A storm and a great big lesson...

photo credit to National Geographic, I did not take this one.  :)

I love the story of Job. 

I love how right from the beginning we know so much more than he did - and we watch, in horror and dismay as the events unfold. 

It is not a tidy story.  It is not "fair".  But, it offers so much hope, and advice and perspective on life, godliness, and the absolute Awesomeness of God.

So many things strike me as I read that story.  So. many.

Chapter 1, verse 1 tells us that "he was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil."  Verse 3 lets us know that he was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
Job was a man, a righteous man.

He was not wicked.  He prayed for his children.  He offered sacrifices for them, just in case they had committed an offense against God. 

He feared God and shunned evil. 

I would imagine there were many who watched him and misunderstood him.  They thought of him as self-righteous, and "holier than thou."  They probably talked about him - convicted by their own sin - but casting names on him as insults because they didn't like how he seemed to have special favor with God.    They were almost excited to watch him "fall".  
They did not shun evil. 

They were comfortable in their places of sin - and it made them less uncomfortable to imagine that he considered himself blameless because he loved righteousness.  Surely he was blameless only in his own eyes.

 

I think in all of it, my favorite part is where God speaks in the storm.  First of all, the imagery is just beautiful.  Literally, chapter 38, verse 1 says that God spoke from the storm.  Can you imagine what that was like?  We just had a thunderstorm - a ton of rain fell from the sky.  Lightening flashed and thunder bellowed.  But, I did not hear the audible voice of God. 

Thing is, I don't think Job really thought he was perfect.  But, I love that God allows us to see that he was a man, and he struggled with the approval of man, and the pride that causes us to want everyone to know us and our hearts the way that God does.  Job spoke what was right about God - even in the midst of some pretty awful circumstances and accusations.  (Job 42:8)

But, Job was a man, and Job didn't handle everything perfectly.  He had a pity party.  (I am surely not saying he didn't have grounds for one, more than any human, but yet, it was still not the best idea).  He got trapped in the need for the approval of man, and to be seen for who he really was.  It is a slippery slope, indeed.  He contended that he was right - not that it made God wrong, just that somehow - he and God were both right, and he was blameless.

We have the whole Bible.  We knew from the very first chapter that he had not done anything "wrong" in the eyes of the Lord.  He was being sifted as wheat because Satan had appeared before God - and God allowed it.  God even suggested Job.  God knew Job, and He knew that Job would remain faithful in the midst of the worst suffering and loss. 

I can't imagine being Job.  Losing everything.  Being alone, really alone.  Suffering even in his flesh.  And then, to make matters just that much worse, his "friends" come to console him - and instead - they accuse him, and say things that aren't true.  They twist it all up so that it seems that because God is right (which He always is), then that must imply that Job deserved what was happening to him.   Job was angry.  Job wanted the right to defend himself - to the people that ought to know better.  They ought to have known him better.  But, they had evil in their hearts - and they wanted him to be less righteous - because that made them more comfortable.  

The first thing I think of (and this must be so small in comparison) is the time that I heard a Lion roar - and I mean really let loose - at the zoo.  Fear seized my heart.   We were a hundred yards from him, and separated by a great hole in the earth.  But, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  

(image from truefresco.org)

 

I thought we were going to die.

It was stunning.  It was awe-inspiring.  And it was nothing in comparison to the voice of God.

My second favorite part is where God finishes speaking and Job essentially says, "oh, my bad".  He really means it.  He sees very clearly his sin in defending himself, rather than God- his demanding his own glory, rather than God's.  But, then something profound happens.  God rebukes the "friends".  In fact, He commends Job before them, and then says that He will accept Job's prayer on their (arrogant, foolish) behalf.  He surely proves before them that Job had His favor and blessing all along.  It makes me want to stick my tongue out at the friends and sing "nanny, nanny boo-boo" (and that reveals my folly in the sight of a Holy God.) 

I love Job.  I love the Holy Spirit for moving in the heart of man to write it in the Bible.  I love the God of the universe that created Dragons (ch.41:1-34  esp. 18-19) and horses and storks and lightening. (ch. 38-41)

Today, I am more in love with God who has revealed so many things to us through His Word.  I am surely more amazed by Him today than I was yesterday.  I long to know more of His character.  I long to understand more deeply that He is God and there is no one like Him.  

Followers of Christ??

More than ever right now I am wanting to shake everyone I know that is a Christian and tell them they had better act right (including myself)!
We have two families that we owed money because the daycare closed.  One family is Christian.  One family is Mormon.  Both families had paid on a credit card.  Both families charged back their credit cards after we closed.  The difference?  The Christian family charged back the entire amount, not even paying for the part of the services they used.  The Mormon family charged back what they actually were due.  They figured up what they owed us (including registration fees) and only charged back the amount they were due.  Wow.
Why do we as Christians feel like it is okay to act like the world?  Why do we feel like we are doing everyone a service when we tell them about Christ if we are not going to actually follow Him (which means acting like He would in all situations).  Team win for Satan.  Team loss for Christ, and it happens every day all day long.  When are we going to wake up and understand all of our sin - ALL OF IT - affects other people.  All of it impacts people we may never know it impacted.  We have to realize time is short and if we are at all concerned for people’s souls, we need to stop being shown up by people who serve a Jesus that is impotent - because in that religion - Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but not God. That makes the Jesus they follow VERY different than the Jesus I follow.   They also believe that we will be gods one day, though they say we will never be as powerful as God - because “as we are growing in knowledge, so is He”.  I am sorry, but the God I serve will not be growing in knowledge or power or anything else because He is already all-knowing, and all powerful.
 I have a few friends who I love deeply who are Mormons.  They are precious to me.  I pray often that the eyes of their hearts would be open to the Truth of God’s Word.  The Truth that speaks of Hell more than it speaks of Heaven.  The Truth of the Trinity - where Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are all truly One.  The Truth that says that there is only one way into Heaven - “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one gets to the Father but through me.”  No one.  Not one person will ever be good enough apart from Jesus Christ.  And, not an impotent, Jesus.  The real Jesus Christ.  The One who was perfect.  The One who came so that we might have life.  I hate the religion of Mormonism because it is so deceptive.  SO DECEPTIVE!  But, please don’t get me wrong.  I love Mormon people.  I dearly love my friends who are Mormons.  And I am sad that if I weren’t a believer, I would have just been exposed to this Christian and this Mormon and I wouldn’t have fuzzy feelings for the Christian at all.  This experience would make me want to agree with my cousin, if I didn’t have a personal relationship with Christ as my Savior already.  When I “share my testimony” it does not sound like anyone else’s.  It is the personal account of my walk with Christ.  My faith in God.  The ways that He has stepped into my life and been personal with me.  The ways that He has rescued me.  The hurts that He has carried me through.  The way that He is constantly at work around me and in my heart.  My testimony is not of a mere man (Joseph Smith) or in support of a religion.  My testimony is about the Savior of my soul, and the Redeemer of my heart and the Repairer of all things broken in my life.
 My cousin (who is not a believer) has ribbed me since I was little about things - a lot of things.  I feel like she has always just not liked me very much.  I am not really sure why, but because of the things that she says to me, I think it has something to do with the fact that I follow Christ.  I have been a lover of Jesus Christ since I was little.  I have not always acted like it.  She has had many people in her life say they were Christians and then they hurt her - deeply.  Some, worse than others.  She has been surrounded by false teaching for part of her life, and she has been consumed with a mild form of hatred for Christ-followers based on this (at least that is what it appears to me).  Last week she posted this on Facebook...  “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ - Mohandas Gandhi”.  That quote was deeply convicting for me personally, because, though we are not perfect... and won’t be this side of eternity, we make choices every day.
Life is choices.
When we allow ourselves to consider ourselves more than we consider others we do much damage to the Kingdom of God.  According to Scripture, we are His Ambassadors, but we live as if we are only representing ourselves.  Sad.  Really sad.

I implore you, if you are a Follower of Christ, if you believe the Bible is true - all of it - from cover to cover - then pursue righteousness.  Remember that all of your ACTIONS speak to what you really believe, and who you really believe in.