Making Sense of Suffering

While I'm looking at Reinke, he has links to D. A. Carson's messages on "Making Sense of Suffering."

Making Sense of Suffering - Part 1

Making Sense of Suffering - Part 2

Making Sense of Suffering - Part 3

Making Sense of Suffering - Part 4 (Gospel Reflections on Trials and Tribulations)

Three-Dollar Gospel

Ray Van Neste has this satirical quote from D. A. Carson's Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians:

Enjoy...and be convicted...

“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please.”