Note from Lillian:

Memorial Services for the fallen have started and many have begun to seek answers. How could this happen?  How can we feel secure? How are we supposed to believe? 

The pain of this past week's tragedy is still fresh in our hearts and the horror still clear in our minds. But as we each deal with the shock and outrage, it is inevitable that we will come to the question:

Why do bad things happen to good people?

When we boil it down, what we really want to ask is: Why does God let bad things happen to good people?

In last Friday's Day of Prayer and Remembrance at the National Cathedral, Rev. Billy Graham raised this question and said that there were aspects of it that we simply couldn't understand. He quoted Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (KJV) The NIV says "who can understand it?" The question has no answer. Examples of man's inhumanity to man are legion. It is impossible to understand the "desperately wicked" hearts that made this tragedy happen on September 11. 

But Rev. Graham also referred to a prayer breakfast he attended in Washington D.C. several years ago. Congressman Andrew Young, whose wife had just died, was also in attendance. He pointed to the last verse of an old hymn, "How Firm a Foundation" to demonstrate the source of his strength through such a difficult time.

Here is that verse:

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."

Hebrews 13:5 promises "...I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

Ultimately our hope comes from our faith and our faith is based on God's Word and His promises. 

Here is a sermon my Dad preached on our question: Why do bad things happen to good people? As is characteristic of all his sermons, this one is saturated with Scripture references, God's Word.

A little background is in order. I first heard my Dad preach this sermon in 1988. At the time, my mother was fighting a losing battle with cancer and we knew it. (She died in January of the next year.) Daddy was a guest speaker at an area conference and Mother and I attended. 

At one point as Daddy preached the sermon, Mother began to cry and shake. I sat with my arms around her and cried with her. I tell you that to let you know that this was not a sterile academic exercise for my father. This sermon was the strong medicine he prescribed for himself. He was living with death daily. He needed it to be strong for many, including Mother, who needed him to be strong.

Our time for grieving may be short. There are several stories of firemen in New York City being pulled from the rubble, gulping some air to clear their lungs and then rushing back to the scene to look for others. Someone may be counting on your strength. Look for strength from this sermon. 

I pray that this will be a blessing to you today in our country's hour of grief. May God show you what He would have you see from this sermon.

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
by Rev. Jack Bridges
edited by Lillian Bridges Hinds

John 9:1-2 
     As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Our question is not a new one. During Biblical times, the disciples walking with Jesus came upon a man that had been blind from birth. Their clear assumption was this man's blindness had to have been the result of sin. They just wanted to know if it was the man's sin or his parents. 

Implicit in their question (and our's) are the assumptions that:

1) Good things should happen to good people, and,
2) Bad things should happen to bad people.

Before we consider our main question, we need to explore these two assumptions and see that they are not supported by reality.

First of all - there are no good people. 

Job 14:1 
Man born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble

Jesus said in Matthew 19:17  There is only One who is good - God.

But from a human point of view, there are good people in the world. The Apostle Paul acknowledges this. He tells us in Romans 5:7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  So we know from this standpoint that there are good people and our question stands.

Second, we must also consider the flip side to our question: Why do good things happen to bad people? This puzzled Asaph who wrote the 73rd Psalm. In the 3rd verse he tells us:

  For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Then in verse 12

This is what the wicked are like - always carefree, they increase in wealth.

It is always frustrating to notice that there are wicked people who are getting rich, are arrogant about it and seem to be without a care in the world.

Third, it is clear from reading the Scriptures that it is not uncommon at all for bad things to happen to good people. We often focus on the blessings that we have in Christ, and ignore the suffering that might be involved in serving Him. We would like to simply disregard any teaching that mentions hardship. 

But a cursory reading of the Bible, especially the 11th chapter of Hebrews tells that godly, faithful people suffered untold difficulties. In fact, as you search the New Testament you find words like these used to describe the circumstances of Christians:

Affliction, torment, suffering, hardship, despair, tribulation, trouble, anguish, burdened, distress, persecution, evil treated, misery. There was pressure of circumstances, antagonism of ungodly people, anything that burdens the spirit. Not very much to praise God for in that list.

While The Apostle Paul was serving the Lord in Asia, he relates some of the things that he experienced there. Note this catalogue of suffering that he lists - and these are things that happened to him while he was faithfully obeying God's commands.

2 Corinthians 11:23-28 I have...been

in prison
flogged more severely
exposed to death again and again
given forty lashes minus one (five times)
beaten with rods (three times)
stoned with stones
shipwrecked (three times)
I spent a night and a day in the open sea,
in danger from rivers
in danger from bandits
in danger from my own countrymen
I have gone without sleep
I have known hunger and thirst
I have been cold and naked
not to mention the daily pressures..  

So it is not uncommon for bad things to happen to good people. 

So with these thoughts in mind, here are 10 reasons why Christians suffer.  

1. This is the common lot of all people. Bad things happen to everyone - both the good and the bad. The simple truth is that when it rains, it rains on everybody.

Matthew 5:45 
He (the Heavenly Father) causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

There are natural laws that control much of our existence and these laws are in effect for everybody, not just the good people or the bad people.

2. Because of the sins of others. The people who died this week in the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. died because of the murderous intent of evil men - because of someone else's sins. 

In our original text from the Gospel of John, the people asked Jesus if the man was born blind because of his own sin, or the sin of his parents. Not only was this an unkind question, but it was foolish. How could someone sin before he was born?

But the fact is that sometimes parents do cause their children real suffering. We are aware of the countless babies in our country who are born addicted to cocaine, or who are born infected with sexually transmitted diseases. They suffer because their parents sinned. 

In the Ten Commandments, we find a severe warning regarding parents and their children.

Exodus 20:4, 5 
You shall not make for yourself an idol...(second commandment) I, the lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

Jesus, the sinless Son of God, was not only good, he was perfect. And the Bible tells us that he was crucified by wicked men.

Acts 2:23
...you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

Bad things happen to good people because of the sins of others.

3. Because of our own sin. Whether we like to admit it or not, we all sin. And sometimes the suffering that comes our way, is a direct consequence of our deliberate choice to disobey God.

I Corinthians 11:30 
That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

4. And to keep us from sin. God desires a close relationship with us and our sin will always come between us. Sometimes, God will allow suffering to keep us close to his side and to His heart.

Psalms 119:67 
Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I obey your word.

I Peter 4:1-2
...he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

5. To bring us to prayer. How many of us have prayed more this week than we have for a long time? Prayed for our nation, prayed for the families of victims, prayed for the rescue workers, prayed for our leaders, even prayed for our enemies. Times of crisis and suffering nearly always bring us to our knees. When we have exhausted human resources and abilities, we turn to God. God desires our prayers and longs for us to come to him for help.

James 5:13
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.

Hebrews 4:16 
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

6. To draw us into fellowship with Christ. This is a rather incredible thought. This is not how we want to be closer to someone. But Paul knew that there would be a closer fellowship; that suffering that would allow him to know Christ better.

Phil 3:10
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

2 Corinthians 12:9 
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

7. That we might be a blessing to someone else. Have you noticed the response this week from the people who live in the Oklahoma City area? They understand this tragedy as few of us do. They know what it means to have a typical workday interrupted by the deliberate plans of an evil madman. 

They understand the hours of waiting and hoping that the person pulled alive from the rubble will be their son or mother. Those people have waited in anguish as the mountain of debris diminishes and finally had to accept that there was no one else there. They have experienced the agony of knowing that their child or brother is gone and there is not even a body to grieve over or bury. 

The people of Oklahoma City are in a special place of grace this week. They have something from God that few of us ever have or ever will.

2 Corinthians 1:3 
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

8. That we might share his throne.  The Bible tells us that there is a special reward for God's saints who suffer. While this is not something that any of us desires, it is a promise that God will keep in eternity. Note the last verse - our afflictions do not seem light to us as we are going through them. And they aren't. But the verse wants us to know that when we do receive God's rewards, then our afflictions will seem light and momentary.

2 Tim 2:12 
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

I Peter 4:13
But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

2 Corinthians 4:17
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

9. To manifest his wonderful works. Go back for a moment to our text in John. Those asking the question assumed that someone sinned to cause suffering. And Jesus said that neither the man who was blind nor his parents sinned. 

The Bible reminds us that God's thoughts are not our thoughts. We don't always have the answer to what God is doing. We are sure it is either this or that. No, sometimes God has a plan in mind that we may not understand for many years. Jesus' answer revealed that God's plan in the blind man's life was that ... the works of God should be made manifest in him.

How may God's works be manifest in us? Any problem we face, physical illness, death and loss, financial problems, whatever is going on in our lives, is an opportunity for God to show himself. Charles Spurgeon, the great British pastor of the 19th century wrote:

Perhaps all this suffering is permitted that the work of God may be manifest in your afflictions, by your holy patience, your submission to the divine will, your persevering holiness amid all your poverty and trials. All this is sent that God's grace may be seen in you. Will you look at your afflictions in that light, and believe that they are not sent as a punishment, but as a platform upon which God may stand, and display his free grace in you? Bear well all the Lord's will, for your trials are sent for this purpose, that God's works may be manifest in you.

The blind beggar who began our question became a great testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. Read the rest of the 9th chapter of John. This man's testimony was amazing. He said "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" How exciting to be part of one of the Lord's miracles, to know the blessing of deliverance from blindness, to be used to manifest God's magnificence. But he had to suffer blindness to be in a place to participate in this miracle.

10. For the Glory of God. The Bible tells us that Jesus had some good friends when he walked this earth. They were a family of sisters and a brother - Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Jesus cried at the news of the death of his good friend, Lazarus. But long before Lazarus died, Jesus was brought the news that his friend was extremely ill. His response was...

John 11:4 
This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it.

2 Corinthians 4:15
All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Read the entire chapter of I Peter 4. It all pertains to the Christian suffering in this life. Let me call your attention to just a few of the verses as we do not have room for them all.

I Peter 4:12 
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. (In the King James Version, these are called FIERY trials. This seems to be a more appropriate translation given the events of last week.)

13) But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

19) So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

So this last verse indicates that it IS the will of God that his children suffer. 

So the question is: What should be our response to that suffering? 

It is ok to pray for relief? Yes. Before Jesus went to the cross, He asked if it was possible for "this cup to pass from me." Paul talked about a "thorn in his flesh" and prayed three times for God to remove it. 

But if, as in the lives of Christ and Paul, God does not remove the suffering, then our response should be to know that He is with you in that suffering, that He has for you an eternal weight of glory. 

Psalm 121:1-2 
I lift up my eyes to the hills--where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

He is our Firm Foundation.

One of my favorite poems reminds us that regardless of our current circumstances and how it appears that things are out of control, God has never left us. Not even for a moment.

The Present Crisis
by James Russell Lowell
l844

Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne;
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own.