Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Luke 13:1-9

I will be meditating on this passage this week

Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were {greater} sinners than all {other} Galileans because they suffered this {fate?}
"I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
"Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were {worse} culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?
"I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
And He {began} telling this parable: "A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.
"And he said to the vineyard-keeper, 'Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?'
"And he answered and said to him, 'Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer;
and if it bears fruit next year, {fine;} but if not, cut it down.' "

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Job 26 :7-14

"He stretches out the north over empty space And hangs the earth on nothing.
"He wraps up the waters in His clouds, And the cloud does not burst under them.
"He obscures the face of the full moon And spreads His cloud over it.
"He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters At the boundary of light and darkness.
"The pillars of heaven tremble And are amazed at His rebuke.
"He quieted the sea with His power, And by His understanding He shattered Rahab.
"By His breath the heavens are cleared; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.
"Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand."


This is who I worship. This is my Father.
This the one whom I surrender my life.
This is my Maker. This is my Savior.
This is He who knew my name before the beginning of time.
Why I doubt, how I mocked, of that I can not tell.
The source of light and all that is good, He does all things well.
I tremble, I'm amazed, I can't help but cry.
That I can know this Creator through the blood of Christ.
He hung the earth on nothing, He spoke it all with a word.
But still He hung on the tree to pay a debt I couldn't afford.
I tremble, I'm amazed, I can not help but bow.
That this God chose to live in me, and make my heart His house

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Job 12:12-25

12 Older people are wise,
and long life brings understanding.
13 “But only God has wisdom and power,
good advice and understanding.
14 What he tears down cannot be rebuilt;
anyone he puts in prison cannot be let out.
15 If God holds back the waters, there is no rain;
if he lets the waters go, they flood the land.
16 He is strong and victorious;
both the one who fools others and the one who is fooled belong to him.
17 God leads the wise away as captives
and turns judges into fools.
18 He takes off chains that kings put on
and puts a garment on their bodies.
19 He leads priests away naked
and destroys the powerful.
20 He makes trusted people be silent
and takes away the wisdom of elders.
21 He brings disgrace on important people
and takes away the weapons of the strong.
22 He uncovers the deep things of darkness
and brings dark shadows into the light.
23 He makes nations great and then destroys them;
he makes nations large and then scatters them.
24 He takes understanding away from the leaders of the earth
and makes them wander through a pathless desert.
25 They feel around in darkness with no light;
he makes them stumble like drunks.

This morning I am thankful that God is for me, not against me. I'm glad I am on His side. That He knows me and I know Him. He is such an awesome God. I also wander if God is ready to destroy our nation. For surely He has made the U.S.A great. Is He ready to scatter us? Has he taken away the understanding of our leaders? I believe this is in the works since our nation has turned it's back on God. I wander about our next president and if he will lead us into the desert, scattered.

Knowing all this about God and the people around me, I am sobering up. I am awakened to the fact that the whole world is under the sway of the wicked one. Jesus is coming back real soon. Am I going to love His appearing or be ashamed? I need to warn people about this powerful God. I need to warn them that the wrath of God abides on them and that Jesus took their sin upon Himself so they can be saved.

Today I thank the Father for His son. I thank Him that I can be called a child and not an enemy who would be crushed under His feet. I thank Him that He granted me the ability to place my faith in Him and be placed under His mile wide wing as apposed to under His mile wide fist.



Friday, August 15, 2008

Job 10:8-13

'Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, And would You destroy me?
'Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again?
'Did You not pour me out like milk And curdle me like cheese;
Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews?
'You have granted me life and lovingkindness; And Your care has preserved my spirit.
'Yet these things You have concealed in Your heart; I know that this is within You:


At first when I read this, I thought "oh look, Job is praising God again" but then I realized that this is a complaint. What's interesting about this complaint is that Job is still far from cursing God as He questions Him. He confesses that God formed him like clay. How often do I think about that?
Another thing that I think about is that God is probably teaching Job something here that I need constant reminders about. That is that He created us for holines, not hapiness. It is God's goal to make us more like Him so that the world may see Him and glorify Him. Not to keep us happy and healthy. So why do I expect God to keep me healthy? Why do I constantly pray for God keep me feeling good and hardly ever ask Him to mold me into His image?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

"Were He to pass by me, I would not see Him; Were He to move past {me,} I would not perceive Him.
"Were He to snatch away, who could restrain Him? Who could say to Him, 'What are You doing?'
"God will not turn back His anger; Beneath Him crouch the helpers of Rahab.


This develops in me a reverent fear of God because the Spirit of God lives within me. Others are just stuck on "What are You doing God?". Although Job was obviously wondering what God was doing, he was giving Him glory in the midst of his confusion and pain.

I love the thought that my God is so powerful that no one can stop or even hinder Him from what He wants to do. If He wants to, He can take away anything that I posses. My kids. My job. My health. But I can always know that He is just. I can always know that there isn't an evil thought in Him. I also know that everything works for the good of me because I am His child.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Then Job answered,

"In truth I know that this is so; But how can a man be in the right before God?
"If one wished to dispute with Him, He could not answer Him once in a thousand {times.}
"Wise in heart and mighty in strength, Who has defied Him without harm?
"{It is God} who removes the mountains, they know not {how,} When He overturns them in His anger;
Who shakes the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble;
Who commands the sun not to shine, And sets a seal upon the stars;
Who alone stretches out the heavens And tramples down the waves of the sea;
Who makes the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south;
Who does great things, unfathomable, And wondrous works without number.


Once again Job is answering one of his "friends" after accusing him of cursing God. In chapter 8 Bildad went off on Job about him needing to repent. Bildad's last words were, "The dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing." implying that Job's dwelling place was brought to nothing because Job was wicked.
Sometimes i will look at someone who is prosperous and automatically assume that they accumulated it all by greed and secretly want to see God punish them. I need to watch that jealousy in my own heart.
I love Job's answer. He exalts God. He didn't go off on Bildad. He simply just started talking about how no one is righteous before God. Of course he was responding to Bildad's self righteous attacks so there was probably a reason why he sais "How can a man be right before God?". This makes me think that in every situation or conflict, it would be wise to bring God into the picture. Just start talking about how good He is. Start exalting Him and lifting up His name. Why because that is what the other person needs. He or she, especially if you consider them to be self righteous, needs to get a right perspective of a holy God. This is also good for my soul to dwell on this passage to keep from thinking that I can control things.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Job 6:14

1."One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you have accused me without the slightest fear of the Almighty.

2."To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend,
Even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.


3."For the despairing man {there should be} kindness from his friend; So that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty.

Here we have three different translations of Job answering his "friends". I haven't had the time to dissect this passage to find out what the correct rendering is but i think i can take wisdom from all three.

1.I should be afraid of accusing a man, who is right with God, of wrong. This would put me in the category of Satan who's name means accuser.

2.Kindness should be shown to my friend even if he is not fearing God in his actions. I should rebuke him as kindly as I could.

3.If i was despairing, I would want my friends to comfort me, not accuse me. I would want them to help keep me from forsaking the Lord in my distress.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Truth & Wisdom With Truth

Behold, happy [is] the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

I know these words to be true. When God corrects me it is bittersweet. He lets me do something stupid for a short time, then lets me experience the consequences of it. He then teaches me why He told me not to do it in the first place. He shows me that His commandments are not burdensome but a joy. It is disobedience that is burdensome in the long run. I might get pleasure or satisfaction temporarily but the ramifications out-way the short-lived gratification. When God asks me to do something it is for my good. When He asks me to refrain from something it is for my good. I may not be able to see this right away. Also sometimes the reward for obeying Him may not come until I meet Him face to face. But since I know that God is just, I know that He is faithful to reward according to my deeds. I know this because He sais it in His word that He will tally up the works done in faith by the believer as well as keeping record of every sin committed by the unbeliever.

There is something that I can't ignore about this passage though. It is spoken by Eliphaz, Job's "friend". How true are his words but how false is his judgement of Job. See I am convinced that Job's friends were secretly jealous of his wealth and prosperity. They were probably thinking that he was gaining all he had from greed. So when Job hit hard times they thought that God was finally giving Job what he deserved. I know this isn't true because the intro to this book shows me that Job was being tried and proven, not corrected. Yes God has things to say to Job later about the way that Job was questioning God through his suffering but Job's suffering was not a result of sin as his "friend" here was impying.

This makes me cautious about thinking i know what God is doing behind the scenes is someone elses life. I could be thinking something that is true, such as "Happy is the man whom God corrects", but be way out of line in the way that I apply that truth to the situation. Because of this danger of missusing truth, I think I will try more to be quick to listen and slow to speak. I will try harder to seek out God's heart in each situation and with each person.

One more thought; I get a certain fear that i am capable of misusing truth and ,as a result, speaking foolishly. I don't to use God's word to hinder His work. For that would be the ultimate slap in the face of God.

Friday, August 8, 2008

And said, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD"(Job 1:21)

Here Job has just lost all his possessions and his family accept his wife.

Shall we accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity"(Job 2:10)

Here Job is responding to his wife telling him to curse God and die. No doubt God used his marriage previously to allow Job to grow.
I am amazed at these words. For someone to go through such pain and suffering and still come back and say this. Wow. This is such an example to me. This is the kind of faith that I desire. Even though Job spends chapter three cursing the day he was born. This shows what was in his heart as a first response.
I also think about the purpose of all this suffering. Was it all for nothing? What was God doing. He is proving Job's character. Not only that but He was proving Himself in that the people who truly put their trust in Him will have stability and hope. Our God is worthy of this kind of trust.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Job

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.(Job1:1)

I'v started a read through of Job. As I go through, I will be underlining things that stuck out to me. I will be sharing what I like about these verses.

This introduction to the man Job is one that is not said of many. It almost looks like it is saying that he is perfect. Well we know according to the rest of scripture that God is the only one who is perfect. But it does say that he is blameless.
Blameless is not perfection. Blameless is setting straight what you've screwed up. It's admitting your wrong, not making exuses, and trying your best to change.
Upright is saying that he was a moral man. Probably cause he had only one wife while even David who was a man after God's own heart, had many wives.
He feared God and turned away from evil. This is the key. Fearing God. It is the fear of God and the awe of Him that will make me blameless, upright and cause me to turn form evil.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Unsaving belief and saving belief

Unsaving belief is saying yes with your mind. Saving belief is saying yes with your life.