Our Affliction His Grace:

How should Christians respond to the suffering on this fallen planet? How should we react to pain in our own lives? How do we minister to the hurting all around us with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? How do we answer to the problem of evil and suffering before a culture of skeptics? How does the church mobilize itself with compassion before the needs of our communities? How does the cross bring peace in the midst of heartbreak? Can we reconcile God’s Grace and our affliction? Where is God when we hurt?
Without Christ there is no satisfactory answer to any of these questions. The dilemma of suffering is a preeminent point of contact with the culture. No human being is immune. Recently, much of contemporary evangelicalism has begun to awaken to the vast needs around it and the amazing opportunity to set the Gospel down in it. We have been sobered by the suffering around the world.

Since suffering occurs on innumerable levels (physical, emotional, social, etc.) there is no end to the ways in which Christians can show compassion. Divorce, sexual assault, financial ruin, chronic pain, disease, mental disorders, handicaps, homelessness, hunger, poverty, addiction, pornography, depression, loneliness, post traumatic stress are all part of the same mosaic of sin’s effects. It all comes from the same root. It’s all restored by the same promise. We are all afflicted, but grace is all- sufficient. Our Lord’s own suffering fills the silence of pain.

Renew 2012 is a small but sincere effort to push the light of his mercy a little deeper into the darkness. Some dear friends have agreed to join us to help make this a special time. Dr. D.A. Carson, Joni Eareckson Tada and Tullian Tchividjian will be lending their voices to this moment of mercy.