Job

This past week I have been reading the book of Job. I have to tell you, it was not an easy book to get through! I really wanted to quit during the middle of the book, but in the end, I learned so much.

Chapter 1 begins with an introduction to Job. He was a very wealthy and righteous man. In fact, he was the richest and most godly man in the entire area. One day, Satan goes before God and God brags on Job. He says, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless-a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil."

Satan answers, by saying that of course Job is faithful! He has always been protected and blessed by God. Satan goes on to say that if God takes away everything Job has, then Job will surely curse God.  God gives permission for Satan to test Job, but he is not to harm him physically.

So one day, Job loses everything. His sons and daughters are killed. All of his animals are killed or stolen. Nearly all of his servants and farmhands are killed. When Job found out about this he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship God. He said, "I came naked from my mother's womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!" Verse 22 goes on to say, "In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God."

The story gets alot worse from there. God is still pleased with Job because Job has not turned away from Him, so Satan asks to test Job further. He afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. His wife tells him to curse God! He tells her she is foolish and says, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"

I don't really have the time or space to tell you everything else that happened, so I'll make it short- After all this, Job became pretty depressed. He did not understand why God was allowing all of this to happen to him. (Oh, how easy it is to trust God when everything is going well!) Three of his friends showed up and accused him of sinning. They thought that God was punishing him. Job continues to maintain his innocence, while he is cursing the day he was born and questioning why God was allowing all of this to happen. They go back and forth with this argument  for awhile.

After a few chapters of the back and forth, I was really ready to stop reading! I kept on, though, and I am so glad I did. Just when it was almost too much to take, God showed up! I suggest that everyone read chapters 38-42, because they are awesome! God comes and basically says, "I am God and I know best!" He created EVERYTHING on this earth. He thought out everything down to the last detail, so that life could function on earth. He laid the foundations of the earth. He told the oceans how far they could come. He commands the sun and the moon and the stars. He brings the snow, hail and rain. He makes the lightning appear! He provides everything for the animals he created. He says, "Everything under Heaven is Mine."

In the end, Job repents for not fully trusting God and God blesses him even more than he was blessed in the beginning.

I am so thankful that I did make through to the end of this book. Here are the lessons God revealed to me through it:

1. Sometimes bad things happen to good people! Never assume that because someone is going through a rough time that it is their fault. Sometimes it is their fault, but not always. Don't be like Job's friends.

2. If you are living righteously, Satan wants to destroy you. The closer you move towards God, the more Satan will test you. Hold firm to your faith! Trust and obey.

3. Most importantly, always remember that GOD is GOD! No matter how smart we think we are, He is still smarter. True wisdom comes only from Him! Though we may not understand His plan, we still have to trust. Though His Word, may not always be "politically correct", it is still HIS WORD. It is truth. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Holding true to His Word will not win you popularity points, trust me. We still have to accept that He knows what He is doing. And since He is the creator, He gets to be boss!

Thank you, God for being who You are! Help me to always put my faith in your Word and to not let my own earthly fears get in the way of trusting You! You created everything in this magnificent universe! Help me to remember that You are the boss! I will never be as wise as You, Lord!

The Message

Why do people like to complicate things so much? Why do we have to make life harder than it really has to be? Why do we make excuses for not doing right, instead of just doing it?!

I am thankful for this time of year when we are reminded more of the simple message of the cross. It is not a complicated message. Yet, people will try to make it as complicated as they can. Why? Sometimes I think that in their minds, if they think it is too hard, then they have an excuse not to follow.

It's simple. God's Son came to earth. He was God and man. He faced all the trials a human could. He felt despair, grief, loneliness, hunger, thirst, pain. He loved people. He healed the sick. He mended broken hearts. He changed lives.  He was betrayed. Beaten beyond recognition. Mocked. He was hung on a cross and He suffered. He died. He was placed in a borrowed tomb by loving friends. On the third day, He came back to life. He was alive! The best part is, He did this for us! So that we could be with Him one day. He wants us to be with Him!

2,000 years later, not much has changed. He is still God. He still feels grief over our sin. He still hungers for our love. He still loves us! He still heals the sick and mends broken hearts. He is still mocked. Still rejected. He is still ALIVE and He still wants us!

When I think of what He did, I cannot come up with an excuse to not serve Him! What is a few hours out of my week spent at His house worshipping Him and studying His word? I owe Him that much. I owe Him my life.

Why would I chose to live a life full of sin instead of a life pleasing Him? There are so many things on earth that bring us happiness for a day and grief the next. It's just not worth it. He is worth it. When life is over and earth is no more, He will be the only thing that remains. None of the other things that we devote so much of our time to, will be here.

I pray that I will keep the spirit of Easter alive in my heart everyday of the year. That I will always be reminded of the sacrifice He made for me, when I am feeling inconvenienced by serving Him.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for loving a world full of sinful people. Thank you for sacrificing yourself for us, even though you knew we would not be willing to sacrifice as much for you. Remind us every day of the message of the cross. You love us and you died for us. It's that simple. You paid the price of our sins! Every sin that has been and ever will be, has already been covered. We only need to accept you! Thank you, Jesus!

The River

I came across a verse this past week that I feel led to share. It came to me at just the right time. I was feeling so discouraged and more than a little grumpy! I was not being a nice person! I was in bad need of a word from God. I wasn't at home though, and all I had with me was a copy of the book my Sunday School class just started reading. I felt like the book wasn't really relative to my problem at the time, but it was all I had. It was there on the page right before Chapter 1 that I found this verse~ "Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.... They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit."~Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NLT).

That was exactly what I needed to hear!What a blessing! The first lesson I learned that day was that if you seek God, He will always give you what you need.

Secondly, He is the River and I am the tree. He is the one who allows me to have abundant life amidst life's troubles. I cannot depend on anyone else for that and no matter how discouraged or grumpy I feel, I still have to produce good fruit. Of course, this is not always easy. We all have bad days. Lately it seems, that discouragements hit me one after another. I cannot allow myself to wallow in disappointment though. God has a plan and He will reveal it when He is ready. I have to truly put my trust in Him and have the faith that He will see His plan through to the end!

Thirdly, I had to reflect on what fruit I should be producing. The Bible is very clear about this part. When we accept Christ, His Spirit comes to live in us. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If the Spirit is in you, these qualities should be present, also!

We are all a work in progress, so of course we will not always, 100% of the time, exhibit all of these qualities, but these are the qualities we should strive for. When we feel negative feelings we need to seek the fruit to replace it! Turn that frown upside down!

Dear Lord, I do trust you! Please help me to not be bothered by discouragement or worried by life's troubles. Help me stay fruitful, even in the difficult times. You are the River of Life! Remind me to always seek you and to turn over any grumpiness, hard-feelings and wrong attitudes to You! Thank you for being everything that I need, always. In Your precious name I pray, AMEN!

Word vs. World

This past week has been an awesome week of study for me. I have been much better about studying the Bible everyday. I didn't study it everyday, but I did do much better! Wednesday night study, Thursday morning study and Sunday school all seemed to follow the same theme this week, as they do most of the time. "How different should we be from the 'world' "? This has been on my mind all last week and I received many insights from my different groups throughout the week.

The fact that we are supposed to be different from the world is very reassuring for me. I've never really fit in quite right anyway. ;-) Let's have a look at what God's Word tells us we should be, as opposed to what the world tells us we should be:

• The World says, "You must be beautiful to be loved." - Psalms 139:13 says, "For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb." Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There ya go! God created us, just as we are. He loves us just as we are. There is nothing we could ever do and nothing in this universe that could ever make Him stop loving us! That's good enough for me!
•  The World tells us, "You need to make lots of money!"-There is nothing wrong with having lots of money. It is nice! But, it's not really a requirement of being a good Christian. On the contrary, Jesus was poor. He didn't have nice clothes, a car or even a house. He came as the lowest of the low to the lowest of the low, with nothing, and He got by just fine. If He he got by with nothing, then I think I will do just fine without expensive clothes, a nice big house and all that other stuff that the world thinks will make me happy. 
• The World tells us, "Don't let anyone else be better than you!"- This is something I think even the holiest Christian may struggle with. We all want to have the highest achievements and notoriety, even if it is for something we are doing for God. The truth is that God calls us all to be something different. Yes, there are some people out there who seem to be doing great things and getting lots of recognition, but the world also needs janitors, child-care workers, teachers, bus drivers, garbage truck men, etc... The important thing to remember is that God is calling you to do something and whatever it is, that is what He wants for YOU. It won't look like what He is calling someone else to do, but it is still just as important.We should do EVERYTHING we do for GOD's GLORY!
• The World says, "Everybody panic!"-Okay, it's true. This world is in pretty bad shape. There is no end to things we could worry about. The economy, the election, war, poverty, national disasters....the list goes on and on and on. But, what does God's Word say? Jesus himself said, "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek FIRST his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." AMEN! That is not to say that we shouldn't be concerned for others. Jesus does want us to help where there is need, but He does NOT want us to be anxious about anything. I once read somewhere that the commandment given most in the Bible is "Do not fear." If we are Christians, there really is nothing to fear. God has the whole world in His hands. Our future is secure. Take your worries to the Lord in prayer and leave them with Him. 
• The World says, "Jesus isn't cool."- This verse is one of my favorites, because I am naturally so shy. It has freed me so much from that timidity that I once had. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." verse 8 goes on to say, "So do NOT be ashamed to testify about our Lord..." It can be EXTREMELY difficult to speak about Jesus to those who do not know Him. Especially with friends and family members. No one wants to be made fun of or to be thought of as strange. It's one of the worst feelings in the world. Everything about our culture screams that Jesus isn't cool. He is mocked and ridiculed constantly on television and in secular music. If there happens to be a Christian on television who professes their beliefs, then they are mocked and ridiculed. Galatians 6:7 says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." All of these people who choose to mock God will be judged for that one day. We have no reason to stand by and not profess our beliefs. Yes, we will be mocked, but James 1:2 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." The Bible tells us many times that we will suffer for His name. If you do face persecution for the gospel, be glad! That means that you are doing right. And rest assured that if you are spending eternal life with Jesus, you will be much "cooler" than those that are mocking Him today!

I could go on and on about the differences in the world and the Word, but this is a blog not a book. ;) These were the ones that stood out to me the most this past week. I am so thankful that I no longer have to feel bad about myself for not fitting in. I'm not supposed to fit in! If any of you have been struggling with these issues, I pray that you have found comfort. I am so thankful for a God that supplies me with just what I need. I am different because I was made to be different.