Sermon on the ‘Crown Of Suffering’ (James 1:1-18) by Ken Noakes is now available to stream or download: http://bit.ly/2bd6XI8
Full Text and Workings for this Sermon – James 1.1-18
Read the Bible text: http://bit.ly/2bxD9qK
Download the English Corner PDF: http://bit.ly/2bkdyD1
The first two posts in this series have offered two observations coming out of 1 Timothy 5:1-16 which may help a church family to further consider what it means to honour and care for those who are most vulnerable.
In the first post, we observed that the widow of 1 Tim 5 was akin to the ‘vulnerable’ today.
In the second post, we observed that when caring for a person in need – everyone is different and everyone can play a part. Five pointers were offered in how to do that.
In this last post, I would like to recommend a good book that works hard to offer principled and practical suggestions for getting alongside a person whom we are trying to love.
Side by Side – Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love by Edward T. Welch (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015).
Side by Side by Edward Welch is a quick and helpful read, written by a Christian counselor who has practiced and written in the fields of depression, fear and addiction for decades.
The aim of the book is to identify skills that Christians can learn and then use in caring for others. His basic idea is that those who help best are the ones who both need help and give help.
Sermon ‘Contentment – When You Don’t Have What You Want’ (1 Timothy 6:3-21) by Paul Harrington is now available to stream or download: http://bit.ly/2aI18EV
Read the Bible text: http://bit.ly/2ay7o0Y
Download the English Corner PDF: http://bit.ly/2aSgCXZ
1 Timothy 5:1-16 calls upon a church to honour and care for those who are most vulnerable.
In the first post of this series, we observed that the widow of 1 Tim 5 was akin to the ‘vulnerable’ today.
The second observation is this:
In 1 Timothy 5:1-16 the Apostle Paul offers advise to Timothy (and those in the church that he leads) for honouring others – ‘Give honour to those widows who are really in need’ (5:3).
As he explains this advise, Paul is quite helpful in offering some suggestion in how to treat each widow differently given their particular situation – to the widow with children or grandchildren allow her family to care; to the godly widow who is alone offer her help; to the widow who has no interest in the things of God, exercise care if you help; to the faithful widow who is over sixty put her on the care list, but to the widow under sixty do not. All very specific!
Why?
The driving principle here is that the church of Jesus should be a help to those who are in most need (5:16) and if there are others like family members who should bear that responsibility, then allow them to do as such.
I take it that there are limited resources and that the wisdom here is to give priority to those who are most at risk- and at that time, it would have been the widow.
In this and the next post, I want to make two observations that may be helpful for our church family. Then in a third post a want to recommend a helpful book.
Friends I want to try and put into words a tension I feel and that I know many Pastors experience as they ‘shepherd’ those in their care.
And in doing so I hope to correct what I think is a faulty expectation about the role of the Shepherd in caring for the flock.
Then I would like to ask for your prayers – both for me and our church family.
We Cannot be Silent – Speaking truth to a culture redefining sex, marriage, & the very meaning of right & wrong by R. Albert Mohler Jr (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2015)
This is a helpful book which speaks into our culture in the face of many challenges to the biblical presentation of marriage and sex. Al Mohler is a Southern Baptist Pastor, an evangelical, a clear theological thinker, and is heard daily on The Briefing podcasts where he analyzes news and current events (in the US) from a Christian Worldview.
This places him well as a voice into the current western culture which is redefining marriage and sex often leaving Christians with questions and doubts about where they stand morally as they are often accused of being homophobic for standing against this cultural change.
We Cannot Be Silent is an easy and thought provoking read.
Sermon ‘House Rules’ (Psalm 27) by Ken Noakes is now available to stream or download: http://bit.ly/1t45gVU
Sermon ‘From Prison To The Ends Of The Earth’ (Acts 12:1-24) by Ken Noakes is now available to stream or download: http://bit.ly/1Xva5TD
Sermon ‘The Believers: Christians’ (Acts 11:19-30) by Ken Noakes is now available to stream or download: http://bit.ly/1TWrXnz
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