The Joshua Victor Theory

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Earlier this week I was watching two famous professors debate—one an atheist, the other a Christian. They talked about suffering and the problem of evil. The widow in our reading was a real example of suffering. The Christian in the debate, John Lennox, said that everyone senses that there is too much suffering in this world. You can imagine the widow saying: “There’s too much suffering in my life—how can I bear it all?” When suffering strikes close to home—a husband, a son, or another loved one—we ask “why does God allow this to happen?” “How can God be good, when my loved one is dying?” Many turn away from God or simply say that He doesn’t exist, because of tragedies. But getting rid of God gets rid of the greatest hope and answer to suffering—while still leaving us with the suffering. If there is no God in the world, suffering is just a brute fact of existence, and the universe doesn’t care. If there is no G...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Please listen again to the words of our sermon text for today, Romans 5:1-5, “ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us .” The Bible tells a story of a certain young man, who was born to a loving father and mother, and who became a little bit spoiled. In fact his father loved him so much, that the other brothers became jealous of all the favoritism and hated him. His naïve pride irritated them, and finally they planned something unth...

Sermon Outline: ·          Reformation month—four sermons on the “mottoes” of the Reformation: 1) faith alone, 2) grace alone, 3) scripture alone, and 4) Christ alone. Meaning; origin in the Bible; application. ·          “The righteous shall live by his faith.” One of the most important statements about faith, in OT and whole Bible—obscure prophet Habakkuk. Quoted by Paul to show that we are saved by faith, not works. What setting did Hab. pen these words? What was his message? ·          Short book—three chapters. Discussion between Habakkuk and God in 1 & 2, where Hab. makes a complaint to God—God answers, Hab. complains again, and God answers a second time, and the book ends with Hab. prayer in 3. Unfortunately the way the verses were selected you only hear Hab’s first complaint, and God’s second response. ·        ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Last week we talked about how we are called to be a caring community in Christ, and not isolated from one another. This week I invite you to reflect on how as a community in Christ we face the difficulties and tragedies in life that would tempt us to despair, rather than to hope. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The word ‘abyss’ describes a bottomless pit—a hole of enveloping darkness. A fitting word to describe the yawning darkness that swallowed Jesus on the day of His crucifixion and death. He hung on the cross, like a slender strand of rope suspending the great weight of humanity’s sins, a rope hanging down from heaven. He was our slender strand of hope, the last connection from earth to heaven, and our sins were an impossibly heavy burden, straining, pulling, dragging Him down into the abyss. Shrill cries of mockery dared Him to come off the ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. There’s an old familiar problem that always rears its ugly head whenever there are natural disasters like the earthquakes, tsunamis, or humanly inflicted tragedies like genocides and terrorist attacks. That old familiar problem is the question of evil. Usually people ask this question: “How can a good God exist and allow so much evil to happen?” Great tragedies with huge death tolls bring this question racing to the forefront of our minds. Sometimes, as a way of excusing God, people will actually blame the victims instead. It was their wickedness that brought this disaster down on their own head. Today we’ll hear how Jesus addresses these problems and what God has done to intervene against evil in this world. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We’ve probably all heard some of the opining when these tragedies occur. Often it’s offensive speculation. ...