Week One

Part 1: Living with faith in times of great trouble

This month we are going to return to our key story of Bartimaeus (Mark 10: 46-52) multiple times, sometimes focusing on just one particular verse. Each time we revisit the story we hope to gain new insights as we consider all the layers going on in this moving sequence…

Read Job 2: 1-10 and Mark 10: 46-52

What do you think of Job’s life philosophy? You’ve got to take the good with the bad. (Compare it with Bartimaeus’s philosophy in Mark 10: 47-48.) Job sees this as the integrity of faith. In other words, is Job asking are there two sides to the coin of faith? 

What lessons of faith can we learn from the suffering of Job and Bartimaeus?

Read Genesis 2: 18-24 and Galatians 6: 2

The integrity of companionship in suffering. 

How important is the role that friends family and animals play in helping us cope with bad news in times of great suffering? 

Read Hebrews 2: 5-12

This passage opens up the idea that God is not oblivious to human suffering. If this is true what does it tell us about God?

Does God also suffer like us?