Not Perish!

When he prayed...

"The Lord restored the fortunes of Job
when he prayed

for his friends..." Job 42:10a

Wow. Job's friends had given him bad advice. They were convinced Job was hiding sin and not honoring God. In their minds this was the only reason why all these tragedies had happened to him.

Then the Lord stepped in... I can't even imagine how mighty and terrifying that must have been.

Was Elihu, all proud of himself, in the middle of his rebuke to Job, mid-sentence, when in a mighty thundering voice and brilliant light, the Lord showed up, because He had had enough?

The Lord speaks of His own greatness and the things He has done as creator. When He has finished talking to Job, He turns to Job's "friends" cowering in the corner. What was going through their minds? How terrified they must have been! And what does the Lord do? He tells them to repent and ask for Job to accept their burnt offerings as a sign of their repentance and devotion to God.

They chose to obey... but I'm sure they were wondering if Job would accept? He had no reason to according to the wisdom of the world... but Job had just had an encounter with the Living God.

I think it's important to note that God had not told Job He would restore him. In chapter 42:6, the last we had seen of Job was him repenting in the dust and ashes.

There was Job. His tear-stained face in the dirt, his body, covered with sores, laying prostrate before the Mighty Lord. Timidly Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, (note: the Bible does not say if Elihu was there) approach. Job feebly stands, his whole nature crushed, his mind racing and in awe of just being in the presence of the creator of the universe.

What did Job's friends say? No words are recorded, but that they obeyed the Lord, offered up a burnt offering, and the Lord accepted Job's prayers.

I imagine, as job mustered the last of his strength to stand there and pray, his friends were kneeling in grief at his feet. Job prayed for his accusers, his mockers, those who had lost faith in him. As Job continued and asked the Lord to forgive them and accept their offering, his strength began to build, with each breath his skin began to heal, wounds vanished, health returned. As Job finished his prayer and his friends raised up their eyes to behold their friend, all were struck speechless, in awe of the redemption of the Lord displayed for all to see.

Job was healed, restored, and strong.

And I'm sure the love in his eyes spoke louder than anything that could be said with words.

"... and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold...

the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning." Job 42:10b; 12a

Treasure!

Treasure... what do you picture when you hear that word? Pirates, gold, diamonds, maps...


The Psalmist in 119 verse 11 says: 

"Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You."

I was pondering this as I studied to teach this passage last week. The concept of treasuring the word of God in your heart. 

Follow with me:
- a person discovers treasure
- they bury it, because it's precious and they want to have it to use later
- they go out and search for more, trying to get as much as they can


In a similar way, God tells us to treasure His Word in our hearts, to bury it in our hearts, to store up as much as we can. However, not only does this "treasure" of scripture equip us to stand firm against the enemy, we can and should freely share the treasure we have found.


I'm constantly convicted at my lack of treasure in my heart. Especially as I teach this Bible study. The blaring theme of Psalm 119 is "Memorize and Know the Word of God".  Whether Kings are hunting you down, princes are spreading lies, or your very life is in danger, the Word of God stands true and "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproofing, correcting, for training in righteousness. So that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17... which I just typed from memory!)


I'm endeavoring to commit to memory some portion of scripture every night before I go to bed... because I want to be equipped in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2)... 

and I want lots of treasure... the kind that's gonna last forever... 
and is safe from pirates ;-)

Faith of a Child...

"A glance of faith may save, 

but it is the gaze of faith which sanctifies"

-- Robert Murray McCheyene --

Because of the Angels...

About 6 months ago, my pastor plopped Systematic Theology in front of me and told me he wanted me to read it cover to cover... so I am.

I was reading Chapter 19 about Angels last night.

Grudem mentioned 1 Corinthians 11:10 which says:

"Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels."

Wait... what exactly does that mean?
I am wondering YOUR thoughts on this.

We know that angels witness our lives and the glorify God for our worship and obedience. Head coverings, in that day, represented a women being under the submission and authority of a man, which in turn represented them being in submission to the Lord.

I was curious about why, though, angels were mentioned. Why was it important that women's heads were covered because they were watching?

I looked this up in Walvoord and Zucks commentary and they suggest that Angels view our lives and what we do affects them in some way. They seemed to say, that we can cause Angels to stumble... which would mean an angel can become "fallen" at any point and it wasn't a one time thing when satan and his followers were thrown out of heaven.

I don't exactly know what I think about this... and am wondering if anyone else has an opinion or insight?

Our Perception...

"The trouble is that because of sin our perception and analysis of God and creation is faulty.

Sin is ultimately irrational, and sin makes us think incorrectly about God and about creation.

Thus, in a world free from sin, the Bible would commend itself convincingly to all people as God's Word.

But because sin distorts people's perception of reality, they do not recognize Scripture for what it really is.

Therefore it requires the work of the Holy Spirit, overcoming the effects of sin, to enable us to be persuaded that the Bible is indeed the Word of God
and that the claims it makes for itself are true."

Wayne Grudem, "Systematic Theology", Pg. 79



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Now playing: Reality Carpinteria Worship Band - Victory is Mine
via FoxyTunes

A brief Look...

Well, I was hoping to gather some more photos from some others at the conference... if I do get more, perhaps I shall have to make version 2 of this, but in the meantime, I made do with video and pictures (all but 2) taken by my very impressive Razor cell phone... enjoy :-)

Imagine this...

I'm formulating a post about my time at the Wycliffe conference and compiling pictures to make it complete for your enjoyment :-) In the meantime, check out this video produced by Wycliffe which will get you thinking...