Listening In preview - Larry Crabb

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Coming up next, an excerpt from tomorrow’s episode of Listening In.

This week, a conversation with Christian counselor and author Larry Crabb. He’s written more than 25 books on psychology, Christian discipleship, and faith formation. Crabb’s been living with cancer for more than 20 years, and a close family member was just recently diagnosed with a life-threatening disease as well. In times of family heartache and trial, host Warren Smith asks, “is God good?”

WARREN SMITH: That really does seem to be the key question doesn’t it? In other words, when we look at Romans 8:28—”All things work together for good.” It’s sometimes really hard to see that and understand that if you don’t have a biblical definition of what good is.

LARRY CRABB: Pretty impossible I think to see it without that, that definition of good. But that to me, this is kind of a new thought but fresh in my mind, you know, sin did not begin in the Garden of Eden, it began Lucifer. And Lucifer apparently, if you look at Ezekiel 28, and Isaiah 14, if you look at those passages, you come to realize that Lucifer decided on his own. “I’m going to decide what is good,” which belongs only to God that prerogative. But he now decides what is good and what is evil, and that’s what he tempted Adam and Eve—to Eve particularly. “Let me tell you, is God holding out on you? Is there some good He’s denying you?” Is he denying me some good with the health in the family? Is He denying me some good when certain things happen? My mother had Alzheimer’s, my brother was killed in a plane wreck. Is God denying me good? By his definition, no, but man does that raise the question: “What’s the summum bonum?” What is the greatest good? A lot of lesser goods, but what’s the greatest good? And I got to cling to that.

BASHAM: That’s Larry Crabb talking to Warren Smith. To hear their complete conversation, look for Listening In wherever you get your podcasts.

(Photo/Joel Coleman) Larry Crabb

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