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Sermon: Job 1,2 Perspectives on Suffering

Job 1 & 2


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Perspectives in Suffering


About five years ago one of my closest friends
telephoned to say his wife had developed symptoms of
a life threatening disease. Within two years she was
dead. She died at 38 years of age leaving two children
– aged seven and four.


Two years ago Beatrice and I, returning from
holidaying in France, received a phone call telling us
the person who had married us, an elder in the church, a
committed, godly, able Christian, the father of two
teenage children, had committed suicide. It was
completely unexpected. His wife and children were
utterly devastated, gutted.


Some months ago an evangelical church service in
Cape Town, South Africa, was interrupted by gunmen
who indiscriminately opened fire, killing and maiming
Christians as they worshipped God.


Each case seems to illustrate a needless, senseless,
tragic waste of human life. And each could be
multiplied time without number. Stories perhaps more
horrific and tragic than these.


Christians who cruelly lose their children; missionaries
murdered by guerrilla warfare in Africa; the death
camps of Nazi Germany; the pogroms of USSR; the
killing fields of Cambodia; the political murders on
Northern Ireland; blood bath in Rwanda; genocide in
Yugoslavia – in the midst of it all the suffering and
death of good and godly people, people whose lives are
committed to God.


Just recently we have lost a member of the church
family here, inexplicably taken by God in the midst of
life. A numbing tragedy that has distressed her family
and left them bewildered and helpless – with the
question why – still born on their lips.


Now we need to face up to this. It is simply not true
that the Christian life is ‘happy all the day, singing all
the way’. And whatever the health and wealth teachers
may claim, the reality is, the vast majority of the
church, the vast majority of the time – suffers – and
suffers cruelly and often apparently pointlessly.

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About John

Hi there - I am a member of Greenview and have been for over 20 years. For a number of these years I functioned as an elder, however, indifferent health forced me to take more of a back seat. I see this as an opportunity to do a little writing, often focussing on issues that are a matter of evangelical debate today. Naturally the views expressed are my own and may not reflect the views of the elders or church at large, though differences are likely to be in the detail and not the substance.

These articles and sermons were written partly to clarify my own thoughts and partly with the intention of provoking thought in others who may read them. If you read one I hope you find it stimulating. Please feel free to give me feedback or discuss my articles in the forums.

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