Transcription
Good morning. Being in God's presence is a delight and a lesson. And long ago, the Lord Jesus blessed Mary and said about her that she had chosen a good portion that would not be taken away from her. It seems that what we gain at the Master's feet becomes nothing to us, but rather a part of us. And this is the value of being together at the Master's feet: that we are transformed into that very image. And I believe that what we sincerely take at the Master's feet cannot be lost, for it is not information, but a change in being. Therefore, I see a very great importance in being present with all our energy and full concentration when we are in the Lord's presence. And I personally consider it a privilege to be with you so that I can sincerely learn from the Word of God. There is a difference between my individual quiet time and being with the people of the Lord to learn. There are new illuminations that the Lord gives when we are together, perhaps the believer does not receive them in his individual quiet time. And what distinguishes this gathering is that it is truly sought after, and those who desire to meet with God, to receive satisfaction, food, and teaching, come to it. And not only my beloved attendees, but I believe there are thousands, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, I know they share our worship and listen. When we stand, they stand with us. When we sit, they sit with us. When we sing, they sing with us. They pray with us. Thank the Lord for this opportunity. Have you greeted each other yet? You have? Good, I'm reassured. There's no harm in doing it again, just to be sure, okay? It has been weighing on my heart lately to speak about suffering, perhaps for personal reasons, and perhaps due to the circumstances of many dear loved ones who are going through different pains. Perhaps Peter is not the only one among them, but others around us are going through pains and afflictions that reach the point of burning tribulation, as the Scripture mentions. And I feel the terrible pressure on the minds and feelings of believers as they feel helplessness and confusion, and sometimes, crushed before the suffering of their loved ones, feeling that they can do nothing. But the most dangerous is that spiritual crisis we enter due to what we mistakenly call unanswered prayers, and the assumption that if we pray for the tribulation to end, the response should be immediate and singular: that God removes the tribulation instantly and answers our requests. This is a wrong perception we have, stemming perhaps from our misunderstanding of the nature of our God and the nature of His dealings with us. This spiritual crisis stumbles many and hinders growth, and perhaps sometimes leads to blasphemy against the name of the Lord. That is why I was eager for the Lord to give me an opportunity with you to learn more about suffering from a Christian perspective. I had imagined that it would be a long service, perhaps divided into two services today, but the matter has taken longer than I expected, so I believe it will be a series in which I will speak about suffering more than once. I will explain shortly how we will think and proceed in this discussion, but not before we read a great portion of the Word of God. After that, I will ask my beloved brother, on the occasion of his presence with us, Pastor Naji, to please lead us in prayer for me, for you, and for the many who are suffering, especially those who have sent messages asking for prayer for them. Let us stand together and read a portion from the Book of Job, chapter two.
Then Job answered the Lord and said, "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?" He utters what he does not understand, things too wonderful for him, which he cannot know. "Listen, listen, O Lord, listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me." "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." And after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer, lest I deal with you according to your folly, in that you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had commanded them. And the Lord accepted Job's prayer. Let us repeat these two phrases: "And the Lord accepted Job's prayer," and "And the Lord restored Job's fortunes." when he prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. This is the word of the Lord. Let us bow our heads and I ask Pastor Naji to come and pray for us. As we stand, let us pray with Pastor Naji for the speaker, for us, and for those who are suffering, so that the Lord may give us grace. And let us all say, "I ask that you may teach me." Father, we thank you because you are the God of truth. We thank you for Jesus, who became incarnate among us, so that He was truly among us, clear, visible, tangible. We thank you for the word of truth that you have entrusted to our hands, so that it may teach us all our days. We thank you for the Spirit of truth with whom you have watered us, so that He may explain the Word to us, reveal Jesus to us, and give us the grace to be transformed into the image of truth. We thank you for this great grace that we have. In all our confusion and all our questions, we find you, and we find you near, and you want to comfort our hearts, answer our questions, and lead us in your way. So we find in you all security, rest, peace, blessing, and grace that surpasses our understanding. Give us grace so that we may understand more. Teach us today, so that our hearts and minds may be enlarged to the revelation of divine truth. And teach us throughout our lives to submit to you, so that we may be able to discover, and even experience, the fullness of the divine will in all the different circumstances and situations of life. Special blessing for your servant, Dr. Maher, so that you may anoint him with your Spirit, that you may speak through his mouth, enlighten his mind, and make your Word reach our hearts with its clarity, gentleness of spirit, and the power and influence of the Spirit. In Jesus' name, we pray for all our beloved ones who are being tested, so that you may be with them. Forgive us, forgive us, we apologize for this expression, Lord. You are with them. You are with them. This is a truth. You promised that you would be with us. Yes, we thank you because you are with them. We pray that you may give them grace so that they may feel your presence, so that they may touch this presence, and so that they may receive from this divine presence all grace in soul, mind, body, and spirit. And give us also grace so that we may be their companions in suffering and in joy, in truth, so that we may be a support with all love and all encouragement. Teach us to unite together, so that we may be truly the body of the Lord Jesus, of which each one is a member to the other. Blessed be your name, for you are able to accomplish the fullness of your will in us, and even more than we ask or think, according to the riches of your divine grace working in us. To you be all glory. Amen.
I will begin by answering three quick questions: How, What, and Why. How will I approach this thorny issue of suffering? What do I hope to offer? And I hope the Lord will help me to offer in this series of services. Then, what is the purpose? I will answer briefly and then, as time permits, I will move on to the first point in my discussion. How: The servants of God, myself included, are accustomed to there being four different approaches to the issue of suffering, and I believe we need all four. But undoubtedly, there is not enough space or time in this place to delve into this issue from all four approaches. But I will choose one approach, while giving an idea of the four approaches. The first approach, to which I resort and enter from, as an apologist or as someone who, by grace, defends the Christian truth, is when I see someone with intellectual confusion and deep doubts that lead them to reject the belief in God's existence, not just the rejection of Christian truth. This is a serious and thorny issue for my atheist brothers and friends. They raise five fundamental arguments, which, from their perspective, they see as sufficient to justify their disbelief in God. The most important, most famous, and most logical and powerful of these five is the issue of evil and suffering in the world. Some of their arguments are purely intellectual, while others resort to this intellectual argument as a result of a personal psychological problem. It is up to the debater or the Christian who wants to help to distinguish between the two types, so as not to rush to offer the wrong solution. This approach is called the intellectual approach, the intellectual approach, or the philosophical approach. It can comfort someone who doubts God's existence due to the problem of evil and suffering. By the way, this thesis is ancient, at least 25 centuries old, since it was written by an ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus. It is summarized in this simple argument: If God is good, He does not want us to suffer. If God is omnipotent, He is able to prevent suffering. And when I see that suffering is a real fact that I experience, live through, and encounter every day, I have only one of these conclusions: either He is good but not able, or He is able but not good, or He does not exist at all. And since we cannot imagine an omnipotent God, nor can we imagine a God who created this world and is not able or good, the closest possibility is that He does not exist. This matter requires an argument. I have illustrated the difficulty of this argument: the existence of an omnipotent, supremely good God, and the existence of evil, suffering, and affliction, especially the suffering of the righteous. Some people try to justify it with a strange explanation: he suffers because he sinned. But by the way, Jesus rejected this explanation more than once when they asked Him, "Did this man sin, or his parents, that he was born blind?" He said, "It was not that this man sinned, nor his parents." The Book of Job will show us that it refutes this explanation. This does not mean that evil does not have painful consequences, but not all suffering we see in life, or even most suffering, is due to people's sins. The suffering of the righteous is perplexing. The second matter that troubles the righteous is children who suffer from terrible diseases or from the evil deeds of their parents. It troubles the truly innocent who suffer unjustly. But there is also another type that makes this problem deeper: what we call horrific suffering, the "horrendous evils." Things like one person killing 80 women after raping them, or a hurricane sweeping through, destroying and killing 300,000 people at once. This horrific suffering, from their perspective, the suffering of the righteous, the suffering of children, the horrific suffering for which you cannot say there is good behind it, for which you cannot comfort yourself and say, "Surely something good will come of it." This type of suffering, from their perspective, alongside the existence of God, is like placing an immovable stone and an irresistible force in the same room. This is a paradox. Bringing together in one place an irresistible stone and an irresistible force. What is the impossibility here? If the force is truly irresistible, it is capable of moving the stone. And if the stone is truly immovable, then this force has been overcome. So it is impossible for both to exist together. It is impossible for an omnipotent, supremely good God to exist in the same universe with these horrific and terrifying evils and tragic events. The two cannot coexist. This impossibility is an illusion, and the defender of the Christian faith must respond to it. And in truth, it has been responded to, especially in the last 30-40 years, by great Christian philosophers, most notably Alvin Plantinga and others. And all atheist philosophers have been forced to change the argument and call it the "probability argument" rather than the "logical argument" that rejects God's existence due to the existence of evil. So they changed it a bit and wrote it differently, saying that the probability of God's existence has become weak with the existence of evil and suffering in the world. So it has receded, but it has not settled the matter in their minds. And they have accepted God's existence despite the existence of evil and suffering in the world. This is an important issue, and I believe that the believer who suffers from these questions needs an answer, and the unbeliever places upon us a moral obligation to humbly try to answer. And we have answers regarding this matter, but this is not the approach I will take, so I will not present the answer or the solution to this dilemma.
The second approach, which I need to take, or sometimes take, is what we can call the cultural approach. And I believe it is important for us to be cultured, at least in the culture of the peoples among whom we live. And by "cultured," I do not necessarily mean adopting the culture, but at least being aware and knowing what people's culture is. Pay attention, because this is important, or I claim it is important. The judgment, of course, is yours, and you have the right to say it is not important, but this is what I envision. There is no culture in the world, and when I say culture, include religion with it, because religion is the essence of culture, and culture is the manifestation of religion. Religion from within creates culture from without. So there is no culture without religion, and no religion without culture. Religion is the heart of culture. Therefore, when you see cracks in culture, do not just examine the culture. There is no culture or religion in the world that does not have a large part of it as a response to the problem of suffering. The oldest, most ancient, and most difficult problem. There is no group of humans on earth that has not developed its own philosophy in the face of suffering. And I believe that as Christians, we should not be content with knowing how Christianity faces the problem of suffering, but knowing how others face the problem of suffering is extremely important for us if we truly love humanity and care for the salvation of their souls. How can we understand people and approach them if we do not understand how they think, especially how they think about the daily things in this life? Buddhists are people of utmost moral refinement, following the teachings of this teacher, Buddha. They have solved this issue by saying, for example, that suffering is an illusion. There is no such thing as suffering. You imagine that there is suffering. And if you engage in spiritual training and exercises, achieve complete enlightenment, and your desires die, you will discover that you live without suffering, and you will discover that suffering is an illusion. The philosophy of atheistic materialism, or the materialist philosophy, views our suffering with arrogance and astonishment because it sees that a blind universe has thrown a being onto the earth without purpose or goal. It is very natural to face suffering. We in this world are nothing but the product of matter, chance, and time. We are governed by the randomness of choices in which there is no intellect and no awareness. So it is very natural for accidents to happen, storms to blow, fires to ignite, diseases to spread. It is natural, and they ask us to accept suffering as something natural. But I believe that our entire being cries out from within. Their being cries out and says, "It is impossible for evil and suffering to be something natural, woven into the fabric of this life." For a simple reason: at least when I see the universe so precisely ordered in a frightening way, how does this precise order align with randomness, chaos, and horrific suffering that occurs in this life? There is another philosophy: fatalism. What has happened has happened, and all you have to do is accept it, whether gratefully or grumblingly. In the end, you must accept it, and you do not even have the right to ask or complain. This is a philosophy. So every culture, and time would fail me to enumerate its methodology and approach, and I believe it is important for us to know how different cultures deal with the problem of suffering. This builds bridges on one hand, and on the other hand, it is important to give us the opportunity to examine our philosophy in the face of suffering, and it gives everyone the opportunity to re-examine themselves, how they think about the issue of suffering, and perhaps discover the weakness and illogicality and crookedness of their intellectual system in the face of a serious issue like suffering. And this can be an opportunity for enlightenment for those who seek the truth. This is the second approach, and I will not delve into it either.
The third approach, which I will also not delve into, is what I call the pastoral approach. And this is what most of us are looking for. We all need quick relief in times of suffering. We all need urgent rescue in moments of suffering. And this is the field where we find the most volunteers with good intentions. But unfortunately, the famous story we have about suffering has presented us with a very bad model in pastoral dealing with the issue of suffering. "You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." No, he said something bigger and more difficult than that: "I will deal with you according to your folly." And folly in Hebrew is a moral matter, not an intellectual one. So Job's friends, in God's view, who were comforting their friend, who went to stand by their friend, who went to preach to their friend, and between parentheses, not a word in their preaching was wrong about God. I will return to this later. Those who preached to their friend with 100% sound theological teachings, God sees them as fools and sees them as having committed not an intellectual theological error, but a moral error. And He says to them, "Go to Job, let him pray for you, and I will deal with you according to your folly." My beloved brothers, my heart aches for those who suffer. My heart aches for those who suffer because of the pain they are in, but my heart aches even more for the amount of folly committed in the rooms of the suffering by the bothersome comforters, those whom Job called "worthless physicians" and "troublesome comforters." In Job 13, he called them "worthless physicians." In Job 16, he called them "troublesome comforters." And when the man was fed up, he finally said something beautiful. Job, this strong man, said, "Is there no end to your empty words?" Meaning, "Won't you have mercy on me? Won't you have mercy on me, and stop crushing the suffering?" I had in mind to put this sermon under the title "The Sin of Job's Friends," but perhaps I will save it for the next sermon. How do people err in the pastoral approach when they find someone suffering? There are two approaches: the approach of futile treatment and the approach of false promises. Both are crushing to the soul of the sufferer. Sometimes we go to the sufferer with pre-prepared stereotypical ideas that have filled our minds, and we don't know where they came from, without examination or scrutiny. Perhaps sometimes due to the style of teaching that has not accustomed us to examine words, to examine ideas, even though the Scripture commands us, saying, "Do not despise prophecies." Do not despise prophecies. Prophecies are words coming to you as from God, but please continue the verse: "Test all things; hold fast to what is good." Do not take a message from God as from God before you test it. And when you test it, assume there is a model answer given to the corrector so that he can measure against it. And this is what we lack, and this is what I will try to do by the grace of the Lord, and what I will explain in the fourth approach: that I test the words. I test them against a model that exists in my mind, built from the Word of God, the trustworthy reference that has authority, so that I can see if these words fit with it or not. Sometimes we rush and accuse, and sometimes with zeal we rush and promise, and we are not sound in our accusations, nor are we faithful in our promises, and the result is that we crush them with guilt, while they are innocent, or we teach them with false hope, and they are sincere and simple. And unfortunately, we commit something of dishonesty and lack of honor when we discover that the promise has not been fulfilled. We do not blame ourselves, but we blame the person, saying their faith was not enough. So we make their tribulation two tribulations: the tribulation of the burning tribulation, and the tribulation of guilt because they have weak faith. When will we stop this evil? When will we stop trivializing the suffering of the sufferers? When, my brothers, when will we stop making light of pain and entering the operating rooms? A doctor, when he enters an operating room, performs 60 procedures. For us to be able to approach and hold the scalpel, we blunder into the wounded with ignorance and recklessness with false confidence. I don't know where we got it from, and we forget that we are trampling on suffering souls. It is a shame. Neither faith nor ethics allow us to act with such triviality. Dr. Adel Sadek, our professor in psychiatry, once wrote something strange that affected me. He said, "O psychiatrist, know that you are in a sacred sanctuary. So take off your shoes. And when the patient exposes himself to you, lower your gaze, for you are on a sacred mission." You will hear the suffering of a human being. Take off your shoes. How fitting this is for the priests of God. We have been made kings and priests, priests of God. We must enter, my beloved. Please, this is a plea from a brother who loves you. When we enter the room of a suffering person, if you are not able to literally take off your shoes, try to feel that you are entering a sacred temple. Be very careful with your words, actions, and gaze. You are entering a suffering soul. You do not know what the results might be. Wait to see the face of God in them, and speak to them in the presence of God, and wait for the fullness of the Holy Spirit in you to move, so that God may speak through you. This is the only guarantee for dealing with the suffering. But in general, have you imagined someone who had a car accident, and the steering wheel went into his rib cage, and the car was destroyed, and then someone came up to him and said, "Wait, let me explain the driving safety instructions to you. You should have fastened your seatbelt, and you should not have driven above a certain speed, and you should have..." What do you think of something like that? What do you think of this person? What would you call him? Don't make me responsible. I will benefit. David Thomson, a Christian surgeon, world-renowned for his message, faithfulness, and service, has a beautiful story. He serves the Lord in Menouf Hospital as a volunteer. David Thomson, especially, his father and mother were killed in Cambodia while serving as missionaries, and David received the news of his parents' death while he was in medical school. After finishing medical school, he went to Cambodia to work as a missionary. This is victory over suffering. But what led him to medicine was that they were traveling in a forest there and saw a horrific accident. David's father rushed out, and David, a young child, was with him. He went to rescue the poor man who was breathing his last. So the father, because he was a pastor and couldn't bear to see this man perish, began to preach to him. The dying man cried out to him, "Save me, don't preach to me. Save me, don't preach to me." From that day on, David decided as a child to become a doctor so that he could not only preach but also save this person in the accident. He does not need an explanation, but he needs rescue. And that is why, in short, my beloved, the pastoral aspect: when someone is in an accident, someone is suffering, please, there is no need to present our formidable theories that we have formed about suffering. Suffering, and among them, please, no one should convey a sermon from what I am preaching. It is not the time. It is not the time at all for someone who is suffering. Did you notice, or not, when Pastor Naji was praying, he confessed to the Lord a sin that we all commit? But the man, because he was thinking, said, "Lord, be with them." And then he stood and said, "Forgive us this sin, because you are with them." And I want to tell you, Pastor Naji, that many times they do not see the Lord with them because of our preaching, because of our words. Many times our words prevent our brothers from seeing the Lord who is present with them, because we insisted, and perhaps we are older than them, we insisted that they would see God in a certain way, so we deprive them of seeing God in His true form, because their minds have become hardened because of us, that they will see Him in a certain way. The Lord is with them. And by the way, by the way, by the way, the one who saw the most humiliation is the one who is said to have had the Lord with him. Do you remember who it is? Joseph. The Lord was with him. Our job with the suffering is to be with them. To be with them. Put ten lines under that. And let the Spirit of God illuminate it. What does it mean to be with them? I don't know how to be with them. To be with them. I don't know how to explain it. With them. With them, with your eyes, with your hands, with your wallet, with your heart, with your love, with your activity, with your prayers. And by the way, all he needs at that time is to feel that someone is with him. God is with him, and I am also sending him a message and telling him, "I am with you, my brother, I am with you." Even if you don't see me in the hospital room, I will stand at the door of the room to send you a message that I am with you. I will lift up my prayers for you. I will encourage you. And if, if, if God gives me a word to tell you, I promise I will test it a million times, because there is a possibility, even if it's 1%, that I might err. If you are from the group that does not err, I advise you not to [applause]. Go watch a match. Don't go to someone who is suffering. Leave the suffering to those who are confused, the best people to encourage the suffering are those who feel like them, because the suffering person, believe me, is at the end of their rope. 10% of the problem they are in, 90% is the confusion behind it. The confusion behind it: how to get out of it, when will we get out of it, how, and what are the results, what are the losses, and if this happens, what do I do, and if this happens, where do we go, and so on. So, if you are one of those who have questions that have not been answered, like most believers who say, "To this day, we know in part." And they are poor. I encourage you to go to your brothers.
The fourth approach, and this is what we will follow starting from the next service, is what we call the biblical or theological approach. And I will place it under this title, which leads me to the second question: What will I offer? I will offer a set of, let me call them, illuminations. Illuminations, insights, if you prefer, but I like "illuminations" because it is biblical. The Scripture says, "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened." A set of illuminations from seven rooms, if I may say so, in the rooms of the house of Christian truth. I want you to imagine with me that Christian truth, for which Pastor Naji prayed, that God has graced us to know the true God, and sent us Jesus Christ, who is the truth, and gave us the book of truth, and dwells in us the Spirit of truth, and wants us to be of the truth. I want you to imagine that it is a luxurious house with seven rooms and a large hall at the first. I will enter the hall, and I will find the Book of Job, and I will stand with you in the hall for a while at the next meeting. But after that, I will enter seven rooms. The first room is the room of creation, and from creation, I will learn some necessary and essential illuminations that must be known in order to know how to face suffering when we encounter it. These are the instructions for safety and peace that our friend should have known before he got into the accident. So what I will do here is not for people in an accident, but how to know how to act. May the Lord allow us to be exposed to an experience, or at least to have a Christian mind that knows how to face suffering if it occurs. Because what I see before my eyes now is that most of my brothers, when they suffer in an experience, do not suffer from the magnitude of the problem as much as they suffer from the mentality with which they deal with the problem. So, if God honors us and we fix that mentality, or in other words, fix the heart with which we deal, fix the heart, and I have what Pascal said: the logic of the heart, which does not neglect the mind, but I have, let's say now, a mind that knows how to face suffering, a heart that knows how to face suffering. Then I will say with Pippo the powerful words we said: "Did God prepare this man? Was he saying anything, or did he understand what he was saying?" Not "out of," but "not when I come out of it, I will be victorious, but in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." What is this mind? What is this heart? This is Christian richness, and this is my desire, my longing, to reach it, and I wish to reach my brothers with me. So we will have a heart and a mind that not only knows how to deal with suffering correctly, but can achieve the greatest victories within it, can achieve the maximum benefit from it, and can say, "Friends, do you know?" In the beginning, in the beginning, he set seven challenges and said, "Indeed, neither tribulation nor distress nor persecution nor famine nor nakedness nor danger nor sword can separate us from the love of Christ." But after that, he added ten more. He said, "For I am sure that..." And he began with the highest level of the first one, meaning the highest level of the seven. Death is not danger, but the sword. He said, "No death or life, no created thing, no present or future created thing, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." So, is there or is there not? There is pain, there is suffering, there is terror, there is distress, there is danger, but inside him, he has a heart and a mind. This is what I long for the Lord to grant us. Amen. What do you think? I will really ask you a question, and I want an honest answer, but let it pass through a life that does not encounter any suffering, or pass through a life full of suffering, but my brother, you have a wonderful heart and mind that allows you to face all suffering with your head held high. What do you think? Which one would you choose? Would you choose the first one, which passes and is useless? Tell me, one who lives a life without suffering. Can that be useful? Honestly, it is useless. Believe me, it is useless. It cannot even raise children. This person should not get married, because if he has children, he will be disappointed. Believe me, what is the use of someone who has never gone through suffering? And another person, my brother, is constantly falling from one pit into another, constantly falling from here to there, and entering here, and water. He said, "You have brought us into fire and water." Sometimes it burns, sometimes we drown, sometimes suffering is like a burning fire, sometimes it is like crushing waves, but "you have brought us out to abundance. You have made me a fruitful tree, whose shade many enjoy, and from whose fruits many pick." I have become food for the hungry, I have become like a garden of water, and like a spring of water that never runs dry. "Blow, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow." Blow with hardship, blow with pain, but my garden, in the end, will drip its fragrance. Its fragrance will drip. My brothers, what the Lord wants for us in our short journey of approaching Him on earth, by the way, is a short and fleeting journey, and it will end. And our light, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. But even in this period, the Lord's purpose is not to make it a land paved with roses and a garden without suffering. He wants to prepare me for the present, for existence and eternity, with a wonderful heart and a sound mind that knows how to face suffering. So I will enter this house with you. I will call it, from above, the School of Christian Truth. And I will stand in the hall and look at the paintings drawn by great artists. An artist drew the Book of Job, but I forget his name now. He drew the Book of Job in magnificent paintings. I will look at these paintings and explain them to you a little. We will stand for a moment, because this is the oldest book in the Bible and the most amazing book in the Bible, and one of the books that proves that this book is not a human book, even though the story was written by a human hand, the Holy Spirit guided someone we do not know to write it in such a beautiful form. A beautiful story, the story of Job. We will see amazing things in the first two paintings in this hall. We will see scenes. I will tell you something strange. Are you bored? Then listen to this. It will wake you up a little. Job, and behind his tribulation, is it not the devil? The devil. Yes. Listen to this information I will give you, but let no one misunderstand me, and let no one draw conclusions from it beyond what it can bear. In ancient Egyptian manuscripts, the name of Job has been found. But this is perhaps simple. What is more surprising is that our ancient Egyptians had something called "crafting." Has anyone seen their grandmother making a doll and piercing it? Have you seen it? This, my friends, is inherited from our ancient ancestors. But they did not bring dolls. They brought the person they were angry with, whom they hated, and made a small statue of him, and made him look ugly, and then broke it and wrote curses on it. They wrote curses on this statue. They broke it and buried it in Saqqara and in Philae. Many thousands of buried curses have been found. One of them is written with the name of Job. Job, the hated and persecuted. This is the meaning of his name in Hebrew. Job means hated and persecuted. But he was an Arab, perhaps? Or spoke Aramaic? So the name Job in Arabic is "Ayub." "Ayub" means one who returns. A person who changes his mind and learns. A person who is willing to repent and change his mind, saying, "I ask that you may teach me. I am willing to change my mind." So this statement might be in...
A satanic power is behind the destruction that is happening to people. The Book of Job says so. The Book of Job says so. We will come to this hall, but after that we will enter seven rooms. The first room is creation. The second room is the fall. The third room is divine judgment and divine wrath. The fourth room is incarnation and redemption. The fifth room is God's sovereignty and human freedom. The sixth room is Christ's intercessory work, which Bebo read about. And the seventh and last room is the Book of Revelation, the throne, and the end, where there is no pain, no hunger, no suffering, no curse, no curse, no death. The former things have passed away. My brothers, if we do not stand in the hall and learn a basic principle, something about the story of Job, and then we enter each of the seven rooms and sit calmly, listen, understand, and form a sound mind and a sound heart's logic from creation, from the fall, from judgment. I will repeat them: from incarnation and redemption, from God's sovereignty and human freedom, from Christ's intercessory work now, then the happy ending. I believe it is not our right to call ourselves Christians, but rather to be people who believe in what is called natural theology, which we share with all humans. And the Christian truth has not made any difference to us. What do you think of this course? Shall we walk through it together? Amen. We will study, read, and refine our minds. This is what I hope the Lord will give me help to present. As for the ultimate purpose, I will formulate it in one sentence: forming a strong Christian heart and a sound Christian mind capable of facing pain and emerging from it with the greatest profits. Amen. Forming a strong Christian heart and a sound Christian mind capable of facing pain properly and emerging from it with the greatest profits. This is my dream for myself and for my brothers. I rely on God's grace and your prayers with me to embark on this journey together, so that the Lord may help us achieve this through a series of illuminations. Illumination does not come except by the work of the Spirit of God. May the Lord give us insight, may He give us illumination. I pray that these will be opportunities to deliver and present information, but for inner illumination and true change, so that what Louis Pascal calls the logic of the heart is formed, and my heart becomes strong and powerful in facing pain, even if my mind is not yet able to comprehend. Amen. Come on, Bebo, let's prepare for this journey. In the next meeting, I will enter the hall and present something about the Book of Job, and I will talk a little more about the sin of Job's friends, because honestly, I feel sorry for them and I want to vent about them, but in their example, they also separated me. May God give me wisdom not to vent too much and focus on God, Job, and his friends. But let us stand together as we declare our faith in the magnificence of our God and ask for illumination and wisdom. [Music] From Him, perhaps it is an opportunity for you, for her, and for me. Let me say it in the correct order: an opportunity for me to repent for every time I did not deal with a suffering person as I should have dealt with them. I did not deal with the wounded correctly. Let us repent. Let us ask for forgiveness and say, "Forgive us, for we were not able to love our wounded loved ones. Forgive me, for I was not prepared as I should have been with the suffering person. I did not know how to be with them. I knew how to be against them. I knew how to make mistakes and try to be with them and turn against them, as happened with Job's friends. Help me and change me. I wish from today to be a fruitful tree, so that whoever is burned by the heat of the fire of pain finds in me what quenches their thirst. I wish to be a watering spring, a balm, a vessel for glory, ready for every good work. Place yourself in our hands, Lord. Place yourself in our hands, Lord. Say to Him, "Lord, place your hand on me and command my blessing and my change, so that I may work with you. Work with you in the greatest project God is working on: the suffering of the human race. Work with you, Lord, amidst [Music] the suffering. There is no great hardship that He does not overcome. There is no severe storm that silences Him. There is no distant evil that He does not possess. There is no great sadness that He does not wipe away. If our Savior was crucified, He will carry you. If our Savior was crucified, He will reign. He will carry you. There is no difficulty or distress that overcomes Him. There is no severe magnitude that silences Him. There is no distant evil that He does not possess. There is no great sadness that He does not wipe away. If our Savior was crucified, He will... If our Savior was crucified, He will [Music] reign. He will [Music] perhaps you came with pain. I have one piece of news for you that I am certain of: Jesus rose from the dead. And when He rose from the dead, He walked with two sad, depressed people. And I am sure that this was a beautiful scene that embodies what He will do with each one of us. O sad one, O fearful one, O frowning one, O depressed one, ask the Lord to open your eyes so you can see Jesus walking beside you. Draw near to them. Jesus Himself was walking with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. Tell Him, "Lord, I will not tell you now about the problem that is troubling me. You know it and I have told you 100 times. I will not ask you to solve it, for I have told you. But I want one thing: open my eyes so I can see you walking beside me. Let me feel Your presence. Jesus Himself was walking with them, and the second thing is that Jesus did with them what we intend to do. He was explaining to them all the things concerning Him in all the Scriptures. He took them on a tour of His word, and in the end, He entered their house and dined with them. Tell Him, "Enter my house and dine with me and sit with me. Perhaps the trial will continue for a reason known to You, but what I am sure of is that the sadness will end, the fear will end, the depression will end. I will sing with Paul and say, "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." As poor, yet making many rich. This, Lord, for one reason: because You are with me. Say this phrase with me: "Even if I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." Thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ. As poor, yet possessing all things. As poor, yet making many rich. The Lord leads you to the cure, He hastens to your need. Your voice listens to your words, and you become a garden, a garden of rest. He leads us in His triumph in Christ. We sing, we sing much. We reflect. God was comforting us so that we would be comforted in every grace, grace, and fruit. Thanks be to God, who leads us in His triumph in Christ. As poor, yet possessing all things. We believe. Ask the Lord for what He calls you to do always, for He is near. He gives strength. He gives power to break your hardship. Thanks be to God, who leads us in His triumph in Christ. We sing, we sing much. Thanks be to God, who leads us in His triumph in Christ. As poor, yet possessing all things. We believe. [Music] Hallelujah. Amen. Please be seated.