During the weekend, a new funeral procession arrives every 15 or 20 minutes. On one day, 52 people are buried; 43 of them were between the ages of 19 and 50. Most are Africa’s latest victims of AIDS.

I highly recommend David Augsburger’s The Freedom of Forgiveness. Also, Philip Yancy’s What’s So Amazing about Grace?, which shows us how God’s forgiveness of us should result in our forgiveness of others. 

Q&A: Randy Alcorn and Pastor Greg Laurie at Harvest Christian Fellowship discuss the question,"Why is there suffering in the world today?"

I am a pastor in Mississippi. Six years ago today our son was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. I tell people often that if it was not for that sickness in my child I never would have discovered what it means to have an eternal perspective. If God is Good means the world to my wife and I. —C.A.

Ways to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ.

Some crises turn out well. The loved one recovers from the accident, the son comes to Christ, the daughter comes home. We may clearly see God’s hand in allowing the whole ordeal to happen. Other times the crisis ends in apparent tragedy.

Sunday morning, March 7, I was with Greg Laurie and Harvest Fellowship in Riverside, California. Greg interviewed me about Heaven, and evil and suffering, and we opened the Word together. We did something similar last Thursday night in Orange County.

To ignore someone’s pain is to add to that pain. Instead of fearing we’ll say the wrong thing, we should reach out to hurting people. Many times it’s better just to put our arms around someone and cry with them; people almost always appreciate it when you acknowledge their loss. 

This world is the closest thing to heaven unbelievers will ever experience, and the closest thing to hell believers will ever know.