13 tests: lack, suffering, and why hardship happens
- When hardship comes, is God testing me, is it my sin, or demonic opposition?
The hosts work through the article's tests of lack (Deuteronomy 8:2, with 'Jehovah Jireh' called out as a meaningless crowd phrase), arguing lack is relative in America and sometimes just consequence ('men don't work, don't eat'). On suffering they push back: Job's test was mostly between God and Satan, Peter's sifting (Luke 22:31) refines, and whether God causes suffering or permits it matters — one host reads 'God hardened Pharaoh's heart' as Pharaoh's heart being hard anyway. The consensus filter: 'God did allow this,' whatever the cause.
More on Suffering
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Midlife-crisis faith questions: when suffering gets close to home
- Which of God's promises can I count on as mine when people are free to refuse them?
The hosts name the first cluster of midlife-crisis faith questions: when the broken world's weight lands close to home, believers ask whether God is really good even when they cannot see it.
From No. 556 · A Christian Mid-Life Crisis
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Suffering, character, and the weed-whacking analogy
- Is suffering and going through hard things worth the good that comes out of it?
The host engages Emma's core doubt: is suffering worth the good that comes out of it? God isn't buying perseverance by hurting people — human suffering is reality, and he can use it for good; it's more call to repentance than punitive lesson.
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Why people ditch God
- Why do people ditch God?
Reading a Christian Post article by Robin P. Shoemaker, the hosts work through three reasons people leave faith: bad events that wreck a life, bad representatives of the faith, and bad morals that collide with sexual freedom.
From No. 505 · Because of Fussy and Fuzzy
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Temptation four: avoiding suffering and failure — "Dan, let me ask you directly"
- Are you tempted to avoid suffering and failure?
Ben reads the article's fourth temptation — avoiding suffering and failure — and asks Dan directly whether he's tempted by it. Dan and Mike both say no.
From No. 429 · Following the American Jesus