January 7, 2012 … It’s Not About Me!

Passage of the Day: Chapter/Verse Reference: Job, Chapters 14-16 …
To study these chapters, go to this link -

Study Passage: Job 14: 14 If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal [or release] to come.
15 You will call and I will answer You; You will long for the creature your hands have made.
16 Surely then You will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.
17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; You will cover over my sin.
Study Passage: Job 15: 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 “Would a wise person answer with empty notions or fill their belly with the hot east wind?
3 Would they argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value?
Study Passage: Job 16: 18 “Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest! 19 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.
20 My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;
21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.

My Journal for Today: Wow! Pouring through these three chapters of Job this morning (you can do so online by the link provided above), I was taken back to the days when, as an atheist years ago, I used to argue with believers who held on to their faith in the face of personal trials. In the passages I’ve highlighted and reprinted above, we read of Job, without any real knowledge of whether there could be or would be a resurrection, holding out with desperate faith (in Job 14: 14-17) for his beleaguered life and sins to be covered over by his God.

And then, Eliphaz, one of Job’s “three stooges,” as I call them, comes back with one of my old worldly arguments (see Job 15: 1-3) … that Job’s words were meaningless in the grand scheme of life. I used to put Christians down who argued for their God by telling them that since there was no way they could prove their case, the words of these believers were just worthless. For these faithful Christians, many of whom were probably strugglers just like Job, I was their modern Eliphaz, pointing out what I believed to be the fruitlessness of their faith.

But as the passage in Job 16: 18-21, reprinted above attests, Job held on and showed prophetic faith, declaring that, no matter what Eliphaz (and the other so-called “friends”) declared, Job just knew that he had a God Who was his advocate in heaven. And we Christians certainly should know, with the advantage of historical knowledge of Christ’s advent and resurrection, Job had it right – EXACTLY RIGHT!

My fellow Christian, from the documentation of our New Testament witnesses and the truth of God’s word (see Isaiah 55: 11 and 2nd Tim. 3: 16-17 from the Old and New Covenants), we can declare, as did Job, that we have an Advocate, a Heavenly Friend, our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Who stands by us in heaven, even in times like those experienced by Job. We have a Redeemer upon Whom we can place all of our trust and with Whom we will share eternity.

Somehow, in spite of all of his circumstances – and even in spite of all of his “WHY” questions – Job held out in faith for a God Who would save Him; … for One who would witness to our heavenly Father of his faith, … and for One Who would take him home when the LORD decided it was his (Job’s) time.

That is the faith, my friends, we should hold to … even when we have doubts; … even when we go to God with our “WHY” questions; … yes, even when we are bowled over by bad circumstances. We can, like Job, know that we know that we know that we know, that our Lord and Savior, Jesus, is always there, before God’s throne of grace, arguing and witnessing on behalf of our case.

My Prayer Today: … And my LORD, I thank you for Your being my Advocate to the Father even at this moment, in spite of my beleaguered faith. Amen

January 6, 2012 … Pity Party Time

Passage of the Day: Reading Plan Reference – Day 6 … Job: Chapters 10 - 13 … Study Scripture Reference: Job, Chapter 10 NIV … Go to this link to read/study

Chapter 10 in the NIV
Job, Chapter 10 in the Message Version - linked for your study


My Journal for Today: Today, if you’re reading along with me, it would help for my fellow miners into God’s word to have read through all of the Chapters our reading plan has had me read for today in the Book of Job (i.e., Chapters 10 – 13). However, if you want to shorten your reading, given time constraints, you can just click on the links above and read Chapter 10 in either or both of the NIV and/or Message versions of Scripture.

Last night my wife and I went, as we do weekly, to our church small group meeting where we fellowship with a group of about 8 other fellow church members; and we dig into God’s word. Last night we began to discuss the church’s reading-through-the-Bible plan for 2012; and the subject of Job came up. And one in our group expressed that he just “hated the Book of Job” in the Bible because it made him feel so personally uncomfortable; and several in the group expressed empathy with that feeling.

Well, if one is looking for why Job’s character makes Christians feel uncomfortable, you need look no further in Job’s account than the 10th Chapter. Because this chapter, as much as any other, is a very human mirror of truth; and very few people really like to look into a mirror, especially when one is naked. And Chapter 10 reveals Job, completely naked before His God, … deeply into feelings all of us have felt or maybe are feeling right now; and that would be feelings of self-pity.

In Chapter 10 of Job’s account, he is in one big pity-party. And I’m sure his so-called friends, the ones who had sat with him so caringly earlier in the story but now are railing against Job’s denial of his perceived sinfulness, have helped him feel so down-hearted about his set of painful circumstances. Earlier in the story, we marveled at Job’s faith, with all that had happened to him, as he said something like, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” But now, in Chapter 10, Job has become much more like most of us when we are confronted by horrible circumstances. It’s pity-party time for Job; and I’m sure we can really empathize with what we read into our biblical hero here. And maybe that’s why my friend last night said that Job’s life made him FEEL so bad.

I think we’ve all been where Job is in Chapter 10; and then in Chapter 11, we read of Job’s friend, Zophar, who really gets ticked off at Job; and he just lays poor Job out, accusing Job of having no right to take his complaints to God when Zophar perceives Job to be an obvious sinner, given all the bad stuff which has happened to Job. And Job, in Chapter 12, verses 24/25, acknowledges that God is the only one who can really know the heart of any man well enough to judge; but Job is still in a quandary as to why God has brought all this pain on him. And then in Chapter 13 of our reading for today, I really love how Job, somehow being very perceptive in the face of all of his pain, nails his three friends (see Job 13: 4-5), comparing them to quack doctors who just can’t diagnose any condition accurately; and he just tells them, in essence, to “shut up!”

Well, in all of this, God’s word today has shown me that it’s okay to FEEL bad when we are down-trodden; but we should, like Job, take our feelings vertically to God, rather than listen – exclusively – to the horizontal observations or counsel of other men (or women). Yes, God’s word [for example in Prov. 15: 22] tells us that it’s even wise to get counsel from others; but when we listen EXCLUSIVELY to other men/women, without taking, as did Job, our feelings directly to God, we can be led astray. But by going directly to God and using God’s Spirit-led discernment to analyze or reject the skewed counsel of his so-called “friends,” Job shows us that he did – as we should – keep things in proper perspective, allowing himself to be led by God’s light of truth, rather than mankind’s distorted views about life.

I pray that we all keep our lives, no matter how driven to self-pity we might be, in proper alignment with our vertical relationship with Christ FIRST-AND-FOREMOST. Oh, we may listen to others, especially those we know are astute and wise Christian counselors; but our pleas and pursuits of God’s will and His way should always be our first course of understanding. And praise be to Job, showing us the right way from God’s truth.

My Prayer Today: … Lord, as Your word teaches in Psalm 119: 105, Your truth is my first source of light in the darkness of life. Amen

January 4, 2012 … Faithful Follower In Life

Passage of the Day: Reading Plan Reference – Day 4 … Job: Chapters 1 - 5 … Study Scripture Reference: Job 1: 1 - 5 NIV … 1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
4 His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.

My Journal for Today: Okay, today in Day 4 of my chronological read through the Bible, we switch from Genesis over to the book of Job, which was the first of the five, so-called, books of poetry and wisdom in the Old Testament (the others being Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon). Now I don’t want read here like I’m some Old Testament expert. No, … because the reading plan shifted me over to the book of Job, I did some internet digging and found a nice piece on the book of Job, which along with a couple of others, helped me to put this inspired piece of writing into Scriptural perspective for me. So in that regard, let me link any of my readers here to this productive little study piece for your study as well.

If you read through that piece, you’ll see that there is historical/biblical controversy among Bible Scholars as to the authorship of Job. But knowing and believing in the truth of Isaiah 55: 11 and 2nd Timothy 3: 16 – 17 , I KNOW that God, the Holy Spirit was the truth-bearer in this Book, as He was for all of our Scripture study. So, no matter which human author we might opine, God was our author of truth as we read about Job.

And after reading the first five chapters, I returned to the first five verses, describing the character of Job as what God’s Spirit wanted me to focus on in my journal entry for today. And after one reads about what God – and Satan – put Job through, we have to know that Job was a good – a very good – man; and he didn’t deserve any of the trials God allowed Satan to put upon him.

Job, whether he was a real historical figure or the character of a poetic parable [as some think], … he was a righteous man, … a disciplined believer, … a good father, … and a man “who feared God and shunned evil.” Yet bad, … very bad, … yea, EXTREMELY BAD … things happened to this good man.

Have you ever been in a place in your life where you’ve felt, or maybe even declared to others, “I don’t deserve this!” I’d bet here that most of us have. But Job’s circumstances “take the cake,” don’t they? Here was a very righteous dude, doing all the right things in his life; and WHAMMO [!], he’s hit with a mack-truck in his life; and God is at the origin of it all. Way no fair, God!

And then the poor guy is set aside with poor advice from his wife and three friends, who seem to personify the old adage, “If these are my friends, who needs enemies!” Wow, … maybe you’ve gone through a scenario in your life where you were run over by one of those mack-trucks and then you got well-intentioned, by skewed advice. It’s certainly no surprise that our hero, Job, gets thrown into a tailspin of confusion and feelings of abandonment – even from His God, Whom he had trusted – even through all that bad stuff which came down on him.

In going through these five chapters of Job’s story, and especially the first five verses of Chapter 1, I’m really praying that I can be like Job should any “mack-truck” circumstance come my way. I want to be one, going through “Jobian” times, who will stick with my God, … who will continue to trust my Lord, … who will keep pursuing God’s will and His way no matter what happens down the road of life, … who will listen to others but will judge what they say based on God’s word not on the feelings which come in bad times, … who become a warrior for God in spite of the circumstances rather than let Satan get the upper hand in my life; … and I want to be one who will come through the minefields of life (knowing the end of Job’s story), following the only ONE Who can lead me successfully to/through God’s passage. I want to follow my Savior and His light through life, as did Job, even though I may struggle, moving ever onward until I achieve the prize for which God has for me down the road (see the NT and Paul’s writing in Phil. 3: 13-14), which is eternal life in glory with Jesus.

That’s where Job’s story points me; and for it, I say a loud … HALLELUJAH!!!

My Prayer Today: … Lord, thank you for Job’s template of life. Help me to be like him when I face the trials life. Amen

2010 – September 8 – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Study from God’s Word… Job, Chapters 1 - 3 … Passage for Reflection: Job 2: 10 … NIV He (Job) replied (to his wife), “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God , and not trouble?”

My Journal for Today: So, in the midst of reading through The Daily Bible in Chronological Order [DBICO] , today Dr. LaGard Smith, the Editor, takes me (and his readers) to the Book of Job, which is reported by scholars to be the oldest written book in the canon of the Bible. So, what’s up with that in terms of chronological order? Shouldn’t we read Job in January?

Well, Dr. Smith reasons that the reading of Job is to be placed now in the DBICO reading because Ezekiel, whom we’ve been reading about lately, wrote about Job (see Chapter 14, verses 14 & 20, of the Book of Ezekiel), making a reference to the dilemma of God’s people, the righteous remnant and the disobedient Jews, both of whom had been taken captive and were suffering TOGETHER in Babylon. For Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and most certainly for those Jews who were obedient to God in Babylon, it would have been natural to seek after answers to why God would allow the righteous and the unrighteous Jews to suffer the same captivity in Babylon. Therefore, at this time in their history, the story of Job, which was certainly part of the Scriptural lore of the Jews, would have had great relevance, especially to loyal followers of God. And of course, this book, Job, has great relevance to this very day, especially for every believer in the one, true, and good God.

It’s that great conundrum and the question: “How do we define ‘blessing’ in our lives?” Are the “blessings” only those events or circumstances which are the warm-n-fuzzies? Or could the challenges of life, … yes, even the disasters, be seen as “blessings” in the context of a sovereign God who wants only ultimate good for those who are the called according to His purpose (i.e., steadfast believers and followers of Yahweh)? And how many times have our beliefs in the truth of Romans 8: 28 been challenged by some oppressive circumstances in life, … occurrences which seem much more like “curses” than “blessings?”

Today’s text is, of course, Job’s faithful response to his wife’s perspective on the disasters which had been perpetrated on Job by an unseen Satan, who was challenging God and Job’s faithfulness. And how do we measure up to Job’s faith in the midst of some horror which is visited in our lives? Perhaps you’ve had to deal with the inexplicable death of a child in your life. Maybe you wonder about how a loving God would allow a tsunami or an earthquake to take the lives of thousands of staunch believers as well as those non-believers consumed in the disaster. Just like Job, the headlines of our lives can scream out the question: “What’s up with that, God?!”

And hence it is great for us, as it was for Ezekiel, to have a book of truth, in this case the Book of Job, which helps us see that there are some circumstances in life which we’re not likely going to be explained from our human perspective. No, we’re going to have to learn, as Job was expressing in today’s highlight text, to declare that God’s sovereignty and love for His children go way beyond our ability to get God’s reason WHY when we are beset with inexplicable horrors.

No, my friends; if we could explain everything clearly which happens to us, the concept of “faith” would be meaningless, would it? But prayerfully, we can learn, as did Ezekiel, from the book of wisdom involving Job, that our faith is going to be tested by life and we’re going to have to deal with the horrors as well as the happiness by having faith in a sovereign, and ALWAYS loving God.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I say again, You are God and I am not. Praise You IN all things, ... AT all times, … FOR all time. Amen

2009 – Day 216.Aug 05 – Life Is Difficult, … No, Unfair

Blogger’s Note: Today I follow Pastor Swindoll into his study of the life of Job in Great Days with the Great Lives. I look forward to another study of Job, … one character in the Bible whom almost anyone can identify. We’ve all had challenges and difficult circumstances in life. Well, maybe they weren’t as horrid as Job’s; but how he reacted is a study in faithfulness and how believer’s can grow closer to God through trials and tribulations. I hope you’ll consider coming along daily with me in this study.

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Passage of the Day: Job 1: 1 – 12 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: You may have studied this amazing character study in the Bible before. Preachers often use it to teach on faith in the face of trials or tribulations. And that is primarily because almost everyone can identify with Job. We all have experienced some of what Job is going to experience in upcoming portions of this Scriptural account. We’re just introducing the man today; and one thing becomes quite apparent.

Job didn’t deserve any of what he’s about to face in his life. So, not only, as my title for this devotion implies, was Job’s trial to be DIFFICULT, it was downright UNFAIR. And often that’s how we find ourselves, … facing circumstances which come against us which we don’t deserve. And here was an exemplary believer in God, one who walked the walk of faith, … not just some of the time, but all the time. He was the best of God’s best; … and yet, we look what happens to him.

Satan is given an almost free reign to take away almost everything from our hero, Job; and as we’ll read, Job becomes homeless, penniless, childless, and physically broken. And as Swindoll, points out, when you read the entire book of toil for Job, God goes silent and doesn’t show up again in the Book until chapter 38. And anyone who’s ever read or studied Job has to ask himself or herself, “How would I respond if I were Job? … Would my faith remain as his did if I lost some, let alone all, of what God had given me?”

We’re going to be exploring some of those issues in forthcoming study. But today, let’s just establish the precedence that life can be unfair; and we’re going to face trials and tribulations, many of which we may not deserve. And so, as we study the life of Job, in some degree we’re looking into a mirror of truth about life and our own personal trials. And through Job we can rehearse, by identification, some of the circumstances of loss we may experience and much of the pain of separation from God we may feel in such moments. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather do this in a biblical study of Job rather than have to learn the lessons first hand through the realities of being like Job.

Therefore, on this first day of my probe into the life of Job, I must admit, that I will pray never to be like Job. I’m a chicken! However, I will pray to respond as he did in the face of trials; and, … I do know it’s purposeful and productive to undertake this study. So, if you come along, let’s pray that we grow closer to God and become more like our Lord through this study.

My Prayer for Today: Father, to some degree I know what lies ahead; and I will never pray to be as Job was in circumstances; but I will ever pray to be like him in faith. Help me grow from this study, Lord. Amen