Every year, thousands of children are born with cancer.  They spend their young lives suffrening in agonizing pain...then they die.  Is this part of God's Plan?  If so, does it sound like a "good" plan?
130571
Good question - It always puzzles me that religious people can look at the universe, and see that it looks precisely indistinguishable from how a universe would look if there was no god, and yet they still believe one exists.  More perplexing still, they are quick to credit this supposed omnipotent god with whatever they judge to be good in the world, but are not nearly so quick to blame him for the bad.  That's downright absurd.\n\nNB people here seem to think that all the evil and suffering the world has ever known is a perfectly reasonable penalty for some bloke plucking an apple off a tree 6,000 years ago.  How completely, utterly, breath-takingly stupid.
167619
I think you raise a good question.  I don't think parents would have a child if they thought the child would end up being tortured FOREVER!  I also don't think that God would create children if they risked that!  That is one reason I think the theory of hell is very off-base.
627511
First of all, praying for healing is not going against God's will.  People asked Jesus to heal them, and He did.\n\nGod heals some...and for reasons we don't understand, there are those who pray for healing and are not healed.\n\nSince prayer is encouraged in the bible, and we are taught to "pray without ceasing"....it is IN His will that we pray to Him.  The results of our prayers are up to God...this is how we learn, when things "go our way", or when they "don't go our way"....we need to praise Him, no matter what the outcome.  Because He is perfect, holy, righteous, merciful, forgiving, just.\n\nJob was our perfect example.  The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.  When our prayers are answered (in the way we want) or when they are not answered in the way we want.....He is worthy of our praise.
35642
I was aware that God had a plan for my life as early as 7 years of age. By the time I had reached my teens, I had drifted away from a rather sad and tired church and into sin.\n\nIt was a long slow decline with more troughs than peaks.\n\nTwo marriages, one divorce and a whole load of heart ache later, I have finally come full circle and back where I belong, walking with Jesus.\n\nI am now 47 and born again less than two years. I can look back now and know that God was always with me, as He is with us all. But as I am now wiping away my tears I can testify to knowing the true meaning of regret, for a life untill recently, spent traveling in the wrong direction, away from God.\n\nI now give Him praise knowing that I am back on track and heading home. I am probably on at least revision XY or Z of God's perfect plan for my life. But wherever we are and whatever our condition, He has a plan to get us to where we should be.\n\nDon't let the deceiver, fool you into thinking that you can gamble with your salvation. Don't delay, just come as you are, get right with God and stay that way and be everything that God intends for you and more than you can possibly imagine. It's in your hand, claim it.\n\n2Co 6:1-2\nWe then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. \n(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) \n\nGod Bless you and keep you, in Jesus name
598833
LOL  Yeah, let's all just quit thinking, and god will take care of everything, huh? Reminds me of those super religious people that wouldn't even take their kids to the doctor, because they were going to pray for a miracle. Of course the child died from complications. \n\nIt's funny how religious people will only count on the science that they need, but refute the science that disagrees with their myth.
650718
I definately agree with you.  Other than Jesus was God's son, supposedly, why was his crucifixtion so important...he wasn't the only one that was crucified and tortured.  There is a lot in the Bible that can be scrutinized over and there is always going to be people who believe in different things.  The Christians who were taught that they cannot think anything other than God is God and Jesus is the son of God and that everything happens because God wants it to will never change their mind about it.  I have asked questions like this and people say I am ignorant for asking these questions...I say they are because they don't question anything or think for themselves.  How merciful a God we have that allows molestation and slow painful deaths for innocent children with cancer and AIDS.  I am not sure on the answers for a lot of your questions...I know that I believe there is a God...I do not however believe in Him in the way others do...I believe He is there to watch out over his children like a father does and no ones father is perfect...neither is God.  Everyone has their faults including God.  The Bible was made by man not by God.  It is all mans interpretation of what God told them and maybe that is why we are being punished now is because those people as well did not interpret God's word the way He told them to do so.  You have great questions!  Just believe what you want and what you know inside yourself is right.  There will always be someone who will say you are wrong or whatever...but God made us the way we are...made us have doubts and if you...this is going to sound cheesy...listen to yourself you will know it is God who is putting that belief inside of you.  I have hardly read the Bible by the way...I just believe what is in my heart and what makes sense to me.    I hope all that made sense to you.
224763
Thankyou and as a Christian who got sucked into that thinking once, I whole heartedly agree with you.  \n\nChristians like to think that somehow their generation is the one.  It won't be, you'll die just like your grandparents and their grandparents.  North Americans aren't used to death.\n\nHe'll come when He Wants to come.  No sooner.  And it will be perfect and at a perfect time.
584287
Yes!And for the person that answered that"he wasnt wonderful because he was the person that created child leukemia"I would like to let ya know I have a little girl in my life that has leukemia and she is 7.And if you could meet her just once and listen to how much faith she has in God and how she never gets mad at God for it happening to her,she just tries to give God all the credit when good things come her way,or when she feels good,or when she is in a tough time and all she will ever ask for is for peolpe to pray for her cause thats all she needs ,....THEN YOU WOULD TRUELY KNOW GOD IS WONDERFUL!He is great,in control and makes no mistakes,and gives us no obstacles that he knows we can over  come...gOD Bless you!
607464
I'm sorry for your loss.  The first verse that comes to mind is Ecclesiastes 3:2, a time to be born and a time to die.  I can't say it brings much comfort. Verse 4 says ' a time to mourn and a time to dance.'.\nI found the 23 Psalm to be a comfort when my 16 year old daughter died.\nColossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  \nI was wanting an answer as to why my daughter died, and this was the verse I came to when I opened my Bible.  It has brought me comfort\nAlso, Psalm 139:13 - 16.  All our days are known by God before we are even born.\nI hope these help.  We just passed the 15 year mark on our child's death, and things will get better.  I have always felt that God took on most of the pain when she died; I know that is strange. \nGod bless your family, and also your other son.\nMy daughter was saved,; I think that's what got me through it.
249754
A deep question. The problem of evil. No, I think God mourns with us. This is honestly one of the most difficult questions I've ever faced in my 23 years of knowing Christ. I can't reconcile the idea of a capricious God with the merciful one I experience on a day-to-day basis and in Scripture.\n\nThe best I've understood so far is that God allows us free will, and it's this free will that allows evil to enter in many instances (rapists, murderers, etc). As for suffering, there is some redemptive value in suffering. But I have a hard time facing that redemptive value when I see a loved one suffer from cancer, or when I lost a very very good friend to suicide years ago.\n\nThose most difficult questions I can only respond to with the faith that there is a reason, and remember to be thankful for that which I do have, and to make the most of those days I do have.
236431
What you seem to have missed is the greater point - you're not your own to begin with - He created you, all he asks now is that you recognize that by accepting him and worshipping him - it is not his desire that any should perish - but being good is not what he designed us to do - he designed us to worship - good deeds are results of our worship - not our means of worship.  You are in the midst of spiritual battle and I'm praying that God will give you spiritual rest and a mentor to lead you personally as opposed to this forum. As a parent I raised my son with certain values.  I have entrusted them to him.  It is now up to him to choose to use them.  If he doesn't then there are consequences he will suffer.  Does that take away his ability to choose for himself?  No.  It just means he didn't heed a more learned and wiser, experienced person.  It is a poor analogy, but it was the best I could come up with.
383675
I'm sure God would like to be thanked for sparing someone's life. I would say that too, but I would also say a prayer for the families of the children that did not make it. Having lost a child myself recently I would have been very thankful for her to be alive still.
645936
Some illnesses/medical disorders can ONLY be cured by surgery or a medical intervention. It's not a matter of crossing your fingers and hoping that your child doesn't die. If you are truly religious you would realize that God has given people the ability and intelligence to be physicians for a reason. I think anyone that denies their child medical care for 'religious reasons' should be charged with neglect and attempted murder. There have been way too many cases of children dying from people that have distorted religious beliefs.
649950
Dear Heavenly Father,\n\nI pray that this child of yours be helped through this difficult time.  This looks like a cry for help, and I ask you, God, to help this person get through the trials that have driven this remark.\n\nPlease watch over this soul and keep your child out of harms way.\n\nIn Jesus Name,\nAmen
355110
That people become one mind and realize that war and hatred and evil is not what God and nature intended for humanity.\n\nOn a more personal level, my wish is that my young son 11, has this cancer beat, and that it never rear it's ugly head again, and that we can all find some healing and understanding of why these horrible things have to happen at all.
259820
Yes, and I believe we were directed to be Jesus arms and hands here on earth for our season.  God may not need anything from us, but He sure does use us whenever He wants to, however He wants to, and that is His sovereign right.  We need to be willing vessels, if we want to recieve a blessing thru all the trials and such.\n\nYou can effect people without having a clue you are doing it.  It comes from the example you live out in your life, and if you are following the Lord, it will be for your good and the good of the Kingdom.  We all have had thoughts of what WE want to do for God, but what about what the Lord has planned for us, are we willing and ready to be used, sometimes without even knowing it.  Sometimes used in ways we would not consent to, except for Jesus in our heart.\n\nI have given money, knowing there was little chance to recieve it back, I have taken on care for 2 young boys, I have given up many personal rights, all in God's plan for my life.  There have been many more instances, and so many blessings from my trying to be obedient.  This is not what I thought I would do for God, but He has shown me that to raise my children in His knowledge is more important than whatever plan I thought would be for His glory.\n\nSo in this fallen world, we have to listen to the still small voice, and be obedient to it, even when we don't understand why... it isn't in our mind to know the mind of God. Blessings.
494081
And I cannot imagine that anyone outside true believers can imagine any of these answers help at all. Children die of horrible diseases in the first year of life, why bother if your answer is that they are going to heaven (of which you have no proof), why not just skip the bit on earth?\n\nAnd the sickest thing is that Christians will say its because someone else has sinned, even the most blind human knows you do not punish someone, particularly the most helpless, because of someone elses transgression.