Discussion Evening

Well, what a great night! The VHCC Book Club had its first discussion evening this week. Thank you to Lesley, Elaine, Nicole and Fiona for making the effort to come. We had a really great night discussing our books and eating delicious food.

There was a very engaging discussion about 'If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain", where we all shared our thoughts on certain ideas presented in the book. One important point that came up was how a person who doesn't believe in God, or have a relationship with God, respond to this book. Would they find what Dickson said convincing or comforting like us? It's an interesting idea.

Our discussion evening was a fabulous opportunity for us all to get to know each other more. We may have veered off the topic once or twice (or more!) but it's just so great being able to have good, meaningful conversation, without being interrupted by a one year old!

Thank you all for a great night. I look forward to our next one!

Book 2: God is Enough

Is being with God all you desire? Is He all you ultimately need? Do you shout out "God IS enough"? I know that there are times when I certainly don't think this, let alone shout it aloud, and that troubles me deeply. I think I need to get centred and focused.

I was planning on doing a different book next, but after having an interesting conversation with Rach about God is Enough, I was quite keen to read the book. What's it about? Well, here's the back page blurb to give you an idea:

"What are your disappointments in life? Perhaps, like me, you have unmet superficial desires—perhaps it is achieving that certain position in the company, or getting that high mark in a significant exam. Or maybe you are scarred by grief so profound that you can hardly talk about it. Or perhaps you're not so much disappointed as unmotivated; you have allowed the good and the not so good to hijack the best, and the passionate days of your early Christian life seem so long ago. Whatever the case may be, the issue is the same for all of us: is God enough?" With honesty and humility, Ray Galea reflects on ten psalms that have helped him put God back in the centre of his life. Ray reminds us of the many reasons we have to join with the psalmist in saying, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you."

What's great about this book is that Galea encourages his readers to read the relevant psalm twice before you read each chapter. So, through reading this book, we're being encouraged to read our bibles also. I think that's so important.

I hope this book has interested you as much as it has me. Will you join me in reading it?

If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain, Pt 7 - Are All Your Questions Answered?

So, we've come to the end of reading Dickson's book, "If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain". How did you like the book? At the beginning of the book, Dickson put forward these questions:

"If I were God, I'd end all the pain, so why doesn't HE?
Is he powerless?
Is he not interested in us?
Or is he just plain not there?"

Now that you've read his book, has Dickson answered these questions? Or, more importantly, has this book prompted you to think more deeply about these issues and formulate your own response?

This book has certainly strengthened my own understanding about why God allows suffering in the world. I feel better equiped to be able to answer these questions if I'm asked. Having said that, it's not essential that we have all the answers. What's important is that we have an eagerness to keep asking questions and keep searching to understand God more. Let's encourage each other in growing in our knowledge and understanding of our Great God!

If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain, Pt 7- Chapter 6

God Has Wounds

Of all the ideas and images we have of God, I'm pretty sure that the idea that he has wounds is rarely considered. I know that it's not something that has really come to my mind before. It's an interesting concept, "God himself has wounds." In his final chapter, Dickson puts forward the wounds of God and argues that God suffers; that he is the "Deeply-Moved-Mover".

God has experienced the greatest suffering and misery ever known, which is revealed to us in the Bible. Dickson shows this to us through paralleling Psalm 22 and Mark 15. I found this a truly compelling read. I was struck by the explicit connections that Mark made to Psalm 22 as he wrote his account of Jesus' death. Through crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", Jesus was making a deliberate connection to the suffering poet of Psalm 22. Here, Jesus shares in all people's suffering and pain. He knows what it's like to experience pain and misery. Dickson puts it like this:

"God intentionally enters our pain and misery, getting his hands dirty and even bloody. This is God at his most vulnerable and yet at his most glorious."

What amazes me is that through the death of Jesus on the cross God not only suffered, but that he willingly suffered for us.

If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain, Pt 6 - Chapter 5

The Renewal of All Things

I found the ideas presented in this chapter really interesting, something I never really thought about before.

Firstly, Dickson points out that their is an intimate connection between humanity and creation. So, when "humanity defied the Creator, this had devastating consequences for the creation itself. The physical environment...fell under the spell of our displacement of God." I've never really had that perspective presented to me before and I've never really considered that the actions of man affected creation as well. I like what Dickson says about it here,

"in biblical thought the earth bears the scars...of the traumatic rift that has occurred between us and God...the physical world now contains a measure of frustration and chaos...there is enough disorder evident to remind us that things are not as they should be."

I particularly like those last few words. This makes a lot of sense to me and I feel like I can better understand the 'whys' and 'hows' of suffering in this world now.

So, what will God do?

God is going to renew the creation. Our physical existence is not going to be removed, but renewed. Things will be as they should be. Again, this is something I haven't really thought about at much length and I enjoyed reading about it. What a joy to be reminded that heaven will come to earth and everything will be transformed; a new creation.

How do we know God's going to do it or that he can do it?

Through the resurrection of Christ. Dickson says, God "is willing and able to breathe new life where there is currently death." For me, Dickson was presenting Jesus' resurrection in a whole new way. I found this was a different perspective that I hadn't really considered before. The resurrection of Jesus is God's way of showing us that he can re-create the universe.

What were your thoughts on this?

The Devil on Suffering

I came across this this post about an article from The Briefing, 'The Devil on Suffering'. It's an interesting read.

Thoughts?

If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain, Pt 5- Chapter 4

"The Justice of God”

“So much of the evil and suffering experienced in our world results from human decisions, from the potent reality of our will.”

In this chapter, Dickson presents a biblical perspective on justice and why God does not prevent pain and suffering. As you have seen, he has presented us with two ideas. One, the presence of pain and suffering in the world is due to our own free, independent will. Two, God will right the wrongs and will bring justice to the world, in his own timing.

Why does God not simply override our wills?
I found what Dickson wrote about free will really interesting and thought-provoking. In some ways we do think that God should intervene and prevent a terrible human action, like a parent watching their child would do if they saw that the child was about to do something wrong. The parent would step in and prevent the child from doing what they shouldn’t do. In some ways, I guess God does do this. He instructs us and teaches us, but we don’t listen. I couldn’t help but think that I wouldn’t mind it if God was more “active” and stepped in to stop, say, somebody from committing murder or rape. On the other hand, how would that influence us as human beings if that were the case?

As we know, there are times when a child needs to do the wrong thing in order to learn and grow into a more mature adult. So, does that mean that part of this free will business is that God is shaping us to: a) be more like him, and b) to become truly dependent upon him?

What we have to remind ourselves is that not only are we given the choice to do “bad”, but we’re also given the choice to do “good”, it’s just a bit harder for use to choose to do good, isn’t it?

I wonder, though, how we should then respond to the occurrences of the world that cause human suffering but aren’t caused by humans?

It’s helpful to remind ourselves that this world is a fallen and broken world and we should not expect things to be perfect.

The Bible’s answer is that he will do something
One day, God will bring justice. I liked what Dickson said about it: “He has set a Day of Judgement at the end of history precisely because his personality is a unique blend of pure justice mixed with boundless patience, mercy and love.” I find this reassuring.

I wonder, though, how a non-Christian would respond to this? Is this only reassuring to me because I not only believe in God, but hold onto this truth?