If God is Good-Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil arrived in my mail box several weeks ago. I had heard it was a lengthy book written by Randy Alcorn author of bestselling Heaven. I wasn't sure I would get through the 512 pages, and was positive I would have to write this review with the book only half read.
With a bright orange highlighter and little orange sticky flags to match, I began reading, reading, and reading.
I was not disappointed for every page held a gem to highlight, a scripture to look up, something to record in my journal. Who would have thought there would be something on every page I would want to capture for future reference?
The book is laid out well, I would suggest if you are going to take the journey through this book which will be on my top ten list, I would use it as a devotional, reading a chapter a day for each section is short enough to read in one sitting.
Alcorn deals with this tough subject using God's Word as his textbook and real life examples of people he knows and has interviewed. He never minimizes the evil, suffering and hurt of those he uses as illustrations, but sees them as heroes of the faith who have clung to God in the midst of deepest valleys.
Some section titles include Understanding the Problem of Evil and Suffering, The Origin of Evil..., Proposed Solutions..., Living Meaningfully in Suffering, Why Does God Allow Suffering?
Other subjects covered in this well written book are evil and suffering and Christ's Redemptive Work, how the sovereignty of God has anything to do with evil and suffering, God's glory and suffering and evil. One section includes a case study on a "Christian" Who Lost His Faith and Non-Theistic Worldviews. This section would be more for the student in all of us, but very informative and useful regarding this subject.
I loved the book because it is saturated with God's Word, which holds the only answers for any question. The Bible does answer the many questions about evil and suffering, but more importantly is the only way to know God who loves us more than we will ever realize this side of Heaven.
I highly recommend this book. I will continue posting about this book this week with some favorite quotes.
"Being a serious student of God's Word provides solid footing to move forward amidst evil and suffering."
2 comments:
Eli is always looking for a good book to read. He finished Do Hard Things and really liked it. I think I might recommend this to him. He likes deep stuff.
I am hoping to read Randy Alcorn's first book, Heaven sometime soon. I am kind of caught up in child development and adoption readings right now. But, Jake read Heaven awhile ago and loved it....it is sitting on our shelf just waiting!
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