Crossway has put out a wonderful, small book for Advent called Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas . It contains 22 4-8 page readings from sermons and works of dead folks (like Martin Luther, J.C. Ryle, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and more) and living folks (like Tim Keller, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, Joni Eareckson Tada, John Piper, and others). Pick it up.

Here's an excerpt from Tim Keller's chapter, "The Gift of Christmas"...

When September 11th happened and New Yorkers started to suffer, you heard two voices. You heard the conventional moralistic voices saying, "When I see you suffer, it tells me about a judging God. You must not be living right, and so God is judging you." When they see suffering they see a judgmental God.

The secular voice said, "When I see people suffering, I see God is missing." When they see suffering they see an absent, indifferent God.

But when we see Jesus Christ dying on the cross through an act of violence and injustice, what kind of God do we see then? A condemning God? No, we see a God of love paying for sin. Do we see a missing God? Absolutely not! We see a God who is not remote but involved.

We sometimes wonder why God doesn't just end suffering. But we know that whatever the reason, it isn't one of indifference or remoteness. God so hates suffering and evil that he was willing to come into it and become enmeshed in it.