Why does life hurt so much?

It’s our aim in this article to address some of the questions that people ask in life and to discover what the Word of God (the Bible) has to say about it. We place real confidence in the Bible because we have become convinced that the Bible is God’s communication to men and women and we wish people to benefit from what God has said.

I’m sure that most would agree that life hurts! That hurt can be caused by the normal progression from youth to old age and all the problems that come with ageing. Sickness also brings its heartaches! Natural disasters are devastating and destructive! To say nothing of the dreadful treatment that people endure at the hands of their fellow man. War and acts of terror produce unimaginable horrors. I’m sure that at times we all question why life is such a difficult and a hurtful experience.

Is there an appropriate response to this? The first thing I’d like to say is that “it's not personal”. What I mean is that we are not usually suffering as individuals because of something specific we have done. Before I go any further let me qualify that statement.  There are times in life when we do reap what we sow. There actually are consequences to our actions! But all the awful things that happen in the world are not usually the direct result of our personal actions.

My main thought when I say it’s not personal is this: ;people don’t die as a result of some sinful thing that they have done; old age doesn’t come because you did something wrong. The fact that we die, that we have sickness, that we grow old is explained to us in the Bible. The bible states that all of these conditions and circumstances exist because sin came into the world. As a result of Adam, the first man in the world, disobeying God the floodgates to all that was evil and damaging were opened. The fact that all of this is the result of the first man’s rebellion to God is explained by the biblical statement “by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin”,; Romans 5:12.

The Bible clearly teaches that God gave man a choice:

Obey Him,

Enjoy His presence,

Enjoy all that He created for him….

But, there is a but, God warned him that the day he ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he would die. And that is what happened! Adam didn’t die physically but he died as far as his relationship with God was concerned. He was dead spiritually. Sin, death, pain and suffering became the normal experience of life. He had to work by the sweat of his brow for everything. Childbirth became a painful experience for the woman and the earth was cursed. So life hurts as a result; a fact that we know only too well.

However, what is quite incredible about the biblical story of salvation is that God had already a plan in place. God’s plan to provide forgiveness and to offer salvation to men and women was devised long before time began, 1 Peter 1: 19,20.

God had always planned to send His ‘Son to be the Saviour of the world’. He made sure in the writings of the Old Testament, the first half of the Bible, that we would know Him when he visited earth. In the Old Testament, God told the prophets how to identify His Son. There were specific facts such as what family He would be born into, His distinctive and sinless lifestyle and His mode of death. Normally how people will die is an unknown fact but God was making a point in defining how Jesus would die in advance (see Psalm 22:16, Zechariah 12:10, Luke 2: 34,35 – all of these passages of scripture speak of crucifixion which at the time was unknown and of the piercing of the hands and feet of the Lord Jesus). All of this information was so that when He came we would know Him.

To me the greatest and most amazing thing about this whole thing is that God came to earth in person. He was a real but sinless man. He suffered, He hurt and He endured death to pay for our sin. God wants us to be forgiven therefore the price and the legal penalty for our sin was dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ when He died upon the cross.

The Bible explains it like this:  “Christ died for our sins.”, 1 Corinthians 15:3, “He was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”, Isaiah 53:3.

Today God offers us not hurt but forgiveness;

Today God offers us love.

The Bible tells us, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, John 3:16. The greatest proof of the love of God is that, “God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, Romans 5:8.

I want to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, if you pray to God, today, confessing your sins He will forgive you.

I trust that you will do this.

May God bless you!

This blog is written by Stephen at

The World is heading for Utter Chaos

My studies in the gospel of Matthew have taken me to chapter twenty four where the Lord Jesus talks to His disciples about future events on God's agenda. For me, it has reinforced the reality of what is known by Christians as the 'Rapture'. Therefore I feel a need to apologise in advance if    the following happens:

• to my employer, colleagues and patients for either not appearing at work one day, or disappearing during the course of my duties;
• to those hurt, and for the damage done in the event of my car swerving off the road because no-one is at the wheel;
• for the fire caused in my house in the event of suddenly stopping watching the dinner cooking on the gas hob;
• to the electricity and gas companies for not paying the bills I run up whilst leaving utilities       running unattended indefinitely;
• to the people I may suddenly disappear from mid conversation in a very abrupt fashion;
• my pets left abandoned;
• the unlocked door of my home; Feel free to walk in and take anything     you want. We don't need it any more.

Mind you, I don't think anyone will particularly notice my failings, as the world will be in utter       chaos. 

Planes will have crashed, 

trains come off the rails, 

multiple car crashes will have taken place, 

fires will rage, 

operations will cease, 

wards will empty, 

staff will disappear, 

pupils will be abandoned, 

shops will be unmanned, 

houses empty, 

doors open, 

dogs running wild, 

people will be scared... really, really scared.

The day the Lord Jesus comes to gather up all those on earth who are indwelt by His Holy Spirit to be with Him in heaven (1 Thess, 4. 16-17), is the day that God's agenda becomes visible       again. It is the sign that He is about to intervene and has therefore sent His Son into the skies to  call up those who trust in Him so they don't go through the awful tribulation and judgment assigned to those who reject His forgiveness. 

I won't be left behind, will you?

Written by a guest blogger (please note the chaos in the article - we can write we just want to make a point!)

Global Warning

In 2008 the warning lights were flashing regarding a global economic meltdown. Big players in the financial market such as Lehman’s felt the full impact of the crash, filing the biggest bankruptcy in American History. People like Bernard Madoff and his Ponzi scheme were ruined as Stock Markets fell exposing the greatest fraud in American history. Wikipedia quotes ‘On December 10, 2008, he suggested to his sons, Mark and Andrew, that the firm pay out over 170 million dollars in bonuses two months ahead of schedule, from $200 million in assets that the firm still had.^[12] According to the complaint, Mark and Andrew, reportedly unaware of the firm's pending insolvency, confronted their father, asking him how the firm could pay bonuses to employees if it could not pay investors. Madoff then admitted that he was "finished", and that the asset management arm of the firm was in fact a Ponzi scheme. Mark and Andrew then reported him to the authorities.’ The authorities found him guilty and sent him to prison for 150 years and to pay $170 billion in restitution money. Warnings were ignored in the Banking world resulting in major Banks failing and national ecconomies floundering, calling for large bailout funds from the IMF. This mis-management has resulted in higher taxation and unemployment for many people.

Global Warming is another con to extract more money from the world’s populace, to service hairbrain schemes of politicians and scientists to control the enviroment. When will these folk acknowledge that the future well being of planet earth is in God’s hands and not mans’. Hebrews 1:3 says of Christ, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Evolutionists are mainly atheists so do not believe that God is in control. We have just celebrated Christmas, but many people do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, or the fact that God became incarnate when Christ was born at Bethlehem. All of us are free to believe whatever we choose and as the choice is not a complicated multi-choice option but a straight forward either/or choice. I have long since realised that the choice to believe in the ‘Big Bang’ theory is not an intellectual choice but a moral choice. How anyone can believe that order came out of chaos by random selection (or chance), they need to get back to the drawing board to examine the blueprint again. Darwin used the expression, ‘the simple cell ’, which was a gross underestimation of the complexity of the building block of life. Our DNA chain is such a wonderful mechanism to maintain our bodies, with self repair functions built in and personal physical identifyable features, exclusively ours, yet carried from generation to generation. People do not want to acknowledge God as creator because it places them accountable to Him, so in the words of Romans 1:20, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

Before the Saviour went to the cross He was in the Temple at Jerusalem with His disciples, and they were marveling at the magnificent structure. He said to them, “See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” He warned them of what would happen in AD70 when Titus destroyed the Temple and raised it to the ground. They then proceeded to the Mount of Olives and Christ answered their questions, “When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

The Olivet Discourse is an outline of coming events that point to the return of the Lord to earth to establish His thousand-year reign, commonly known as the Millennial Kingdom. He told them warnings that are global in affect, things that affect the universe, the atmospheric heavens, the earth and its nations, earthquakes and famines etc. These are not going to be brought about by global warming, but are global warnings, the preludes of coming judgement culminating in the Great Tribulation, Matt.24:21 reads, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Noah’s flood is mentioned in the chapter, reminding them of social conditions of that day, which will be present, prior to, and through that seven-year period. Three verses warn of individuals opposed to God, v.5 says, “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” Then in v.11 “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many,” and v.15 “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” These quotes point to the arising of a person who is described under different names. He is the ‘man of sin’ of 2Thess. 2:3, the ‘beast out of the sea’ in Revelation 13. This person will take control of the world’s finances, pointing to a world bank where no one can buy or sell without his mark upon their person. He also will propagate the lie that the natural disasters taking place, prophesied in Revelation ch’s 6 to 19 are the consequences of global warming, and not the foretold judgements of God.

The gospel message can produce global warming of a different kind. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Believing and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as one’s Saviour brings warmth that cannot be equaled, the Love of God resident in one’s life. Contrasted to that is the ultimate in global warnings, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” To refuse Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour is the greatest folly, because that soul will spend eternity in Hell. A final warning from the Mount of Olives for you to heed, “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

Written by Stan Burditt for Stephen Baker