[garadinervi]

Galileo Galilei, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze attenenti alla mecanica e i movimenti locali, Elzevier Press, Leida, 1638

[simena]

Rüfenacht (XX. Jhdt.)

[moved-to-theundergroundwoman]

'The Madonna of the Roses' and 'The Madonna of Pietà' by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

[lovesickbrat]

[but-iamacreep-deactivated202101]

[neveryourtime]

[queenlucythevaliant]

I get so tired of people saying that the Bible doesn’t give us an answer to question of suffering. This is, in my estimation, one of the most damaging messages of the modern American church. I hear it from so many pastors, even good ones. It’s all over Christian media. “We don’t know why God allows suffering.” Bullshit.

God is sovereign and we are not. Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

Suffering exists because sin exists. God allows the world to persist in the tension between redemption and extant sin so that more might be saved. Not one of His sheep will be missing.

Man is born for trouble. Nails are made for pounding. We were made to be pounded into the shape of Christ.

Pain exposes out true hearts. Often, suffering kills the god we thought were worshipping and reveals to us the truth of who God really is.

God ordains our suffering, and if we believe that He is good, we must also believe that He will not allow us to suffer needlessly.

God will allow evil only to the degree that it brings about the very opposite of what it intends.

We are only a small part of redemptive history. Perhaps it’s true that nothing good will come to the sufferer out of his suffering, but if that’s the case, immense good will be produced elsewhere in ways that are beyond the sufferer’s ability to see.

Suffering is an integral part of God’s redemptive story. It is through suffering, not in spite of it, that God choses to extend His reign and rule to the world.  

Jesus took on a real, human body and carried not just our sin, but all our suffering to the cross. “He himself bore our sickness and he carried our pains.” He has suffered with us and for us to the last spasm.

Faithfulness requires bearing pain in bodies meant for love, just as Christ did. When we suffer faithfully, we are powerful witnesses to God’s faithfulness and love.

Scripture is not silent on the subject of why we suffer. We have answers! Stop saying that we don’t know why we suffer. We do! The church is so very wrong to propagate the idea that it’s just a mystery. Our specific suffering may be mysterious to us, but suffering writ large is very much not. Truer and deeper answers are yet to be revealed, but the profound and compelling answers that Scripture provides are not to be ignored.

[simena]

ROLF HALLENGREN

[simena]

ROALD HANSEN

[simena]

Thomas A. DeDecker - Springtime

[simena]

Frederik Jacobus van Rossum du Chattel

[flowergirltree]

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

2 Timothy 22-26, KJV

[flowergirltree]

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Ephesians 6:12, KJV

[beguines]

Thus I was heir to futile moons, and wretched nights were allotted to me. Lying down, I thought, When shall I rise?— Each evening, I was sated with tossing till dawn. My flesh was clothed with worms and earth-clods, my skin rippled with running sores. My days are swifter than the weaver's shuttle. They snap off without any hope. Recall that my life is a breath. Not again will my eyes see good. The eye of who sees me will not make me out. Your eyes are on me—I am gone. A cloud vanishes and goes off.

Job 7:3-9, trans. Robert Alter

[peirokalos]

“Be generous to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. In a word, as God’s dear children, try to be like him, and live in love as Christ loved you, and gave himself up on your behalf as an offering and sacrifice whose fragrance is pleasing to God.”

— Ephesians 4.32-5.2, NEB. (via gladheartperpetualfeast)

[fruitpilled-peachcel]

I love stories of pagan converts to Christianity during the Dark Ages because most often these warrior kings and chieftains would listen to the story of Christ's crucifixion and without missing a beat they'd be like "If I was there with my boys we would've saved him."

Hes a little confused but hes got the spirit

[fruitpilled-peachcel]

[loveletters2myself]

gorgeous gorgeous girls are extremely selective about what touches their bodies. this includes beauty products, soaps, lotions, oils, and men.