May 18, 2020 Show with Paul Tautges on “A Small Book for the Hurting Heart: Meditations on Loss, Grief, & Healing”

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May 19, 2020

May 18, 2020 Paul Tautges, senior pastor @ Cornerstone Community Church in Mayfield Heights, OH, series editor for LifeLine Mini-books, blogger @ CounselingOneAnother.com & author of many books including “Comfort the Grieving”, “Counseling One Another”, & “Brass Heavens”, who will address: “A SMALL BOOK FOR THE HURTING HEART: Meditations on Loss, Grief & Healing”

00:04: Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown
00:10: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,
00:23: Christian scholars, and theologians address burning issues facing the church and the world today.
00:31: Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.
00:38: Matthew Henry said that in this passage we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.
00:50: It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours and we hope to hear from you the listener with your own questions and now here's your host
00:59: Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon
01:09: Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.
01:20: This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio wishing you all a happy Monday on this 18th day of May 2020 and I am thrilled to have back as a returning guest today
01:34: Paul Tauches, who is senior pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, series editor for Lifeline Mini Books, a blogger at counselingoneanother .com,
01:49: and author of many books including Comforting the Grieving, Counseling One Another, Brass Heavens, and the book that we are going to be addressing today,
01:59: A Small Book for the Hurting Heart, Meditations on Loss, Grief, and Healing, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Paul Tauches.
02:10: Thanks so much Chris, it's always a joy to be with you and love talking with you and talking about books and talking about most of all the gospel and the hope that Christ gives to us.
02:22: Amen. If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com,
02:30: c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com, and as always please give us at least your first name, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the
02:44: USA. Please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter, and obviously a theme like this would easily lend itself to folks having personal and private questions, so you may feel free to remain anonymous for those questions.
03:05: And what I wanted to do before, as I always do, before we go into the theme of the book today, please let our listeners know something about Cornerstone Community Church in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.
03:18: Yes, Cornerstone has been around now for 30 years, I'm the second pastor here, we're part of the
03:25: Evangelical Free Church of America, so the EFCA, and we are delighted by what
03:32: God is doing among us as we just try to walk by faith and be faithful to his word, preach his word faithfully, and disciple one another, so we're excited about what the
03:45: Lord is doing among us. My family and I moved here five years ago, and we're just really enjoying a season of unusual blessing and ministry, and we're grateful to God for that.
04:00: Great, and for those of you who want to explore the websites of this church so you can learn more about it, go to cornerstonemayfield .org,
04:11: Cornerstone, M -A -Y -F -I -E -L -D dot org. And this little book looks like it's going to be a treasure trove of helpful guidance and comfort and counsel, in spite of its small size.
04:30: I want to just read a couple of the commendations written by some wonderful folks.
04:40: In fact, the first one, Johnny Erickson Tada, if anybody has had her share of suffering in life, and if anybody has had a hurting heart at times in her life, it has certainly been
04:54: Johnny Erickson Tada, and Johnny says, When we hurt and ask
04:59: God why, we often are not looking for answers. Rather, our hearts are looking for comfort, encouragement, and fatherly assurance that our world is not spinning out of control.
05:12: In his new work, A Small Book for the Hurting Heart, my friend
05:18: Paul Tauches points the reader to helpful insights from the best answer of all, the
05:23: Lord Jesus. Every page is filled with bite -sized wisdom from the word of God, providing healing hope for every heart that hurts.
05:34: I heartily endorse this small but power -packed book. And, of course,
05:41: Edward T. Welch, who is the author of A Small Book for the
05:48: Anxious Heart, and he's on the faculty at Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation, also known as CCEF, he says,
05:57: Grief is sometimes too burdensome to search for direction and comfort in Scripture.
06:03: We want the encouragement of Scripture, but don't have the energy to find just the right passages.
06:10: In this little book, Paul has found those right passages and brought us into them so that they can be brought into us.
06:21: David Murray, who is actually a personal friend of mine, who
06:26: I've interviewed on this program, and who gave me his own book on depression not long after my own wife passed away and went home to be with Christ for eternity.
06:40: David, who's on the faculty at the Puritan Reform Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who is a professor of practical theology there, and the author of Christians Get Depressed Too, and Reset, Living a
06:57: Grace -Based Life in a Burnout Culture. He says, A small book, but massive comfort.
07:04: I'm so thankful for the rivers of spiritual healing that will flow through this beautiful daily devotional into many wounded hearts.
07:13: And last but not least, I want to read an endorsement from another friend of mine who I've interviewed quite a number of times here on the show.
07:21: In fact, we are going to be interviewing him soon, God willing, on a new project he's working on.
07:29: Nate Pikowitz, who's an author and pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Gillington Ironworks, New Hampshire.
07:35: He says, Loss, grief, and sadness are common human experiences, and no less common in the
07:41: Christian life. In seeking comfort, it can be extremely hard to find. That's why
07:46: I'm thankful for Paul Tauch's new book, A Small Book for the Hurting Heart. In the course of 50 devotions,
07:55: Paul brings the hurting believer by the hand right into the pages of Scripture and shows them where true comfort is to be found.
08:03: He skillfully applies carefully selected verses to counsel the reader and ease their burden.
08:10: I would encourage you to prayerfully give this book to those who are hurting, but keep a copy for yourself for when sorrows come.
08:18: That's excellent counsel. And in fact, even though a person who wants to comfort others might frequently and readily gain much benefit from reading a massive tome on the subject, very rarely does somebody who is actually the one who is hurting, very rarely is someone like that mentally capable of sitting down and wading through a large book.
08:50: And this small size makes it perfect for that very reason. Am I not correct on that?
08:56: Yeah, that's really part of the heart behind this little book, is understanding that when loss and grief come into our lives, and comes in so many different ways, the last thing that any of us really have the energy for is to read a 300 -page book about grief or how
09:17: God ministers to us in our grief. And so I was so thrilled to be chosen to be the author of this particular book in this little devotional series because my heart has long been drawn to those who are grieving.
09:34: Early on in my pastoral ministry in Wisconsin, I was a hospice chaplain.
09:41: And you learn really quickly when you're visiting people in hospice or in the hospital that you need to keep your visits very brief, which means you need to come up with wise, biblical, and helpful things to say in a short space.
10:00: And so that's really been helpful to me as I was working on this book, to have that vision of giving a person a bite -sized portion of God's word, but not in a junk food kind of way, but really in a healthy morsel of nourishment for the soul and comfort for the heart that is grieving.
10:25: Now, those that have hurting hearts come from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and circumstances.
10:34: Who will benefit most from your devotional? Well, really anyone who has been experiencing any sort of loss.
10:44: Of course, when we hear the word loss, we most often think immediately of the death of a loved one.
10:53: But loss comes in so many other forms in our lives. Loss of relationships, loss of security through unemployment or, you know, the changes in our economy, loss of relationships through divorce and church conflicts, and loss of dreams, loss of health.
11:18: I mean, there's so many different kinds of loss. So that's really the aim of the book, is to minister to anyone who is experiencing the loss of something that is really precious to them.
11:34: So it's not only for those who are grieving the death of a loved one, though it certainly will be of great benefit to them, but it goes a little broader than that.
11:45: Yeah, that's excellent because I've heard from quite a number of people.
11:53: And of course, each individual is unique and responds to pain and responds to all kinds of things in different ways.
12:05: But I've heard that divorce can frequently be even more painful than mourning the death of a loved one because you have that person who has abandoned you still alive, still out there, perhaps moving on with their life, and it could just really magnify the pain.
12:29: Yes, and that's where, you know, the truth of God's Word is so beautiful. I just love how
12:37: God's Word continues to be relevant to whatever we go through.
12:44: The Holy Spirit, of course, being the divine author of the scriptures, knows exactly what you and I need when we are grieving some kind of loss in our life and how the
12:57: Spirit of God uses His Word to minister to us and remind us of how much
13:02: God truly does love and care for us and how He is here, He is present, and also to point our eyes to the future, to the inheritance that belongs to us in Christ.
13:16: Now, you serve not only as a pastor and a counselor, but as a hospice chaplain, as you were just mentioning before.
13:24: Does the weight of the grief of those around you ever become overwhelming to you?
13:32: Yes, I don't really serve that way regularly anymore, though I did in the early years of my pastoral ministry, and I did often find myself overwhelmed with grief and loss that other people were experiencing.
13:49: So the Lord really had to teach me that I needed to retain the empathy that the
14:00: Spirit of God was knitting in my heart, but I needed to remind myself consciously that Jesus is the only one who is strong enough, whose shoulders are broad enough to carry the weight of every person's grief.
14:22: So as a pastor, I am an under -shepherd, but Jesus is the good shepherd.
14:30: So just to realize that my role is to be, I like to say, a conduit of comfort.
14:39: God comforts us in all of our affliction, 2 Corinthians 1 says, but it's never just for us, it is for us.
14:48: Don't get me wrong, God is comforting us, and we take great comfort in that, but the comfort
14:55: He gives to us is intended to, at some point in the future, then be passed on to someone else.
15:02: And so when you realize that you're not a reservoir of comfort, you are a conduit of comfort, I think it makes a difference that God's comfort is to flow through you, it doesn't end with you.
15:14: And we brought this up in previous interviews, but grief has struck your own family in a deep way recently.
15:23: Would you mind sharing about your own grief journey? Yeah, last year, 2019, was a really difficult year for our family.
15:34: In fact, it was between the time that I submitted the manuscript for this book to the publisher, so from that time to the time that it actually came out as a book that you could hold in your hand, we had two very significant losses in our family.
15:53: My father -in -law passed away last June, while my family and I were in Alabama serving at a
16:01: Johnny and Friends disability family retreat, and we got the call, and we knew that he wasn't doing well, but we all thought that we maybe had, you know, maybe six more months, maybe we would have another
16:14: Christmas with him, and all of a sudden he was gone. And God, in His grace then, enabled me to sneak in a dedication right before the book went to the printer.
16:27: I had the honor to be able to dedicate the book to him. But then, a couple weeks before Christmas of last year, we also lost a beautiful granddaughter who lived only 45 minutes outside of her mother's womb, and even though we also expected that loss because of what the doctors knew was going on inside the womb, there's a sense in which you can prepare yourself for loss, but you're not really fully ready for it ever.
17:07: For when that moment comes, you know, there is deep emotion, deep sense of loss.
17:13: And so, you know, God is so faithful, though, to draw us into His Word and comfort our hearts through His Word and to know that He is faithful,
17:27: He is good, and the promises of His Word are true. We can cling to them as anchors for our faith.
17:36: Well, I would hope that my listeners hearing this would pray for your family.
17:44: Thank you. Continue to pray as you continue, I'm sure, to experiencing the pain of the loss that you've experienced, the losses.
18:00: And I'm hoping that, obviously, as you hope for others, that the
18:06: Lord gives everyone in your family the peace that surpasses all understanding. Yes, thank you.
18:12: You know, we know what 2 Corinthians 12 says about the grace of Christ being sufficient for us, but when we walk through deep valleys and long valleys of sorrow, that becomes so real.
18:34: It becomes something you can truly testify from personal experience, that when
18:42: Jesus said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, and my power is perfected in your weakness, to experience that is such a treasure in our lives, and it's a testimony to the sufficiency of Christ and His grace.
19:01: Now, in your book, you relentlessly connect God's comfort to the gospel.
19:07: Why is that important? Well, I think that, you know, when we experience loss, one of the temptations that we commonly experience is that we feel as though God is far away, or we feel as though perhaps
19:21: God wasn't looking when this happened to us, which, of course, we know isn't true according to Scripture.
19:29: But sometimes our emotions can cloud our minds in what we know to be true, and so I think that one of the most important truths for us to experience and to believe at that moment is that God is very near, and nothing shouts that God draws near to us more than the gospel does, because the gospel is the good news that in Christ Jesus, God drew near to us as sinners, and Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us,
20:03: He came and dwelt on this earth and lived a sinless life and took that sinless life to the cross as the one and only sacrifice for our sins as the
20:14: Lamb of God, and when He was slain upon the cross as that Lamb of God, the
20:21: Bible says that the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Not from bottom to top as if man could somehow do it, but from top to bottom,
20:32: God ripping open the access, free access, into His presence. So all of that, you know, that's gospel truth that says to us,
20:43: God is near. God is very near. He is close. He is present.
20:49: He is here. And that strengthens us to know that the
20:55: Lord is with us, and that the promises that we have in Christ as a result of believing in the gospel are secure for us.
21:08: So I like to say that Christ -centered comfort is the only true comfort. Any other kind of comfort is just superficial.
21:19: Yes, amen to that. In Psalm 56, verse 8, we read that God keeps track of our sorrows and collects our tears.
21:34: Why are our tears that important to God? Yeah, that verse,
21:41: Psalm 56, 8, became so precious to me after my mom passed away ten years ago.
21:48: She died very suddenly of a brain hemorrhage and was gone within three hours.
21:55: So we didn't even get to the hospital in time. But the
22:01: Lord drew me into that particular psalm, and it's so comforting to know that tears are noticed by God.
22:12: Our tears are noticed by God. They're a gift from God. They're a way for us to embrace the pain that we're going through and to release our emotions.
22:23: And so poetically, if God collects all the tears that we weep during the griefs and losses that we experience, then surely we know that He cares about them, and He cares about what causes our tears.
22:45: And so I think that truth like this is so important for us to embrace because it encourages us to turn toward God.
22:54: Sometimes when unexpected loss comes into our lives, our flesh will tempt us to turn away from the
23:03: Lord, but that's the worst thing we can ever do. And so I think it's important to remind ourselves that God cares, and He cares about what bad things happen to us, and our grief grieves
23:18: Him, and He is there for us. He ministers to us in our times of sorrow.
23:28: I love the promise of Romans 8, that there's nothing, no kind of loss that can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ.
23:41: What a wonderful truth. Praise God, definitely. In the
23:47: Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preaches that blessed are those who mourn.
23:53: In what ways are we blessed at times of great grief? Well, I think one of the ways we are blessed in times of grief is we are kind of forced to draw ourselves closer to the
24:11: Lord, at least nudged in the direction of turning toward the Lord, because sometimes in our sorrow we can turn inward, and we can kind of look to see if we have the resources within ourselves to be able to endure whatever loss that we are going through.
24:31: But we don't need to turn inward, we need to turn upward. We need to look not inside for the strength that we need, but we need to look to the
24:41: Lord. And so to know that God is not turned off by our grief, by our sadness, is actually
24:50: God's design that we are weak and dependent people. And so when
24:56: Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, I believe that first he is talking about salvation, that when we mourn over our sins, that's repentance.
25:11: Repentance is involved there, and we turn to the Lord. But also when we go through times of grief and we mourn, we are blessed by the
25:22: Lord. Because we turn to him, and by turning to him, we are giving testimony that we are dependent upon him, and that he is sufficient for all that we need.
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26:25: We'll be right back with our guest, Paul Tauches, and our discussion on A Hurting Heart, right after these messages from our sponsors.
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35:34: Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours is
35:39: Paul Touches, and we are discussing his book, A Small Book for the Hurting Heart, Meditations on Lost Grief and Healing.
35:48: If you'd like to join us with a question of your own, our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.
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36:03: USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.
36:09: And, Paul, a classic text in the
36:14: Scriptures from Isaiah 53 is that Jesus is the man of sorrows.
36:23: In fact, one of my favorite quotes from the great 19th century evangelical
36:30: Anglican bishop, J .C. Ryle, is Jesus is the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
36:37: None have such an opportunity of learning the mind of a suffering Savior as suffering disciples.
36:45: That's burned into my memory and I try to recall that not only when
36:51: I am in pain myself, but when I'm trying to comfort others. But how is seeing
36:57: Jesus in this way a comfort when we are grappling with grief? Yeah, as you were saying that,
37:04: I just couldn't help but think of the Apostle Paul's longing expressed in Philippians 3 where he says he longs to know
37:13: Christ and to know Him in the fellowship of his sufferings. There's something about suffering that draws us closer to the
37:23: Lord and makes us more like Christ. So, when we see the Lord Jesus as the man of sorrows, we immediately understand that we have a high priest who totally understands what we are going through.
37:41: He has experienced those feelings and more. When we think of what happened to the
37:47: Lord Jesus on the cross when He was punished in our place, the Father turned
37:53: His back upon the Son because, as the prophet said in the Old Testament, God cannot look upon sin.
37:59: And so when our sin was heaped upon the shoulders of the
38:04: Lord Jesus, so to speak, the Father turned away. And so the
38:11: Lord Jesus has suffered in every way and more than we have.
38:19: And so there's no pain, there's no sadness, there's no hurt, there's no loss that the
38:25: Lord Jesus does not know personally. We, of course, are reminded as well that not only in the
38:32: Old Testament that speaks of Him as the man of sorrows, but also in the New Testament where we find
38:38: Him weeping at the grave of His friend and weeping not only for His own loss, but for the loss of His friends,
38:48: Mary and Martha. And so seeing the Lord Jesus in this way brings great comfort to us because it reminds us as well that He's that empathetic high priest who the author of Hebrews says is right now sitting at the right hand of God and He's interceding for us.
39:10: So to know that not only does He understand what we're going through in times of loss and grief, but He also knows how to pray for us because He's been through it
39:22: Himself. Amen. In fact, we have a very relevant question from a listener on this.
39:32: We have Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
39:38: And Susan Margaret says, I know that it is true God breathed words from Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things, as we are, yet without sin.
40:02: My question regarding this is that even though I do believe it is absolutely true,
40:08: I have trouble really wrapping my mind around it because Jesus Christ, although He became very much like us in His humanity, is very, very different from us since He is not only fully man, but fully
40:25: God. How do you further convince others in this truth, which is one of the great mysteries of the
40:32: Scripture? Yes, I'm glad you used the word mystery because right there, you know, by referring to it as a biblical mystery, we recognize that that is something we cannot fully recognize and even fully appreciate.
40:50: But to know from the Scriptures that the Lord Jesus is both God and man, that He is the only mediator between God and man, and the reason
41:00: He can be that only mediator is because He is both God and man. So we need to understand that His humanity was fully like ours, except for sin.
41:14: So He had every form of human weakness that is disconnected to sin.
41:24: So Jesus experienced grief, loss, pain, all of the effects of the fall because He was living in a fallen world without Himself being fallen.
41:37: And so we embrace this truth, we testify this truth, and we live out this truth in our own response to suffering.
41:52: And I think that's one of the best ways to help other people understand the sufficiency of Christ as the
42:00: God -man, as the high priest who intercedes for us, is to let other people see how we suffer.
42:10: To suffer transparently, but also to suffer with hope, because we as believers do have hope that unbelievers don't have.
42:20: So there's a sense in which we can't ever fully convince someone else of these truths, because we ourselves can't.
42:29: The truths are too great for us to even comprehend. I mean, they would blow our circuits if we could understand fully the nature of the
42:41: God -man, Jesus Christ. So there's mystery, there's faith, but just to affirm the
42:48: Word of God and then to, in the way that we respond to our own suffering, we can be a testimony of hope and joy even when life is incredibly painful.
43:01: Amen. Well, thank you so much, Susan Margaret, and please make sure that we have your full mailing address in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, because you have won a free copy of the book we are discussing.
43:15: That's Paul Tauch's new book, A Small Book for the Hurting Heart, Meditations on Lost Grief and Healing, and that is compliments of our friends at New Growth Press, and also compliments of our friends at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Services, who will be shipping that book out to you at no charge to you or to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.
43:41: So thanks for the great question. Keep listening and keep submitting wonderful questions to the program.
43:49: Let's see here. We have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania.
43:57: And Arnie says, When we are in the midst of deep sin and we have not fully repented of this, and we keep getting drawn back to it, and we are experiencing overwhelming pain, crying out to the
44:16: Lord, does He hear our prayers? And I guess
44:22: I'm assuming that Arnie is specifically speaking about the fact that the person who he is describing is still sinning.
44:31: I mean, we all sin, of course, but perhaps this is a very scandalous, extremely rebellious sin.
44:41: Yeah, that answer, the question has to be answered, I think, in two different ways, one of which is, what is this person's attitude toward their own sin?
44:56: Are they hard -hearted and determined to remain in their sin and spurn the grace of God?
45:07: Then, according to Scripture, I think that they need to really look in the mirror of the
45:13: Word of God and determine whether or not they're truly born again, whether or not the
45:18: Holy Spirit lives within them, because Scripture testifies that though we as believers will struggle with sin and fight against sin, the flesh will war against the
45:32: Spirit, and the Spirit will war against the flesh, there is, at the end of the day, there is still that desire to become holy, and there is that grief over sin.
45:44: One of the ways that God disciplines us, though, is by withholding answers to prayer.
45:53: I deal with this extensively in my book that you mentioned at the start of the program, Brass Heavens, Reasons for Unanswered Prayer, and I deal with six biblical reasons why
46:04: God does not answer our prayers, and one of them is that we are stubbornly set in our ways and we are cherishing sin in our hearts.
46:19: So, the question comes, you know, what is the person's attitude toward that sin and their constant failure?
46:27: If they're grieving over this sin, if they're asking other people to help them to overcome this sin, that's a really strong indicator that their desire is really to be like Jesus, to be holy, and that desire in and of itself is not a natural thing, it's not natural to our flesh.
46:51: That's really good evidence that a person knows the Lord. But God will sometimes use unanswered prayer as a means of disciplining us to awaken us to the reality that we need to repent, we need to turn away from our sin, and we need to become aware of what
47:16: God sees in our lives and plead with Him for help. So, there will be a struggle in the
47:23: Christian life, for sure, and I'm more concerned about the person who doesn't struggle anymore.
47:31: You know, when a person gets to the point where they just raise the white flag and they just say, forget it, this isn't even worth it, and they just go off into sin and become calloused and hard -hearted and cold -hearted, that's a really dangerous place to be.
47:46: Amen. Well, thank you, Arnie, and please make sure we have your full mailing address in Perry County, Pennsylvania, because you have also won a free copy of a small book for the hurting heart, compliments of our friends at New Growth Press and compliments of our friends at CBVBS .com
48:08: who will actually be mailing that to you. We have an anonymous listener. The anonymous listener says,
48:17: What counsel can you give those who torment themselves knowing that their own sins from the past has brought about great loss in life that can never be replaced?
48:35: Yeah, the pain of regret. The pain of regret can be really, really intense, and it requires the ongoing discipline of running back to the cross, running back to Christ, running back to the security that is ours.
48:53: I like to direct people to Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8 and just live there for a while, read that, those four chapters, over and over and over again to become further rooted in the gospel of God's grace.
49:15: And, you know, it's often been said that we can choose our sins, but we cannot choose the consequences of our sins.
49:22: And I think that's what this person is talking about, is that when the Lord opens our eyes, we realize that some of the losses that we have experienced in life are the consequences of our own foolishness to our own sins.
49:39: But instead of becoming overwhelmed by that, we need to properly repent.
49:46: We need to let the sorrow do its work. But we need to run really quickly back to the
49:52: Lord, back to Christ, and understand that all of our righteousness is ours filthy rags, that we rest solely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
50:05: And we are accepted, already accepted by God. We don't have to earn acceptance.
50:11: We don't have to perform to be accepted, but if we have trusted in Jesus Christ as our
50:17: Savior and Lord, then we are already accepted fully by God the
50:22: Father. We have been adopted into His family. We need to meditate on those kinds of truths so that we are not overcome by the pain of regret.
50:34: Amen. And let's not ever forget that the Apostle Paul, when he was soul of Tarsus, murdered men and women who were
50:45: Christians for their faith. Yes. And if the
50:50: Lord gave him the peace to carry on, not only as a Christian, but as an
50:56: Apostle, he can do that for us as well. Well, and I'd also like to add,
51:01: Chris, that there have been times that I have felt that way in my Christian life, and one of the most helpful things for me has been to pray through Psalm 51 as my own prayer.
51:14: You know, David's prayer of repentance there, and that can apply to any kind of sin.
51:21: It doesn't really matter what kind of sin it is because the truth there is relevant regardless.
51:30: But because you see how deeply David is grieving over his sin and the things that his sin has caused, by the time you get to the end of the psalm, you find him pleading with the
51:50: Lord to restore to him the joy of his salvation. So making that psalm a prayer of your own can be extremely helpful.
52:03: Amen. We have to go to our midway break. It's a longer than normal break because Grace Life Radio 90 .1
52:10: FM in Lake City, Florida requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show since they air this program twice a day in a pre -recorded format in the morning drive and in the evening.
52:21: And they have to, according to FCC regulations, localize this program to Lake City, Florida by airing their own public service announcements while we air our worldwide commercials, those that are heard globally via live streaming.
52:39: So please use this time wisely. Write down the information provided by our advertisers so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them, which will keep them happy and hopefully keep them our advertisers so that we can remain on the air because we require their funding to exist.
52:59: But also write down questions for Paul Tauchus on The Hurting Heart and send them to chrisarnson at gmail .com.
53:07: chrisarnson at gmail .com. I'm going to lead into this midway break right now with a song.
53:13: Don't worry, I'm not going to sing it. I'm sure that the vast majority of you know who
53:19: Little Richard was. Richard Wayne Penniman was his real name and I just found out that he passed away at the age of 87.
53:30: He was someone who is well known to have been battling demons most of his life and it seemed like his life was on a pendulum swinging back and forth in and out of the
53:42: Christian faith. He struggled and committed very atrocious sins such as homosexuality and was involved in orgies and drug abuse and all kinds of things.
53:55: I was so encouraged when I saw a recent interview with him on television before he passed where he was once again speaking with a strong voice of a committed, repentant
54:11: Christian and renouncing sin. So it is my hope that he is in eternity with Christ at this moment.
54:20: And I'm going to play a song for you now that is a very little known song by this man.
54:29: This song would not come up on your typical Google search of Little Richard like Good Golly Miss Molly and Tutti Frutti Oh Rudy.
54:40: This is a song with eternal significance. What am I supposed to do without Jesus?
54:46: And I hope you all, while listening to it, reflect on those words yourself, especially perhaps those who are listening who do not yet know
54:54: Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. In the past I've been so self -sufficient
55:08: And I told myself I'm the master of my fate
55:19: But then one day Jesus showed me my nothingness
55:31: And now He is the master of my soul
55:43: What am I supposed to do without Jesus?
55:52: What am I supposed to do without Him?
56:04: What am I supposed to do without Jesus?
56:15: Without Him I just can't do anything
56:25: He's my life and He's my joy He gives me strength when
56:34: I grow old He's the apple and He's the wheat
56:40: He's the beginning and He's the end
56:45: What am I supposed to do without Jesus?
56:53: Oh my side, without Him I just can't do anything
57:05: Lord I've hated, I've hated Lord What am
57:12: I supposed to do? Lord I've cheated,
57:18: I've cheated Lord What am I supposed to do?
57:26: Then I tried to have my own way
57:35: But then I heard the Spirit say
57:42: Jesus, oh
57:48: Jesus Cause I know
57:53: He is the only way What am
58:03: I supposed to do without Jesus?
58:11: What am I supposed to do without Him?
58:21: What am I supposed to do without Jesus?
58:29: By my side, without Him I just can't do anything
58:52: Little Richard, as I said before just recently passed away
58:58: Born December 5th, 1932 Died May 9th, 2020
59:10: I'm Dr. Tony Costa Professor of Apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love
59:22: Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York pastored by Rich Jansen and Christopher McDowell It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in His Holy Word and to enthusiastically proclaim
59:47: Christ Jesus the King and His doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County, Long Island and beyond I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love as I have
01:00:02: For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church go to hopereformedli .net
01:00:09: that's hopereformedli .net or call 631 -696 -5711 that's 631 -696 -5711
01:00:24: Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron Iron Sharpens Iron welcomes
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01:01:50: Lindbrook Baptist Church on 225 Earl Avenue in Lindbrook, Long Island is teaching God's timeless truths in the 21st century
01:01:57: Our church is far more than a Sunday worship service It's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant
01:02:04: It's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement It's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people and healing
01:02:12: We're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship, play and together
01:02:19: Hi, I'm Pastor Bob Walderman and I invite you to come and join us here at Lindbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be
01:02:25: Call Lindbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402 that's 516 -599 -9402 or visit lindbrookbaptist .org
01:02:34: that's lindbrookbaptist .org Iron Trump Chris Armsden, host of Iron Trump and Zion Radio here
01:02:44: I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years His name is Dan Buttafuoco Dan is a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer but not the type that typically comes to mind
01:02:55: Dan cares about people and is a theologian himself Recently he wrote a book titled
01:03:01: Consider the Evidence for the Bible Ravi Zacharias wrote the foreword
01:03:06: Dan also has a master's degree in theology Dan handles serious injury and medical malpractice cases in all 50 states
01:03:14: He represents many Christians in serious injury matters all over the country Dan is an exceptional trial lawyer
01:03:22: He wrote the test for the National Board of Trial Advocacy and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for 1 million dollars or more and in approximately 10 different states
01:03:35: In Illinois, his lawyers had the 4th largest settlement in the state's history
01:03:40: In New York, his case involving a paralyzed police officer made the front page of the
01:03:45: Law Journal If you have a serious personal injury or medical malpractice claim in any state,
01:03:52: I recommend that you call Dan Consultations are free There is no fee unless you win
01:03:58: Dan Buttafuoco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878 1 -800 -669 -4878
01:04:06: Or email me for Dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail .com
01:04:12: That's chrisarnson at gmail .com James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here
01:04:27: If you've watched my Dividing Line webcast often enough you know I have a great love for getting Bibles and other documents vital to my ministry rebound to preserve and ensure their longevity and besides that they feel so good
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01:06:20: Iron Trump and Zion Radio audience have been sticking with or switching to the
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01:07:25: NASB is my Bible of choice Here's a great way for your church to help keep
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01:07:48: That's nasbible .com to place your order The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly changed our way of life bringing so many uncertainties
01:08:03: When will it end? Why do disasters like this happen? How do we deal with anxiety, fear, and the like?
01:08:10: Well, join us each Friday on the program Iron Sharpens Iron with your host Chris Arnzen and Pastor Joe Jacowicz as they explore
01:08:19: God's Word for answers to this and other life's related issues Tune in at firstloveradio .org
01:08:27: That's firstloveradio .org Each Friday at 1pm
01:08:33: Pacific, 4pm Eastern That's Iron Sharpens Iron on firstloveradio .org
01:08:39: Fridays 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern to hear what the Bible has to say about pandemics and how we should respond
01:08:56: We are excited to announce another new member of the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio advertising family
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01:09:57: This is Andrew Lamport with Striving for Eternity Ministries Are you cooped up at home or are you just desiring to use your time wisely?
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01:10:40: Q &A. Get all the details at strivingforeternity .org and there you can go to the online events to register before May 30th and we'll see you there online in your home
01:10:56: Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said Give yourself unto reading The man who never reads will never be read
01:11:04: He who never quotes will never be quoted He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own
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01:13:00: and remember to tell them that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Before we return to Paul Tauches I just have a few more announcements to make
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01:18:02: USA before we go to any other listener questions Paul I know that grief can tempt us to want immediate answers to our pain which may result in thinking that God has forgotten us or is far away what biblical truths can we choose to focus on during the times we have unanswered questions one of the most helpful verses that I was taught as a brand new believer
01:18:32: I remember sitting in the living room of the home of the couple that discipled me for a year and a half is
01:18:42: Deuteronomy 29 .29 and I'll never forget basically they were using that verse to to emphasize the fact that they as the leaders of the
01:18:55: Bible study couldn't answer every question and that was just really helpful but in that verse
01:19:01: Moses says the secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever and that's so helpful because to just acknowledge that we are finite
01:19:19: God is infinite we are finite God does not have to tell us everything that he's up to in the trials that we go through there are some things that he retains for his own knowledge but there are things that are revealed and there are many more things revealed in the scriptures than even we have the ability to learn and obey in our lifetime and just to know that even though we don't know everything that's going on in and through our suffering we do know that God is good he is wise that his hand of providence is mysterious but it's always working together for the good of those who love him and for his glory so we need to remember truths like that we need to remember that that the
01:20:18: Lord is our rock and our fortress as Psalm 18 says and that he is our ever present help in time of trouble just to know that we can run to him with any of our hurts any of our needs what are some of the things you can do to minister to someone who is hurting
01:20:43: I think probably the most important thing to do is to move in closer to not be afraid that you might say the wrong thing sometimes when we see other people going through deep deep grief we feel inadequate we feel afraid that we're going to say the wrong thing and so we don't say anything at all and that's really the worst thing that we can do we should not pull away from them because we're afraid of embarrassing ourselves or not being smart enough so to speak to say the right thing we need to just know that what people need is our comforting presence and you know in these days of the coronavirus crisis of course moving in closer takes on a whole new meaning we need to find other ways if we can't actually be in each other's presence depending on who you're trying to minister to we need to move in closer through phone calls and emails and texts and but the whole point is draw near to the person who is hurting be present, listen a lot speak a little you don't have to have all the right answers it's enough to just say something like I'm really sorry this must hurt really badly one of the mistakes
01:22:13: I think we make is we try to compare our suffering to other people's suffering or we might say to someone who's grieving a friend of mine went through what you went through and this is how it all turned out that's really less than helpful because even though the griefs we experience are common no two are exactly identical and so the comparison game doesn't help all that much so show love show compassion speak gentle healing words don't get preachy be present and show the compassion of Christ Amen, now in regard to similar experiences
01:23:07: I mean the scriptures tell us that one of the reasons we suffer is that we can comfort others so if we preface it by saying
01:23:23: I may not be ever able to understand exactly what you're going through and even though on the surface some of the pain
01:23:33: I've experienced in life may look similar, you and I are completely different individuals, we're unique and I cannot say that my experience is at all identical to yours, it may be you may have an extremely different reaction to what you're going through but having said that and then you move on to say what you want to say in regard to the similarities of your experience is that proper?
01:24:06: Are you there Paul? I think Paul got disconnected um well, we're gonna have to we're gonna have to hang up on Paul we're gonna hopefully get
01:24:21: Paul to call us back well here he is Hey Paul, I don't know what happened.
01:24:27: I'm not sure what happened Chris, I lost you so I I quick called you back Well I'm glad you did um but as I was saying, as long as we preface what we're saying by the fact that our experiences may not be at all felt in the same way, we might not respond in the same way, as long as we preface it with something like that Yes.
01:24:55: Isn't it appropriate Oh absolutely, yeah what you have described is a wise use of words um
01:25:02: I think we just need to be careful that the first words that come out of our mouth are not, well
01:25:08: I went through that too, you know sometimes I hear of like women who are going through a miscarriage and I mean,
01:25:16: I think it's really super helpful to them um, to have other women in the church, other women in their lives, who are able to say,
01:25:28: I'm so sorry for your loss for your hurt, and you might not want to talk about it right now but you know, when you're ready let me know, cause you know my husband and I lost a baby too, or something like that so I think that sharing those things are really important but just to do it in wisdom um, and in the right timing perhaps is not the first thing that comes out of our mouth, so the way that you crafted your words was wise and gracious, and that's a good example uh, let's see here, we have another anonymous listener and the anonymous listener says one of the things that hurts my heart is that I am racked with guilt that after sinning greatly in my past I have moved on with my life and of course a sinner daily, but um are you there
01:26:28: Paul? yeah I'm still here, I don't know what's going on with the phone system here right, moving on with my life and although I sin daily am a faithful repentant
01:26:38: Christian and at times I'm very joyful and experiencing great gladness in life, but I am racked with guilt over this due to the past sins that I have committed and their severity is this proper to be racked with guilt over past sins on a continuing basis?
01:27:02: well, it's understandable, but it's not proper in the sense that it reveals um an unhealthy sense of shame and a misunderstanding of the the completeness of the forgiveness that belongs to us in Christ one of the most helpful scriptures
01:27:27: I think is found in the book of Hebrews where it talks about how the Lord Jesus has taken our shame that when he took our sin upon the cross, he also took the shame that is associated with sin remember he was publicly crucified, so on a public street in Jerusalem, outside the city you know, for all to see it was the sin and the guilt of our sin but he also endured the shame that goes along with our sin, and then there's a beautiful scripture then as well in Hebrews that speaks of how the
01:28:07: Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brethren and so when when a believer struggles in this way one of the most helpful things to do is to go to a scripture like that and then to confess to the
01:28:23: Lord and say, Lord, your word says that my Savior, the
01:28:28: Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call me his brother, his sister and so I accept the forgiveness the completeness of the forgiveness that you have promised to give me in Christ so what that believer then needs to do is every time their mind and heart is assaulted with that overwhelming sense of guilt and shame they need to run back to Christ back to the cross to remind themselves that their acceptance with God is purely based upon grace and that's what they need to remind themselves of it's not their past experiences, it's not even their present performance for God but to go back to the gospel, go back to the assurances that we find in the word of God concerning how thoroughly the sacrifice of Christ has dealt with our sin problem
01:29:34: Amen We have Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, New York who says to follow up on a question a few moments ago how do you respond to the person that does not want to listen to your advice, your counsel by saying you've never experienced what
01:29:55: I've experienced so you really can't adequately talk to this circumstance
01:30:01: Yeah, I think that well it depends on the tone of their voice I think when they say that to you as to how long you would continue that conversation if it's someone who's a scoffer then
01:30:14: Proverbs would indicate that you shouldn't really waste very much time answering a fool according to their folly but if you can tell that they're just really hurting, they're really struggling, then
01:30:29: I think the simple thing to say is well, to an extent you're right I can't fully understand every part of it but I don't have to because the comfort that I'm giving to you doesn't originate with me.
01:30:45: The comfort I'm sharing with you is God's comfort It comes from Him just through me and so I hope that this is of help to you and let me know if you ever want to talk in the future and I'll be praying for you.
01:31:02: And Ronald, give us your full mailing address out in Eastern Suffolk County because you've also won a free copy of the book we have been addressing
01:31:10: A Small Book for the Hurting Heart Meditations on Lost Grief and Healing by our guest
01:31:16: Paul Touches, compliments of our friends at New Growth Press and also it will be shipped to you compliments of Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com
01:31:26: Our sponsor will be shipping that out to you at no charge to you or to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Going back to my own questions, in addition to reading the devotional daily, what else should readers be doing alongside to face their loss and move forward
01:31:48: I'm sorry, move toward healing? Well, I think be aware that there are dangers that exist in grief, that grief can leave us really vulnerable and there are ways that we can get stuck, we can get stuck in anger, we can get stuck in anxiety you know, we can get stuck in unproductive and even sinful responses to our grief and so we need to just continue to practice the spiritual disciplines that our soul needs even on days when we don't necessarily feel like it to be talking to the
01:32:33: Lord in prayer, to be praising him in song to listening to him in his word
01:32:42: I find singing to be really helpful, especially singing scripture or singing songs that are just rich with scriptural lyrics, music being created by God, but when music is married to the word of God it has an amazing power to get into the nooks and crannies of our inner being and minister to us in a way that is sometimes just really profound
01:33:16: I think also we need to be sure that we stay public and we stay connected to our family and especially to our local church as well so that they can minister to us it's easy in times of grief to isolate ourselves but we need to be careful about that obviously there will be times that we need to be alone and we need to be alone to grieve and alone to spend time with God but to be careful that that time doesn't go on for too long but that we stay connected with our church family so that they can minister to us we have another anonymous listener who asks how do you respond to the impatient friends and loved ones around you when they tell you that your grief, your mourning has gone on too long, it's time to get on with your life, it's time to enjoy life, how do you respond to this?
01:34:20: well I think in humility we should pause and do our best with the help of the
01:34:31: Holy Spirit to respond graciously to them and perhaps then to even evaluate whether or not there is any truth in what they're saying but I think we need to understand that everyone grieves differently and according to a different timetable so the humility you know the humble response would be to reflect on that and realize well maybe there's even in criticism there may be a kernel of truth there and say
01:35:06: Lord help me to understand am I am I stuck here, am
01:35:11: I stuck in my grief but maybe you could even then gently respond to them by saying
01:35:18: I appreciate your concern and I'm aware that it is a danger for me to get stuck in my grief but I'm taking my time,
01:35:32: I'm with God's help and I'll take a step forward each time each day with the help of the
01:35:41: Lord but it might take me longer than it takes other people so in other words opening up the door to that understanding that grief takes a long time for some people
01:35:56: Is it ever appropriate for a person to grieve for the rest of their lives as long as there aren't destructive behaviors attached to it somebody becoming a hermit somebody becoming an addict with alcohol or drugs or finding some other earthly sensual way to find a quick fix all those kinds of things there might be a person who loved his wife so much that when he's 97 years old on his death bed he may still have mourned and grieved over her loss to some extent
01:36:37: Oh I agree yeah even believers who are doing what the scripture says grieving with hope that does not mean that every ounce of pain is going to be relieved in this life in fact
01:36:56: I think most times it won't be we can move forward and continue to function with joy by the grace of God but that does not mean there will not be that continual sense of loss that empty chair that's at the table that recognition of you know
01:37:18: Christmas just will be different now from now on and part of that is just the ache that God wants us to feel that will only fully be resolved in heaven in the presence of God when every tear is wiped away and all of the pain and the suffering is gone and will be no more because it will be swallowed up by the presence and the joy of Christ so yeah there's great truth in what you said grief opens the door to a lot of temptations so the key is be careful be careful not to get stuck and spinning your wheels in grief but also recognize that it's okay to continue to grieve to some extent for as long as we live well
01:38:27: I'm going to read a question from CJ from Lindenhurst Long Island New York and have you answer it when we come back from our last break okay
01:38:38: CJ wants to know should we always discourage people who are seeking counsel from secular psychologists and psychiatrists even if they claim they are benefiting from them and we'll have you answer that when we come back don't go away we'll be right back with our final segment of Paul Touches and the
01:39:03: Hurting Heart right after these messages from our sponsors James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and the
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01:51:03: We are now back with our guest, Paul Tauches. And Paul, our guest, or should
01:51:09: I say our listener in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, CJ wants to know if we should always discourage people who are getting counsel from a secular psychologist or psychiatrist.
01:51:22: Well, my answer would be yes and no. It's not wrong for them to be experiencing the comfort that comes as part of God's common grace.
01:51:41: Unbelievers, secular counselors can be kind. They can be compassionate. They can say helpful things.
01:51:50: But when we really understand the Scriptures, we understand the comfort that comes to us from the
01:51:57: Word of God and through Christ, we understand that ultimately we need something deeper than that.
01:52:04: We need something more helpful than that. And that's why the
01:52:10: Apostle Paul even discouraged us in Colossians 2 to be careful that we're not taken captive by worldly philosophies.
01:52:21: And the main reason that Paul is concerned there is because all of the worldly ideas and things that were impacting the
01:52:33: Colossians there were diminishing Christ. And that's really what it comes down to, is we can get helpful information as a means of God's common grace through various people and even secular counselors, but it's only going to be very limited in its impact and help to us.
01:53:00: So I think that the better thing to do is to always lift up Christ I don't think we should scold people for getting help where they think they can find help, but I think what the better thing to do is to present to them the superior counsel, which is
01:53:19: Christ. Christ is a superior counselor. The Word of God is a superior counsel.
01:53:26: And to understand Psalm 1, that the most stabilizing counsel comes from the
01:53:38: Word of God. It's when we meditate on the Word of God day and night. That's when we are firmly planted by streams of water, and that's when we yield fruit in its season.
01:53:51: So yes and no. No, in the sense that I don't think we should scold people, make them feel that they are inferior to us because of their choice, but I think that we can acknowledge what help they might be receiving, but then go further than that to present the beauty of Christ and the comfort of his counsel that comes to us through his
01:54:21: Word. Yes, and a part of C .J.'s question was even if they're benefiting from this counsel, well, they may think they are just because they may have their consciences salved and they may feel better about some sin in their life, but if it's a secular counselor, this person might be encouraging them to continue in it.
01:54:42: Sure, or if it's in the case of grief, which has been our topic the last two hours, it might simply reveal that this person is lonely and needs someone to talk to, and what it might be revealing is an opportunity that God is giving to us to get involved in that person's life, invite them to church, bring them to church with us, share the beauty and the comfort of Christ with them because they may be completely ignorant of the superiority of Christ.
01:55:13: So I think that the way we would discourage is really important.
01:55:20: Discouragement for discouragement's sake or to come across as being holier than thou to people or that they are inferior to us is incredibly unhelpful, but to instead say, let me share with you the comfort that the
01:55:38: Lord Jesus has given to me, or could I share a Bible verse with you that's just so helpful to me in dealing with my anxiety or my grief, and gently minister to people that way,
01:55:54: I think we're going to be farther ahead in the long run. Yeah, I remember the world -renowned psychologist,
01:56:03: Dr. Joyce Brothers, who was a very well -known figure for decades on television,
01:56:09: I'm dating myself because a lot of young people have no idea who I'm speaking of, but she actually had the audacity to suggest that people might want to spice up their marriage by having an affair as long as they were certain that their spouse would never find out about it.
01:56:28: Now, I don't know how that is possible, but anyway, obviously a horrific, horrible source of counsel.
01:56:37: But, well, we are out of time, and I was wondering if you, in about 30 seconds' time, could just share just one more piece of encouragement about grief to those who are listening.
01:56:49: Yeah, I would just quickly say that whatever loss you've experienced that has brought grief into your life, that there is comfort that is available, and the comfort comes from the
01:57:01: Lord, that God is the God of all comfort. God the Father is very attentive to your loss.
01:57:09: He loves you. He cares for you. He's proven that through the giving of his Son to be your
01:57:16: Savior, to rescue you from eternal punishment and to give you eternal life, that Jesus is the compassionate and understanding
01:57:27: Savior who can minister to you in your time of grief and loss, and that the
01:57:34: Holy Spirit is himself a comforter. Jesus is the one who referred to the
01:57:40: Holy Spirit as another comforter. And so, by interacting with the
01:57:47: Lord in prayer and listening to his word, there is great comfort that is available.
01:57:56: So, be careful. The enemy wants to take advantage of you in your time of grief and hurt.
01:58:02: So, be careful that you don't pull away from the Lord, but lean into the Lord. Spend time in his word.
01:58:10: Meditate daily on his word. And the Lord will indeed comfort you with the promises that are found in the scriptures.
01:58:17: The website for the church where our guest serves as the senior pastor, that website is
01:58:27: CornerstoneMayfield .org. CornerstoneMayfield .org.
01:58:33: And of course, don't forget about New Growth Press. Their website is NewGrowthPress .com.
01:58:39: NewGrowthPress .com. I want to thank everybody who listened today. And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater