God’s Bigness (Part 3 of 6)

God’s Bigness (Part 3 of 6)

After being attacked once by Satan and losing all that Job had lost, most people would have reacted the way Job’s wife had:  “Curse God and die”.  I can’t imagine losing the little that I have or my children but to lose all of that in a few moments time and then to lose my health an wife on top of all that loss would be unbearable… without a great big GOd. 

Job tells us just how big his God is by his reaction.  After the first attack: Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.   Job 1:20-22 (emphasis mine) He worshiped.  He did not ask why or why me.  He worshiped! He did not sin, he did not tell God he chose the wrong person, He worshiped!

After the second attack, his wife suggested “Curse God and die”.  Emotionally she was hurting just as much if not more than Job.  Before you condemn her for that reaction, remember, these things had happened to her as well. Job said “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil.”  I don’t suggest that any man say the things that Job said to his wife, but I think we all need to be rebuked once in a while. 

Once again, Job’s reaction speaks of how big God was to Job: In all this Job did not sin with his lips.  Oh that our God would be that big to us!

God’s Bigness (Part 2 of 6)

God’s Bigness (Part 2 of 6)

Job 1:6-12 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

It is said of Satan in Revelation 12:10 that he accuses us before God “for the accuser of our brothers …, who accuses them day and night before our God.  An interesting thought occurred to me – Satan must not have had anything on Job because it was God that brought Job to Satan’s attention, not the other way around.  Remember, this happened twice.  Once after Satan had attacked Job and destroyed his wealth and family. 

Wouldn’t it be great if Satan had nothing of which to accuse us when he went before God?  I believe God was so big in Job’s life that his whole desire was to please Him.  That should be the greatest desire in our life: So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God 1 Corinthians 10:31 (emphasis mine)

God's Bigness

God’s Bigness (Part 1 of 6)

As I thought about the book of Job, my thoughts went back to my childhood and the sermons I had heard about the “Patience of Job” or the “Faith of Job”.  Then I began to take a closer look at the book as a whole and it does have a lot to say about the man.  However, I think that the book says a lot more about God than it does about Job.  The book screams of a great big GOD!!. 

In the first two chapters God’s bigness is displayed in Job’s character and wealth.  Consider the first 5 verses: There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually (Taken from the ESV, emphasis mine)

Three things strike me from this passage.  The first is that he had a right relationship with God, second is that he had a good reputation with man and third he was consistent.  This speaks of how big God was in Job’s life.  Yes, Job was a great man, but his God was even greater!  Job was nothing without God.  Job had nothing without God.  That is a lesson we will do well to learn.

God, It's Impossible

"If you won't do something difficult today, what makes you think you will do something difficult tomorrow"?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with a couple who wanted me to marry them (we will call them Mike and Mary). I began with my normal questions about their salvation experience and journey.  Even though I wasn’t satisfied with their answers and their testimony wasn’t all that convincing, I went ahead with some further counseling

The next thing I explored was their resolve to glorify God with their lives.  They both verbally committed that they really wanted to glorify Him, so I told them I was going to ask them to make a very difficult decision.

I took them to 1 Corinthians 6:18 “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.”

I told them that if they wanted to please God, they had to stop living together until they got married.  As you can imagine, that was too hard for them.  There were just too many obstacles and I was asking for the impossible.

We had to walk through some details of what this separation would look like and how they could make it work.  There were some questions they needed to ask and answer for each other and themselves first:

Ø        If you cheat with me now, how do I know you won’t cheat on me later?

Ø        If you won't do something difficult today, what makes you think you will do something difficult tomorrow, 2 or 5 years down the road?

Ø        What about our 2 year old daughter?

Ø        Can’t we still live with each other and just not have sex?

Ø        What about transportation and housing issues?

Wow!  God has the answer for every one of those questions.  I want them to glorify God now!  I want them to know God has the answer and wants them to succeed even more than I do!  I wanted them to see that they probably would cheat on each other if that continued to be a pattern in their lives.  They probably would have difficulty making tough decisions if they did not set a pattern for making the tough ones now.  I wanted them to be able tell their daughter when she might be tempted later in life how they obeyed God’s command to flee immorality. 

I wanted and offered to get them the help they needed to be able to please God in this seemingly impossible situation. I wanted to just say okay, it is too tough, you just go ahead and live together, and after all you have a little girl anyway.  However, I just could not compromise biblical principles and I wanted them to experience the fullness of God’s blessing on their relationship.

Well, Mike decided that what I had asked them to do was just impossible.  He accused “you have put yourself in God’s place.”  He stormed out of my office and went back to the nursery to pick up their daughter.
Mary looked at me, apologized for his behavior and said that she was surprised by his reaction.  Not the fact that he did not want to do the difficult thing but storming off like that.  I should have and wish I had told her to reconsider marrying him.

It was wonderful to share the gospel with them.  I still don’t think they are saved but will continue to pray for them and trust that God will lead them back into our lives.