I want to talk to you today about perhaps the most thorny issue confronting the Christian faith. In fact, it is the single biggest obstacle for non-Christians to overcome in order to become believers in Christ. George Barna, who is the George Gallup of the Christian world, conducted a national survey in which he asked this question, "If you could ask God only one question and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask?" By far and away the number one response was this one - "Why is there pain and suffering in the world?"

You see the very question assumes that a loving God and suffering cannot go together. Many of us remember one of the most famous trails in the twentieth century - the trial of O.J. Simpson. After what seemed to be an airtight open and shut case with overwhel…