Passage of the Day: Job 19 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: One of my favorite Christian songs (and I’m listening to it right at this moment on my Ipod) is the song Redeemer, sung by Nicole C. Mullen. It is a glorious song of redemption and victory Christ won for us on the cross, … the victory which led to the reality we Christians – and only Christians – can claim, which is a restatement of the oft repeated line from Job 19, verse 25, “I know that my Redeemer lives!”
And as I listen to this grand and glorious praise song, and after reading and meditating on Job 19, I somehow desire that Job, whom I know is now with Christ in Heaven, would see that his lament in this chapter, along with his entire testimony, has now been honored so gloriously with God’s eternal word, the Bible. And I want him to know – but of course he does – that I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES!
Yes, Job, my Redeemer, Jesus, lives in me; and He lives in anyone who has humbled himself or herself to acknowledge The Christ as Savior and Lord, receiving His saving grace. Oh, blessed one, I hope that you know that Your Redeemer lives; because you’re going to have times as those lamented by Job in this chapter, where circumstances seem to assail us with injustice in our lives, … where our Lord seems far away. But I want to tell Job – and you – that our God, The Redeemer of all, lives! And in the end, our Redeemer is victorious over all injustice; and all the injustices of this world will be made right.
Stand on that truth when God seems far away, my friend. In the end of all things, “My Redeemer lives!”
My Prayer for Today: Praise Your victory on the cross, dear Lord, which has redeemed me and given my Your Spirit to live within me. Amen
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
2009 – Day 243.Sept 01 – A Lot of Grace
September, 2009 Topic: Job … Continued from Aug. 31, 2009
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Passage of the Day: Job 17 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: I agree whole heartedly with Chuck Swindoll today about why he says he loves the Bible. His reason; – “It is so real!” And that’s what we read in Chapter 17, … Job’s very real and very human appeal to God for relief.
Here, the man has lost everything, including his kids; and he’s now encumbered with horrible, painful boils; and then he’s been enduring absolute foolishness from his so-called “friends.” And as we’ve read through those speeches from Eliphaz and the others, I agree with Swindoll. If I had been God I would have pushed the button on mercy long before this; and I would have visited some relief for Job and some very severe retribution on the three stooges, especially Eliphaz. Swindoll had it right, … maybe having the lips fall off of Eliphaz would have been a nice touch. But as I say so often here in my quiet place, “God is God; and I am not.” And the Lord has chosen to make Job wait on God some more … to ponder and pursue God’s mercy with prayers like the one we read in today’s passage.
And it’s the waiting in faith that becomes the hard part of this relationship with God, isn’t it? It’s holding on to the trust, which is demanded in a passage like Prov. 3: 5 – 6. I hope you know that one by heart. If not, please look it up and meditate on its truth. And remember, it closes by saying, “In ALL your ways, acknowledge [God]; and He will make your paths straight.” [NIV] And that’s exactly what Job is doing in Chapter 17, … pleading with God to give him a straight way out of all of what he has confronted. Job wants to see some light to make it through the fog of his life.
And Swindoll closes with the quote of quotes from the old hymn again, Amazing Grace, which says …
Thru many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
And as Swindoll closes, “Even through the fog, grace will lead us home.”
My Prayer for Today: Oh, my Lord, the world is so foggy. Please lead us home with Your grace. Amen
====================
Passage of the Day: Job 17 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: I agree whole heartedly with Chuck Swindoll today about why he says he loves the Bible. His reason; – “It is so real!” And that’s what we read in Chapter 17, … Job’s very real and very human appeal to God for relief.
Here, the man has lost everything, including his kids; and he’s now encumbered with horrible, painful boils; and then he’s been enduring absolute foolishness from his so-called “friends.” And as we’ve read through those speeches from Eliphaz and the others, I agree with Swindoll. If I had been God I would have pushed the button on mercy long before this; and I would have visited some relief for Job and some very severe retribution on the three stooges, especially Eliphaz. Swindoll had it right, … maybe having the lips fall off of Eliphaz would have been a nice touch. But as I say so often here in my quiet place, “God is God; and I am not.” And the Lord has chosen to make Job wait on God some more … to ponder and pursue God’s mercy with prayers like the one we read in today’s passage.
And it’s the waiting in faith that becomes the hard part of this relationship with God, isn’t it? It’s holding on to the trust, which is demanded in a passage like Prov. 3: 5 – 6. I hope you know that one by heart. If not, please look it up and meditate on its truth. And remember, it closes by saying, “In ALL your ways, acknowledge [God]; and He will make your paths straight.” [NIV] And that’s exactly what Job is doing in Chapter 17, … pleading with God to give him a straight way out of all of what he has confronted. Job wants to see some light to make it through the fog of his life.
And Swindoll closes with the quote of quotes from the old hymn again, Amazing Grace, which says …
Thru many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
And as Swindoll closes, “Even through the fog, grace will lead us home.”
My Prayer for Today: Oh, my Lord, the world is so foggy. Please lead us home with Your grace. Amen
Monday, August 31, 2009
2009 – Day 242.Aug 31 – Needed Grace
Passage of the Day: Job 15 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Chuck Swindoll closes his devotional entry today with the words from John Newton’s wonderful hymn, “Amazing grace – how sweet the sound.” But that’s certainly not what we read from the words of Eliphaz to Job in today’s highlight passage. No, Eliphaz now gets downright hostile in his tone toward the same man whom he had grieved with and sat with patiently just a few days earlier.
It’s remarkable to me how human feelings and understanding can be so fickle. At one time the three “friends” of Job had been so patient and loving and seemingly supportive; but then in their advice and counsel with Job, they seem to turn into graceless ogres. It is so, so true that we all need God’s grace; and this would especially be true when we are hit with a series of calamities like those which Job was enduring. But here are Job’s close friends somehow blinded to what he needs, trying to give him a pompous set of dogmatic reasons why Job is going through these trials. Job needs grace; and all he gets from his “friends” is folly.
We need to remember that the person we sit next to in the pew at church may be going through trials about which we have no clue; and what they need is grace, not groundless information on social doctrine or speculations about why God does what He does. That dear one needs grace. And if I read the truth of Romans 3: 23 correctly, we “are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.” Therefore, we ALL need God’s grace. How and when and to whom God gives it out is God’s business. So, … when we need grace; and we humble ourselves before our loving and merciful God, as Job was doing, God’s agents of grace, His church, needs to be there to help our suffering friends, doling out as much of His grace as we can.
So, when you need God’s grace, be willing to set aside pride and ask God and your friends for grace. When you see someone needing grace, give grace. How much intelligence would it take you, seeing Job’s loss and his horrible pain, physical and emotional, to see that he needed grace, not explanations, and certainly not harsh accusations as we read from Eliphaz in today’s passage.
Now I remember why I like to call these three pseudo friends of Job “the three stooges.” I don’t claim to know God’s full intent when He, the Holy Spirit, guides His writers to tell the stories of the Bible. And I may be a bit pompous to say that it seems clear to me that God is giving us examples of the exact opposite of grace in Job’s three companions. This, to me, is a lesson which screams, “Don’t do it this way, fool!”
So, from this I learn to ask God to give me the sensitivity to see when a friend needs grace; and then to dole it out as much as I’m capable of giving it. And then, … to give even more grace; because there’s just no giving too much when it comes to being the agent of grace for God.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, bless me by being able to give Your grace to someone today who needs it. Amen
My Journal for Today: Chuck Swindoll closes his devotional entry today with the words from John Newton’s wonderful hymn, “Amazing grace – how sweet the sound.” But that’s certainly not what we read from the words of Eliphaz to Job in today’s highlight passage. No, Eliphaz now gets downright hostile in his tone toward the same man whom he had grieved with and sat with patiently just a few days earlier.
It’s remarkable to me how human feelings and understanding can be so fickle. At one time the three “friends” of Job had been so patient and loving and seemingly supportive; but then in their advice and counsel with Job, they seem to turn into graceless ogres. It is so, so true that we all need God’s grace; and this would especially be true when we are hit with a series of calamities like those which Job was enduring. But here are Job’s close friends somehow blinded to what he needs, trying to give him a pompous set of dogmatic reasons why Job is going through these trials. Job needs grace; and all he gets from his “friends” is folly.
We need to remember that the person we sit next to in the pew at church may be going through trials about which we have no clue; and what they need is grace, not groundless information on social doctrine or speculations about why God does what He does. That dear one needs grace. And if I read the truth of Romans 3: 23 correctly, we “are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.” Therefore, we ALL need God’s grace. How and when and to whom God gives it out is God’s business. So, … when we need grace; and we humble ourselves before our loving and merciful God, as Job was doing, God’s agents of grace, His church, needs to be there to help our suffering friends, doling out as much of His grace as we can.
So, when you need God’s grace, be willing to set aside pride and ask God and your friends for grace. When you see someone needing grace, give grace. How much intelligence would it take you, seeing Job’s loss and his horrible pain, physical and emotional, to see that he needed grace, not explanations, and certainly not harsh accusations as we read from Eliphaz in today’s passage.
Now I remember why I like to call these three pseudo friends of Job “the three stooges.” I don’t claim to know God’s full intent when He, the Holy Spirit, guides His writers to tell the stories of the Bible. And I may be a bit pompous to say that it seems clear to me that God is giving us examples of the exact opposite of grace in Job’s three companions. This, to me, is a lesson which screams, “Don’t do it this way, fool!”
So, from this I learn to ask God to give me the sensitivity to see when a friend needs grace; and then to dole it out as much as I’m capable of giving it. And then, … to give even more grace; because there’s just no giving too much when it comes to being the agent of grace for God.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, bless me by being able to give Your grace to someone today who needs it. Amen
Sunday, August 30, 2009
2009 – Day 241.Aug 30 – A Disappointing Discovery
Passage of the Day: Job 14 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: If you go back and read Chapter 13 of Job, as well as today’s focus passage in Chapter 14, we read Job weighing in on some pretty heady theological and emotional issues. Probably one of the heaviest of these issues is found in Job 14,verse 14,which reads …
If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my hard service I will wait,
Till my change comes.
If my readers are Christian, I hope you have this issue totally settled in your mind/heart. These are two of the ultimate questions of this life, which are … “Where am I going after this life; and … is what I’m doing in this life worthwhile?”
Poor Job’s perspective on this life at the point of our reading today had changed drastically because of the horrible set of circumstances which had been set in motion by the interplay of God and Satan. However, here is Job, contemplating the value of the rest of his life in light of where he will be in the afterlife.
Do you know, that you know that you know, where you’ll be if this life is no more – maybe even today? I hope you KNOW, absolutely know, the answer to that one. Job knew that he would be with God after his life was over; but now he was contemplating what the meaning of the remaining portion of his life would be like in God’s scheme of things. And Swindoll, in dealing with this meaning for existence and living by faith, points his readers to a New Testament verse – 2nd Cor. 5: 10, which states, … For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
So, here we have poor Job, with nothing from a human point of view to show for his life. Where are you in your life? Has all you’ve done to this point been meaningful and directed toward God’s glory? Because if all seems but a loss, now is the time to make a decision to move forward and make the rest of your life pertinent and powerful in God’s eyes.
Once we have the “heaven verses hell” question settled, which, of course is the most important pre-death question, the only thing left before us lies the answer to what we’re going to do to lay up rewards for ourselves and for God in heaven. And the answer to that pointed question will determine how we live the rest of our lives.
Job was in a pretty crucial place in his life; and we can certainly understand his confusion and vexation. However, he too was in the place of pondering the meaning of the rest of his life. And so do we? This very morning, I can choose to seek God’s will and purpose for my life, or I can lay down with a defeatist attitude and do little or nothing for God’s glory. Only I can determine what my answer will be to that old platitude, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
I can only pray now - right here - that what I will do today will bring honor and glory to my God; and I will begin to forge the rewards that will await me in glory. How about you?
My Prayer for Today: Lord, forge me into an instrument of Your purpose. Amen
My Journal for Today: If you go back and read Chapter 13 of Job, as well as today’s focus passage in Chapter 14, we read Job weighing in on some pretty heady theological and emotional issues. Probably one of the heaviest of these issues is found in Job 14,verse 14,which reads …
If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my hard service I will wait,
Till my change comes.
If my readers are Christian, I hope you have this issue totally settled in your mind/heart. These are two of the ultimate questions of this life, which are … “Where am I going after this life; and … is what I’m doing in this life worthwhile?”
Poor Job’s perspective on this life at the point of our reading today had changed drastically because of the horrible set of circumstances which had been set in motion by the interplay of God and Satan. However, here is Job, contemplating the value of the rest of his life in light of where he will be in the afterlife.
Do you know, that you know that you know, where you’ll be if this life is no more – maybe even today? I hope you KNOW, absolutely know, the answer to that one. Job knew that he would be with God after his life was over; but now he was contemplating what the meaning of the remaining portion of his life would be like in God’s scheme of things. And Swindoll, in dealing with this meaning for existence and living by faith, points his readers to a New Testament verse – 2nd Cor. 5: 10, which states, … For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
So, here we have poor Job, with nothing from a human point of view to show for his life. Where are you in your life? Has all you’ve done to this point been meaningful and directed toward God’s glory? Because if all seems but a loss, now is the time to make a decision to move forward and make the rest of your life pertinent and powerful in God’s eyes.
Once we have the “heaven verses hell” question settled, which, of course is the most important pre-death question, the only thing left before us lies the answer to what we’re going to do to lay up rewards for ourselves and for God in heaven. And the answer to that pointed question will determine how we live the rest of our lives.
Job was in a pretty crucial place in his life; and we can certainly understand his confusion and vexation. However, he too was in the place of pondering the meaning of the rest of his life. And so do we? This very morning, I can choose to seek God’s will and purpose for my life, or I can lay down with a defeatist attitude and do little or nothing for God’s glory. Only I can determine what my answer will be to that old platitude, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
I can only pray now - right here - that what I will do today will bring honor and glory to my God; and I will begin to forge the rewards that will await me in glory. How about you?
My Prayer for Today: Lord, forge me into an instrument of Your purpose. Amen
Saturday, August 29, 2009
2009 – Day 240.Aug 29 – God Is In Control
Passage of the Day: Job 12 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Don’t you just love our hero, Job! And what Job brings to the table in Chapter 12 is a model for any who’ve had to deal with the contentions or claims of legalists, … those who claim that they have a corner on understanding and wisdom but who represent darkness and doubt. And that is what Job had to listen to in the previous diatribe by Zophar and his other so-called “friends.”
Chuck Swindoll points out that LEGALISM often presents its ugly head in the form of cohorts of believers who act like bullies on the playground trying to take over the basketball court by intimidation. And it’s always interesting to see that a few loud bullies can draw a crowd of weaklings to themselves; and they can take over the playground unless someone is willing to stand up to them.
And that’s exactly what Job did here in Chapter 12; and don’t you just love the sarcasm of his open rebuke of Zophar, where he says, poetically and powerfully, in verse 1, “No doubt you are the people, … And wisdom will die with you!” And then Job goes about taking a stand up for what he believes is truth; and that is what we are commanded to do in God’s word by 1st Peter 3: 15 … to have an answer for those who challenge the truth of God’s word or misrepresent His truth. Now, I don’t exactly know if Job’s retort of Zophar fit into the latter part of Peter’s exhortation to confront our adversaries in “meekness.” However, he did have an answer for his three friends who were trying to place the legalists finger-pointing blame on Job, questioning his faith and his past life.
But as we can read here in today’s passage, Job didn’t let the legalists have their day. And I love the word picture Swindoll presents in explaining the importance of not letting legalistic bullies have their way. He says legalists are like roaches. They crawl around in the darkness and proliferate by feeding on the ooze of distrust and misunderstanding with gossip and half-truths. And if they are not brought out and confronted with the light of truth, they will gain strength and numbers. But Job, in Chapter 12, gave these three bully boys a dose of truth and light with his argument that God is the source of all truth; and that even when the circumstances of life seem out of control, God is in complete control. And Job shined the light on these roaches in the darkness of innuendo and doubt with forcefulness and truthfulness.
And Swindoll is right by extending the word picture of legalist bullies. When they are confronted with the light, you will see them run and hide. And that is when you often see splits in churches which are caused by legalists who, when they can’t get their way, will take their numbers and run to another church with their dogma of doubt and despair. But God will bless those who stand for right and righteousness, which is what good Christians must do when they are confronted by legalism in the church. And Job becomes a good model for this by his arguments today.
So, my friend, when you are confronted by the darkness of legalism, stand for God’s truth with love and with as much gentleness as God’s grace can give you; BUT … STAND and be heard and counted for truth. For, dear one, the light always dispels the darkness; and God’s will, which is found in His word, will always help the believer find God’s way to lead his people through that “valley of the shadow of death.”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to shine Your light into the darkness of misunderstanding and doubt. Amen
My Journal for Today: Don’t you just love our hero, Job! And what Job brings to the table in Chapter 12 is a model for any who’ve had to deal with the contentions or claims of legalists, … those who claim that they have a corner on understanding and wisdom but who represent darkness and doubt. And that is what Job had to listen to in the previous diatribe by Zophar and his other so-called “friends.”
Chuck Swindoll points out that LEGALISM often presents its ugly head in the form of cohorts of believers who act like bullies on the playground trying to take over the basketball court by intimidation. And it’s always interesting to see that a few loud bullies can draw a crowd of weaklings to themselves; and they can take over the playground unless someone is willing to stand up to them.
And that’s exactly what Job did here in Chapter 12; and don’t you just love the sarcasm of his open rebuke of Zophar, where he says, poetically and powerfully, in verse 1, “No doubt you are the people, … And wisdom will die with you!” And then Job goes about taking a stand up for what he believes is truth; and that is what we are commanded to do in God’s word by 1st Peter 3: 15 … to have an answer for those who challenge the truth of God’s word or misrepresent His truth. Now, I don’t exactly know if Job’s retort of Zophar fit into the latter part of Peter’s exhortation to confront our adversaries in “meekness.” However, he did have an answer for his three friends who were trying to place the legalists finger-pointing blame on Job, questioning his faith and his past life.
But as we can read here in today’s passage, Job didn’t let the legalists have their day. And I love the word picture Swindoll presents in explaining the importance of not letting legalistic bullies have their way. He says legalists are like roaches. They crawl around in the darkness and proliferate by feeding on the ooze of distrust and misunderstanding with gossip and half-truths. And if they are not brought out and confronted with the light of truth, they will gain strength and numbers. But Job, in Chapter 12, gave these three bully boys a dose of truth and light with his argument that God is the source of all truth; and that even when the circumstances of life seem out of control, God is in complete control. And Job shined the light on these roaches in the darkness of innuendo and doubt with forcefulness and truthfulness.
And Swindoll is right by extending the word picture of legalist bullies. When they are confronted with the light, you will see them run and hide. And that is when you often see splits in churches which are caused by legalists who, when they can’t get their way, will take their numbers and run to another church with their dogma of doubt and despair. But God will bless those who stand for right and righteousness, which is what good Christians must do when they are confronted by legalism in the church. And Job becomes a good model for this by his arguments today.
So, my friend, when you are confronted by the darkness of legalism, stand for God’s truth with love and with as much gentleness as God’s grace can give you; BUT … STAND and be heard and counted for truth. For, dear one, the light always dispels the darkness; and God’s will, which is found in His word, will always help the believer find God’s way to lead his people through that “valley of the shadow of death.”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to shine Your light into the darkness of misunderstanding and doubt. Amen
Friday, August 28, 2009
2009 – Day 239.Aug 28 – Skimming The Surface
Passage of the Day: Job 11 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Okay, … here in Chapter 11, Job is confronted by the least sympathetic of his three friends, Zophar, the so-called Naamathite, who takes a theological approach much the same as the other two advisers … that Job is where he is because of some hidden sin from which Job has yet to have confessed and repented. But Zophar gets more specific in his counsel; and it is ironic that much of what he says has a basis in truth.
And Swindoll in his book, Great Days With The Great Lives and his devotional for today, brings out one segment of Zophar’s argument which bears some application study for us all. Verses 7-8 of Chapter 11 ask some very poignant questions for Job – and for us – to ponder. They are these …
7 “Can you search out the deep things of God?
Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?
8 They are higher than heaven— what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol— what can you know?”
Now, ... Zophar came at Job with a very unGodly, haughty, and better-than-thou attitude. However, his questions are deserving of consideration as we isolate them as to their truth in the context of today’s world and life.
Don’t we have a tendency these days, as Christians seeking meaning in this world, to do what I call “Christianity lite.” By that I mean that we try to reduce our Christian existence to a “to do” list of surface performance items. In other words, Christianity means …
1. Go to church on Sunday and put something in the offering plate.
2. Do a Bible study once a year.
3. Don’t smoke, drink, or cuss.
4. Provide for my family; and stay married. [and others]
And if I do these things, and probably a few more on my own list, I’m a “good Christian believer.” And in making sure we have the Christian “to-do” list covered, we’re not answering Zophar’s very pertinent questions. Job’s friend was trying to get Job to go deep and look at his life to see if Job was really living for God in the way God would have us live. And though Zophar’s approach was one of self righteousness, his questions are heavy-weight in their relevance.
When we consider what our lives are all about, are we going deep with our relationship with Christ? Or are we doing what the world deems as “successful” and “righteous” as Christians? And right now I’m thinking about the Joel Osteen or “word of faith” brand of Christianity, where believers are being lulled into pursuits of self esteem and self actualization rather than into disciplines which truly glorify God or develop us as Christians in ways Jesus Himself commanded in Luke 9: 23. Are we denying self, taking up our crosses daily, and really following our Lord? Or are we merely trying to do “good stuff,” thinking that what we think and say about ourselves is enough to be within God’s will? In other words, if we think better about ourselves, does that really make us more like Christ? Or do we need to go deeper and discover God’s will through His word and live out His way in this world?
I think Zophar has asked many of the $64,000 questions; and though Job was not getting the attitude he deserved from his friend, we all need to answer these question in light of how we’re living these days to see if we need to dig deeper into our relationship with Christ so that we might know Him more intimately and to follow Him more closely.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to know You more deeply so that I might serve you more deeply. Amen
My Journal for Today: Okay, … here in Chapter 11, Job is confronted by the least sympathetic of his three friends, Zophar, the so-called Naamathite, who takes a theological approach much the same as the other two advisers … that Job is where he is because of some hidden sin from which Job has yet to have confessed and repented. But Zophar gets more specific in his counsel; and it is ironic that much of what he says has a basis in truth.
And Swindoll in his book, Great Days With The Great Lives and his devotional for today, brings out one segment of Zophar’s argument which bears some application study for us all. Verses 7-8 of Chapter 11 ask some very poignant questions for Job – and for us – to ponder. They are these …
7 “Can you search out the deep things of God?
Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?
8 They are higher than heaven— what can you do?
Deeper than Sheol— what can you know?”
Now, ... Zophar came at Job with a very unGodly, haughty, and better-than-thou attitude. However, his questions are deserving of consideration as we isolate them as to their truth in the context of today’s world and life.
Don’t we have a tendency these days, as Christians seeking meaning in this world, to do what I call “Christianity lite.” By that I mean that we try to reduce our Christian existence to a “to do” list of surface performance items. In other words, Christianity means …
1. Go to church on Sunday and put something in the offering plate.
2. Do a Bible study once a year.
3. Don’t smoke, drink, or cuss.
4. Provide for my family; and stay married. [and others]
And if I do these things, and probably a few more on my own list, I’m a “good Christian believer.” And in making sure we have the Christian “to-do” list covered, we’re not answering Zophar’s very pertinent questions. Job’s friend was trying to get Job to go deep and look at his life to see if Job was really living for God in the way God would have us live. And though Zophar’s approach was one of self righteousness, his questions are heavy-weight in their relevance.
When we consider what our lives are all about, are we going deep with our relationship with Christ? Or are we doing what the world deems as “successful” and “righteous” as Christians? And right now I’m thinking about the Joel Osteen or “word of faith” brand of Christianity, where believers are being lulled into pursuits of self esteem and self actualization rather than into disciplines which truly glorify God or develop us as Christians in ways Jesus Himself commanded in Luke 9: 23. Are we denying self, taking up our crosses daily, and really following our Lord? Or are we merely trying to do “good stuff,” thinking that what we think and say about ourselves is enough to be within God’s will? In other words, if we think better about ourselves, does that really make us more like Christ? Or do we need to go deeper and discover God’s will through His word and live out His way in this world?
I think Zophar has asked many of the $64,000 questions; and though Job was not getting the attitude he deserved from his friend, we all need to answer these question in light of how we’re living these days to see if we need to dig deeper into our relationship with Christ so that we might know Him more intimately and to follow Him more closely.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to know You more deeply so that I might serve you more deeply. Amen
Thursday, August 27, 2009
2009 – Day 238.Aug 27 – Futile Search
Passage of the Day: Job 10 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Well, here we are back again with Job who is still confused and reeling with the desire to understand and find clarity for his loss and pain. Chapter 10 is like a replay of Chapter 3, isn’t it? But in the intervening time, Job has received feedback from Eliphaz and Bildad … to no avail. These men, whom we’ve seen are really friends of Job; and they are men who earned the right, by their grieving with Job and spending time being at his side, to share their ideas with this beaten friend.
BUT (again, it’s a big “BUT”), what they shared didn’t help. And we need to learn a lesson from that. And the lesson is that no amount of human or worldly wisdom, … scientifically based, historically sound, or culturally accepted, is going to be of help when a Christian friend feels abandoned by God. Job needed understanding for his dilemma; and when no man, even a caring friend, could explain his dilemma, all he felt was further separation from God.
What Job needed was truth; and my friend, that can only come from God, … not from man; and most certainly not from our own self. Sure, it’s okay to listen to friends, … especially Godly friends you trust – as did Job. But don’t expect them to be able to tap into God’s mind, … UNLESS they are quoting or exposing the one, true source of God’s mind; and that is something we have in God’s word, but something which Job had no access. Oh, what an advantage we have over poor Job. We not only have God’s truth to lean on when life goes awry; but we have the Mediator Whom Job sought but had not been a part of Job’s belief system.
Job’s God never left him or forsook him; but Job didn’t have that truth from Deut. 31: 6. Nor did he have the tradition of Joshua 1: 5 to lean on. And most certainly the concept of a coming Redeemer, “a Messiah,” was not part of his conscious belief as yet. So, all Job had was three friends with very human, and very imperfect, ideas about WHY all this was happening. Therefore, Job returns to God and he re-voices his confusion and angst here in Chapter 10. And therein lies a second lesson, we can learn from Job’s dilemma; and that is to keep going back to God when there is confusion or pain which we simply cannot understand from our human hearts/minds.
If you’ve been following along with this study in Job, we’ve seen Job persistently going to the one – and only – place he knows to go, in faith, for answers; and that is to God. And here in this Chapter we see our downtrodden hero doing just that - AGAIN. So, we learn that if – or I really should said WHEN – we are in a place of utter confusion and even doubting God’s presence or power, we must GO TO HIM. And we must keep going to Him to get answers. And yes, prayer is one way; but I’ve found that the best way is to go deeper and deeper into the word of God, and finding God’s promises and His perfect insights to lift us up when we feel separated from God due to our feelings.
Feelings are so very fickle, my friend. Don’t trust them for a moment! Don’t rely on them at all!! The only answers we’ll ever get to explain things or lift us up are found in The Bible. The only place we can go with our feelings is to God. And when we do, we’ll find what is promised in the Bible and what our relationship with God will produce … and that is to trust Him – in faith – with the truth of passages like Deut. 31: 8 … Joshua 1: 8 … Proverbs 3: 5, 6 … Romans 8: 28 … 1st Cor. 10: 13 … or Phil. 4: 13. And all of those are truths which just bubbled up into my mind from my heart/mind as I was sitting here writing this. I hope you know them – and others as well; and I hope that you lean on those truths when God has led you into “the valley of the shadow of death.”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You are with me always; and Your truths, they do comfort me. Amen
My Journal for Today: Well, here we are back again with Job who is still confused and reeling with the desire to understand and find clarity for his loss and pain. Chapter 10 is like a replay of Chapter 3, isn’t it? But in the intervening time, Job has received feedback from Eliphaz and Bildad … to no avail. These men, whom we’ve seen are really friends of Job; and they are men who earned the right, by their grieving with Job and spending time being at his side, to share their ideas with this beaten friend.
BUT (again, it’s a big “BUT”), what they shared didn’t help. And we need to learn a lesson from that. And the lesson is that no amount of human or worldly wisdom, … scientifically based, historically sound, or culturally accepted, is going to be of help when a Christian friend feels abandoned by God. Job needed understanding for his dilemma; and when no man, even a caring friend, could explain his dilemma, all he felt was further separation from God.
What Job needed was truth; and my friend, that can only come from God, … not from man; and most certainly not from our own self. Sure, it’s okay to listen to friends, … especially Godly friends you trust – as did Job. But don’t expect them to be able to tap into God’s mind, … UNLESS they are quoting or exposing the one, true source of God’s mind; and that is something we have in God’s word, but something which Job had no access. Oh, what an advantage we have over poor Job. We not only have God’s truth to lean on when life goes awry; but we have the Mediator Whom Job sought but had not been a part of Job’s belief system.
Job’s God never left him or forsook him; but Job didn’t have that truth from Deut. 31: 6. Nor did he have the tradition of Joshua 1: 5 to lean on. And most certainly the concept of a coming Redeemer, “a Messiah,” was not part of his conscious belief as yet. So, all Job had was three friends with very human, and very imperfect, ideas about WHY all this was happening. Therefore, Job returns to God and he re-voices his confusion and angst here in Chapter 10. And therein lies a second lesson, we can learn from Job’s dilemma; and that is to keep going back to God when there is confusion or pain which we simply cannot understand from our human hearts/minds.
If you’ve been following along with this study in Job, we’ve seen Job persistently going to the one – and only – place he knows to go, in faith, for answers; and that is to God. And here in this Chapter we see our downtrodden hero doing just that - AGAIN. So, we learn that if – or I really should said WHEN – we are in a place of utter confusion and even doubting God’s presence or power, we must GO TO HIM. And we must keep going to Him to get answers. And yes, prayer is one way; but I’ve found that the best way is to go deeper and deeper into the word of God, and finding God’s promises and His perfect insights to lift us up when we feel separated from God due to our feelings.
Feelings are so very fickle, my friend. Don’t trust them for a moment! Don’t rely on them at all!! The only answers we’ll ever get to explain things or lift us up are found in The Bible. The only place we can go with our feelings is to God. And when we do, we’ll find what is promised in the Bible and what our relationship with God will produce … and that is to trust Him – in faith – with the truth of passages like Deut. 31: 8 … Joshua 1: 8 … Proverbs 3: 5, 6 … Romans 8: 28 … 1st Cor. 10: 13 … or Phil. 4: 13. And all of those are truths which just bubbled up into my mind from my heart/mind as I was sitting here writing this. I hope you know them – and others as well; and I hope that you lean on those truths when God has led you into “the valley of the shadow of death.”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You are with me always; and Your truths, they do comfort me. Amen
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
2009 – Day 237.Aug 26 – An Arbitrator
Passage of the Day: Job 9 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Wow! After reading Chapter 9 of Job’s book, don’t you just want to reach out and tell Job about Jesus? Here is poor Job, who (in Job 8) has just been exhorted by his friend Bildad to repent because, as it was Bildad’s argument, Job must’ve had some sinfulness in his life for God to allow all that evil stuff to prevail in Job’s life. It’s a bad argument; but one with some truth in it.
And Job, here in Chapter 9, doesn’t necessarily disagree with Bilbdad. However, Job laments that he needs a mediator to be his advocate before God, especially now that he is in such a weakened condition. Job rightfully defines the power and majesty of God in this passage from Job 9; and he knows that he needs a mighty arbitrator to intervene on His behalf. And it’s here that I, as a Christian, would like to jump in and give him the same word that Paul gave to his protégé Timothy centuries later.
We read that treatise in 1st Tim. 2: 3 – 6 (linked here); and Paul tells Timothy about the only One Who could be Job’s mediator before God; but unfortunately the Messiah was not even in Job’s belief system at that time we read of in today’s passage. And poor Job is left to go to God on his own; and in the shape he was in at this time, poor Job doesn’t see any way that he could do that.
Now, we know from fast forwarding the tape that Job finds out that His God will intervene; and The Lord has not left poor Job dangling without a personal savior. God will show Job that He is not only the Judge of the evil in our hearts; but He is the redeemer of our lives as well. Oh, that Job could have known what I know from the truth of not only Job’s history, but also from the truth of my access to Jesus and His promise of John 14: 6, our Lord, being the “the way, the truth, and the life, “ .. the One Who will save anyone when that one comes to Him as The arbitrator and mediator before God’s throne of grace.
My friends, we do have THE Mediator Whom Job sought, …THE One Who can and will plead our case before God, the Father, … the Almighty and all-in-all Judge of all mankind. We have Jesus; and thankfully, when God looks at me, a wretched sinner, like Job, the One He sees is not me, but my Mediator, Jesus, The Christ. God doesn’t look upon my sin. He only sees the pure whiteness which comes from the cleansing of Jesus’ blood on my behalf. Oh, praise God for that!
Wouldn’t you like to have been there after Chapter 9 of Job to witness to this poor man; and tell Him of Your Savior, Jesus? Well, perhaps you know of a wretched sinner in your life, one who struggles with life and needs to know Jesus. We probably all do. Well, … we need to tell that lost soul about THE Mediator Who has saved us and given us all Eternity. Let us declare, to any Job in our lives, that we have THE ONE Whom has come to save us all from ourselves. He is the Man, the Mediator, … the Lord, Jesus!
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You bless me as my Mediator and the only One who pleads my case before The Father. Amen
My Journal for Today: Wow! After reading Chapter 9 of Job’s book, don’t you just want to reach out and tell Job about Jesus? Here is poor Job, who (in Job 8) has just been exhorted by his friend Bildad to repent because, as it was Bildad’s argument, Job must’ve had some sinfulness in his life for God to allow all that evil stuff to prevail in Job’s life. It’s a bad argument; but one with some truth in it.
And Job, here in Chapter 9, doesn’t necessarily disagree with Bilbdad. However, Job laments that he needs a mediator to be his advocate before God, especially now that he is in such a weakened condition. Job rightfully defines the power and majesty of God in this passage from Job 9; and he knows that he needs a mighty arbitrator to intervene on His behalf. And it’s here that I, as a Christian, would like to jump in and give him the same word that Paul gave to his protégé Timothy centuries later.
We read that treatise in 1st Tim. 2: 3 – 6 (linked here); and Paul tells Timothy about the only One Who could be Job’s mediator before God; but unfortunately the Messiah was not even in Job’s belief system at that time we read of in today’s passage. And poor Job is left to go to God on his own; and in the shape he was in at this time, poor Job doesn’t see any way that he could do that.
Now, we know from fast forwarding the tape that Job finds out that His God will intervene; and The Lord has not left poor Job dangling without a personal savior. God will show Job that He is not only the Judge of the evil in our hearts; but He is the redeemer of our lives as well. Oh, that Job could have known what I know from the truth of not only Job’s history, but also from the truth of my access to Jesus and His promise of John 14: 6, our Lord, being the “the way, the truth, and the life, “ .. the One Who will save anyone when that one comes to Him as The arbitrator and mediator before God’s throne of grace.
My friends, we do have THE Mediator Whom Job sought, …THE One Who can and will plead our case before God, the Father, … the Almighty and all-in-all Judge of all mankind. We have Jesus; and thankfully, when God looks at me, a wretched sinner, like Job, the One He sees is not me, but my Mediator, Jesus, The Christ. God doesn’t look upon my sin. He only sees the pure whiteness which comes from the cleansing of Jesus’ blood on my behalf. Oh, praise God for that!
Wouldn’t you like to have been there after Chapter 9 of Job to witness to this poor man; and tell Him of Your Savior, Jesus? Well, perhaps you know of a wretched sinner in your life, one who struggles with life and needs to know Jesus. We probably all do. Well, … we need to tell that lost soul about THE Mediator Who has saved us and given us all Eternity. Let us declare, to any Job in our lives, that we have THE ONE Whom has come to save us all from ourselves. He is the Man, the Mediator, … the Lord, Jesus!
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You bless me as my Mediator and the only One who pleads my case before The Father. Amen
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
2009 – Day 236.Aug 25 – Now I Know
Passage of the Day: Job 3: 1 - 26 … Linked for study ...
My Journal for Today: Okay, one last go around with Job, Chapter 3. And I have to admit, I think I’ve had enough with Job’s lament; and I want to move on to see how Job – and I – need to march forward after life cascades downward to the point where I’m confused or depressed. I get the idea that Satan had brought our hero to a place of utter despair. And I can see that he has admitted that he doesn’t even know why God let him be born. But Swindoll wants to make one more sweep through this topic to drill home the reality that we understand that God is not under any obligation of promise to insure that we understand His plan or His purpose for our lives. And I can see that it’s an important point!
God’s desire is simple; and it’s all wrapped up in the words, “Trust ME!” And we simply must grasp – while we can - the foundational truth that faith has no meaning if we’re always able to understand all that God will allow into our lives to help us become more like His Son. But the one thing I can fully bank on … eternally; and that is the ultimate promise which is found in our Lord’s death for us on the cross. We can bank everything on that one … that God sent His Son to live, die, and be raised again for our sin. We can trust that … and really that’s about all we can trust.
My wife’s favorite Bible verse is Proverbs 3: 5-6, which I hope you can just rattle off responsively from your memory. You know it, … “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understand. In ALL your ways acknowledge Him; and He shall direct your paths (or “will make your paths straight).”
Do you really believe that, friend? Do you live it, … especially when devastating circumstances befall you? You know … that passage in Prov. 3 makes all kind of sense now; but I don’t know that my attitude would be any different from Job’s in Chapter 3 if I had lost my whole family and everything temporal in my life and I was sitting there covered in painful boils. So, right now, while I can discern the truth, in my castle of safety and security, I need to declare – for the record – AGAIN – that God is God and I am not! And I need to say to you that He will always be in control and He always knows what is best for me. And now that I’m safe to say this, I declare to anyone here that whatever my God chooses to do for or with His church – and yes, with me – is for the best. Did you get that? Do you believe it?
I just pray that when push comes to shove, I will be able to declare that truth again and live in the faith of God’s promise of eternity in heaven. My hope is in Christ … and really nothing else. Oh, may I live that out for the rest of my life.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, hold me in your graceful arms, especially when I’m shrugging “Why?” Amen
My Journal for Today: Okay, one last go around with Job, Chapter 3. And I have to admit, I think I’ve had enough with Job’s lament; and I want to move on to see how Job – and I – need to march forward after life cascades downward to the point where I’m confused or depressed. I get the idea that Satan had brought our hero to a place of utter despair. And I can see that he has admitted that he doesn’t even know why God let him be born. But Swindoll wants to make one more sweep through this topic to drill home the reality that we understand that God is not under any obligation of promise to insure that we understand His plan or His purpose for our lives. And I can see that it’s an important point!
God’s desire is simple; and it’s all wrapped up in the words, “Trust ME!” And we simply must grasp – while we can - the foundational truth that faith has no meaning if we’re always able to understand all that God will allow into our lives to help us become more like His Son. But the one thing I can fully bank on … eternally; and that is the ultimate promise which is found in our Lord’s death for us on the cross. We can bank everything on that one … that God sent His Son to live, die, and be raised again for our sin. We can trust that … and really that’s about all we can trust.
My wife’s favorite Bible verse is Proverbs 3: 5-6, which I hope you can just rattle off responsively from your memory. You know it, … “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understand. In ALL your ways acknowledge Him; and He shall direct your paths (or “will make your paths straight).”
Do you really believe that, friend? Do you live it, … especially when devastating circumstances befall you? You know … that passage in Prov. 3 makes all kind of sense now; but I don’t know that my attitude would be any different from Job’s in Chapter 3 if I had lost my whole family and everything temporal in my life and I was sitting there covered in painful boils. So, right now, while I can discern the truth, in my castle of safety and security, I need to declare – for the record – AGAIN – that God is God and I am not! And I need to say to you that He will always be in control and He always knows what is best for me. And now that I’m safe to say this, I declare to anyone here that whatever my God chooses to do for or with His church – and yes, with me – is for the best. Did you get that? Do you believe it?
I just pray that when push comes to shove, I will be able to declare that truth again and live in the faith of God’s promise of eternity in heaven. My hope is in Christ … and really nothing else. Oh, may I live that out for the rest of my life.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, hold me in your graceful arms, especially when I’m shrugging “Why?” Amen
Monday, August 24, 2009
2009 – Day 235.Aug 24 – Good And Bad Advice
Passage of the Day: Job 3: 1 - 26 … Linked for study ...
My Journal for Today: Once again we focus on the feelings of Job as he deals with his personal questions of ill being in Chapter three of Job’s book. He is so rocked by personal loss and pain that he doesn’t know where to turn for help or counsel; and as we know from Chapter 2, there sit his three friends who have earned the right to be heard because they have shared his grief. They even sat with him for seven days and nights sharing the solitude of Job’s loss. So, it’s only natural that Job would hear the counsel of these men, which begins, if you read ahead in Chapter 4.
And we all know what it’s like to seek counsel from another when we’re down and out or confused. And I’m sure that we’ve all had times when the advice we sought was helpful, … maybe even life saving. As we know, from the book of Proverbs, seeking feedback from persons we trust is a wise move. For example, Swindoll quotes Prov. 12: 15, which says, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.” Following good advice from wise or experienced counsel can help to bring clarity or release from our confusion or pain.
However, sometimes we get counsel and it seems like our counselors are hitting us between the eyes with even more pain. We know our counselors love us; but what they say is tough to hear, maybe even highly confrontational. It’s the working out of Prov. 27: 6, which states, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” It’s what we now often call “tough love.”
So, here is Job, wracked with pain and dazed by confusion over why God would visit his life with such devastation; and Job has three friends who have earned their way to be trusted as counselors. And I’m sure you know that one of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, in Job 4-5, gives our hero some feedback as to why God may have wrought or allowed Job to experience such horror. But is it bad or good advice; well that was what Job had to decide; and any time we get advice from someone, even if that person seems trustworthy or capable of being our counselor, we need to test that advice. That’s the truth of 1st John 4: 1 or 1st Thes. 5: 21; and that’s what Job had to do with the feedback he would received from his friends.
My friend, what this illustrates is not necessarily a bad thing, though we know that the advice Job will get from his three friends is less than sterling. It is still a good thing to seek out and listen to trustworthy and loyal servants of God, … Godly men or women, who have earned the right to share their thoughts and wisdom with you. However, following the counsel, it is also wise to evaluate what they say in light of God’s truth and, above all, to seek The Lord’s peace before moving on with any decision or clear direction. That is the advice I always use from Paul from Phil. 4: 6-7 [link provided] when I have need to make an important and Godly decision. That teaching would take some time here to clarify; but I’ll leave it to you to grasp the powerful advice of this latter Bible passage to help you understand where God is leading you.
And as we know, that’s where Job ultimately goes, checking all the counsel he receives from friends with God to make sure His relationship with God is were he receives the ultimate guidance and wisdom. I hope we all know to go deep with God and find God’s peace when we’re confused or lacking clarity. God’s peace, which passes all understanding, is really the only absolutely trustworthy way to get direction we’ll ever get to tell us where to walk in the minefields of life.
My Prayer for Today: Show me the way, Lord, … Your way. Amen
My Journal for Today: Once again we focus on the feelings of Job as he deals with his personal questions of ill being in Chapter three of Job’s book. He is so rocked by personal loss and pain that he doesn’t know where to turn for help or counsel; and as we know from Chapter 2, there sit his three friends who have earned the right to be heard because they have shared his grief. They even sat with him for seven days and nights sharing the solitude of Job’s loss. So, it’s only natural that Job would hear the counsel of these men, which begins, if you read ahead in Chapter 4.
And we all know what it’s like to seek counsel from another when we’re down and out or confused. And I’m sure that we’ve all had times when the advice we sought was helpful, … maybe even life saving. As we know, from the book of Proverbs, seeking feedback from persons we trust is a wise move. For example, Swindoll quotes Prov. 12: 15, which says, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.” Following good advice from wise or experienced counsel can help to bring clarity or release from our confusion or pain.
However, sometimes we get counsel and it seems like our counselors are hitting us between the eyes with even more pain. We know our counselors love us; but what they say is tough to hear, maybe even highly confrontational. It’s the working out of Prov. 27: 6, which states, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” It’s what we now often call “tough love.”
So, here is Job, wracked with pain and dazed by confusion over why God would visit his life with such devastation; and Job has three friends who have earned their way to be trusted as counselors. And I’m sure you know that one of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, in Job 4-5, gives our hero some feedback as to why God may have wrought or allowed Job to experience such horror. But is it bad or good advice; well that was what Job had to decide; and any time we get advice from someone, even if that person seems trustworthy or capable of being our counselor, we need to test that advice. That’s the truth of 1st John 4: 1 or 1st Thes. 5: 21; and that’s what Job had to do with the feedback he would received from his friends.
My friend, what this illustrates is not necessarily a bad thing, though we know that the advice Job will get from his three friends is less than sterling. It is still a good thing to seek out and listen to trustworthy and loyal servants of God, … Godly men or women, who have earned the right to share their thoughts and wisdom with you. However, following the counsel, it is also wise to evaluate what they say in light of God’s truth and, above all, to seek The Lord’s peace before moving on with any decision or clear direction. That is the advice I always use from Paul from Phil. 4: 6-7 [link provided] when I have need to make an important and Godly decision. That teaching would take some time here to clarify; but I’ll leave it to you to grasp the powerful advice of this latter Bible passage to help you understand where God is leading you.
And as we know, that’s where Job ultimately goes, checking all the counsel he receives from friends with God to make sure His relationship with God is were he receives the ultimate guidance and wisdom. I hope we all know to go deep with God and find God’s peace when we’re confused or lacking clarity. God’s peace, which passes all understanding, is really the only absolutely trustworthy way to get direction we’ll ever get to tell us where to walk in the minefields of life.
My Prayer for Today: Show me the way, Lord, … Your way. Amen
Sunday, August 23, 2009
2009 – Day 234.Aug 23 – Expressing Grief
Passage of the Day: Job 3: 1 - 26 … Linked for study...
My Journal for Today: At the end of Job’s lamentation in Chapter 3, where we read the lyrics to Job’s sad song of hopelessness and grief, Swindoll points out a pertinent observation. There is this long lament from Job; and then there is silence from God’s word, … with absolutely no retort from God at this point, chastising Job for grieving so openly in this way.
Oh, sure, shortly we’re going to read from Job’s three friends about their input on the “whys and wherefores” of the circumstances; but God does not level any blame at Job at the end of Chapter 3, … only the solitude and silence of Job’s own heart for the time being. And that is what often happens when we take our grief to God. No, God lets us vent our feelings before His throne of grace as often and as deeply as we are in need. And as I’ve said in earlier journal entries here on the story of Job’s loss, God can take it. If we feel low and hopeless, God even invites us in His word to bring our burdens to Him. I’ve mentioned some of those truths in recent days, we NT Christians having the advantage of Christ’s intervention in time. We read in NT passages, especially words from Jesus’ invitation in Matt. 11: 28-30 or from an empathetic Peter, who had experienced the lows of acute depression himself, writing (in 1st Pet. 5: 7), “… casting all your cares on [God] because He cares for you.”
But Job didn’t know of the New Covenant truths. He only had the promise of His personal relationship with God; and as we’ll later learn, that was enough to keep our hero digging deeper into that relationship for hope and for answers to his queries. But at this point, he couldn’t see the WHYS of his loss. All he could feel was the loss and the pain. And as we have the advantage of long-term hindsight, Swindoll points out that our perspective should be finely tuned when we aren’t embroiled in the confusion of loss and pain. And I agree that we should allow ourselves to set the truth about God’s love and mercy into our hearts when we’re thinking clearly, as I hope/pray you are now. It’s like storing up the credits of God’s mercy for a future day when we’re going to need it … in a day where we’re feeling pain like Job.
In the search for understanding about God’s grace and mercy, Swindoll gives his readers a great quote from the Dutch evangelist, Corrie ten Boom, who wrote a marvelous truth after experiencing so much pain and loss in her life during WW II. She wrote, “There is no pit so deep that He (God) is not deeper still.” And that is a reality that somehow we must store up in our hearts so that we can draw upon it later when we need it. I pray, for me and for you, … that we hold on to that truth and the realization that God will never leave us alone in our grief. I pray that we have the promises of God which I’ve brought out today so piled up in our heart banks for a day when we’re going to need to withdraw those feelings of hope.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I now invest my hope completely in You, especially put away in these times of clarity for a day when I may have trouble remembering that my hope is always in You. Amen
My Journal for Today: At the end of Job’s lamentation in Chapter 3, where we read the lyrics to Job’s sad song of hopelessness and grief, Swindoll points out a pertinent observation. There is this long lament from Job; and then there is silence from God’s word, … with absolutely no retort from God at this point, chastising Job for grieving so openly in this way.
Oh, sure, shortly we’re going to read from Job’s three friends about their input on the “whys and wherefores” of the circumstances; but God does not level any blame at Job at the end of Chapter 3, … only the solitude and silence of Job’s own heart for the time being. And that is what often happens when we take our grief to God. No, God lets us vent our feelings before His throne of grace as often and as deeply as we are in need. And as I’ve said in earlier journal entries here on the story of Job’s loss, God can take it. If we feel low and hopeless, God even invites us in His word to bring our burdens to Him. I’ve mentioned some of those truths in recent days, we NT Christians having the advantage of Christ’s intervention in time. We read in NT passages, especially words from Jesus’ invitation in Matt. 11: 28-30 or from an empathetic Peter, who had experienced the lows of acute depression himself, writing (in 1st Pet. 5: 7), “… casting all your cares on [God] because He cares for you.”
But Job didn’t know of the New Covenant truths. He only had the promise of His personal relationship with God; and as we’ll later learn, that was enough to keep our hero digging deeper into that relationship for hope and for answers to his queries. But at this point, he couldn’t see the WHYS of his loss. All he could feel was the loss and the pain. And as we have the advantage of long-term hindsight, Swindoll points out that our perspective should be finely tuned when we aren’t embroiled in the confusion of loss and pain. And I agree that we should allow ourselves to set the truth about God’s love and mercy into our hearts when we’re thinking clearly, as I hope/pray you are now. It’s like storing up the credits of God’s mercy for a future day when we’re going to need it … in a day where we’re feeling pain like Job.
In the search for understanding about God’s grace and mercy, Swindoll gives his readers a great quote from the Dutch evangelist, Corrie ten Boom, who wrote a marvelous truth after experiencing so much pain and loss in her life during WW II. She wrote, “There is no pit so deep that He (God) is not deeper still.” And that is a reality that somehow we must store up in our hearts so that we can draw upon it later when we need it. I pray, for me and for you, … that we hold on to that truth and the realization that God will never leave us alone in our grief. I pray that we have the promises of God which I’ve brought out today so piled up in our heart banks for a day when we’re going to need to withdraw those feelings of hope.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I now invest my hope completely in You, especially put away in these times of clarity for a day when I may have trouble remembering that my hope is always in You. Amen
Saturday, August 22, 2009
2009 – Day 233.Aug 22 – Words of Comfort
Passage of the Day: Job 3: 1 - 26 … Linked for study ...
My Journal for Today: I read Chuck Swindoll’s devotional this morning; and it speaks to my life and feelings this morning. He writes about how Christians unsuccessfully dealt with the shame surrounding depression back in the 1960s. He recalls, as a young Christian student, that preachers just didn’t say much about “nervous” mental conditions back then; and Pastors would never even mention emotional or mental illness at funerals. It was as if they were ignorant of or oblivious to Chapter 3 of the book of Job as well as ignoring some of the giants of the faith, like Moses, Jonah, Elijah, Peter, or Paul, all of whom witnessed to crises of depression in the Bible.
And above I said that I can understand these feelings of confusion and quandary today; because yesterday a dear brother in Christ, who had been separated from his wife, who was suffering from bipolar waves of depression, could not raise her by phone yesterday and went to her apartment where the security people at the apartment and my friend found her dead. I don’t know all the particulars even yet; but I do know that this dear Christian lady had suffered from severe bouts of depression and very low self esteem. And apparently, 40-50 years ago such conditions were likely to cause Christian people to question the faith or the salvation of the declared Christian suffering from these mental conditions.
Swindoll is right. We have no right, as Christians, especially Christian leaders, to get on a high horse, like a couple of Job’s friends will be in subsequent chapters, by questioning the faith or behaviors of someone who is confused by life and depressed by its circumstances. Job was given the latitude, and we read it in Chapter three of his story, to cry out to God … to rail with his depression and express his feelings of remorse and anguish. So, why shouldn’t we give our depressed brothers and/or sisters in Christ the opportunity to do the same thing without judgments or self-righteous counsel?
This next week my wife and I will be going to the funeral of our sister in the faith who died while in the pits of depression. They don’t think suicide was involved; but even if it had been, we must ask ourselves, as the body of Christ, if we were there to do all we can to help our depressed friends to walk through the “valley of the shadow of death.” We need to be Christ for them, showing that all the love and grace our Lord has for them, … being there with them, … walking with them, … listening to them, … hugging them, … and listening more to them. And yes, if we need to help them get competent, CHRISTIAN, counselors, psychologists, or psychiatrists, then we must do just that too.
In the case of this dear, departed friend of ours, we happen to know that this sister got all of that from the body of Christ; and yet, somehow, for some reason, she is now with God; and her husband and the rest of us who loved here are here to ponder how her passing had meaning. That was the position of Job in this Chapter 3; and we may have to deal with life in much the same way, now or someday, when we can’t explain why we are in the pits of life or why we’re having to deal with such circumstances.
But we do, or we should, know that God either allowed or led us into the valley of darkness for a reason – His reason. And, He will be there with us and lead us through that valley because of His love and mercy and grace. If you’re in a dark valley, my friend, maybe even as you read this, hold on to truths such as those in Deut. 31: 8, Psalm 23, Matt. 11: 28-30, 1st Cor. 10: 13, 2nd Cor.12: 7, and 1st Pet. 5: 7; and I’m going to ask to look those up and meditate upon them if you don’t know them by heart; because in them we can know that our God is always in control; and He will never allow us to be anywhere, involved in anything, where we – with His help – cannot walk with God through to the other side.
Remember, as you meditate on those scriptures above, those are God’s promises, not mine. Those are the words coming right from God; and I can only hope you believe them and can be uplifted by them.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help us to ministry to the husband and family of this dear friend who now is with You and suffered so while she was with us. Amen
My Journal for Today: I read Chuck Swindoll’s devotional this morning; and it speaks to my life and feelings this morning. He writes about how Christians unsuccessfully dealt with the shame surrounding depression back in the 1960s. He recalls, as a young Christian student, that preachers just didn’t say much about “nervous” mental conditions back then; and Pastors would never even mention emotional or mental illness at funerals. It was as if they were ignorant of or oblivious to Chapter 3 of the book of Job as well as ignoring some of the giants of the faith, like Moses, Jonah, Elijah, Peter, or Paul, all of whom witnessed to crises of depression in the Bible.
And above I said that I can understand these feelings of confusion and quandary today; because yesterday a dear brother in Christ, who had been separated from his wife, who was suffering from bipolar waves of depression, could not raise her by phone yesterday and went to her apartment where the security people at the apartment and my friend found her dead. I don’t know all the particulars even yet; but I do know that this dear Christian lady had suffered from severe bouts of depression and very low self esteem. And apparently, 40-50 years ago such conditions were likely to cause Christian people to question the faith or the salvation of the declared Christian suffering from these mental conditions.
Swindoll is right. We have no right, as Christians, especially Christian leaders, to get on a high horse, like a couple of Job’s friends will be in subsequent chapters, by questioning the faith or behaviors of someone who is confused by life and depressed by its circumstances. Job was given the latitude, and we read it in Chapter three of his story, to cry out to God … to rail with his depression and express his feelings of remorse and anguish. So, why shouldn’t we give our depressed brothers and/or sisters in Christ the opportunity to do the same thing without judgments or self-righteous counsel?
This next week my wife and I will be going to the funeral of our sister in the faith who died while in the pits of depression. They don’t think suicide was involved; but even if it had been, we must ask ourselves, as the body of Christ, if we were there to do all we can to help our depressed friends to walk through the “valley of the shadow of death.” We need to be Christ for them, showing that all the love and grace our Lord has for them, … being there with them, … walking with them, … listening to them, … hugging them, … and listening more to them. And yes, if we need to help them get competent, CHRISTIAN, counselors, psychologists, or psychiatrists, then we must do just that too.
In the case of this dear, departed friend of ours, we happen to know that this sister got all of that from the body of Christ; and yet, somehow, for some reason, she is now with God; and her husband and the rest of us who loved here are here to ponder how her passing had meaning. That was the position of Job in this Chapter 3; and we may have to deal with life in much the same way, now or someday, when we can’t explain why we are in the pits of life or why we’re having to deal with such circumstances.
But we do, or we should, know that God either allowed or led us into the valley of darkness for a reason – His reason. And, He will be there with us and lead us through that valley because of His love and mercy and grace. If you’re in a dark valley, my friend, maybe even as you read this, hold on to truths such as those in Deut. 31: 8, Psalm 23, Matt. 11: 28-30, 1st Cor. 10: 13, 2nd Cor.12: 7, and 1st Pet. 5: 7; and I’m going to ask to look those up and meditate upon them if you don’t know them by heart; because in them we can know that our God is always in control; and He will never allow us to be anywhere, involved in anything, where we – with His help – cannot walk with God through to the other side.
Remember, as you meditate on those scriptures above, those are God’s promises, not mine. Those are the words coming right from God; and I can only hope you believe them and can be uplifted by them.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help us to ministry to the husband and family of this dear friend who now is with You and suffered so while she was with us. Amen
Friday, August 21, 2009
2009 – Day 232.Aug 21 – Raw Reality
Passage of the Day: Job 3: 1 - 26 … Linked for study
My Journal for Today: If you’re a parent these days; and you have small kids or grandkids, do you find yourself using the remote control to edit out or change the channels when the raw reality of some of raw commercial or violent program hits the screen and you don’t want your little loved ones to see scenes which are just too raw for them at their age? Well, as Swindoll points out after we’ve had the character of Job built up in Chapter 1 and 2 by Job taking all he did from Satan’s two knockdown punches, here we come to the raw reality of a man who is so deeply depressed he’d rather not have been born.
Chapter Three of Job’s account is a lamentation of desperation. It’s a song of depression. It’s a cry of “WHY am I here?” And here we were, thinking Job was above all that. Didn’t God set him up to be the Lord’s example to Satan of character strength? And here our hero is setting out a song of self hatred and a lament, questioning why he was born in the first place. … Well, my friends this, to me, is the beauty of God’s truth in His word. Because God doesn’t tell in His Bible an edited, goodie-two-shoes, version of Job’s life. No, in God’s word we see the raw reality of a man, who needs to express to God that he’s reached the end of his life’s intended rope. And in this plea for understanding, we can all identify with being in that place called by David in Psalm 23, “the valley of the shadow of death.”
Well, the raw reality for Job in Chapter 3 is that he’s down about as far as his mind/heart can go; and he needs to let these feelings out. And he does just that. As Swindoll calls it, we are at the place of “raw reality.” Have you ever been there? Maybe you’re there right now. You know, and Chuck Swindoll rightly points out that we humans, as fallen creatures, have a wildly distorted view of life. It’s like we feel entitled to the “good life.” Some how, we, as Christians, come to the understanding that, as Swindoll writes, “God loves (us) and He has a wonderful plan for our lies.” Well, that’s true; but our idea of “wonderful plan” and God’s idea can be – and often are - vastly different.
We think that God’s “wonderful plan” should include good health, financial security, happy marriage, and well-behaved children. And when things go south into the valley of the shadow of death, some how we get the idea that God has abandoned us for this reality of desperation; and this just couldn’t be God’s plan; … could it?! Well, that’s where we find our hero, Job, right now in Chapter 3 of his life story. And it’s not a pretty sight. But then again when situational depression coming over us, it’s never a pretty thing to experience, is it?
And Job is not the only Bible hero, whom we read about in Scripture, who comes to a place of desperate confusion and depression, questioning their very existence. Moses was in that valley, as was Jonah, and Elijah and King David in the OT. And then there was Peter after having denied Jesus as well as Paul’s lament in Romans 7 in the NT. No, the Bible doesn’t gloss over our human weaknesses as being part of His grand plan, … His schema for redemption. And right now we’re reading of Job’s raw reaction to his raw reality.
So, as we read Job, who truly is one of the biblical models for Christlike character in the midst of horrible trials, Chapter three give us the reality that we can bring our laments and our cries to our God. And we can keep crying out, as we’ll see Job doing for many chapters in this book. And as it will be for Job, it may seem like God is silent as we hear from the world or from others; but God’s word is clear and we can bank on it with our faith … that God will never leave us, nor forsake us. And I hope you know where to find that truth by this point. If not, try Deut. 31: 6, 8 or Joshua 1: 5 or Hebrews 13: 5, all of which are promises from God that He’s the one, not only leading us, as David said, through the valley of the shadow of death, but He’s leading us to the place of peace and rest and restoration on the other side.
But right now, Job is being given the opportunity to vent; and vent he does. And in this we can realize that God doesn’t expect us to remain silent with our feelings. No, God can take it if you’re mad at Him? Let Him know about it; but as we’ll see, we must keep on keeping on, doing all we can to see God’s way and His will, … seeking out His light to follow through the darkness.
He’s out there my friend. So, you when feel down, let Him hear your cry … but keep moving toward Him; and He will be found.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, right now I am in that peaceful place; and I’m feeling okay; but I know you’ll be there too when things may go awry. Thank you for your unshakable love and promise for tomorrow. Amen
My Journal for Today: If you’re a parent these days; and you have small kids or grandkids, do you find yourself using the remote control to edit out or change the channels when the raw reality of some of raw commercial or violent program hits the screen and you don’t want your little loved ones to see scenes which are just too raw for them at their age? Well, as Swindoll points out after we’ve had the character of Job built up in Chapter 1 and 2 by Job taking all he did from Satan’s two knockdown punches, here we come to the raw reality of a man who is so deeply depressed he’d rather not have been born.
Chapter Three of Job’s account is a lamentation of desperation. It’s a song of depression. It’s a cry of “WHY am I here?” And here we were, thinking Job was above all that. Didn’t God set him up to be the Lord’s example to Satan of character strength? And here our hero is setting out a song of self hatred and a lament, questioning why he was born in the first place. … Well, my friends this, to me, is the beauty of God’s truth in His word. Because God doesn’t tell in His Bible an edited, goodie-two-shoes, version of Job’s life. No, in God’s word we see the raw reality of a man, who needs to express to God that he’s reached the end of his life’s intended rope. And in this plea for understanding, we can all identify with being in that place called by David in Psalm 23, “the valley of the shadow of death.”
Well, the raw reality for Job in Chapter 3 is that he’s down about as far as his mind/heart can go; and he needs to let these feelings out. And he does just that. As Swindoll calls it, we are at the place of “raw reality.” Have you ever been there? Maybe you’re there right now. You know, and Chuck Swindoll rightly points out that we humans, as fallen creatures, have a wildly distorted view of life. It’s like we feel entitled to the “good life.” Some how, we, as Christians, come to the understanding that, as Swindoll writes, “God loves (us) and He has a wonderful plan for our lies.” Well, that’s true; but our idea of “wonderful plan” and God’s idea can be – and often are - vastly different.
We think that God’s “wonderful plan” should include good health, financial security, happy marriage, and well-behaved children. And when things go south into the valley of the shadow of death, some how we get the idea that God has abandoned us for this reality of desperation; and this just couldn’t be God’s plan; … could it?! Well, that’s where we find our hero, Job, right now in Chapter 3 of his life story. And it’s not a pretty sight. But then again when situational depression coming over us, it’s never a pretty thing to experience, is it?
And Job is not the only Bible hero, whom we read about in Scripture, who comes to a place of desperate confusion and depression, questioning their very existence. Moses was in that valley, as was Jonah, and Elijah and King David in the OT. And then there was Peter after having denied Jesus as well as Paul’s lament in Romans 7 in the NT. No, the Bible doesn’t gloss over our human weaknesses as being part of His grand plan, … His schema for redemption. And right now we’re reading of Job’s raw reaction to his raw reality.
So, as we read Job, who truly is one of the biblical models for Christlike character in the midst of horrible trials, Chapter three give us the reality that we can bring our laments and our cries to our God. And we can keep crying out, as we’ll see Job doing for many chapters in this book. And as it will be for Job, it may seem like God is silent as we hear from the world or from others; but God’s word is clear and we can bank on it with our faith … that God will never leave us, nor forsake us. And I hope you know where to find that truth by this point. If not, try Deut. 31: 6, 8 or Joshua 1: 5 or Hebrews 13: 5, all of which are promises from God that He’s the one, not only leading us, as David said, through the valley of the shadow of death, but He’s leading us to the place of peace and rest and restoration on the other side.
But right now, Job is being given the opportunity to vent; and vent he does. And in this we can realize that God doesn’t expect us to remain silent with our feelings. No, God can take it if you’re mad at Him? Let Him know about it; but as we’ll see, we must keep on keeping on, doing all we can to see God’s way and His will, … seeking out His light to follow through the darkness.
He’s out there my friend. So, you when feel down, let Him hear your cry … but keep moving toward Him; and He will be found.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, right now I am in that peaceful place; and I’m feeling okay; but I know you’ll be there too when things may go awry. Thank you for your unshakable love and promise for tomorrow. Amen
Thursday, August 20, 2009
2009 – Day 231.Aug 20 – God’s Presence In Suffering
Passage of the Day: Job 2: 11 – 13 … 11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. 12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. 13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
My Journal for Today: As I sit here and meditate and contemplate on this passage for another day’s devotional, listening to soothing contemporary worship music, I can feel God’s glory being expressed in the music and this scene where Job’s friends shared Job’s grief and sat quietly with him for several days. And I agree with Pastor Swindoll, who expresses the message from this, that this scene is much more expressive of a true relationship with God rather than what will transpire when these same three compassionate “friends” become the voices of isolated religion and worldly wisdom.
You’ve probably read the upcoming speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, where they move from contemplative compassion to intellectual speculation. To illustrate the difference between these two approaches to our witness when we, as Christians, happen upon a friend who is suffering, Swindoll relates the story told to him by a friend of his, one Joe Bayly and his wife, who were grieving the loss of their third child. They had lost a baby years before, a second child at five to leukemia, and, at the time of the story, their 18 year old boy had died in a sledding accident, from complications of hemophilia. Joe related to Swindoll that one Christian friend had come to him and waxed as eloquent as he could, speculating as to the reasons God would allow all of this to happen. Joe said that he understood, in his head, that everything the friend shared was true. But, after some time, the man left; and Joe reported that he was glad to see him go. But then another friend came to their home and just sat with Joe and his wife. They shared tears. They shared prayers. And they just shared togetherness. Joe said when this friend left, he was sorry to see him go.
And that my friends is the difference between Christianity where a relationship with God is shared, … where God’s love is shared with His grace and mercy being the empowering element of fellowship. However, when religion is the motive for sharing, Swindoll reports that the fellowship shares, “… answers without personal relationship, intellect without intimacy.” And Chuck extends this word picture with a poignant sentence about today’s passage and the sharing Job would get from his three friends. Swindoll writes, “The answers [that Job’s friends would give to Job] are slapped on Job’s ravaged life like labels on a specimen bottle.” And that is very expressive of religion without relationship.
When we share God’s love with another, especially one who suffers, it becomes hollow and meaningless to the one with whom we’re sharing, if they cannot feel the love being offered through the personal relationship we have with that person being shared through the empathizing grace of who we are in Christ. At the moment our story for today ended, Job was likely feeling the love and grace of God being administered by these three friends. However, as we move into future passages in Job’s book, we see Job’s questions of God’s wisdom being sparked by the hard, speculative answers which these same three friends would offer to Job thereafter.
These three had done enough at the point our story ended today. They should have shut up and left Job to seek his “WHY” answers directly from God, which, as we know from the book of Job will ultimately transpire. When we offer religion to a friend who suffers, we offer them nothing. But when we give a suffering friend relationship and the dignity of silence in sharing time in empathy, we share God with another. Let us take this lesson from God’s book on the dignity of suffering and make it reality the next time we encounter the suffering of a friend.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be a real friend and share the tears of my sadness rather the words of my head when I find a friend who suffers dearly. Amen
My Journal for Today: As I sit here and meditate and contemplate on this passage for another day’s devotional, listening to soothing contemporary worship music, I can feel God’s glory being expressed in the music and this scene where Job’s friends shared Job’s grief and sat quietly with him for several days. And I agree with Pastor Swindoll, who expresses the message from this, that this scene is much more expressive of a true relationship with God rather than what will transpire when these same three compassionate “friends” become the voices of isolated religion and worldly wisdom.
You’ve probably read the upcoming speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, where they move from contemplative compassion to intellectual speculation. To illustrate the difference between these two approaches to our witness when we, as Christians, happen upon a friend who is suffering, Swindoll relates the story told to him by a friend of his, one Joe Bayly and his wife, who were grieving the loss of their third child. They had lost a baby years before, a second child at five to leukemia, and, at the time of the story, their 18 year old boy had died in a sledding accident, from complications of hemophilia. Joe related to Swindoll that one Christian friend had come to him and waxed as eloquent as he could, speculating as to the reasons God would allow all of this to happen. Joe said that he understood, in his head, that everything the friend shared was true. But, after some time, the man left; and Joe reported that he was glad to see him go. But then another friend came to their home and just sat with Joe and his wife. They shared tears. They shared prayers. And they just shared togetherness. Joe said when this friend left, he was sorry to see him go.
And that my friends is the difference between Christianity where a relationship with God is shared, … where God’s love is shared with His grace and mercy being the empowering element of fellowship. However, when religion is the motive for sharing, Swindoll reports that the fellowship shares, “… answers without personal relationship, intellect without intimacy.” And Chuck extends this word picture with a poignant sentence about today’s passage and the sharing Job would get from his three friends. Swindoll writes, “The answers [that Job’s friends would give to Job] are slapped on Job’s ravaged life like labels on a specimen bottle.” And that is very expressive of religion without relationship.
When we share God’s love with another, especially one who suffers, it becomes hollow and meaningless to the one with whom we’re sharing, if they cannot feel the love being offered through the personal relationship we have with that person being shared through the empathizing grace of who we are in Christ. At the moment our story for today ended, Job was likely feeling the love and grace of God being administered by these three friends. However, as we move into future passages in Job’s book, we see Job’s questions of God’s wisdom being sparked by the hard, speculative answers which these same three friends would offer to Job thereafter.
These three had done enough at the point our story ended today. They should have shut up and left Job to seek his “WHY” answers directly from God, which, as we know from the book of Job will ultimately transpire. When we offer religion to a friend who suffers, we offer them nothing. But when we give a suffering friend relationship and the dignity of silence in sharing time in empathy, we share God with another. Let us take this lesson from God’s book on the dignity of suffering and make it reality the next time we encounter the suffering of a friend.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be a real friend and share the tears of my sadness rather the words of my head when I find a friend who suffers dearly. Amen
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
2009 – Day 230.Aug 19 – Without Asking
Passage of the Day: Job 2: 11 – 13 … 11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. 12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. 13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
My Journal for Today: In restudying this passage the last couple of days, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to apologize to Job’s three friends. Because of what I’ve read on ahead and what they say to Job, trying to explain his horrible condition and misfortune, over the years I’ve come to label these men as “Job’s three stooges;” and now it has come to my attention, with the help of my devotional Pastor, Chuck Swindoll and a friend of mine, that these men may have had opinions which were very human and very fallible; but I need to apologize to their memory because these men were truly FRIENDS of and to Job.
Yesterday, when I posted my journal entry, a dear Sister in Christ, who follows my blog, pointed out to me that she was impacted by the fact that these three men showed great compassion and friendship to Job as they tore their robes, sprinkled dust on their heads (a sign of mourning in the day), and they sat quietly and lovingly with their friend, Job, for seven days. Those are not things a casual acquaintance or a social critic would do. No, those are things only a true friend would do.
Swindoll points out today that when someone is down, a real friend does not need an invitation to come and be there. No, they just come, identifying with the pain of their downed friend and showing sympathy and compassion. A true friend is not turned off because of the bad smells in a hospital room or the distasteful sight of their friend who’s lost a lot of weight and looks horrible. No, the friend sits with, prays with, and loves on their hurting loved one in spite of all that.
Are real friends perfect and say all the right things? Well these three friends of Job are evidence that this may not be the case; because as we’ll see, they ultimately said a lot of the wrong things. But they were the ones who were there for Job in the midst of his grief and unsightly physical pain. And they were the ones who stayed in there with Job. They were friends; and way down the road, through they were to give Job some pretty dicey advice, Job learned to love the misguided friends who were real friends. He learned to choose to love these FRIENDS; and Job learned to pray for them; and when Job did that (see Chapter 42 of Job), God restored all to Job, … physical health, family, and fortune.
I hope we all have friends who would be there when we go down into the valley of the shadow of death even if they don’t say all the right things. And the best way to cultivate friends like that is to reach out, go to, and sit with someone you choose to love enough to ignore their distasteful looks or smell and just to be there with them. You don’t have to say much. In fact, it’s probably best you don’t. Job’s friends would have been much better off just staying with and being with Job. But I hope we’ll all take a cue from the good things these three men did; and we go out from here and be a dear friend to someone who needs us.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I pray that you’ll make divine appointments for me to be a friend to someone in my life who might need me. Amen
My Journal for Today: In restudying this passage the last couple of days, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to apologize to Job’s three friends. Because of what I’ve read on ahead and what they say to Job, trying to explain his horrible condition and misfortune, over the years I’ve come to label these men as “Job’s three stooges;” and now it has come to my attention, with the help of my devotional Pastor, Chuck Swindoll and a friend of mine, that these men may have had opinions which were very human and very fallible; but I need to apologize to their memory because these men were truly FRIENDS of and to Job.
Yesterday, when I posted my journal entry, a dear Sister in Christ, who follows my blog, pointed out to me that she was impacted by the fact that these three men showed great compassion and friendship to Job as they tore their robes, sprinkled dust on their heads (a sign of mourning in the day), and they sat quietly and lovingly with their friend, Job, for seven days. Those are not things a casual acquaintance or a social critic would do. No, those are things only a true friend would do.
Swindoll points out today that when someone is down, a real friend does not need an invitation to come and be there. No, they just come, identifying with the pain of their downed friend and showing sympathy and compassion. A true friend is not turned off because of the bad smells in a hospital room or the distasteful sight of their friend who’s lost a lot of weight and looks horrible. No, the friend sits with, prays with, and loves on their hurting loved one in spite of all that.
Are real friends perfect and say all the right things? Well these three friends of Job are evidence that this may not be the case; because as we’ll see, they ultimately said a lot of the wrong things. But they were the ones who were there for Job in the midst of his grief and unsightly physical pain. And they were the ones who stayed in there with Job. They were friends; and way down the road, through they were to give Job some pretty dicey advice, Job learned to love the misguided friends who were real friends. He learned to choose to love these FRIENDS; and Job learned to pray for them; and when Job did that (see Chapter 42 of Job), God restored all to Job, … physical health, family, and fortune.
I hope we all have friends who would be there when we go down into the valley of the shadow of death even if they don’t say all the right things. And the best way to cultivate friends like that is to reach out, go to, and sit with someone you choose to love enough to ignore their distasteful looks or smell and just to be there with them. You don’t have to say much. In fact, it’s probably best you don’t. Job’s friends would have been much better off just staying with and being with Job. But I hope we’ll all take a cue from the good things these three men did; and we go out from here and be a dear friend to someone who needs us.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I pray that you’ll make divine appointments for me to be a friend to someone in my life who might need me. Amen
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
2009 – Day 229.Aug 18 – Raising Faith to New Heights
Passage of the Day: Job 2: 11 – 13 … 11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. 12 And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. 13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
My Journal for Today: There is one point which needs to be emphasized before we launch into an exposé of the three friends who came to Job with great intentions and a lot of bad advice. Over the years I’ve come to call these three, “Job’s three stooges.” And it is true that when things go bad in life, concerned friends will often show up with “advice,” much of which may be well intentioned, but may be far from what the damaged party, which may be you, needs to hear.
But before we explore that dimension of Job’s three stooges, let’s look at a principle which could explain why we, as humans, get it wrong at times when it comes to our explanations of how God operates. And Swindoll quotes an unnamed source to explain this. He writes about our need to explain away how God can allow such bad things to happen to a good person, like Job, writing, “It is easier to lower your view of God than to raise your faith to such a height.” And that pretty well nails the advice that Job is about to get from his three stooges.
We just seem to have this natural drive in us to try to explain away how a sovereign God will allow really bad stuff to happen to really good people. We try to rationalize the actions or control God can – and often does – exert in our lives by bringing God down rather than raising our faith up to be able to deal with God’s sovereignty. You know what they say about rationalization (not knowing whom “they” might be). It is said, “When we rationalize, we tell ‘rational lies’ to ourselves.”
So, on the front end – before we hear of the attempts by Job’s three stooges to help him with explanations, we need to cut them a bit of human slack with the understanding that it’s very human for us to feel really bad for someone who’s down and out; and we’ll have the tendency to explain away the circumstances by bringing God down to human ways of explanation rather than helping our friends to raise their faith to God’s way of allowing life to reshape our character and our way of looking at life.
I hope we all can glean from this point in Job’s trials that he may listen to friends like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar; but it’s only by raising his own faith to new heights that he is going to be able to accept God’s intervention and to be reshaped by it. We’re simply going to have to do what Job will ultimately be seen to do; and that is to go deeper into his relationship with God than ever before and to learn to raise his faith to Godly levels rather than lower his God down to his level. That’s always tough, and really “super” human; but it’s what we must do in life to handle many of the circumstances which come our way.
My Prayer for Today: Raise my faith up, Lord, to see You rather than me lowering my view of You to my level of thinking. Amen
My Journal for Today: There is one point which needs to be emphasized before we launch into an exposé of the three friends who came to Job with great intentions and a lot of bad advice. Over the years I’ve come to call these three, “Job’s three stooges.” And it is true that when things go bad in life, concerned friends will often show up with “advice,” much of which may be well intentioned, but may be far from what the damaged party, which may be you, needs to hear.
But before we explore that dimension of Job’s three stooges, let’s look at a principle which could explain why we, as humans, get it wrong at times when it comes to our explanations of how God operates. And Swindoll quotes an unnamed source to explain this. He writes about our need to explain away how God can allow such bad things to happen to a good person, like Job, writing, “It is easier to lower your view of God than to raise your faith to such a height.” And that pretty well nails the advice that Job is about to get from his three stooges.
We just seem to have this natural drive in us to try to explain away how a sovereign God will allow really bad stuff to happen to really good people. We try to rationalize the actions or control God can – and often does – exert in our lives by bringing God down rather than raising our faith up to be able to deal with God’s sovereignty. You know what they say about rationalization (not knowing whom “they” might be). It is said, “When we rationalize, we tell ‘rational lies’ to ourselves.”
So, on the front end – before we hear of the attempts by Job’s three stooges to help him with explanations, we need to cut them a bit of human slack with the understanding that it’s very human for us to feel really bad for someone who’s down and out; and we’ll have the tendency to explain away the circumstances by bringing God down to human ways of explanation rather than helping our friends to raise their faith to God’s way of allowing life to reshape our character and our way of looking at life.
I hope we all can glean from this point in Job’s trials that he may listen to friends like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar; but it’s only by raising his own faith to new heights that he is going to be able to accept God’s intervention and to be reshaped by it. We’re simply going to have to do what Job will ultimately be seen to do; and that is to go deeper into his relationship with God than ever before and to learn to raise his faith to Godly levels rather than lower his God down to his level. That’s always tough, and really “super” human; but it’s what we must do in life to handle many of the circumstances which come our way.
My Prayer for Today: Raise my faith up, Lord, to see You rather than me lowering my view of You to my level of thinking. Amen
Monday, August 17, 2009
2009 – Day 228.Aug 17 – Complete Acceptance
Passage of the Day: Job 2: 9 – 10 … Then [Job’s] wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” But [Job] said to [his wife], “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
My Journal for Today: Well, yesterday, influenced by the seminar my wife and I had attended this past weekend with Emerson, and his wife, Sara, Eggerich teaching on the marriage implications from <u>Ephesians 5: 33, I took Chuck Swindoll’s devotional study in a different direction than he had taught. I wrote, with some criticism yesterday of Job’s communication to his wife in Job 2: 10, indicating that I thought he reacted somewhat harshly with his choice of terms, calling her “foolish.” As it turns out, I should have read ahead one more day; because that’s the exact point that Dr. Swindoll makes in his devotional for this date; and so let me expound on it one more day, helping to imbed the material my wife, Elly, and I learned this past weekend.
In the materials Emerson Eggerich and his wife use in their seminars, they teach about what they call “the crazy cycle,” which is the downward spiral of communication which can result when a wife ignores her husband’s need for respect and/or a husband ignores his wife’s need for love. In other words, when a wife communicates (either by her choice of words or his misperception) that she disrespects her husband, as may have been the case with Job’s wife in Job 2: 9, his perception of being disrespected can, and often does, cause him to recoil with an unloving response. And when she perceives, by his silence or his harsh, reactive words, that he is being unloving, the wife will react with words or actions which are perceived as disrespectful by the husband. And, as we learned this weekend, a wife won’t give respect to a husband when she FEELS unloved; and a husband won’t be loving to his wife when he FEELS disrespected. And so goes “the crazy cycle” of damaging communication downward which flows against God’s commands in Ephesians 5: 33.
What Job and his wife communicated to one another by words and feelings in today’s highlight passage is an illustration that “crazy cycle” communication in a marriage has been going on for over 3000 years. And that’s why the Apostles addressed this matter so pointedly, Paul in Ephesians 5 and 1st Corinthians 7, and Peter in 1st Peter 3. But as the teaching, more specifically in Eph. 5: 33 teaches, we can avoid the crazy cycle and move into what the Eggerich calls the “energizing cycle,” by one or the other of a couple CHOOSING to go against nature and communicate what God commands us to speak into our spouse.
And here is how that goes. When a wife FEELS loved by her husband’s communication, she will have a tendency to treat him with respect. And visa versa, when a husband feels respected by his wife, he can – and often does, respond by giving her the love she needs. Therefore, when a husband feels disrespected, he will have to consciously and intentionally break through his feelings of disrespect and communicate love to his wife. OR … when a wife feels unloved, she needs to break through the crazy cycle by consciously communicating respect to her husband. And when this happens, by God’s grace being doled out through their love choices, the spouse who has been mature enough to give his/her spouse what they need, will note that this spouse will respond with what initiator desires from their mate, love for the wife or respect for the husband.
Elly and I came away from the “Love and Respect” Conference this past weekend feeling that it would have been so good for us to know these marital dynamics 45 years ago when we got married. We could have avoided many situations where either of us caused the other to feel unloved or disrespected; and our crazy cycles of communication could have been broken and we could have energized one or the other in our marriage by choosing to go against what comes natural by giving the other needed to energize our marriage as God has commanded in Eph. 5: 33.
And as we can read in today’s marital interchange, even Godly Job and his wife needed to learn this lesson as well. So, as I wrote yesterday, if you’re reading this perhaps you should go to the Eggerich, Love and Respect, website [link provided] and purchase one of their books to help you learn how to break the crazy cycles of communication in a marriage and getting the benefits of the energizing and rewarding effects of going against what is natural by communicating messages which give your spouse what he/she needs in your marriage.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, give me the enabling grace to speak love to my wife because she needs it from me; and help her to overcome what I probably deserve by giving me, with grace, what I need in the honor she shows to me. Holy Spirit, energize our marriage with Your grace. Amen
My Journal for Today: Well, yesterday, influenced by the seminar my wife and I had attended this past weekend with Emerson, and his wife, Sara, Eggerich teaching on the marriage implications from <u>Ephesians 5: 33, I took Chuck Swindoll’s devotional study in a different direction than he had taught. I wrote, with some criticism yesterday of Job’s communication to his wife in Job 2: 10, indicating that I thought he reacted somewhat harshly with his choice of terms, calling her “foolish.” As it turns out, I should have read ahead one more day; because that’s the exact point that Dr. Swindoll makes in his devotional for this date; and so let me expound on it one more day, helping to imbed the material my wife, Elly, and I learned this past weekend.
In the materials Emerson Eggerich and his wife use in their seminars, they teach about what they call “the crazy cycle,” which is the downward spiral of communication which can result when a wife ignores her husband’s need for respect and/or a husband ignores his wife’s need for love. In other words, when a wife communicates (either by her choice of words or his misperception) that she disrespects her husband, as may have been the case with Job’s wife in Job 2: 9, his perception of being disrespected can, and often does, cause him to recoil with an unloving response. And when she perceives, by his silence or his harsh, reactive words, that he is being unloving, the wife will react with words or actions which are perceived as disrespectful by the husband. And, as we learned this weekend, a wife won’t give respect to a husband when she FEELS unloved; and a husband won’t be loving to his wife when he FEELS disrespected. And so goes “the crazy cycle” of damaging communication downward which flows against God’s commands in Ephesians 5: 33.
What Job and his wife communicated to one another by words and feelings in today’s highlight passage is an illustration that “crazy cycle” communication in a marriage has been going on for over 3000 years. And that’s why the Apostles addressed this matter so pointedly, Paul in Ephesians 5 and 1st Corinthians 7, and Peter in 1st Peter 3. But as the teaching, more specifically in Eph. 5: 33 teaches, we can avoid the crazy cycle and move into what the Eggerich calls the “energizing cycle,” by one or the other of a couple CHOOSING to go against nature and communicate what God commands us to speak into our spouse.
And here is how that goes. When a wife FEELS loved by her husband’s communication, she will have a tendency to treat him with respect. And visa versa, when a husband feels respected by his wife, he can – and often does, respond by giving her the love she needs. Therefore, when a husband feels disrespected, he will have to consciously and intentionally break through his feelings of disrespect and communicate love to his wife. OR … when a wife feels unloved, she needs to break through the crazy cycle by consciously communicating respect to her husband. And when this happens, by God’s grace being doled out through their love choices, the spouse who has been mature enough to give his/her spouse what they need, will note that this spouse will respond with what initiator desires from their mate, love for the wife or respect for the husband.
Elly and I came away from the “Love and Respect” Conference this past weekend feeling that it would have been so good for us to know these marital dynamics 45 years ago when we got married. We could have avoided many situations where either of us caused the other to feel unloved or disrespected; and our crazy cycles of communication could have been broken and we could have energized one or the other in our marriage by choosing to go against what comes natural by giving the other needed to energize our marriage as God has commanded in Eph. 5: 33.
And as we can read in today’s marital interchange, even Godly Job and his wife needed to learn this lesson as well. So, as I wrote yesterday, if you’re reading this perhaps you should go to the Eggerich, Love and Respect, website [link provided] and purchase one of their books to help you learn how to break the crazy cycles of communication in a marriage and getting the benefits of the energizing and rewarding effects of going against what is natural by communicating messages which give your spouse what he/she needs in your marriage.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, give me the enabling grace to speak love to my wife because she needs it from me; and help her to overcome what I probably deserve by giving me, with grace, what I need in the honor she shows to me. Holy Spirit, energize our marriage with Your grace. Amen
Sunday, August 16, 2009
2009 – Day 227.Aug 16 – Truth Spoken In Love
Passage of the Day: Job 2: 10 … But [Job] said to [his wife], “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
My Journal for Today: When you consider how Job heard what his wife had to say (in verse 9 of Job 2), where she had spoken in horror for her husband to curse God and die, Chuck Swindoll posits that Job spoke the truth back to his wife in love. But I don’t think I agree with Pastor Swindoll completely here.
I do agree that Job rightfully and correctly confronted his wife with the truth as he saw it; but don’t you think he could have shown here a bit more consideration in avoiding labeling his wife as a “foolish woman?” Actually, I love scripture for many reasons; but one of them is the way it doesn’t hide human weakness; and here was a man who was covered in painful boils, a man who had just lost his 10 kids; and his wife blurts out that he should commit suicide and end it all.
Yes, Job listened to his wife; and he appears to have considered her input. However, when he responded to her, I think he could have done a better job of showing that he loved his wife with his response. Wives need to hear love from their husbands. My wife and I just returned from a Christian marriage seminar conducted by Emerson and Sara Eggerich, which was based on the truth about marriage found in Ephesians 5:33. You may know the verse, where the Apostle Paul tells married believers, “…let each one of you [husbands] in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Personally, I think Job’s wife could have shown her husband a little more respect by saying something like, “Oh, my dear, you are such a Godly man; and I can’t stand seeing you suffer like this. Let’s just end it all right here together.” And maybe Job could have said something like, “Dear one, I can understand what you say; and I know you love me; but it’s foolish to think that God doesn’t love us just because of the bad things which have happened to us.”
But I will say that Job and his wife at least confronted what was happening … head on; and they did not hide their feelings. And that is something that many married couples are unwilling to do. How often in a marriage do we leave the truth unsaid or try to avoid confrontation in love? Most of us tend to stuff our feelings and leave the truth unspoken. But this couple at least brought their feelings out into the open. I’m just saying that I think they could have done it with a bit more love (on his part) and respect (on her part).
What my wife and I learned yesterday at the Eggerich seminar, was the power of speaking love to a wife from a husband and respect from a wife to a husband, which has everything to do with how marital relationships will transpire. If a wife doesn’t feel loved in what a husband says or does, she will react with disrespect. If a husband senses or perceives disrespect from his wife, he will recoil and reactively avoid showing love to his wife. And it all leads to what Dr. Eggerich calls “the crazy cycle,” where communications go reactively negative and the wife becomes unwilling to communicate respect for her husband and the husband is unwilling to communicate love to his wife. However, when one of the couple is willing to break this cycle by showing the other what that one needs, the cycle can turn around and become positive and affirming where the wife feels loved and the husband respected.
Here’s where Job and his wife could, I believe, have done a better service to each other, even though they both, under great stress, were willing to share their real feelings. … Perhaps I’m being a bit presumptuous by criticizing this God-fearing couple in the midst of their horrible circumstances; but we all can learn from the reality of scripture, especially when we consider other parallel passages in God’s word about related matters; and this is what I’m trying to do by bringing Ephesians 5 to bear into our look at this highlight passage from the book of Job. We, who are married, can - and must - learn how to communicate openly and honestly. But we must do it with love and compassion for the needs of the other when we share our feelings in our relationships. And when we do, we can move forward, in love, knowing that we’ve honored God with our expressions while we consider the needs of our spouses as we share together.
PS: Any married readers of what I have shared here today may want to go to the website at this link [link provided] and learn more about the “Love and Respect” approach to marriage communications. It could change the way you view your spouse and bring your marriage into the focus of God’s instructions in Ephesians 5.
My Prayer for Today: Thank you, Lord, for a wife who respects me and one whom I love so dearly. Amen
My Journal for Today: When you consider how Job heard what his wife had to say (in verse 9 of Job 2), where she had spoken in horror for her husband to curse God and die, Chuck Swindoll posits that Job spoke the truth back to his wife in love. But I don’t think I agree with Pastor Swindoll completely here.
I do agree that Job rightfully and correctly confronted his wife with the truth as he saw it; but don’t you think he could have shown here a bit more consideration in avoiding labeling his wife as a “foolish woman?” Actually, I love scripture for many reasons; but one of them is the way it doesn’t hide human weakness; and here was a man who was covered in painful boils, a man who had just lost his 10 kids; and his wife blurts out that he should commit suicide and end it all.
Yes, Job listened to his wife; and he appears to have considered her input. However, when he responded to her, I think he could have done a better job of showing that he loved his wife with his response. Wives need to hear love from their husbands. My wife and I just returned from a Christian marriage seminar conducted by Emerson and Sara Eggerich, which was based on the truth about marriage found in Ephesians 5:33. You may know the verse, where the Apostle Paul tells married believers, “…let each one of you [husbands] in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Personally, I think Job’s wife could have shown her husband a little more respect by saying something like, “Oh, my dear, you are such a Godly man; and I can’t stand seeing you suffer like this. Let’s just end it all right here together.” And maybe Job could have said something like, “Dear one, I can understand what you say; and I know you love me; but it’s foolish to think that God doesn’t love us just because of the bad things which have happened to us.”
But I will say that Job and his wife at least confronted what was happening … head on; and they did not hide their feelings. And that is something that many married couples are unwilling to do. How often in a marriage do we leave the truth unsaid or try to avoid confrontation in love? Most of us tend to stuff our feelings and leave the truth unspoken. But this couple at least brought their feelings out into the open. I’m just saying that I think they could have done it with a bit more love (on his part) and respect (on her part).
What my wife and I learned yesterday at the Eggerich seminar, was the power of speaking love to a wife from a husband and respect from a wife to a husband, which has everything to do with how marital relationships will transpire. If a wife doesn’t feel loved in what a husband says or does, she will react with disrespect. If a husband senses or perceives disrespect from his wife, he will recoil and reactively avoid showing love to his wife. And it all leads to what Dr. Eggerich calls “the crazy cycle,” where communications go reactively negative and the wife becomes unwilling to communicate respect for her husband and the husband is unwilling to communicate love to his wife. However, when one of the couple is willing to break this cycle by showing the other what that one needs, the cycle can turn around and become positive and affirming where the wife feels loved and the husband respected.
Here’s where Job and his wife could, I believe, have done a better service to each other, even though they both, under great stress, were willing to share their real feelings. … Perhaps I’m being a bit presumptuous by criticizing this God-fearing couple in the midst of their horrible circumstances; but we all can learn from the reality of scripture, especially when we consider other parallel passages in God’s word about related matters; and this is what I’m trying to do by bringing Ephesians 5 to bear into our look at this highlight passage from the book of Job. We, who are married, can - and must - learn how to communicate openly and honestly. But we must do it with love and compassion for the needs of the other when we share our feelings in our relationships. And when we do, we can move forward, in love, knowing that we’ve honored God with our expressions while we consider the needs of our spouses as we share together.
PS: Any married readers of what I have shared here today may want to go to the website at this link [link provided] and learn more about the “Love and Respect” approach to marriage communications. It could change the way you view your spouse and bring your marriage into the focus of God’s instructions in Ephesians 5.
My Prayer for Today: Thank you, Lord, for a wife who respects me and one whom I love so dearly. Amen
Saturday, August 15, 2009
2009 – Day 226.Aug 15 – Watch and Wait
Passage of the Day: Job 2: 10 … But [Job] said to [his wife], “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
My Journal for Today: Swindoll says today, “Job’s response to his wife’s suggestion that he curse God and die is magnificent.” And of course, Chuck is right; but don’t you just about gag when you read that verse. I do. I’m the type that says, “No way I could ever be able to respond like that if I had just lost my everything, including my kids; and I’m sitting there covered with boils.” And, … of course, … that’s the point, isn’t it?
Job’s response is not human. It is superhuman. It is Christlike in its faithfulness.
I have no doubt that this scenario is truth; because long ago I realized and resolved that all in the Bible is truth. Oh, you may ask, “Is it allegorical truth; or is it actual truth?” And to that I’d say, “Does it matter? … Truth is truth!” So, if we read it in God’s book, we are reading truth which God wants us to read so that we can be shaped by God’s Spirit, the Author of His truth, into the likeness of The Christ, the arch type of so many of the characters of the Bible, men or women like we have been studying, … Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Esther, or Job. In these character studies we see modeled elements of the character of Christ; and we can glean from them who or how we should grow to become in life.
That is why I gag at the prospect of being like Job in verse 10 of Job 2. I’m not that strong; and right now I have trouble identifying with Job’s trust in God. But I do see that this kind of strength is way more that we’d expect from any of us. It’s simply way more than human. And there in lies the lesson. It’s the character traits of faith and trust in God to which we should aspire. It’s the path of character development to which we must commit our lives to become. It’s the prayer, as I will shortly, to become more like Christ today than yesterday; and even more like Him tomorrow than today.
So, join me, my dear one; and let’s make a covenant to grow into the statement we read in today’s passage … to become more like Job as we read this account today. And perhaps one day, down the road of life, when we face some horrendous set of circumstances, we’ll respond by thinking and acting more like Job than we could today.
My Prayer for Today: Father, grow me into the image of Your Son, Jesus; and I pray this in His Name. Amen
My Journal for Today: Swindoll says today, “Job’s response to his wife’s suggestion that he curse God and die is magnificent.” And of course, Chuck is right; but don’t you just about gag when you read that verse. I do. I’m the type that says, “No way I could ever be able to respond like that if I had just lost my everything, including my kids; and I’m sitting there covered with boils.” And, … of course, … that’s the point, isn’t it?
Job’s response is not human. It is superhuman. It is Christlike in its faithfulness.
I have no doubt that this scenario is truth; because long ago I realized and resolved that all in the Bible is truth. Oh, you may ask, “Is it allegorical truth; or is it actual truth?” And to that I’d say, “Does it matter? … Truth is truth!” So, if we read it in God’s book, we are reading truth which God wants us to read so that we can be shaped by God’s Spirit, the Author of His truth, into the likeness of The Christ, the arch type of so many of the characters of the Bible, men or women like we have been studying, … Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Esther, or Job. In these character studies we see modeled elements of the character of Christ; and we can glean from them who or how we should grow to become in life.
That is why I gag at the prospect of being like Job in verse 10 of Job 2. I’m not that strong; and right now I have trouble identifying with Job’s trust in God. But I do see that this kind of strength is way more that we’d expect from any of us. It’s simply way more than human. And there in lies the lesson. It’s the character traits of faith and trust in God to which we should aspire. It’s the path of character development to which we must commit our lives to become. It’s the prayer, as I will shortly, to become more like Christ today than yesterday; and even more like Him tomorrow than today.
So, join me, my dear one; and let’s make a covenant to grow into the statement we read in today’s passage … to become more like Job as we read this account today. And perhaps one day, down the road of life, when we face some horrendous set of circumstances, we’ll respond by thinking and acting more like Job than we could today.
My Prayer for Today: Father, grow me into the image of Your Son, Jesus; and I pray this in His Name. Amen
Friday, August 14, 2009
2009 – Day 225.Aug 14 – A Plea for Understanding
Passage of the Day: Job 2: 1 – 10 … Linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Chuck Swindoll’s devotional this morning is a good one and it’s needed to gain perspective on “Mrs. Job,” the wife of our hero, Job, who has been felled by physical affliction. Pastor Chuck is right that we have a tendency to think ill of Job’s wife, especially when we read Job’s heroic exhortation in verse 10 of Job 2.
Here we have the hero, taking all Satan has to dole out; and when Job’s wife can’t take any more, she would rather see her husband, whom she loves dearly, being taken to heaven by God rather than having to suffer the way he is suffering. Remember, she too has lost everything they, as a couple, had together, … INCLUDING her ten kids. Shouldn’t we have some sympathy for Mrs. Job? And this is especially true when Job seems to call her down for speaking as a “foolish woman.”
I totally agree with Swindoll that the characterization of Job’s wife is way out of the ordinary; and Swindoll depicts truth when looking at most human marriages. It is usually the case, and it is certainly the case in my marriage, that the wife can take on adversity more readily than her husband. As the good Pastor writes it, “… going through sustained hard times weakens most men. [But] For some reason, hardship seems to strengthen most women.” And he goes on to point out that in most instances men lose their objectivity and balance when confronted by material loss and/or physical pain. Yet, when they’re sustained by a strong mate, a dedicated and loving wife, they can hold up to the pressure. Without that kind of spousal support, however, most men will crumble. And here, in this mutual scenario in the life of Job and his wife, it is Job who holds on to God’s perspective and remains strong; and his wife is the one who seems to crumble. My fellow readers, Swindoll contends, and I agree, that this scenario/example is not the norm; and we shouldn’t be too hard on Job’s wife.
Recently I had a prime example of what we’re speaking about here. A dear brother in Christ, a dear friend of mine, is waning in pain and agony from cancer. About seven years ago he was given a prognosis of less than a year to live with kidney and lung cancer. But he is still with us. And during all of the horrible and painful radiation treatments and devastating chemotherapy he has endured, fighting his disease, this man has retained a smile on his face and has witnessed to God’s love and sustaining power. And he will readily tell you, as he did to his church elders this week (I, being one of them) that he could not have taken all of these toxic treatments if it hadn’t been for the strength and support of his little, but powerful, wife. And I believe, having the same kind of wife, this is the normal scenario.
BUT, that’s not the picture we see in Job and his wife; and I hope we can all see that Job had been given, by God, an extra dose of sustaining, enabling grace; and he becomes a super-human example of how we must intentionally choose to follow God through “the valley of the shadow of death,” as David wrote about in Psalm 23, leading us to the peaceful valley on the other side, that place where Job’s wife lovingly, I believe, wanted for her husband, seeing him suffer with all those boils and after having lost, together, their ten children.
Well, as we know, Job comes through round two of this beating from Satan in the ring of life; and somehow he’s able to have an unusually strong constitution for a man when compared to his wife. And so, let’s give Mrs. Job a break here and cut her some slack. Job is right in stating that they both needed to trust God in all that then had encountered. But I think that Job, being weakened by his physical condition, was a bit harsh is calling his wife “foolish” in what she declared in wanting his suffering to end.
Let’s just all learn that God can, with our humble faith, pour all the sustaining power we need to handle the adversities of life. And as I’ve said, that is the joint message of 1st Cor. 10: 13 and 2nd Cor. 12: 9, which are two verses I hope you know, believe deeply, and can recite in prayer when you face adversity as our hero Job has faced. God simply won’t put us into any tribulations or temptations which we can’t handle with His faithful help; and His grace is truly sufficient to allow Him to give us what we need from His power to cover our own weaknesses.
My dear one, I hope you can hold onto that truth as our role model Job does. We are going to face trials and troubles in our lives; and we need to follow our model, Job, and build a deep/abiding relationship with God which will sustain us when we face the troubled times in life. That’s why I come here to this place, my quiet time in God’s word, EVERY DAY. I’m not there yet; but I will keep going deep with God each day so that when I must follow my God through that valley of the shadow of death, I will come out the other side and find the valley of living waters and the peace of my fellowship with my Lord.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be sustained when I must walk with You in troubles. Amen
My Journal for Today: Chuck Swindoll’s devotional this morning is a good one and it’s needed to gain perspective on “Mrs. Job,” the wife of our hero, Job, who has been felled by physical affliction. Pastor Chuck is right that we have a tendency to think ill of Job’s wife, especially when we read Job’s heroic exhortation in verse 10 of Job 2.
Here we have the hero, taking all Satan has to dole out; and when Job’s wife can’t take any more, she would rather see her husband, whom she loves dearly, being taken to heaven by God rather than having to suffer the way he is suffering. Remember, she too has lost everything they, as a couple, had together, … INCLUDING her ten kids. Shouldn’t we have some sympathy for Mrs. Job? And this is especially true when Job seems to call her down for speaking as a “foolish woman.”
I totally agree with Swindoll that the characterization of Job’s wife is way out of the ordinary; and Swindoll depicts truth when looking at most human marriages. It is usually the case, and it is certainly the case in my marriage, that the wife can take on adversity more readily than her husband. As the good Pastor writes it, “… going through sustained hard times weakens most men. [But] For some reason, hardship seems to strengthen most women.” And he goes on to point out that in most instances men lose their objectivity and balance when confronted by material loss and/or physical pain. Yet, when they’re sustained by a strong mate, a dedicated and loving wife, they can hold up to the pressure. Without that kind of spousal support, however, most men will crumble. And here, in this mutual scenario in the life of Job and his wife, it is Job who holds on to God’s perspective and remains strong; and his wife is the one who seems to crumble. My fellow readers, Swindoll contends, and I agree, that this scenario/example is not the norm; and we shouldn’t be too hard on Job’s wife.
Recently I had a prime example of what we’re speaking about here. A dear brother in Christ, a dear friend of mine, is waning in pain and agony from cancer. About seven years ago he was given a prognosis of less than a year to live with kidney and lung cancer. But he is still with us. And during all of the horrible and painful radiation treatments and devastating chemotherapy he has endured, fighting his disease, this man has retained a smile on his face and has witnessed to God’s love and sustaining power. And he will readily tell you, as he did to his church elders this week (I, being one of them) that he could not have taken all of these toxic treatments if it hadn’t been for the strength and support of his little, but powerful, wife. And I believe, having the same kind of wife, this is the normal scenario.
BUT, that’s not the picture we see in Job and his wife; and I hope we can all see that Job had been given, by God, an extra dose of sustaining, enabling grace; and he becomes a super-human example of how we must intentionally choose to follow God through “the valley of the shadow of death,” as David wrote about in Psalm 23, leading us to the peaceful valley on the other side, that place where Job’s wife lovingly, I believe, wanted for her husband, seeing him suffer with all those boils and after having lost, together, their ten children.
Well, as we know, Job comes through round two of this beating from Satan in the ring of life; and somehow he’s able to have an unusually strong constitution for a man when compared to his wife. And so, let’s give Mrs. Job a break here and cut her some slack. Job is right in stating that they both needed to trust God in all that then had encountered. But I think that Job, being weakened by his physical condition, was a bit harsh is calling his wife “foolish” in what she declared in wanting his suffering to end.
Let’s just all learn that God can, with our humble faith, pour all the sustaining power we need to handle the adversities of life. And as I’ve said, that is the joint message of 1st Cor. 10: 13 and 2nd Cor. 12: 9, which are two verses I hope you know, believe deeply, and can recite in prayer when you face adversity as our hero Job has faced. God simply won’t put us into any tribulations or temptations which we can’t handle with His faithful help; and His grace is truly sufficient to allow Him to give us what we need from His power to cover our own weaknesses.
My dear one, I hope you can hold onto that truth as our role model Job does. We are going to face trials and troubles in our lives; and we need to follow our model, Job, and build a deep/abiding relationship with God which will sustain us when we face the troubled times in life. That’s why I come here to this place, my quiet time in God’s word, EVERY DAY. I’m not there yet; but I will keep going deep with God each day so that when I must follow my God through that valley of the shadow of death, I will come out the other side and find the valley of living waters and the peace of my fellowship with my Lord.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be sustained when I must walk with You in troubles. Amen
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