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Hello everybody, my name is Colin. I'm with Lithia Ministries and we will be doing the

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second podcast today. Forgive me if I sound kind of sick, I'm still kind of getting over

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a cold. It's been about a month since we did the last podcast. We're still shooting for

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a podcast out every week. So bear with us while we get that schedule down and still

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kind of are getting in the swing of things. Today I wanted to talk about the topic of

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suffering in the Bible. This is a topic that I know is very near and dear. It's going to

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be not the right way to put it, but very impactful and important to many people's lives, including

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my own. Us as Christians look for solace in the Bible. The topic of suffering is one that

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many Christians throughout, well, many religious people, even go back to the Israelites, have

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struggled with and understanding with. Suffering is even one of the biggest reasons that people

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will give that argue for the non-existence of a loving and caring God. So for all those

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reasons I wanted to touch on this subject and obviously we could go hours and hours

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for this, but I found a few verses today that I wanted to touch on that are kind of similar

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to each other, the overall topic of suffering, but also kind of touch on three different

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aspects that I think do a good job of overall encompassing suffering. So our first verse

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today, once again I will be using the King James version of the Bible. It is my understanding

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that we haven't gotten the podcast on YouTube yet. I think we're doing Spotify and I think

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we're maybe doing one other place. I don't remember what though. I had previously mentioned

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a podcast so I'll leave it in the comments if we want to use a different version. I don't

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think Spotify has comments, but we'll talk it out, us here at Alithea, for a way to get

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communication going with the people listening to the podcast. We might decide to set up

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people or set up the email or just not set it up, just put that out in the public domain

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so that people can email us, share thoughts, and if we get some feedback saying what version

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of the Bible. But again we did King James version last time and King James version of

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the Bible is obviously very impactful to history so I just like using that. So starting today

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we're going to read from Romans 5 verse 3 and 4. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations

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also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope.

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This is Romans chapter 5 verses 3 and 4. So the topic or the understanding of this is

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something that we hear a lot. That suffering kind of gives you a deeper understanding of

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life and kind of gives you a different perspective. The idea that your tribulations worketh your

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patience. Sorry, when I read it I always want to say worketh. But that going through suffering

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you are developing your patience. You truly do get a very different understanding and

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perspective of life when you go through something specifically traumatic. It almost feels like

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the quote unquote mundane things of life. Not that they're not important anymore, but

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that they don't weigh on you as heavily. And I don't like using the word mundane, just

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every day is the day that the Lord was made. But we're going to use that word. I can't

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think of a better word to use. But going to work, making meals for yourself, spending

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time with your family, that really racks anxiety in a lot of people. I think I just saw a poll

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a couple days ago saying that a lot of people in my generation, Gen Z, have panic attacks

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by just the idea of having a phone call with someone. And that's very, it's just crazy

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to think about just talking with someone for the five minutes for a phone call. It gives

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people anxiety attacks. Just wanted to use that as an example again. Working at your

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patients, you really, again, just putting things in perspective, it's just a phone call.

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But again, if you don't have that patience, if you don't have that perspective of a phone

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call, you get the idea of a lot of people, you see a lot of people online talking about

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overthinking, that phone call, you've really spiraled in your head. And then continuing

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the verse that patience works experience, a little bit of the same idea of that understanding

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just, you know, the experience in this verse is really just patience over time. You're

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growing in patience, and then you are experiencing the growth in your patience. So I'm not going

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to reiterate a lot of things I just said. But again, just the idea of having that perspective,

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you not only have you kind of seen that, again, quote unquote mundane things of life, or of

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life, they're not going to weigh on you as heavily. And then as you go through life,

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seeing those things not weigh on you so much that is your experience. All of a sudden you're

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looking at things and you know, all of a sudden 10 years go by and you're like, Whoa, I really

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got worked up about high school, about, you know, being the cool kid and wanting people

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to like me in high school. And now you find that very silly. And you look back on it like,

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wow, I was that kind of person. And wrapping up the verse experience works hope. And hope

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is a very deep theological virtue. We kind of touched on that in the last podcast with

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the joy. Hope is very important to us as Christians. We have hope in Jesus resurrection, we have

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hope that we have hope in life everlasting. We have hope that Jesus is going to come back

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to judge the living and the dead. So hope is a very deep theological virtue. And we

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could, again, just go on for hours about that. But keeping it short, I wanted to, that's

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Romans just want to touch on patience, experience and hope. Our next verse, second Corinthians

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chapter one, verses three and four. Blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus

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Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our tribulation

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that we may be to comfort them which are in any trouble, but the comfort wherewith ourselves

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are comforted of God. Once again, this is, I don't want to say a stereotype, but again,

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it's something you hear a lot. When you're going through stuff in your life, people will

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say, oh, you've gone through this, you will be able to better help people in the future

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who are going through that. I know I myself, whenever I was going through things, my mom

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would always tell me that God was allowing me to go through this so that I could one

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day help people going through the things that I would struggle with and still am struggling

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with. And I think that's a very comforting thought, at least in my experience. A lot

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of people I know, I think, find that a very comforting thought. People like to attach

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significance to what's going on in their lives, even if it's a very, very negative thing.

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And it can be very tough to just sit in your pain and your suffering and truly wallow in

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it. I think that's never going to end. And again, if you don't have that perspective

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going back to Romans, that can really hurt. That can really hurt you to your heart. But

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God promises us that he comforts us in our suffering. And again, I read verse four again,

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who comfort us in our tribulation, referring to God, that we may be able to comfort them,

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which are in any trouble. The them is your fellow man, your neighbor. By the comfort

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wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. You almost get this imagery of a feedback

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loop. God comforts you, where then you comfort others, and then through your comforting of

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others, you are comforted of God, the promise that God makes to us. So I thought that was

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a very beautiful verse. And again, that's something that we hear a lot in our modern

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culture and from people very close to us is that our suffering, God allows us to go through

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it so that we make comfort those around us. And our last verse is Romans 8, 18. For I

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reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the

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glory which shall be revealed in us. And again, like I had mentioned earlier on, these verses

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are kind of similar, but I feel I just want to touch on a couple of different aspects

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of this. This Romans verse, kind of similar to Corinthians, again, well, and also the

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Romans verse, we're getting that idea of perspective again, that the sufferings of the right now,

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how insignificant it is when in the face of God and the heavens and our life eternal.

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You will a lot of times hear theologians talk about how our life on earth, the 80, 75, 80

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years, I think is the lifespan right now, that however long we live on earth is a minuscule

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speck of our entire lives we will spend in heaven. And again, I think that's just a comforting

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thought, a very comforting thought when you're sitting in your suffering. And when tied to

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Corinthians, it's kind of hard to tell people when they're in it. You hear this a lot, it'll

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get better down the road, light at the end of the tunnel kind of idea. And you can only

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hear that so many times before you're like, okay, well, I'm waiting. So that's kind of

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what this Romans verse is, the light at the end of the tunnel. And that's why I wanted

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to read that one last, I just wanted to put that in perspective with the other two where,

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again, you are gaining that perspective while you are still in the tunnel waiting for the

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light at the end, what can you do in the here and now? And just, I just also wanted to read

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the Romans verse again, because we, I feel like we as Christians don't, not that we don't

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think about our lives in heaven, but I don't think we have like that understanding, or

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maybe I'm just projecting here, but I don't know. Just, I really feel like we as Christians

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don't spend enough time thinking about the lives and rejoicing that we will have in heaven

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when we get to sit face to face with God and the angels. Beautiful, that's what I'm looking

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for. Symbolism. I'm reminded of a sermon a few years ago. The pastor was saying how when

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we get to heaven, there won't be, it's not going to be the case that there's going to

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be no more church services. There will be an idea of church services, but we will actually

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be worshiping God with the angels. And I just think that's, what a beautiful thought that

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is. That brings me to tears. Worshiping alongside the angels. And this is probably just me nerding

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out right now. You guys are thinking, Colin, okay, worshiping with the angels. Okay, cool.

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I just think that's a beautiful idea. But anyway, coming back to the topic at hand,

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those are the three verses I wanted to read on suffering. Again, I could spend hours talking

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about this. I didn't want to spend too much time talking about my own experience of suffering

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because everyone understands what suffering is like unless you are a newborn. If you've

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gone through life, you understand suffering. So I think I'm going to wrap it up here. I

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feel like I'm forgetting something, but I mean, I read the three verses. I covered everything

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I wanted to talk about. So I'm going to wrap it up here. Again, thank you guys for your

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patience. I'm still getting used to getting down the idea of recording the podcast. We're

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still aiming for that. Once every Sunday, we're going to get them out. I'm going to

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try and record a few podcasts in bulk just so that if I get sick again or anything happens,

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we've got those ready. We can still get those out once every Sunday. I actually don't want

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to say Sunday because I think we might actually not be doing that. So it might be Saturday

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or whenever we have time to get those uploaded. But once a week, I'll stick to that until

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we get an actual firm schedule down. Once a week podcasts going. So thank you guys for

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listening. I will mention at our next meeting the idea of setting up an email or even the

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email that we use for the podcast just so that you guys can write in, give us your feedback.

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Feedback would be much appreciated if you guys have the time. So I think that's everything

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I wanted to mention. Have a very blessed day, guys.