"He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety." (Job 5;11)
This was one of Job's friends to Job. It wasn't "working." Everyone, including Job, was trying to figure out what had happened. This is life. There are days when all you have heard or learned doesn't seem to "work." That's okay. Maybe they aren't supposed to "work."
Christendom over the years and centuries has propagated many, many formulae. The longer I live, and, quite frankly, the longer I am not in "mainstream" church or ministry circles, it's amazing some of the things I am seeing in Scripture. Now before you get concerned, I'm not going apostate. I just want to suggest to you today that you pray with me about really seeing/hearing what our Lord Jesus Christ is saying in His Words. Read them with as much of an open mind and heart as we can. Pray the prayers of Scripture which, e.g., many of the prayers in Psalm 119, the ones which ask for enlightenment and understanding concerning, "The Word of God." As these days proceed, we will desperately need to have such.
Modern charisma had produced as much "mainline" religion as any of the "mainline" denominations. All one has to do is peruse religious television, radio, and print to see this. I guarantee you that every time there is a telethon, I can predict with great accuracy what the salesmen will say. You cannot hide the fact that they are telling you, "If you do what I'm telling you, everything will be okay." Or, "If you do what I am telling you, we can get rid of the Book of Job, Ecclesiastes, the Prophets, much of the Gospels and Epistles."
We must remember that everything Job's "friends" said was later rejected by God, and they themselves were rebuked by the Lord God. When they saw Job, he was not, "on high," nor had he been, "lifted to safety." Job was the most righteous person of his day. Jesus "boasted" on him to Satan. Yet some of the worst "things" imaginable happened to him. His friends, like O so many in Christendom today, thought he had done something wrong, i.e., Job did something wrong and was therefore punished, or Job did not work the formula, so he did not, "receive the promises." At the end, "The Word of God," Jesus, said that nothing Job's friends said had anything to do with what Job had experienced.
Perhaps today you are wondering why "this does not work." Don't do it. You and I are called to walk with and in Jesus Christ our Lord, not in "this." The only consist "formula" you can find in the Bible is God's love to us, a love demonstrated, "in His Cross," His Blood, His gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, His imminent Second Appearing. In the midst of life's unanswerable questions we have the words of our Lord, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid....These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." And in Jesus, so do we.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I listen to You. Amen.
This was one of Job's friends to Job. It wasn't "working." Everyone, including Job, was trying to figure out what had happened. This is life. There are days when all you have heard or learned doesn't seem to "work." That's okay. Maybe they aren't supposed to "work."
Christendom over the years and centuries has propagated many, many formulae. The longer I live, and, quite frankly, the longer I am not in "mainstream" church or ministry circles, it's amazing some of the things I am seeing in Scripture. Now before you get concerned, I'm not going apostate. I just want to suggest to you today that you pray with me about really seeing/hearing what our Lord Jesus Christ is saying in His Words. Read them with as much of an open mind and heart as we can. Pray the prayers of Scripture which, e.g., many of the prayers in Psalm 119, the ones which ask for enlightenment and understanding concerning, "The Word of God." As these days proceed, we will desperately need to have such.
Modern charisma had produced as much "mainline" religion as any of the "mainline" denominations. All one has to do is peruse religious television, radio, and print to see this. I guarantee you that every time there is a telethon, I can predict with great accuracy what the salesmen will say. You cannot hide the fact that they are telling you, "If you do what I'm telling you, everything will be okay." Or, "If you do what I am telling you, we can get rid of the Book of Job, Ecclesiastes, the Prophets, much of the Gospels and Epistles."
We must remember that everything Job's "friends" said was later rejected by God, and they themselves were rebuked by the Lord God. When they saw Job, he was not, "on high," nor had he been, "lifted to safety." Job was the most righteous person of his day. Jesus "boasted" on him to Satan. Yet some of the worst "things" imaginable happened to him. His friends, like O so many in Christendom today, thought he had done something wrong, i.e., Job did something wrong and was therefore punished, or Job did not work the formula, so he did not, "receive the promises." At the end, "The Word of God," Jesus, said that nothing Job's friends said had anything to do with what Job had experienced.
Perhaps today you are wondering why "this does not work." Don't do it. You and I are called to walk with and in Jesus Christ our Lord, not in "this." The only consist "formula" you can find in the Bible is God's love to us, a love demonstrated, "in His Cross," His Blood, His gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, His imminent Second Appearing. In the midst of life's unanswerable questions we have the words of our Lord, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid....These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." And in Jesus, so do we.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I listen to You. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
