Tag Archives: Pastoral Care

Sermon – Wisdom through Suffering (Job 3-27) – That’s what friends are for?

Read the text – Job 19:1-29

We have met the upright and blameless Job, and seen the tragedy and suffering which fell upon him. In the chapters that follow (Job 3-27), Job responds to the “comfort” (?) of his friends with words full of agony and pain. Job looks to his only hope: a sovereign and perfect God who cannot allow injustice. In spite of his circumstances and feelings, the small glimmer of hope from 9:33-34 which became a faint trickle of hope in 14:14-15 and 16:19-21, has become much more certain, to the point where declares “I know that my redeemer lives!”(19:25). This yet again reveals that the deepest desire of his heart is to be in the presence of the God he loves (19:27). In spite of what his friends have said, Job doesn’t fear death because he is sure that he will see the Lord face to face, and that there is the hope of a resurrection (19:26).

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Side by Side – Part 3 (of 3)

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).

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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.

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Side by Side – Part 1 (of 3)

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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.

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