"Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it?" (Job 17:15)
The people who have helped me the most in my life were not people who threw cliche answers at me. Let me be clear. By "cliche," I do not mean the words so much as the non thinking process which speak the words. "You must be born again," is eternal truth, the depth of which I may not fully understand, but my heart/spirit receives and "understands." How many, though, have allowed those words to go to the depths of their being, and don't allow them to be spoken as Bonhoeffer said of "cheap grace,..sold on the market like some cheapjack's wares"? Then there is the line from a song, "God is good all the time," to which some add, "All the time God is good." Okay, good words, good Theology. But to what depth have those words gone. Perhaps this is where, as Isaac, we need to go out into the field and meditate.
To Job's question, many would say, "Well, brother, come on now, you know the answer. Your hope is God Himself." Alright, but have you ever really been close to where Job was when he uttered the words of our text? It's as though you are drowning or sinking in mud from which you cannot free yourself. Only people who have known deep suffering can serve the suffering. That doesn't mean that those for whom everything has gone "right" in their lives have nothing to offer. They just don't have the depth of God's ways working in them. I have shared before the quote of Derek Prince, "No one should be appointed an elder who has not suffered." I leave it there.
If you, or anyone you know, are in a place as was Job, "Where then is my hope-- who can see any hope for me?" (NIV), then I can tell you, as one who has known a nearly devastating suffering, Hope is only to be found in, "The Word of God," Who is Jesus Christ and His Breathed Words. "He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing." Jesus' Words can hush the barrage of lies coming at you and me from the Realm of Darkness. You know this, don't you; Jesus' Words are, "alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it/they/He is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing lie of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature]...."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I never tire of writing, speaking, thanking, praising, walking in the reality of these Your Words, in Him Who Alone is, "The Word of God," Jesus. Amen.
*********
* Soon off to Harrisburg, Pa
* Some insight concerning recent events in Europe, go to: jhs58.blogspot.com
The people who have helped me the most in my life were not people who threw cliche answers at me. Let me be clear. By "cliche," I do not mean the words so much as the non thinking process which speak the words. "You must be born again," is eternal truth, the depth of which I may not fully understand, but my heart/spirit receives and "understands." How many, though, have allowed those words to go to the depths of their being, and don't allow them to be spoken as Bonhoeffer said of "cheap grace,..sold on the market like some cheapjack's wares"? Then there is the line from a song, "God is good all the time," to which some add, "All the time God is good." Okay, good words, good Theology. But to what depth have those words gone. Perhaps this is where, as Isaac, we need to go out into the field and meditate.
To Job's question, many would say, "Well, brother, come on now, you know the answer. Your hope is God Himself." Alright, but have you ever really been close to where Job was when he uttered the words of our text? It's as though you are drowning or sinking in mud from which you cannot free yourself. Only people who have known deep suffering can serve the suffering. That doesn't mean that those for whom everything has gone "right" in their lives have nothing to offer. They just don't have the depth of God's ways working in them. I have shared before the quote of Derek Prince, "No one should be appointed an elder who has not suffered." I leave it there.
If you, or anyone you know, are in a place as was Job, "Where then is my hope-- who can see any hope for me?" (NIV), then I can tell you, as one who has known a nearly devastating suffering, Hope is only to be found in, "The Word of God," Who is Jesus Christ and His Breathed Words. "He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing." Jesus' Words can hush the barrage of lies coming at you and me from the Realm of Darkness. You know this, don't you; Jesus' Words are, "alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it/they/He is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing lie of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature]...."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I never tire of writing, speaking, thanking, praising, walking in the reality of these Your Words, in Him Who Alone is, "The Word of God," Jesus. Amen.
*********
* Soon off to Harrisburg, Pa
* Some insight concerning recent events in Europe, go to: jhs58.blogspot.com
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.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
