Tragedy to triumph: A Christian response to trials and suffering

by Frank Retief

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0850096367
• ISBN13: 9780850096361
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Struik Christian Books
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Profound and helpful insights into suffering and how to respond

Frank Retief, the senior pastor of a large evangelical church in Cape Town, South Africa, reviews a surprise disruption and wild shooting spree in their church on the Sunday evening of July 25, in 1993. As a result, 11 people died, and 55 were injured, some maimed for life. Using the lessons learned in the after-math, and as he led his congregation to recovery from the trauma, this pastor shares some profound and helpful insights into how Christians should respond to severe trials and suffering. Although few of us, percentage-wise, can expect such extreme situations to arise in our lives, the things we do experience are just as intense and hard to bear for us. It is these general principles of how to understand the events, and God's role and character throughout, and what He asks of us - these are crucial and applicable in any hard times we face. This pastor ably shares the principles we can apply to our own situations. Frank Retief does an excellent job of this. His insights are clear and his ability to convey how to make them ours is exceptional. I commend him for writing this book. First he gives us a thorough narrative of the massacre at St. James, their church. Although not present himself, as he and his family had just returned the night before from a trip to England, and he had a headache, and they were still suppose to be on vacation, he has reconstructed the event, and the immediate reactions, and how he was called, and he hurried over to help deal with the crisis and the media which descended on them. (I personally had not heard of this through the media, but I felt this book did a fine job of describing it). After any crisis people start asking "Why me, Lord?" type questions. While there are many different reactions to hard times or trials of any kind, he saw that sooner or later, almost everyone had to deal with this concept; why did God allow this to happen? Why to them? His conclusion, we are called to suffer. Bad things do happen in this fallen world, and they happen to Christians as easily as to anyone else. We are not marked out because God is angry at us. The question that followed for most was, can God ever be trusted again? Retief develops God's faithfulness and the problem of good and evil. God does not stand behind good and evil in the same way. If He did he would be entirely amoral. It would mean that though He is powerful, God is not necessarily good. But God is not only sovereign, He is also both transcendent and personal. Then there is also the Joseph principle, taken from Genesis 50:19-20, where Joseph says to his brothers who had sold him into slavery, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good." I agree with Retief, once we grasp that God can use the evil that happens to us, to turn it into something for our good and His glory, we really have a better handle for trusting God in all events. This book handles many other questions about trials. Who is really responsible for our suffering? How to reb

the massacre that shook a nation: Retief tells out his soul

How can Christians believe in a loving God who allows such suffering? [Don't read here, get the book!!!]Frank Retief, minister of St James Church Capetown, speaks of his personal understanding of a personal God, amidst suffering from terrible atrocities.If you've ever wondered what kind of God allows these things to happen, GET THIS BOOK!!!!!!