The suffering of the righteous


Gustavo from Santiago, Chile wrote on hogmanay to express thanks for an article:   "it helped me to understand that God's plan for man includes suffering.

I've been a Christian for 30 years and am a preacher in our local church and also the daughter churches.   I'm part of the leadership  team and,   in a voluntary capacity,  am very active in the church's ministry. 

Eight months ago I lost my job and have been unable to find work.   There have been  desperate prayers, much suffering and many tears,  all without a resolution;    rejection and failure,  pain in my soul,  frustration,  perplexity and also,  anger.  

The Lord spoke to me of a desert.     This is what I have lived through.  Suffering has marked my life since childhood:  often death,  illness,  and unemployment;  frequent failure in business.   It's as if back luck pursues me."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A wonky couple of days

Only two weeks to go before semester finishes. Students are pretty stressed out. They cheered on Friday when class finished. Had a visit last night from an ex-evangelical pastor who's joined the Catholic church and now teaches religion in a an upmarket monks' school. He was keen to justify his actions so feel he's not at peace with the move. It made me think how poor the care of pastors is when things get difficult for them. And how astute Catholic clergy are, more so than their evangelical counterparts. Reading New Testament Theology by Philip Esler, who's trying to justify praying to the saints. Feel it's been a wonky couple of days.
Read more

Dangerous ground in Parliament Hall

It was like taking part in a Harry Potter episode.    The location was Parliament Hall where the Scots Parliament met in 1645-46.   You enter it by pushing open an unmarked door at 66 South Street,  St Andrews.     Bright panelled walls and enormous portraits look down upon you in a friendly manner. We were warned by the Divinity Dean,  Ivor Davidson,  that we were on dangerous ground.   What we were embarking on "involves confession,  petition,  doxology and wonder.   We are at the edges of what we can say".       This was a conference on the Doctrine of the Trinity. The first to speak,  Tom McCall,   had flown in (by aeroplane) from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,  Chicago.    Since arriving he had spent a night in a tent on Ben Nevis,  and now he spoke at breakneck speed on the biblical data. The second speaker looked as if he had flown in on a broom stick.   Your archetypical kindly wizard,   white bearded  Professor Paul Fiddes of Oxford University
Read more

God's providence is my inheritance

Image
"God's providence is my inheritance":   the old wing of Ballygally  Castle  Hotel Today is the first day of my new job.  I'm now an Online Editor with the IMB, still involved in the Spanish speaking world,   but based in Lenzie.   It was a pleasant morning:  published a sermon in Spanish on building your house on the rock/sand (Mat 7:24-29),  and started writing an evaluation of   Textos fuente y contextuales de la narrativa evangélica .     This is a Jewish background commentary on Mark from the Qumran texts and the like,    written by a Catholic professor in Granada,   and is a challenging read. Hanging over me is a series for From the Frontiers .    Offering to do them for Charlie a couple of months ago was easy enough.  So also was signing up for a 10k race in aid of missions in Strathclyde Country Park.   I definitely need some kind of make-you-go-faster socks.
Read more