I’ve a friend who recently commented to me about all the terrible things that seemed to be happening recently, the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, now China; the volcano in Iceland which has disrupted air travel around the world. She said it seemed like there was so much more terrible stuff going on lately and so much despair and disaster and she was alarmed at it all. This friend is a believer and I said it was as the bible had predicted, and it was probably going to get worse. (I know, I need to work on my empathetic skills) She didn’t like that answer…
Tonight, I was at Justin Taylor's blog and I watched a video with Matt Chandler and CJ Mahaney from the recent Together for the Gospel Conference in Louisville (shout out to Brian Howard) . The topic was suffering and Matt shared about how God had prepared him for this season in his life as he deals with brain cancer. He talked about the messages he was preaching to his congregation wanting to help them prepare for suffering when in fact God was using them to prepare him to suffer well. It was powerful. CJ followed with words for the pastors on helping their congregations deal with suffering.
Bottom line–suffering will come; it’s coming; for some it’s already here. So, how, pastor, are you going to help your people deal with it? CJ then provided practical recommendations for helping people to suffer well. As I said, it was powerful. It spoke all the things I wanted to share with my friend and will share with her and others… you who are reading this.
The video is an hour long, but it is so worth it. And I loved one of the final points that CJ shared; “The most effective way to prepare a church for, and to comfort a church in suffering is to preach the gospel.”
Matt Chandler and C.J. Mahaney at T4G on Suffering
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All Things Elda 