{"id":3498,"date":"2013-10-16T13:53:46","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T13:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=3498"},"modified":"2013-10-16T13:53:46","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T13:53:46","slug":"reading-suffering-and-the-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/3498\/reading-suffering-and-the-saints\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading “Suffering and the Saints”"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.goingtojesus.com\/site\/php\/suffering.html<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

I loved the reading tonight. Reading about Creation and God’s power in creating everything always does something in me. It causes me to slow down and consider. It is sad to think that some, as you said, never discover that simple, but essential truth that the only reason for our existence is because God chose for us to be, and they miss out on understanding His goodness.<\/span>
\nThis reading came just in time, I think for me. It is easy for me to allow worry and doubt to creep in when I don’t see the end result of something that is troubling me, but when I stop to pay attention to God’s creation and His purposeful-ness, I can only rest and trust in His intent in everything.<\/span>
\nI liked the statement, “There is comfort available to us in the knowledge that God created man well and happy on purpose.”<\/span><\/p>\n

When I mentioned the experience a number of us had on the mountain with the lightning bugs, my mom reminded me of a poem I wrote in high school. It was a poem titled, “Where I’m From” about experiences in my life that had shaped me. One stanza read:<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m from the lost venture up the dark, tangled mountain,<\/span>
\nTo the enchanting forest of glittering lightning bugs,<\/span>
\nWith their slowly ascending flicker,<\/span>
\nMore luminescent than the stars in the night sky.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That beautiful display of God’s choreography of His creation is one I will never forget.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Anna<\/span>
\n===============<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, Anna, that was a very special night. It was as if we were standing in the middle of a Snow Globe that had just been shaken. Thousands of lighting bugs around us and above us in the pitch darkness! And the new music playing from the CD player in the car. Will there ever be another night like that one? I am glad there was a traffic jam that evening at that spot in the mountains, and we just decided to take off through the hills to get around it. What an adventure on that lonely gravel road.<\/span><\/em>
\nGod made that traffic jam for us that evening. You know that, don’t you?<\/span><\/em>
\nGod is good! And His mercy endureth forever!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.goingtojesus.com\/site\/php\/suffering.html Pastor John, I loved the reading tonight. Reading about Creation and God’s power in creating everything always does something in me. It causes me to slow down and consider. It is sad to think that some, as you said, never discover that simple, but essential truth that the only reason for our existence is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}