People have debated the cause and purpose of suffering for centuries. Job is the person most associated with this struggle to discover why.
The book of Job is about 4 miserable friends who visit Job to be of some comfort to him. Instead they only add to his pain. “Stop assuming my guilt,” he told them. “….for I have done no wrong,” Job 6:29.
The question of suffering is never solved. No one has ever been able to say categorically that this or that is the reason suffering occurs. The best answers are simply a well-educated guess based on the character of God and the evil of our world. That said, I believe that suffering arises from the choices that human beings make in the exercise of their free will.
Continue reading Guilt by Catastrophe
No picture captures the grandeur and size of it. It dwarfs those standing in line for lift tickets, making them look like ants from the perspective of the top observation deck. Even the 605 foot Seattle Space Needle looks like a shrimpy cousin compared to the Eiffel Tower at 1,063 feet.
Across Embarcadero from the Ferry Building there is a phalanx of flea market booths staffed with people who want to tell you why their product is superior quality or designed just for you. They sell liquor bottles smashed into small platters designed to hang on your wall or hold a messy spoon used to stir a pot.
A well known national religious figure was filmed recently at one of a series of meetings he is conducting to increase turnout in the conservative Christian voting block. He said he is not promoting a candidate; he just wants more people to cast a ballot. 
MonoLogue started in 2005 as a way of letting friends and family follow our new venture – a pretty simple goal. But the thing we describe and participate in today in 2016 is decidedly different from what we described in 2005. As the adage says, “Time and tide wait for no man.” Merced is a different city than it was in 2005. What was our new church in 2005 is now a church of deeper relationships, greater spiritual insights, and more well-defined commitment to Jesus. And MonoLogue thinks differently than it did in 2005. 
MonoLogue 