Father's Love Letter

For all those who don't have a dad or who's dad was absent this is for you:

That's a little overly sentimentalised for me but is there anything in that section of Psalms 139 that couldn't have been written by the people of the late Bronze Age, reflecting their mythological beliefs?

Was that the same love letter he sent the children of Egypt?

Absolutely.  In fact, Joseph and his family gained great favour with Pharaoh who humbled himself in Joseph's day and gave glory to the God of Israel.  And Egypt was blessed during the time of Jacob and Joseph in Egypt.  All Egyptians had access to the Holy Scriptures.  As promised, the seed of Abraham blessed the nations.  Understand this though... during the time of Moses and his people (much later), the governing Pharaoh was wicked and enslaved the people of Israel.  He also refused to let them go even though God gave them many repeated warnings and opportunities to do the right thing.  Thus they were punished.   

I think Minitak probably has the death of the first-born in mind but that aside, this ever so caring 'God' of yours supposedly still permits considerable suffering of the innocent to this day. I find it impossible to reconcile all the medical problems that afflict young children with any model of an omnipotent & compassionate deity.

Any non-regenerate person would find it hard to reconcile but once we realize that we are in the hands of a loving God, suffering in this temporary life matters very little compared with the extraordinary future plans he has for us.

And yet for all your pious claim of "suffering in this temporary life matters very little", I strongly suspect that if your own young & innocent child was afflicted with some tormenting disease, his or her suffering would start to matter to you very much?

Otherwise, some people might wonder what kind of parent you were.

They have many challenges that we need to percevere with but hey... that's life.

You're not answering the question!

It matters but in light of the awesome future in store for us, whatever affliction and suffering comes our way is very tolerable.

Even for the very youngest of children? O/k, it's clear where you stand now.

I don't lack compassion.  That is demonstrated by my actions in life.  However, I don't dwell on suffering.  As Jesus said there will always be poor and suffering people in the world... that is a fact we cannot change.  It's important to influence positively what we can change.   

And now you're changing the subject! This isn't about our (mankind's) ability to alleviate suffering but about the ability of your supposed omnipotent deity to alleviate suffering.

Being omnipotent means that nothing is beyond your power, so the suffering of anyone, particularly the most innocent, should be able to be alleviated with ease.

* I hope you don't lack compassion but some of your comments above seem a little insensitive?

Knowing how self-centered and selfish most of us are, suffering gets us to refocus ourselves to what's important in life.  Without it, I'm afraid there would be little love and compassion in the world.  As it is, most of us have a look out for number one attitude.  Imagine if we thought of others as better than ourselves.  The only reason we do anything for anyone is because we need to due to their circumstances.  If their circumstances were perfect, we would have no need to do anything for anyone... no need to serve, to give, to comfort, to work hard for.  

Helping others who are more in need than we are is, I hope you would agree SoulMate, independent of religion.

My personal experience is that nothing is independent of God. 

Alright, I respect your view there. But what I really meant was: you don't have to be a religious believer to be concerned about helping other people.

You're right there (though I hate the word religious).

So a young child dying miserably of some terminal disease needs to be made to 'refocus' do they? That's all cleared up then.

I've noticed Stephen that you tend to twist things a lot.  Stephen, do you have kids of your own?  I have some experience with my own kids challenges and indeed it has a profound effect on everyone around them.  When kids struggle, it cuts to the heart.  The rude and selfish kids are much more often those whose biggest worry is the next video game they're going to play.