Just finished MANHUNT, by Peter Maas. The book records the amazing attempt to capture and convict a former CIA operative named Edwin Wilson who was guilty of providing arms to America's enemies and using his government contacts to make profits illegally. It's a great book, as I am prone to say since I'm a sucker for spy books!

The book was originally published in 1986 and I found the closing paragraph in the "author's note" section to be really interesting. Check it out:

"And a particluar thank you to John-Michael Maas, who unraveled the mysteries of the IBM computer used to write this book. I'm not sure if the computer is the greatest invention since the wheel. I have do doubt, though, that it is the most revolutionary turn in the history of father-and-teenage-son relations."

The Theology Blog (Always A Favorite)

If you happened to have checked out David's blog today, you'd read about an afternoon planning meeting we were a part of earlier in the day.

In September, we'll be starting a new sermon series that's tentatively entitled "God 101." It's actually a sermon series in the book of Job, but our pastor is really striving to dig into Job as a means to learn and know certain characteristics of God. The hope is that it might be engaging for those in our crowd who are spiritually mature as well as for those who are still sorta "checking this out." I think the God 101 idea will also help us to build some interest that might not occur if we were to say, "Uh, yeah...we're, uh, talking about Job."

So far, the service planning is coming along great. We're really playing with/messing with the first thirty minutes of each of these services to prepare our people for the Word by some real intentional thematic planning. (Always a challenge for a contemporary worship dude, gang!)

Okay, there's the setup. But the real reason for this post is to see where a bunch of you land on one particular contested issue that's prominent in the book of Job: suffering.

It happened quite innocently - I was talking and used a phrase that included "God tested..." which prompted a pretty quick response from our associate pastor (my boss and the dude preaching this series!)

Essentially, he and I were landing on different sides on this issue of suffering.

I stated that I believe that the book of Job seems pretty clear as to God having a very definite REASON for allowing Satan to have his way with Job. God pretty much brags on Job..."Hey, have you seen my boy, Job? He's awesome." (Paraphrase mine.) While I'm not ready to build a theology on the idea that all suffering is a "test" of God, I think we see a pretty clear picture of God having some sort of agenda here - some reason, some goal in the amazing trouble that came to Job.

Our associate pastor leans toward the view that bad stuff (disease, hardship, etc.) is a natural product of the Fall; that because of Adam and Eve, things are messed up...therefore life is hard and...well, junk happens.

I see his point and I agree with him to an extent, although I'm not sure that this is a fair representation of what's going on in Job.

So, my deep and eloquent brothers - in dealing with Job ( a weird book to be sure,) where do you stand? God having an agenda or God allowing the Fall's consequence to run its course? I'm still thinking on it and most of you tend to pretty smart in the things of God. Let your voice be heard!

This oughta' be good....