Tag: suffering

Restoration and Our Present Pain

Rob WoodrumLeave a comment

This Sunday we’ll be continuing our study in Micah – reading ch 4:6-13.

Micah has had some really tough words for God’s people in ancient Israel – but chapter 4 gives respite from that with forecasts of God’s great plan of restoration.

In this passage, we’ll read the promise of the end of suffering and pain – a restoration from pain. We’ll also consider God’s restorative work that happens in the midst of our pain – where we find restoration through suffering. We’ll also consider what God can accomplish in our lives in those times when we face difficulty and pain.

None of it will provide quick or easy answers, but all of it is intended to give us a perspective of hope, which can be one of the most valuable gifts we recieve.

I hope you can join us this Sunday as we dig into Micah’s words and consider how God meets us in our present struggles.

Job – an Introduction

Rob Woodrum1 Comment

This week we will begin a new study in the book of Job. How often have you suffered, or known someone who is suffering and the question that forms most readily is “why?”. Why is this happening? Why God? If there is a common issue that unifies those who can’t believe in God, it’s the issue of cruelty and suffering. How could a good and all powerful God allow so much suffering in the world?

That’s been a question through the ages. It’s really the thematic center of the book of Job.

And yet…Job gives us no real answers. As John Walton puts it in his commentary, Job simply provides us with better questions to ask in the midst of suffering.

This Sunday we’ll be looking at the structure and nature of the book, as well as reading the first two chapters. I’m going to do something different with this study – here on Wonderwhat I’m going to post an audio reading of the chapters we’ll cover – that way, if we don’t end up reading the whole passage on Sundays, you can listen to the whole thing read at your leisure. The audio file is at the top of the post.

Read the first two chapters – or listen to the audio above.

What are your honest thoughts about the set-up to this story? Do you read it as a history, or as a parable? What are some of your experiences with suffering – what questions have you asked during those times? What do you think the significance of the scene in heaven brings to this story?

I hope we’ll have an interesting study on this fascinating book!