5 minutes a day
5 days a week
1 New Testament in a year

There are 261 weekdays in a year, and there are 260 chapters in the New Testament. By reading one chapter, Monday through Friday, you will read the whole New Testament by the end of the year. The Daily Cup series is to help with that goal.

Happy Studying!

"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup." -- Psalm 16:5

Click here for a pdf of the study schedule - CLICK HERE

My husband is in the army.  He has recently been deployed to Afghanistan.  I don't exactly know how to ask this question, but I'm having a hard time dealing with what he might have to do while there.  Does it make me a bad person to love someone who could possibly kill someone else in a time of war?  I just don't know what to think or how to deal with this.  Can he still go to heaven?  I know that God will forgive him if asks for forgiveness, but can He forgive him if he joined, knowing that war was inevitable?

Sincerely,
Soldier’s Bride

Dear Soldier’s Bride,

There is nothing wrong with your husband being a soldier; some of the most faithful men in the Bible were soldiers and had to kill people in the defense of their country.  David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14), and yet David killed many people as a soldier.  Jesus marveled at the faith of a centurion soldier (Matt 8:8-10).  The first Gentile convert was Cornelius, a well-known Roman soldier (Acts 10:22).  When a group of soldiers asked John the Baptist what they needed to do to live a faithful life, he told them to be honest and faithful... but he never told them to stop serving in the military (Lk 3:14).

Lord willing, your husband will never have to kill anyone, but if he does, it won’t be murder (read “Kill Or Be Killed” for more on that topic).  Support your husband with a clear conscience.  Being a soldier is an honorable profession.

5 minutes a day
5 days a week
1 New Testament in a year

There are 261 weekdays in a year, and there are 260 chapters in the New Testament. By reading one chapter, Monday through Friday, you will read the whole New Testament by the end of the year. The Daily Cup series is to help with that goal.

Happy Studying!

"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup." -- Psalm 16:5

Click here for a pdf of the study schedule - CLICK HERE

If our population is growing at such an expansive rate, why does God let so many more people die spiritually?  He knows the gospel will not reach all those people, so why bring more to the world?

Sincerely,
So Many Lost

Dear So Many Lost,

God gives us the freedom to choose to live or choose to sin; the fact that we all choose to sin is not His fault (Rom 5:12).  Your question comes down to one issue – if God knew that so many people would do bad things, how come we are still to blame?  God knows our days upon this earth, but He also gives us the freewill to shape various aspects of the world that we live in.  Just because God has knowledge of how you and I will behave does not mean that He causes our behavior to happen in a certain way.  Foreknowledge is not the same as causation.  A doctor may know that a patient is going to die of cancer, but that doesn’t mean the doctor gave them cancer.  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, having the wisdom to see that freewill also meant that people would have the freedom to choose bad things, doesn’t mean that He is to blame for our choices.  Furthermore, God didn’t just sit idly with His foreknowledge.  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.  A cure that can be found in the Bible – a book that is available in over 2,400 languages and distributed by the billions across the globe.

5 minutes a day
5 days a week
1 New Testament in a year

There are 261 weekdays in a year, and there are 260 chapters in the New Testament. By reading one chapter, Monday through Friday, you will read the whole New Testament by the end of the year. The Daily Cup series is to help with that goal.

Happy Studying!

"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup." -- Psalm 16:5

Click here for a pdf of the study schedule - CLICK HERE