Been busy at work and still working through the same two books … still some good stuff coming …
Jesus Among Other Gods by Zacharias
… most skeptics begin their challenge to God’s existence with the problem of evil or at least reserve their greatest emotion for that discussion. But in doing so, they dig a deeper pit than the one they are trying to get out of, because raising the problem of evil without God runs the risk of failing to justify the question.
We are not merely observers to the reality of evil. We are involved in it beyond mere academic discussion.
Love can only be what it was meant to be when it is wedded first to the sacred.
Goodness in the face of evil is magnificent, because it is more than goodness; it is the touch of God.
I recall talking to a very successful and very wealthy businessman who throughout the conversation repeatedly raised this question, “But what about all the evil in this world?” Finally, the friend sitting next to me said to him, “I hear you constantly expressing a desire to see a solution to the problem of evil around you. Are you as troubled by the problem of evil within you?” In the pin-drop silence that followed, the man’s face showed his duplicity.
The Pursuit of God by Tozer
Important as it is that we recognize God working in us, I would yet warn against a too-great preoccupation with the thought. It is a sure road to sterile passivity. God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, “Oh, Lord, thou knowest.” Those things belong to the deep and mysterious profound of God’s omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.
Now we have reached a low place of sand and burnt wire grass and, worst of all, we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed. It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselves loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways.
Peace.