Suffering

  • Hope in This Broken-Down World by Paul David Tripp

    FROM TABLETALK | December 2011

    Years before I met her, Joan had come to Christ and met and married Henry, a successful, wealthy Christian businessman. They built a mansion in an affluent suburb, had a circle of great Christian friends, and were involved together in …Read More

  • Broken Homes in the Bible by Richard Pratt Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | December 2011

    Unless you live in complete isolation, you have seen a broken home. Maybe it’s the family of a friend or a relative; maybe it’s your own home. Families fall apart in ways that are short-lived and lifelong, hidden …Read More

  • Caregiving: A Cause for Christ by Ken Tada

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2011

    Lots of people agree: I have a beautiful wife. With her ready smile and engaging personality, most people hardly notice her wheelchair. And when they learn that she writes books, travels extensively, and leads a dynamic ministry to people with …Read More

  • Count It All Joy by Scott Devor

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2011

    Just a few days after the death of his wife, Idelette, John Calvin wrote these words expressing the depths of his suffering: “The death of my wife has been exceedingly painful to me … . I have been bereaved of the best …Read More

  • This Isn’t Going to Be As Easy As It Looks by Keith Mathison

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2011

    I have an old newspaper comic strip in my desk that I cut out years ago (Mr. Boffo, for those who are interested in such things). I saved it because I think it’s funny. In the top left corner …Read More

  • A Future So Bright by R.C. Sproul Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2011

    Because we believe it is our due, we are confident that even the darkest clouds have silver linings. When someone dies in old age, we rejoice that he had a long and full life. When someone is taken suddenly, we …Read More

  • A Purpose in the Pain: An Interview with Joni Eareckson Tada by Joni Eareckson Tada

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2011

    Tabletalk: For our readers who are unfamiliar with your story, would you share how you became quadriplegic? Joni Eareckson Tada: For years, I was one of those who insisted, “Handicaps happen to other people, not me.” But all that changed …Read More

  • Where Is Your Hope? by Marva Dawn

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2011

    The story is told that a financially comfortable North American went to visit a mission church that was located in the village dump in a city in Africa. Wondering, he shadowed the pastor for much of the day until he …Read More

  • Loving Our Enemies

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2011

    A Pakistani Christian woman is sentenced to death for defiling the name of Muhammad. A suicide bomber outside a church in Egypt kills twenty-one people and wounds many more. An attack on a church in northern Nigeria by a thirty-strong …Read More

  • What If or If God? by J.R. Vassar

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2011

    I love the Lord of the Rings. I remember sitting in a hotel room in Seattle, Washington, in December of 2003, reading the last book of the trilogy, The Return of the King. I had just spent the previous few …Read More

  • A Pastor’s Reflection by Charles Drew

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2011

    What do you do when the world falls apart? When the planes struck, I was in my office overlooking Columbia University on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, eight miles north of Ground Zero. I listened helplessly to news reports …Read More

  • The Gospel and the Oncology Waiting Room by Mike Pohlman

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2011

    I recently sat with my wife in the waiting room at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. We were there to meet with Dr. Lupe Salazar to receive the results of Julia’s latest PET/CT scans. The goal: to determine …Read More

  • Amazing Love by John Piper

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2011

    The love of Christ for us in His dying was as conscious as His suffering was intentional. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). If He was intentional in laying …Read More

  • Don’t Waste Your Cancer: An Interview with Matt Chandler by Matt Chandler

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2011

    Tabletalk: By way of offering a brief introduction of yourself and your family, when was God’s call to serve His people confirmed for you? Matt Chandler: I think my story is a bit strange in that my awareness of …Read More

  • Christian Exiles by John Piper

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2011

    In a profound sense, this world is not our home. When we are away from our bodies we will be “at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). We are not to be “conformed to this age” (Rom. 12 …Read More