“Why did God allow Jesus to be put to death? Couldn’t God have found another way to take away our sins and give us salvation?”
“Why doesn't God stop all the evil in the world? I know we're supposed to believe that God is kind and loving, but I just lost my 6-year-old nephew to leukemia, and it's hard to keep believing in a loving God.”
“My sister struggled with severe depression most of her life and had to be hospitalized several times. Last year, she finally got so depressed that she took her own life. In spite of everything, she had a strong faith, but is suicide the unforgivable sin, as some people say? It’s all been very painful to me.”
“The other day, a friend asked me how many of my New Year's resolutions I'd managed to keep, and I had to admit that I'd forgotten all about them. He admitted that this had been his experience, as well. Why do we have so much trouble changing our behavior?”
“I’m a cancer survivor (for which I thank God), but to be honest I live in constant fear that the disease will return. My daughter tells me I need to quit worrying so much about this, but I just can’t help it. Maybe you have some suggestions.”
“Did Jesus realize that He was going to be arrested and put to death when He went to Jerusalem for the last time? It seems to me that He easily could have called on the crowds who supported Him to demand His release. Then He could have avoided what happened afterward. Why didn’t He?”
“My friend is a very dedicated member of his religious group, and he talks to me all the time about the way so-called Christians have twisted the Bible over the centuries and made it say things it doesn't really say. How can I know if he's telling the truth? I've never thought about God before.”
“How can I be a better Christian? I get along pretty well most of the time, but then I'll get upset at something and lose my temper, or fall down in some other way, and then I realize I'm not a very good Christian after all.”
“If I could give just one piece of advice to someone, it would be to be careful who you hang around with. I wasn't, and now I'm in prison because I got talked into doing some things that I knew were wrong. Maybe you can help someone by passing this along.”
“Recently, a friend had a kidney transplant that probably saved his life, and it's made me want to be an organ donor. Would anything in the Bible forbid this?”
“My mother has had real problems with alcohol and is in an institution now. Does this mean I’m going to have problems also? I’m only 16, but I worry about this a lot because someone once told me that the Bible says every generation repeats the sins of the last generation. Is this true?”
“I would like to know more about the Bible, but it's so big I don't know where to start, and I'm not sure where to turn to get some help. Could you suggest one or two books (in addition to the Bible) that might help me to study the Bible?”