Posts

Posted on

Job 30-41 God’s Zoo

Today, just as in the time of Job many deny the Creator and His creation. Yet we read in Romans 1:20 that all of creation reveals His attributes therefore we are without excuse. Where were we when God opened His vast storehouse of animals that we might see His powerful creation? Today, in Texas there is a riverbed of dinosaur tracks perfectly preserved. Last year in the drought we visited it and walked the riverbed and put our feet in the tracks! Amazing to think that Job might have seen animals such as these and as God described. 

God continues to ask Job if he really understands God and His creation. Job responds that he has spoken carelessly and will no longer question God for He has been humbled. When God speaks to us in dreams, as He did for Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar or the Holy Spirit speaks to us in the Word do we still challenge He who is Creator of all or do we humbly fall and submit to Him? 

Think about it! 

Posted on

Job 38-39 God’s ways are unknowable to men

Praising God

After 37 chapters in which Job has sought to defend himself against all the cries of his friends that he is a sinner, Job finally has his audience with the Lord God Almighty. God challenges Job to rethink his assessment of his questions and instead, God presents the case for Him as creator of all that lives and moves about the earth. These chapters remind us of the words of Isaiah: “Indeed, my plans are not like your plans, and my deeds are not like your deeds,” says the Lord, “for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so my deeds are superior to your deeds and my plans superior to your plans.” [Is 55:8-9] 

When we think we want an audience with the Lord, it would be wise to consider that God is Creator, He is Master, He is LORD! He knows the ways of men and He alone is offering Himself to each one that they might consider who they are in the realm of all that is and will be. Look about the world as you see it and experience it through His eyes and stop and praise Him for He is great and greatly to be praised. 

Posted on

1.13.25.God is…

God is

Job 35-37 God is Sovereign & His Ways are unknowable to man.

Elihu continues on his way offering a myriad of reasons men find themselves humbled but still wondering what is really happening because although God is sovereign, he is still unknowable in human terms. Elihu asks a thousand questions about life and the destiny of men and animals. He isn’t satisfied and Job isn’t either, or so he presumes. So now we have four men who think they have the answers to suffering but in the end they are as confused as they were at the beginning! One thing stands out: God knows what He is doing and the purposes yet man is in the dark and so men make. assumptions as to the real reason. “Elihu claimed that God is under no obligation to react to people’s actions be they good or bad. He is free to respond or not respond as He chooses. God is above the human sphere of life and only reacts to people when He chooses to do so. This is a thought Eliphaz had expressed earlier.” 

And so here we are in this and although we believe God and His ways because we have the completed Word, but we want to stand up and shout: this is a trial that God has allowed to prove His servant Job is honorable to the core. But, as Elihu says, God doesn’t have to tell us at all what He is doing because He is God and that is all that men need to remember. 

Posted on

1.11.25. Now and Tomorrow…

You are chosen

Job 29-31 Recalling the Past

As I age, I find I am doing just as Job. I recall my earlier days when my body was strong and I could work all day with abundant energy but now I tire easily and my strength is lessening with each passing day. Oh how I can relate to Job! He recalls the prime of his life and the joy of being able to serve and work with great joy. These days I find myself just like Job and soon i will be saying just as he said: my words are ended. But, in the meantime, I find my memories are sweet and abundant. I recall the successes and the failures for each taught me lessons that God would use to add to His work. Aging tends to do that. With age comes both wisdom and failures of past times.Don’t linger there my friend. Job has suffered greatly but in that suffering he has found the true meaning of life which is to honor God and give Him praise. He raises up and puts down men according to His will and we must be grateful for each day. 

Another sweet sister has gone to heaven and so as I read Job I find myself wondering. Her absence leaves a hole that cannot be filled and my heart is heavy knowing her absence is felt by her sweet family. Yet, in all of that, my heart rejoices that she is seeing the Lord she loved and served. What about you dear friend? 

Posted on

Conversations with God…

Meeting God

Job’s Audience with God

Job was facing the pangs of disease and loss of all he had, yet in a prayerful moment he still honored his faith and his God. In the quiet and stillness he prayed: “I would lay out my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know with what words he would answer me-and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me with great power? No, he would only pay attention to me.” [Job 23: 4-6] Job had such a close walk with God that he could picture them sitting down to discuss his questions and God would be there to listen.

al Is this way you see yourself and your relationship with God? If not, stop and consider what your relationship with God is at the moment. If you need help seeking that, send me a note and let’s talk. 

Posted on

Faithfulness…

Job 17 Despair

If it were not for Job’s faithfulness then we as present day readers would be in the pit of despair.  Listen to Job: “17:1 My spirit is broken, my days have faded out; the grave awaits me.” You can read this and pass on because it doesn’t describe you, but you can’t read it and not feel his despondency. How does one remain faithful when you have read these words? How can you pass on from here when you read the scathing responses of his so-called friends? How can you read this and not have a compassionate spirit in your heart? I can’t and probably you cannot either. 

How does one respond to a statement like Job’s? You sit in Shiva and mourn the heart of your precious friend. I can well remember doing just that for my dearest friend Rosie. Try as I might, there were only tears as I left that house and returned to my home and a family that was strong and healthy. I have never forgotten that day and her name sits at Ps 116:15 in my Bible. Listen to David’s words at that verse: “Precious in the sight of the LORD [is] the death of his saints.” 

Precious friend, if you have someone that you care about and is in the pit of despair, stop and pray. Pray for their soul, pray for God to be nearer than your breath and praise God when He takes them home. But….this is not where Job is yet. So stop and pray for their healing, their peace, their understanding when they stand at the crossroads of life. 

Posted on

Job 14: Man’s Destiny

Death is our destiny

Job and Man’s Destiny

Recently a man placed himself in a frozen state upon his death so that his body might be “resurrected” when the science develops the way to thaw him. Guess what? He is still frozen and he is still dead and even Job realized that once man dies, he is dead, dead. “Since man’s days are determined, the number of his months is under your control; you have set his limit, and he cannot pass it.” So says God and Job. 

When men begin to think they can operate like God, they are doomed. Even Job realized that truth. Job also recognized that men are not like trees. If they are cut down the root remains and with water and proper nourishment, they are “resurrected” to live again. How stupid is man! Only one man has lived, died and was resurrected to new life and that man was Jesus! Job knew this principle: But man dies and is powerless; he expires—and where is he? And that is the question men must answer. Luke 16 tells the story of two men who lived and died. One went to Paradise and the other to Torments. One chose the way of eternity with God and the other an eternity of hell. Now is the day for men to decide which place they will enter upon death. Choose ye this day whom you will serve. Choose the Lord and obey Him so you will be blessed upon your departure. 

What is your decision about death? Where will you end up on your deathbed? 

Posted on

Job 13 Promises of God

Has there ever come a time when you just wish you could sit down with God and ask Him what is going on? It seems that this is where Job is at the moment. Job wants to just ask God why all of this is happening as he sits in ashes and listens to his so-called friends belittle him. However, even in the midst of this, he understands this truth and clings to it: “Even if he slays me, I will hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.” [Job 13]

Is this where you are today? Do you still cling to that hope or is your hope diminished? 

Posted on

1.5.25.Trusting God

Trust God

Job 9 God is God

Job is in a quandary. He wants to believe God but his circumstances seem to prove that God is like the wind, here today and gone tomorrow. There seems to be no consistency with him. He brings some down and elevates others with just a whim. Job’s friends seem to concur that God honors the righteous and condemns the guilty but all with evidence. What is Job to do but to continue on with his misunderstandings of life and eternity. How like us. We are blessed and we give God credit but then we face challenges and we blame God. Oh woe is me! What do we do? We turn back to who God is. 

Num 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,nor a human being, that he should change his mind.Has he said, and will he not do it? Unlike the wind, God is steadfast, immovable and trustworthy. We may be in a situation like Job but we must trust Him who never changes. 1Sa 15:29 “The Preeminent One of Israel does not go back on his word or change his mind, for he is not a human being who changes his mind.”

Wherever God has you today, trust He is trustworthy. 

Posted on

Luke 4 The Spiritual War Begins

Although Satan has had the liberty to roam about this world, his target has always been the Son of God and His followers. Seeking to disarm Jesus, Satan sets up three traps, but Jesus foils them all. Interesting that he sets up three, why not more? He does the same for us seeking to wear us down and yet we see that it only took one for Eve to succumb. There is a lesson here for us: beware of Satan’s ploy and do as Jesus did: quote scripture to thwart his plans. That is why we must be not just “in” the Word but also be able to quote it which means we must have the Word on our minds and on our lips. 

Today, as we face the onslaught of the evil one, do not be like Eve but like Jesus. What verses shall you memorize this year? What verses will calm your spirit when the evil one comes? We know his plans, he roams about seeking whom he can devour so be prepared. 

Optimized by Optimole