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Preface 13our minds to explore every possible option, we will walk away notonly more informed about what the Bible teaches but also, andeven more importantly, more in awe of the greatness and goodnessof God. In other words, the ultimate aim of this book isn’t knowledge;it’s worship. By seeing more clearly how God acts and whathe meant and why he responds the way he does, I trust that weall will love him more passionately and praise him more fervently.I suppose some might be tempted to conclude that the easything to do would simply be to say “yes” or “no” or “sometimes” tothe twenty-five questions posed in this book, and leave it at that.But that wouldn’t be of much help to you when it comes to knowingwhy the Bible provides the answer it does. If you never move beyondthe shallow one-word response to the most puzzling and pressingquestions in life, you will forever remain spiritually stunted andimmature. And you will be of little to no benefit to others who approachyou with their curiosity about these matters. Your grasp ofwho God is and how and why he does what he does would not bevery deep or substantive. The bottom line is this: we need to wrestlewith the hard texts and the tough topics in Scripture. Only thenwill our thinking skills be honed, our minds expanded, our spiritsenriched, and our hearts filled with joy and delight to understandthe mysterious ways of our great God and Savior.Some of these chapters may well leave you hungry for more.For that reason I’ve included a brief list of recommended readingto help you continue your pursuit of a more comprehensive explanationin each case.Most of these chapters stand independent of each other. Inother words, you may want to scan the table of contents and readfirst (or perhaps only) those chapters that intrigue you most. However,there are a few chapters that answer questions related toeach other, which is to say they are concerned with the same generaltheme in Scripture. In those cases I recommend that you readthem in order because they do build upon one another to some extent.But on the whole, I’ve written the book so that the person whowishes to read it more selectively can do so without significant loss.