Why? Leader Guide: Making Sense of God's Will - Softcover

Hamilton, Adam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501870718 ISBN 13: 9781501870712

Verlag: Abingdon Press, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

Where is God when tragedy and suffering strike?When the ground shakes, and a poor nation's economy is destroyed; when the waters rise, washing away a community's hopes and dreams; when a child suffers neglect and abuse; when violence tears apart nations where is God? If God is all powerful, and if each one of us is a beloved child of God, then how can God allow tragedy and suffering to mar his creation?In Why?, best-selling author Adam Hamilton brings fresh insight to the age-old question of how to understand the will of God. Rejecting simplistic answers and unexamined assumptions, he lays out core ideas for comprehending God's plan for the world, including: God will not take away our free will, even when we use it to grieve him.God will never abandon us, especially in the midst of our suffering.While God is not the author of suffering, God will bring blessing out of tragedy.

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Adam Hamilton is senior pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, one of the fastest growing, most highly visible churches in the country. The Church Report named Hamilton’s congregation the most influential mainline church in America, and he preached at the National Prayer Service as part of the presidential inauguration festivities in 2013.Hamilton is the best-selling and award-winning author of The Walk, Simon Peter, Creed, Half Truths, The Call, The Journey, The Way, 24 Hours That Changed the World, John, Revival, Not a Silent Night, Enough, When Christians Get It Wrong, and Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, all published by Abingdon Press. Learn more about Adam Hamilton at AdamHamilton.com.

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Why? Leader Guide

Making Sense of God's Will

By Adam Hamilton

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2011 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5018-7071-2

Contents

How to Use This Leader Guide, 
1. Why Do the Innocent Suffer?, 
2. Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?, 
3. Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?, 
4. Why God's Love Prevails, 
Endnotes, 

CHAPTER 1

WHY DO THE INNOCENT SUFFER?

Main Idea: It is possible to reconcile belief in a loving and powerful God with the suffering in our world.

GETTING STARTED

Session Goals

This session is intended to help participants ...

• carefully reconsider the ideas that everything happens for a reason and that suffering must be the will of God;

• explore the biblical perspective that there is much that happens in our world that is most definitely not the will of God; and

• consider three ideas that provide the foundation for reconciling God's goodness with the suffering in our world.

Welcome / Opening Prayer

Welcome participants and then open the session in prayer. Use the following prayer or offer one of your own:

Lord God, after you created the world, you viewed all that you made and said that everything was "very good." Yet the perfect world you created is not the world in which we now live. Daily we read or hear about disasters, hatred, violence, tragedy, and disease — and often we, or our loved ones, are the ones experiencing these ugly realities. Teach us how we can trust your love when so many bad things happen in our lives and our world. Even when we cannot fully know "why," help us to know the "who" we can depend on — you — remembering that you always are with us and that you promise to give us the strength, grace, and hope we need. Amen.

Biblical Foundation

God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Genesis 1:27-28)

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORDGod commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Genesis 2:15-17)

Opening Activity

Write the following two questions on a board or chart:

• Why does God allow pain and suffering?

• Why did God allow ______________________?

Acknowledge that human beings have grappled with the first question since the beginning of time and that the question becomes more personal when tragedy, suffering, or difficult times hit close to home. Invite participants to complete the second question by verbally filling in the blank — without going into detail about what happened. Suggest that it might be something that happened to them personally, something that affected one or more persons they love or care about, or something that might have been more distant but still touched them in a personal way for one reason or another. Write their responses on the board or chart.

After everyone has had an opportunity to respond, write the word theodicy on the board/chart. Explain that theodicy is the attempt to reconcile belief in a loving and powerful God with the suffering in our world. Say that although you will not be able to resolve the issue in this session, your goal is for the participants to become better equipped to seek answers for themselves.

LEARNING TOGETHER

Video Presentation

Play the DVD segment for Session 1, Why Do the Innocent Suffer?

Running Time: 6:50 minutes

Key Insights

1. Theodicy is the attempt to reconcile belief in a loving and powerful God with the suffering in our world.

2. Our disappointment with God in the face of suffering, tragedy, or injustice typically stems from our assumptions about how God is supposed to work in our world. When God does not meet our expectations, we are disappointed, disillusioned, and confused.

3. The message of the Bible is not a promise that those who believe and do good will not suffer; the Bible is largely a book about people who refused to let go of their faith in the face of suffering.

4. When non-Christians hear Christians say things such as, "Everything happens for a reason" and "It must have been the will of God," they often are left with a picture of a God who wills or causes tragic or evil things to happen.

5. Three foundational ideas can help us reconcile God's goodness with the suffering we experience in our world:

• God has placed humanity in charge of Earth. God has given human beings the responsibility to "have dominion" over "every living thing that moves upon the earth"— to act on God's behalf in managing, tending, and ruling over the planet. God's primary way of working in the world is through people who are empowered and led by God's Spirit.

• To be human is to be free. God gives human beings the freedom to choose God's way or another way. The ability to choose is an essential part of human existence.

• Human beings have a predisposition to stray from God's path. Our tendency to do what is not God's will is sometimes called the "sin nature."

6. Our prescientific ancestors believed that natural disasters are works of God. Today we understand the scientific causes of natural disasters and realize that destructive natural forces are actually essential to life on our planet. This helps us understand why God does not intervene and stop natural disasters from occurring.

7. When God wants to bring hope and help to others, God sends people. Rather than being disappointed with God in the face of tragedy and suffering, we can view the situation as a call to action — to go and be God's hands and voice to those in need.

8. God gives us freedom to make our own decisions, and sometimes those decisions have painful consequences for us and for others. God does not miraculously deliver us from the consequences of our actions or the actions of others.

9. If we have no choices — no free will — we cease to be human and become puppets.

10. Living involves risks, including the risk that we might become sick and die. This is not God's doing; it is simply part of living in a fallen world in which sickness and death are inescapable realities.

11. Rejecting God doesn't change the situation that has caused our suffering; it only removes our greatest source of hope, help, comfort, and strength.

Note: There are numerous books and in-depth studies devoted to the topic of theodicy. Given the expansive nature of the topic, additional Leader Extra material is provided for this session so that you may be better equipped to lead discussion in light of the interests, needs, or questions of your particular group.

Leader Extra

Thoughts About How God Works in the World Excerpts from When Christians Get It Wrong, by Adam Hamilton

• I believe that God is sovereign — the highest authority, king of the universe — yet God chooses to work in the world in certain ways.

• I believe that God is involved in the affairs of the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1501870718
• ISBN 13: 9781501870712
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 64
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland