Archive for May, 2008
Bible in a Year… Day 95 (Job 27-28)
May 7th, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in » Bible in a Year
More from Job today…
Job 27:5-6 (NIV)
5I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.6I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it;
my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.
Let’s recap a bit. God has allowed Job to be tested by Satan, and he has suffered severely because of it, losing possessions, family… even his health. Despite this, Job continues to worship God. Things get interesting when Job is confronted by his friends, who assume that because of his predicament, that God must be punishing him for some sort of sin.
It’s in that context that we get these statements… “I will never admit you are in the right”, “till I die, I will not deny my integrity”, “I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it”, “my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.”
Talk about intestinal fortitude!
Imagine yourself in Job’s shoes for a minute, and tell me how YOU would respond.
Me? I would have admitted some sort of generic fault by this point… whether guilty or not, I’d have been questioning myself enough that doubt would have crept in about my standing before God. I would have believed myself unrighteous, whether true or not.
Ever encounter someone like Job? Wholly committed to a task they know is right… never swaying from their cause no matter how difficult the circumstances or how great the pressure to change course?
How did you respond to them? Admiration? Contempt? Anything but indifference, right?
People like Job tend to be polarizing figures… we either love them or hate them… even when their cause is 100% right and they are following God wholeheartedly. We simply see truth in too many shades of grey nowadays, and this kind of black and white certainty of commitment is, well… almost shocking.
The path to popularity certainly does not lie in being a person wholly committed to God, never swaying from His way.
Bible in a Year… Day 94 (Psalm 39-41)
May 6th, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in » Bible in a Year
Back to Psalms today.
Psalm 40:1-3 (NIV)
1I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.2He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.3He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.
Ever have the experience of the Psalmist? Crushed by your sin, crying out to God… having Him answer your prayer and change your outlook overnight?
It’s awesome how God does that. We tend to go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows… and back again. The fall is pretty clearly something we do ourselves… but the rise? All God.
Are you in that place right now? Knowing your sin, feeling completely isolated from God… hurting deeply? God’s waiting for you to cry out to Him. He longs to restore you and give you peace… to give you a new song to sing… one of praise for the Savior who rescues and restores us.
Bible in a Year… Day 93
May 5th, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in » Bible in a Year
Once again, I’m playing a bit of catch up, reading 1 Samuel 11-20 tonight. Interesting stuff, how God rejects Saul and chooses David to be king of the Israelites.
A couple of passages I find interesting…
1 Samuel 16:6-7 (NIV)
6When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”7But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
In this passage, we find Samuel believing he’s found Israel’s new king amongst the sons of Jesse. Judging by outward appearances, Eliab seems to fit the bill… but God makes clear this is not His plan.
Isn’t it interesting how some things seem to be so clearly of God sometimes? We look at individuals, and think, “Now THAT’s what a Christian should be.” Or we look at circumstances in our lives that seem to lead us in a certain direction, and think, “this MUST be of God.”
Yet God works in ways that are often totally contrary to how we think He should. Often, it’s the ones we overlook that God wants to use, or in the difficult tasks where nothing seems to be laid out.
Definitely emphasizes the importance of discernment, doesn’t it?
1 Samuel 17:32-37 (NIV)
32David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”33Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”
34But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”
I know you’re familiar with the account of David and Goliath. I can’t help but be amazed when I read it though… David comes before Saul and tells him with complete confidence that God will provide victory. What faith!
I wonder, when is the last time you heard from God in such a manner that you were completely certain He would do something amazing… maybe even through you? Have you ever experienced this?
I know that God doesn’t present a giant for all of His servants to slay, but I am fairly confident that He expects us to step out in faith and trust Him in big things from time to time. If you can’t recall ever doing that, I wonder, is it because God has never placed the expectation before you, or is it simply that you’ve shunned the opportunity?
Worth thinking about.
Yesterday’s Caching Adventure…
May 4th, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in » Geocaching, My Life / Family, Pictures
We’ve really grown to enjoy geocaching, and have now gone three consecutive weekends. Yesterday, we checked out a couple caches near Worth County Lake.
Here’s a few photos from the trip…
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Bible in a Year… Day 90 (Mark 5-6)
May 2nd, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in » Bible in a Year
Back to the gospel of Mark tonight…
Mark 5:1-20 (NIV)
1They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 2When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. 4For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.6When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” 8For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”
9Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
11A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 13He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
14Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man — and told about the pigs as well. 17Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
18As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.
Read this passage and see if you find anything interesting.
Did you catch it?
Here we have Jesus, healing a demon-possessed man… a person with a very obvious and serious need. In the process, Jesus casts out the demons into a herd of pigs, who throw themselves into a lake and drown.
As you might imagine, the people are amazed at what Jesus has done, and the man is overwhelmed with gratitude. You’d think this would result in everyone wanting more of Jesus… for Him to stay, teach, and perform more miracles… right?
That’s the interesting part to me… the answer is a resounding no.
Check out verse 17. “The people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.”
Apparently, the people were more concerned about their financial well-being (after all, the herd of pigs was surely someone’s livelihood, maybe multiple people’s) than the amazing things Jesus could do in their lives. They preferred their security over their spiritual well-being.
Sad, isn’t it?
Are we really all that different, though? How do we respond when Jesus does something amazing? With increased faith, gratitude, and commitment?
Maybe for a time. But when the normalcy of life sets back in, we question things again. We decide we’d rather do things on our own, rather than trusting God’s divine provision. We turn to our plans instead of God’s. The mountaintop experiences fade so quickly.
What is it about this aspect of our human existence? Why is faith so fleeting sometimes? How do we go about growing our faith and trust in God so that we can see lives of sustained faith?
As much as I’d like to, I still don’t have answers to these questions.