DOES GOD EXIST?



 Note by Belinda:
Jane, our cell group study leader, sent this forwarded email, with the subject title, "Holy Conversation," which is the topic we are studying. I had to share!


   This   is one of the best explanations on the
nature of God that I have ever seen... 


A man went to a barbershop to have his hair
cut and his beard trimmed. As  the barber began
to work, they began to have a good  conversation.
They talked about so many things and various subjects.

When they eventually touched on the subject of God,
the  barber said: 'I don't believe that God exists.'    


'Why do you say that?' asked the customer.
'Well, you just have to go out in the street to
realize that God doesn't exist. 
Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many
sick people? Would there be abandoned children?
   
If God existed, there would be neither
suffering nor pain. 
I can't imagine a loving God who would
allow all of these things.' 
The customer thought for a moment, but
didn't respond because he didn't want to
start an argument.

The barber finished his job and the customer
left the  shop.  

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a
man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair
and an  untrimmed   beard. 
He looked dirty and unkempt.The customer
turned back and entered the barbershop again
and he said to the barber: 
'You know what? Barbers do not exist.' 

'How can you say that?' asked the surprised
barber. 'I am here, and I am a barber. And I
just worked on you!'

'No!' the customer exclaimed. 'Barbers don't
exist because if they did, there would be no
people with dirty long hair and untrimmed
beards, like that man outside.'

'Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens
when  people do not come to me.' 
'Exactly!' affirmed the customer. 'That's the
point! God, too, DOES exist! That's what
happens when people do not go to Him and don't
look to Him for help.  
That's why there's so much pain and suffering in
the world.'
BE BLESSED &
BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS!  

Comments

Anonymous said…
The first time I read this I thought, "I must memorize this wee story - would be a good way to share the existance of God and address the song and dance that goes with those that don't believe - wars, famine, etc." Then I read it through again - and changed my mind.

At first blush I agreed that God exists and people don't know Him because they don't come to Him - but second thoughts arose around the statement "That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help. That is why there is so much pain and suffering in the world."

Hmmmm...what about all the Christians that have suffered? What about the suffering of Paul and Peter? How about Job? The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. I think it is too simplistic to say the problems are there because people don't turn to God. We don't know the purposes of God - and why He allows trials and tribulations, loss, death, disease and so on into our lives. I think we set people up for a crises of faith when we make it sound like God is going to turn our lives into a bed of roses. Such a mindset can make us feel like Christian failures when we meet with trials. We then can think that either we've done something wrong, or that God doesn't love us. There are more scriptural promises about our journey on this earth as being a time of trial and testing - with the enemy trying to kill, destroy, deceive and devour us, then there is sunshine and lollipops. Our eternal promises are indeed glowing - but just turning to God and believing in Him does not solve one's earthly problems - or that of the world.

There are no "short cuts" :-)
3:44 AM
Belinda said…
Anonymous, That is a thoughtful critique of the message of "Does God Exist." I agree with every thing you said. It is wise to consider the easy answer and what people might receive from it. When I think of the bedraggled man with the long hair though, I think the analogy stands at least there. People, (while they may still live with suffering in this world--and are assured of it in fact, by the Bible "in this world you will have trouble,") are transformed when they invite God in or call on him for help. And..."The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him. I will try my utmost to be that man." -D.L. Moody
Signing of with--I agree with you and thank you!
8:56 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Voyage

Image
Note from Belinda: I read this prayer yesterday and again today--and then I read it to Susan after cell group, when we were having our "second cup" of decaff coffee together. I knew that she'd love it. She has a framed picture on her office wall of a little blond haired girl in a sail boat on a stormy sea. A fatherly sailor,with a weather beaten face; in a gray sou'wester, holds her close, as he capably mans the tiller. This prayer reminds me of that picture and influenced what I wrote earlier today, when I used the metaphor of ebbing waves to describe a lack of consistency and my desire to crash over the sandbar into the peaceful pool on the other side.  ( Susan sent me a link to the painting, which was done by American impressionist Robert Reid in 1888.  It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.) Be bless ed by the beauty of this prayer. OH LORD OF THE OCEANS, My little bark sails on a restless sea, Grant that Jesus may sit at the ...
Read more

Samson Beaver and his Family

Image
I first posted this in 2009, a little show and tell about one of my favourite photographs. Back then it hung on a wall, but now it's in my bathroom where I see it every morning! I'd forgotten the history behind the story, researched when I first posted this and thought that current readers might enjoy it--a story from a time when this land was still being discovered, not so very long ago. This photograph was taken by Mary Schaffer; artist, photographer, writer and naturalist, in 1907. It is of a Stoney Indian named Samson Beaver, with his wife Leah and daughter, Frances Louise. I bought the photo on a postcard, on a trip to British Columbia and it hangs framed, on the wall I face when sitting at my laptop. I love it. Don't you just feel as if you could gather Frances Louise up in your arms and cuddle her? I get a deep sense of peace and happiness when I look at this family, sitting in the grass of a long ago fall. They are dressed in their best, beautiful c...
Read more

Ere Zij God--Glory to God in the Highest! A Dutch Carol

Image
By Belinda This beautiful Dutch carol was shared today by a friend of Dutch ancestry, on Facebook. I had never heard it before but absolutely loved it. It moved me deeply, especially at the end after the crowd leaves the church and then breaks into spontaneous singing again around a brazier, with the sound of chiming church bells in the background. Listen to it with headphones or a good speaker to get the full effect of the harmonies. And happy first Sunday in Advent!
Read more