Thursday, January 8, 2009

Day 1

Texts

Note: I wrote this as I was going along...and I had decided yesterday that I wanted to try to fit everything together, because I know that God does that. However, I didn't plan for it to work this well. God's truth really is woven through here and binds everything together like it was designed to, but that was His design not mine. In fact, the devotional at the end I just randomly picked, and knew nothing about until I started reading it and journaling. God truly is amazing.

Summary of Job 3 – Job is wondering why on earth God let him live at all. What was the purpose of him living on the earth if it was only to suffer, to come to nothing, to only seek peace and rest among the agonies of the day. What’s the point? Why doesn’t he just die? “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul” (20).

I know people like that, those who seek peace and rest, who feel they have none. I know those who wish they could just die—be with God in heaven, or just at rest in the ground. Somewhere where they no longer have to endure the pain others inflict on them, not so much in the body, but in the heart and mind. People who feel like this world has nothing good for them, only searing pain of heart, bitterness of soul, and turbulent unrest. Obviously there are brief moments of joy, but, at the close of day, when the dust settles, and they look back, there is only misery, and the question “why?”.

Summary of Job 4 and 5 – In the beginning, Job’s friend Eliphaz tries to get Job to see the bigger picture, to see how much he is worth. It reminds me of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, and how the Clarence the angel shows George how his life has impacted those around him.
The tone of his message soon changes though, and he more or less states directly that you reap what you sow, so Job must have done something wrong. Examine your actions and see if there is a reason for this. But then he says something interesting, “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward”—basically that everyone is going to have problems. Life may be a bed of roses, but even roses have thorns.

Again he moves on, bringing God much more into the picture. He tells Job to bring his case to God, and see what God will do. He tries to be encouraging when he tells Job that God blesses people and saves them from destruction. He takes care of His people, and curses those who are not His. I love verses 17 and 18 of chapter 5, “Blessed is the man whom God corrects, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For He wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but His hands also heal.” Those verses put me in mind of Aravis in The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis. Aslan wounded her, causing her great pain and injury, but he did it with a purpose to teach her a valuable lesson that she wasn’t soon to forget. While Eliphaz may have been wrong in what he said—as far as it concerned Job—it is something that can apply to others of us. Sometimes things do happen in order to bring us to our knees, things terrible and hurtful that may have been the only thing that would get our attention and open our eyes.

When things happen, it may just be a test—like Job, to just see if we’ll remain faithful when we don’t know what’s going on, hold tight to God and persevere. Or, it may be like Eliphaz suggested, something may be wrong in our lives—examine yourself, bring your case to God, see what He says, ask what He’s trying to teach you. Whatever the case may be, remember, things will never be easy or perfect, because we are humans in a fallen world, and it is our lot to live through this. Make the most of your time here, be a blessing to those around you like Job and George did, and honor God in all you do.

Summary of Matthew 1– Matthew opens up with a geneology which has all the fascinating names (no, I’m not being sarcastic, I love odd Biblical names, but now is not the time or place to discuss them…yet), and then dives into the account of Jesus’ birth that we’ve all heard so many times before. Mary and Joseph were going to get married, but then she became pregnant thanks to God, and Joseph freaks out and decides to get a divorce, but doesn’t want it to be a huge thing and cause her public shame. Then God shows up on the scene and tells him that Mary was really telling the truth and that this was His doing—Mary was kind of like Job, something happened that was taken as bad because of the way it looked, but it was a test to see if she and Joseph would persevere and keep trusting God. After the encouragement from God, Joseph pressed on. God will step in when He needs to during tests. Bring your case to God, do what you can, and if you’re truly seeking Him, He will guide you. Sometimes you just have to step out, make decisions based on what you think God wants—Joseph did, he was all set to divorce Mary—he wasn’t sitting back doing nothing, he stepped out, and that was when God stepped in.

Summary of Matthew 2—The wise men show up in Jerusalem seeking Jesus, and Herod hears about it because it involves another king. So, he starts doing a background check on this king that was supposed to be, and finds out that the king child was supposed to be born in Bethlehem. He tells the Magi and sends them to Bethlehem with instructions to bring news back to him, so that he also could worship the king. What Herod intended for evil, God used for good. God used Herod’s schemes to send the wise men to the right place. And, after the wise men saw Jesus and gave Him their gifts, God stepped in and sent them home a different way. Then an angel appeared to Joseph, telling him to take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt. After they had gone, Herod figured out that the Magi weren’t coming back and sent his soldiers to kill all of the boys 2 and under in Bethlehem, but Jesus wasn’t there because God’s timing was perfect. The others were killed, tying in with a prophecy. It was devastating for parents Bethlehem over, and why it had to happen, I don’t know. But, it was a trying time for everyone, a hardship that people had to go through and trust God through. I’m sure many, if not all, of the parents asked why, and had to suffer similar pain as Job did. As far as I know, it didn’t happen because of a universal sin, they didn’t have to apologize for something that the city did as a whole…but it was part of God’s pl an, and though he wounded them, somehow, He would also heal them if they were open to it.

Summary of “Where did our Love go?” (5-31-07) on the Marriage God’s Way blog. The authors talked about how love is lost by a lack of interaction between the partners, and how not having time, or not making time is a sure sign that the fire is dwindling. To tie this all in with everything else that has been studied this morning, when things are going wrong—whether it be a hardship in life, or even a rough time spiritually—examine your heart, is the fire still going strong between you and God? I have to ask if there is any love lost between God and I as well. Am I taking time for Him? From my own personal experience I know how easy it is, particularly when one is in school, and working, and keeping up with family and boyfriend out of state and friends on campus (and the list goes on…), to say that we don’t have time for God, and that we’ll do it another time. Does that time ever come? Is God the friend sitting waiting somewhere for you, glancing at His watch, wondering if you are going to show up like you had originally planned on, or like the wife waiting at home wondering when you’re going to come home from work…and when you do come home late, is God ignored, or do you take the time to keep the love going?

Summary of “Crosswalk the Devotional – Jan. 8 2009” (Mike Pohlman compares the Christian walk to athletics—particularly those world-class ones—and the amount of training—hours, days, even a lifetime—that those truly dedicated athletes spend on working towards something temporary. He, like Paul in numerous places in the Bible (the passages are on the website), encourages us to train and work towards our spiritual goal, something of much higher worth then anything an athlete could win here on earth. When the dust settles, what’s left? Those athletes are going through torture to win momentary glory, their life isn’t easy, but if they keep their eyes on the goal, they realize that to them, it’s all worth it, and they press on. We, who are seeking God and to glorify Him, need to keep our eyes on the goal. When we look around at the world we will start sinking beneath the waves and begin to fear the storm, but if we keep our eyes on Jesus, and we take the time to keep the love going, no matter what might befall, we will be upheld by Him. It will hurt, but that is only to make us stronger, and to bring us closer to Him.

Challenge: Take the time to keep your love with God going, look for God’s hand in things, keep your eyes on the goal, persevere, examine your heart, trust Him, encourage others, and—after seeking God’s will—don’t be afraid to step out and do what you think He’s telling you to do.

May the Lord bless you.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)