I'm going to be up front with you; I am not a Christian.  I have no desire to be.  My fiancé, on the other hand, is.  I am trying to understand how he believes, so we will have a more harmonious union.  I asked him this question, and he did not know the answer.

My question is: if the Lord is so wonderful, why would He want to see His children suffer?  Why would He take away a life that has not yet even begun?  Why would He hurt the innocent when the evil continue to live?  I don't understand this.

If you could please explain this in simple terms – the preachers in my area get very upset when someone doubts the Lord’s amazing-ness.  Thus, I am turning to you, whoever you are, to give me a straight answer.  Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Unbelievable

Dear Unbelievable,

Many people don’t believe in God because religious people are unwilling or incapable of giving logical answers to questions like this.  We are so sorry that you’ve never gotten the answers that the Bible offers because the Bible does give an answer to this question.
This world is full of all sorts of disease, pain, violence, and strife – but God didn’t cause those things; sin did.  All bad things are a result of sin.  When God made the world, He placed mankind in the Garden of Eden and gave us a joyously blissful existence in that paradise.  Who caused the pain?  We did.  It is sin that has brought all of the death, disease, decay, pain, suffering, troubles, and heartaches into our world.  We all, in varying degrees, are reaping the benefits of a world with sin in it.  Sickness is a consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden.  One of the curses of their sin was that we all must face our own mortality – life is finite.  Sickness, disease, and pain are a part of the human existence.  Sadly, this is true even for our children. When God gave us freewill, He gave us the right to cause problems for ourselves and others, and if He simply removed all the consequences for our actions, He would be removing our freedoms as well.  The flip-side to this is that all children go to heaven, so after a child dies, God immediately comforts them on the other side.

God gives mankind the freedom to make decisions, but He also has the wisdom to know how those choices will affect the future (Job 12:13).  God planned before the foundation of the world to save us by sending His own Son to die (Eph. 1:3-4).  Even though He isn’t responsible for our choices, God sent the perfect cure. This world isn’t fair – if it were, it would be heaven.  Instead, we live in a fallen world where man has been exiled from paradise.  This world is not our home; Christians await a better world (Heb 11:16).

     Is it okay for Christians to meditate?  If you pray to relieve stress but also want to just take a few minutes a day to picture a nice scenery or something to bring zen, is that okay?

Sincerely,
Mind Over Matter

Dear Mind Over Matter,

God wants us to dwell upon positive things (Php 4:8).  There is nothing wrong with meditating on the good and beautiful of this life.  Ps 77:12 talks about dwelling upon God’s creation and His handiwork as a positive thing.  Meditation isn’t a replacement for prayer – but it can be pleasant.

     I've recently become aware of my backsliding, and I've decided to fix things in my life to make myself closer to God.  I have a band that is secular, and it's definitely my livelihood at twenty-two years old.  I don't sing about Satan or bash God or anything of that nature, but I have used swearing and talking about killing posers (in a playful manner; I play Thrash Metal, so it is an aggressive form of music).  However, I do have a lot of songs about the realities of nuclear war, sci-fi movies, etc.

I don't know what to do.  I want to get right with God, but I'd hate to see my band end over it (I know that sounds very selfish saying it or typing it out).

I've had a very bad history with religion.  I abandoned my faith as a teenager and did just about every kind of blasphemy and obscene and irreverent living you can think of.  When I was seventeen, I came close to dying from alcohol poisoning, and it made me realize that I needed Jesus back in my heart.  I struggled for YEARS... yes, YEARS, in agonizing fear of being unforgiven for all the horrible things I did out of rebellion... I worried about God hating me or not forgiving me.

Anyways, I've gotten carried away; I'm just concerned.  What's your opinion?

Sincerely,
Giving Myself A Thrashing

Dear Giving Myself A Thrashing,

Can you still play and cut out all swearing? Swearing is a sin (Eph 4:29).  Can you clean up the content of your music?  All that we say and dwell on should attempt to be pure and honorable (Php 4:8).  Is the environment that your band puts you in conducive to long-term faithfulness, or will it slowly tear you away from the Lord?  God tells us to watch the company we keep because it can corrupt us (1 Cor 15:33).  You said that you are backsliding – is the band environment part of the problem or part of the solution?

If you can faithfully ask yourself those questions, you will have your answer.

    My wife and I have been working out some problems, but there’s one problem we can’t agree on… money.  My wife believes if you have money, spend it.  I try to manage and balance my money; she tells me that I’m worshiping money.  Is it wrong to manage finances?

Sincerely,
Counting My Pennies

Dear Counting My Pennies,

It is possible to spend too much, and it is possible to save too much.  Saving money is not a bad thing, but falling in love with money and hoarding it is.  God tells us that Christians should be good stewards of whatever He gives us… and that includes money (1 Pet 4:10).  Jesus gives the parable of the talents and uses the example of men saving and investing as a positive example (Matt 25:14-30).  The Proverbs mention the industrious ant as an example of preparing and saving (Pr 6:6-8).  If we are careful and smart with money, that makes God happy… unless we begin to worship that money.

Greed (Pr 1:19), covetousness (Col 3:5), and the love of money (1 Tim 6:10) are always sins.  It is a good thing to save for the future as long as we are content with whatever the Lord has given us (Heb 13:5).

     First of all, we are loving Christians who tithe and give our offerings, and God has blessed us dearly.

However, there is a family who are friends with our family, and we love them.  Yet, they are constantly taking advantage of our niceness and Christian faith because they are always asking for things, especially money, and they know we will try to help them… $40 here, $60 there, $100 here, another $40 there, another $80 there.  Many times it is twice a month or once a month.  This has been occurring over and over and over for the past three to four years.  Although they never pay us back, we continue to help them out because this is the Christian thing to do.  However, there is a time for all things!  It is just getting out of hand!  Will God be upset with us if we slowly and kindly stop giving them money and start putting these resources to better use?  Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Give Me A Break

Dear Give Me A Break,

The Bible tells us that it is a good thing to give and help others who are in need (Acts 20:35, Matt 19:21).  However, the Bible also has some strict rules regarding those who are unwilling to work and are always looking for handouts.  2 Thess 3:10 says that if a man won’t work, neither let him eat.  There is a point where giving to someone can actually hinder them from being productive and enable entitlement behavior.

Furthermore, the Bible tells us to be good stewards of what we have (1 Cor 4:2).  How you budget and spend your money needs to be generous and wise.  It sounds like you feel that you are being generous, but you are no longer being wise in your financial dealings.