We close out the week with a question from an international listener, a young woman.

Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for this podcast.

I'm a medical student in Romania, preparing to be an oncologist.

I want to care for bodies, but even more, I want to serve souls.

I want to be wise in serving terminally ill patients, including children,

as they face pain, helplessness, and eventual death.

From your pastoral experience, what tool should I have available to minister to the terminally ill?

I'm going to assume that you are not in a position where you will be penalized

for sharing the gospel or sharing the promises of God,

or for praying and encouraging others to pray for those in your care.

It's tragic when for political reasons or other reasons,

medical professionals and even chaplains, pastors, are instructed not to help people.

In the most critical hour of their lives with the most important issues they face,

namely the issue of faith in Christ, a tragic.

So I'm going to assume that's not your situation, but that you have freedom.

I'm also going to assume that you're not asking about the practicalities or the legitimacy

of palliative care, that is the biblical lawfulness of reducing pain.

I assume you agree with me that even though pain was God's righteous judgment,

for sin after the fall is redemptive call on his people is to do good and to bring merciful

relief, not judgment. So how should we then think about ministering to the terminally ill,

especially those who are so near the end that they may be bedridden and even mentally or

physically unable to use some of the means of grace that have sustained them perhaps in faith

...