will be, rules over it all and he is actually the the servant King. Yeah, and those who belong to him are in his eternal kingdom, under his rulership, whether it is no more, as the Bible says, no more tears, no more suffering, no more pain, no more separation, no more darkness even. Yeah, God does a way with darkness and death. That's ultimately the perspective that we need to have, right. We can't always understand and we can't always help people understand why, but we can't help them understand who the Lord. He is the redeemer. Yeah, and if you'll put your trust in him, he can redeem any situation. I found a great deal of help in going through these examples that we shared today in my ability

27:21 then to go back, especially to this one woman and talk with her about you are not alone. Listen to the people of God who suffered, but they're suffering really did lead to to God, did lead them ultimately into a closer relationship with God. Yeah. So we've really shared some of these tragic examples from the scripture and even practical as we started out, even the very beginning of this this podcast. Yeah, with the story from the young lady on the sidewalk. Yeah, and we've talked a little bit about some of the redemption that could come. But again, the question is, is God good? Yeah, and the question of suffering and evil and then bringing the answer whe there's redemption there is right and that's something we need to say.

28:14 But yeah, kind of in the in the every day, I guess, suffering and then ultimately redemption. What does that look like? So is God good in the midst of these. Can you find trials? Can you find you find the Lord? And I don't know if purpose is the right word, but can you find God's goodness in the midst of your struggles and suffering? And I think you can, and I think, I think we did talk a little bit about in each of those cases, that that there was a good that came about at the end. But I think it maybe is good to kind of think in terms. I don't know conceptually. So what was the what were those general goods that that came about, the general evidence of good? So in all of those stories the circumstances were transitory, they were not permanent. Okay, you'd already touched upon it earlier. And and so I think knowing that that no matter what we face, it's going to pass. Now my pass to something worse in some cases, but but it is, it is, it is going to pass. But I think also understanding that our happiness is not necessarily God's goal. In fact, I think it clearly is not God's Goll but his glory. Yeah, and that he would be magnified. So maybe we could talk about in any in each of

29:45 these cases, how God was good in allowing suffering so what is suffering produce? And one of the first things that I think these stories show is that suffering produces joy. And so maybe check out acts. Sixteen, okay, versus twenty two to twenty four. Yeah, this was the suffering of Paul and Silas. Yeah, yeah, fairly, fairly wellknown passage. Right as. Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison at sixteen, Right, the first twenty two, right, says, it says. Then the multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods, and when they laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding that the jailer keep them securely. And having received such a charge, he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. Now, so this is of course, them rejoicing in the midst of suffering, right, but they were set free, right, they were all the prison he set free. Right, the prison doors opened up. Yeah, but it doesn't end there. Right, we might tend to think, okay, well, the prison doors opened up, they're ready to go, right, just march

31:19 on out. Yeah, they didn't, ultimately, Huh. What ultimately happened is they were a testimony, to witness, this jailer who came to know the Lord and his whole household. So this is again, this is how God can redeem and bring, in the midst of suffering, a testimony, a witness for his own glory, for handing. Their response was to praise and to sing and to worship. And so this joyful, really worship ceremony in the midst of their terrible circumstances, that nothing had changed. Yet you're still in jail, and yet they've chosen to they've really chosen joy, joy and worship in the midst of the struggle. And the result, then, with that attitude, was they were ultimately freed and many people, a whole HOUSEHOLP, the jailer's household, came to the Lord. Right. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, so how about suffering produces rewards. Yeah, so I'll read it, or maybe you could read and Hebrews Eleven, twenty four to twenty six. And this is talking about Moses, who chose to suffer. He chose suffering. And why? Okay, but by faith.

32:37 Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he looked to a reward. He looked to a reward he want, he wanted. He chose suffering. It said, yeah, that he would suffer for God because he didn't want to engage in sin. He didn't want to suffer for sin. He wanted to suffer for whatever it was that God was calling him to do, looking to the reward. And he would have been looking for a reward unless he had an assurance, yeah, that there was a reward. So suffering ultimately produces a reward?

33:22 Yeah, how about suffering produces understanding? Okay, so think about job, the blind man and the crippled man. Yeah, what was the result of their suffering in terms of their relationship with God, and that seems like they were wrong. Brought closer to the Lord, they were drawn closer to to God. Yeah, sure, they came to a greater understanding of the Lord, for sure, job did, he said, for I had heard of you, but now I've seen you and I repent and in Justestin ashes. So he he came to truly see God for who he was. But the the crippled man, you know, was rejoicing praising God. Yeah, was the result. So they all came to see the power and glory of God. And suffering has a way of kind of opening our eyes to what truely matters and and also helping us to appreciate when we're not suffering. Yeah, you know, like I heard, I don't know the exact same, but it's like someone said that banging your head with a hammer is really so valuable because when you stop, you realize how good it feels to stop.

34:45 Yes, so when suffering ends, there's a greater appreciation from what you've what you have been given, that maybe you didn't understand before. Absolutely I know when I was diagnosed with cancer is probably when I first and most appreciated the gift of life because I was at risk of losing it. Yeah. So sometimes suffering gives us that different perspective, gives us a different yeah, an eternal perspective. Yeah. Yeah. So, given all of this, how can we share the gospel effectively to God's people who are suffering? Yeah, or people who are not yet God's people? Right? How do we share the Gospel to people who are suffering? Yeah, and how do we effectively convey to them in the midst of what they see is not good and it's not something's not good, it's not fun. Yeah, but how do we have them to see there is a good god? Yeah, yeah, and I wrote down four things. I think it's a hard question. I do think it's a hard question. I do think it requires a lot of study and prayer. But you touched on the on a lot of them already.

35:57 We've touched on them. But number one, don't minimize the suffering, and I wrote but magnify the mission. So they are on a mission for God. All of us are on a mission for God. We may not we may be kicking and screaming and rebelling against it, but we all have a mission, yeah, for God. And if we can focus on what that mission is. If you're on the sidewalk. That mission is to be a voice for unborn babies. Yeah, and no one else is speaking. So is their suffering as your ministring there there is, and and is their suffering in those moms. There there is, in our case, the mission to speak for the unborn. In the MOM's case, the mission is to care for that on born. Yeah, and nurture that unborn and do what is right, yeah, for for that child. So the second one direct attention from the suffering to the savior. Yeah, that's good. I like eses.

36:54 Yeah, a literation suffering to the suffering to the savior, which is again your eternal perspective. Take them, take them from where they're struggling to who is ultimately the one that will lend all struggle. Yeah, and that's, of course, Jesus, giving biblical evidence of God's promises fulfilled, and we talked about that, yeah, a little bit. And Biblical stories of those who have suffered and endured and they have come to a pace, a place of peace and join reward. Yeah, and I'll add to that. Do you back in on that? That fourth point is personal stories as well as right. talked a lot about so far in this podcast. Sharing personal testimonies how God has and I shared a little bit of my testimony. Yeah, and I share that with with men and women at the abortion center about how God had brought me from what I felt like was the end of the world to whole new life in him. Yeah. Sharing Stories of people in situations of rape, their redemptive stories. Yeah, we're God has brought moms through and their child ultimately was a blessing to them in the midst of that terrible situation, the terrible thing that was done to them. Other stories MOMS that have had bad diagnosis from a doctor, your baby is going to have this situation, of that situation, how God was able to redeem that, turn that situation around or in the midst of that, maybe the doctors diagnosis was correct. And yet still their testimonies after testimonies of how God was able

38:28 to use that what outwardly was a terrible situation to bring redemption. Yeah, family mother. Yeah, and so those stories, biblical stories and stories, are the experience. I know, not how they or hell. Yeah, I mean I would rather not have the story of cancer, but I do and and it I use that story all of the time, talk about what was a probably one of the most severe, certainly most severe physical struggle I ever had to endure. But how God was there and and there and in in amazing ways and in little things that that brought hope and just sparks of light in in all of that darkness. So that's another really I don't know if reward is quite the right word, but benefit even of suffering is that you now have something you can share with others, especially if you've come out on the other side of it. Now you have something you can share with others that that brings hope to them. Yeah, so then I think if you've gone through all of that, and it for me this was very cathartic writing this article and going through all of these testimonies of Biblical figures and how they endured suffering and the really the benefits or rewards, I don't know what quite the right word is, of of their struggles, then I think maybe if someone can be brought through that process of thought, then I think they

40:02 maybe are more ready and able to hear who is the or what is the final and ultimate proof of the goodness of God? Yeah, which is of course, the cross, Jesus at the Cross. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, God, in His mercy, allowing himself to be crucified by the hands of men that he created, allowing himself to be crucified to pay the penalty for sin. And was it fair or just for God? Well, I mean that's that's actually a deeper theological question. Answered superficially. Then they's officially it was unfair, it was totally unfair, it was unjust. So and so when I was talking to this woman and I said, when you were four years old, what happened to you was so unfair. Yes, so unjust, and yet you have a god who created you, who knows all about unfairness and injustice. Yeah, and and came to the world to solve that problem. Yeah, yeah, and this is ultimately, as we've touched on all throughout, redemption. Yes, this is the redemption of lost humanity, right, but also there's this scriptural picture sometimes that we can miss.

41:22 The Jesus Christ comes to redeem lost human beings, but also to redeem the creation, right to to the Bible says the the creation groans in weights for the revealing of the Sons of God's ultimate redemption. The creation itself is redeemed. The the new heavens and the new earth come and what God had intended with human beings, what God had intended with his creation, for this to be a display of his glory and for sin not to have tainted and mess the whole thing up. Ultimately, Jesus is blood and His resurrection from the Dead Brings Redemption to the whole thing. So global warming won't matter. They won't. It's going to be okay. It'll be all right, but it's only okay through Christ and through God and through his redemptive process, not through whether we limit Coto, although I'm not saying we should. Well, that's another I really like for you were going with that. that. Yeah, all creation is groaning in anticipation what we what it's coming, Jesus says.

42:28 Behold, I make all things new. Yeah, all things new. Yeah, it's ultimate redemption. This fallen world, this, as I said before, this world that sometimes sucks, this life is sometimes sucks, is not. It's not going to suck anymore. Actually, it's going to be what God originally intended, and the devil is no longer going to have a say. He's no longer going to have a foothold in this lost world. But Jesus Christ will rule and reign over his kingdom, yea, and those that belong to him will rule and reign beside him. And it's it's awesome that God has entered into our suffering and that he's willing to after he ends enters into our suffering, we get to enter in his victory and that's redemption.

43:17 Yeah, that's what God desires for us. Yeah, because he's merciful, because he's good, because he's good, and I think we've answered our question. God, God's good, even when we can't see it at the time. Yeah, he immately is good, Ay man. Yeah, well, that guys. We're going to wrap this thing up. We appreciate you listening and we would appreciate if you would share this podcast, if you would leave us a review on itunes. You can leave us review. Let us know what you think. Reach out to us, let us know if there are other subjects you like for us to cover. You can reach out to me, D parks at cities for lifecom. You can reach out to her, vcassy organ cities for lifecom. We would love to answer any questions that you have we'd love to hear from you, but until next time, God bless.

44:06 Give me our love for love. Give me our love for gratitude. I know it will cost me my life. Nothing's too precious, and some met you