“Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.”  (1 Thessalonians 4)

 

Something that is commonly written in books that try to teach us how to comfort the broken hearted tell us not to use passages of Scripture and expect them to fix everything.  While there is a small amount of truth in this warning, if left at this, it is false.  It is like a catholic crucifix.  The catholic crucifix has partial truth in it, it speaks to Christ’s death, but it leaves Him on the cross and neglects the resurrection!!!  It is like preaching a form of the Gospel but ignoring sin and repentance as part of the Gospel.  This portion of the Gospel, while having some truth in it forgets to answer why Christ died in the first place, and the need to sorrow and repent of one’s sin in answer to His death. To neglect the need of a new life is to deny the purpose and meaning of Christ’s resurrection.

To say that the Word of God is not helpful or comforting and leave it at that is like being a hearer of the Word of God and not a doer.  To comfort someone with the Word of God and not weep or hurt with the one hurting is not comforting.  To weep with someone and not use God’s Word to further comfort is to deny the hurting one comfort.  What is the difference between a lost person crying with the hurting one and leaving it at that and a Christ-ian weeping and also leaving it at that.

Reader, I have not lost a wife or a child, much less both and I pray often seeking God’s mercy and keeping me from such loss as so many Christ-ians have suffered these losses. I know a man that lost his wife in a fire, many of us have heard about the Christ-ian pastor who lost his wife and, I think, five (5) children. Reader, my eyes water as I write this. I know a woman, a most godly woman who has lost a husband very recently, and her words of grief are similar to Lewis’ “A Grief Observed.”

Like I said above we are often warned not to use God’s Word to comfort the hurting, yet when the hurting gives testimony later, they all say, it was the Word of God that saw them through it and the prayers of God’s people!!!
The man that lost his wife to a fire, after some time past, stood in a pulpit in front of his Christ-ian family, with tears in his eyes, and theirs, and said, “If it wasn’t for my understanding of the sovereignty of God, I could not have managed.”  The pastor that lost his entire family in a fiery car accident and was the sole survivor, said much the same.  This godly woman, who lost her husband recently, will no doubt say the same at some point, as did Lewis after his time of early and initial pain past.  He had a lashing out period, but it was God’s Word and God’s Presence that brought him out of it.  Remember, Reader, Anger at God, and a momentary doubt of His love  IS AN ACT OF FAITH.

If the Word of God is not the Christ-ian’s primary form of healing, the Psalms are to be doubted and ignored during times of loss and pain.  Paul’s words, used above as our text reference, is to be stricken, as should the comforting Words and Promises of Christ in the Gospels and as they are expounded in the epistles.  The Words of God should be whispered in the ears of the afflicted as they are being pulled and held tightly in the loving arms of a Christ-ian.  The Word of God, and prayers of God’s people will help as the “thoughts” of the lost will not and only patronize the hurting.

A Word to the hurting, and to those who will hurt, if you want not my prayers and speaking to you and reminding you of the power of God’s Word do not seek my comfort because that’s all I have and that’s all anyone has, except the pharmacist. For when I suppress or hold back God’s Words of Comfort and you doubt the power of those Words and the prayers of God’s people, you doubt God, Himself. What are funerals for if not the comfort of God’s Word?

C.S. Lewis makes the argument, in “The Problem of Pain,” That pain is God’s megaphone to a sleeping world.”  Pain is the way we that believe and preach the Gospel might understand in some small way that, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”  It is through sickness, pain, and loss that we might understand, in some minute way how it was for Christ to suffer in our stead.  This is why some of the godliest Christ-ians and those who walk closely to and with God suffer the most pain and loss in this world.  Many unbelievers have come to faith through pain and loss as they found no comfort and healing anywhere else.  I know of a miltant atheist and evolutionist that came to faith when he suffered a great loss and found he knew not how to pray.

I remember an evangelist telling me the story of a pastor friend of his, calling him in tears and with so much heartbreak.  This hurting pastor told him that his entire congregation just walked out on him after he requested a vote of confidence from them.  After he asked this of them, he and his family turned around and gave them time to consider this. they began to hear chairs shuffling and Bibles clothing.  When this pastor and his family turned around, they were alone. What did this evangelist tell this crushed pastor?  In tears of joy and encouragement this evangelist told this pastor that there were only two (2) men in Scripture to be forsaken by all…Jesus Christ and Paul.
Oh, hurting brother or sister, “count it all joy when you fall into [testing].”

It was when Paul was in prison and alone that Christ came to sit with him all night long.  It was when Peter was in prison that God sent an angel to give him comfort and liberty and to strengthen his faith and reserve.  It was after Christ’s time of testing and temptation that the angels came to Him.

All of the epistles contain words of comfort, confirmation, consellation in times of persecution or coming persecution.  The Word of God is a book of Christ-ian persecution in some form or degree of another starting in Gensis in the Garden, continuing through the writings of Moses, through the historical books, the prophets, the books of wisdom, and onward into the Gospels, Acts, and the epistles and Revelation. Christ-ian history is covered in the blood of the faithful and martyred as are the publications that denote current events.

What was it and what is it that gave strength and fortification to those of the past and those of our present day?  The Word of God and the Christ-ian bond and witness.

My beloved reader, for your sake, do not, for one second, believe that the Word of God gives no comfort in times of pain, loss and persecution!!! This is the old, old, so very old lie of the evil one. This lie is “(s)atanic oppression 101”  As well as, “Spiritual Warfare 101.”  Reader, we are warned by John not to belive every spirit we hear but to, “Try the spirits.”  Paul warns us to, “Prove all things.”  Christ and the apostles and penmen of the Word repeatedly shout, “Be not deceived,” and “Take heed, lest…”

I’m sorry to say, but much of the lies that are taught concerning and regarding the faith is found in pulpits, “Christ-ian” books and publications, “Chris-ian” cliches, and kind-hearted “Christ-ian well wishes.  These x-ian books on comforting deny the power of God’s Word, the devotions that pretend to be Words from Christ, “Jesus Calling” etc. are very dangerous. So many “Christ-ian” books and “CHrist-ian churches and ministies are a good percentage, somewhat sound but what is unsound over-rides what is sound.

If I gave you a cup that was made up of ninety-five percent (95%) soda or lemon-ade and five percent (5%) poison, would you not grow ill and die?  The same is true of works and ministries having a large percent of truth and a small percent poison dogma. The catholic church is perfectly sound on many fronts, their teaching on the Trinity is great.  Even some of their teaching regarding salvation by faith is accurate, but then they poison it with the idolatry of Mary and saints. Actually, moany of their sainst were godly, saved servants, but by the catholic church claiming them, these saints are tainted in the eyes of God’s people.

Much of the world respects the mormon faith because of their views on family and community, what the world does not understand that these families and mormon communities are deceived by a demonic taught and birthed doctrine and are headed for Hell. The Apostolic church and some of the pentacostal churches are sound in some teaching, but then poison them by saying baptism and talking in tongues is a reguirement for salvation. This is true of the so-called, “Christian Church” also known as “Disciples of Christ.”