Mark Suter

Christ and Human Suffering Mark Suter

"Christ and Human Suffering" speaks across the years if COVID-19 calls us back to who we are in Christ and what we are called to do. Are we still the church when we cannot gather to sing, pray, and worship? Is the gospel still good news in a hurting world? Do we still serve a risen Savior even when church doors are closed on Easter Sunday? For those who surrender to the unchanging Christ at the head of an unshakable Kingdom, to ask it is to answer it. - Mark Suter, Pastor, Martinsville First United Methodist Church, Martinsville, IndianaSuffering is part and parcel of life. Therefore, this book is about living with individual sufferings--innocent, self-inflicted and inflicted by other agencies; it is about dealing with personal suffering and having empathy and compassion in the suffering of others by growing with Jesus Christ in overcoming them. The style of writing is informal and interactive, so one reacts personally to ideas of ways of Christ experienced in the lived out life stories of other believers who followed that way. These amazing expressions of experiences come from the author's life-long work as a missionary in China and India, from theology, psychology, and above all from real experiences in suffering and tribulations because he believed in what we read in Johns' Gospel: "I have said you these things, so in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (Jn. 16: 33). I have dealt with pain and suffering all of my professional life--yet gained more profound understanding of it from this book. It is a good companion for everyone and particularly for those who are involved in the ministry of healing. Let us leave the last word to the Indian woman who was asked to follow the way of Christ; she followed the way and shouted: "It works! It works! I tried it. Someone slapped me in the face today and I didn't even want to slap back. Something within me has changed, it works!" Yes, indeed this book works! - Dr. Zac Varghese, FRCPath, Emeritus Professor, Royal Free Campus, UCL, London, UK