Job 33:1-33

After listening from the sidelines, a young man named Elihu eventually steps into the discussion. He rebukes both Job and his friends for their distorted views of God, sin, and suffering.

Not Knowing Why

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“So why are you bringing a charge against him? Why say he does not respond to people’s complaints?”
(Job 33:13)

Reflect

Being informed brings a sense of security. It’s natural to want to know what’s happening in our lives. Job wanted to know what was going on and why he was suffering. In previous chapters, we sense his frustration.

Elihu claimed to have the answer for Job’s biggest question, “Why doesn’t God tell me what is happening?” Elihu told Job that God was trying to answer him, but Job was not listening. Elihu misjudged God on this point. If God were to answer all our questions, we would not be adequately tested. What if God had said, “Job, Satan’s going to test you and afflict you, but in the end you’ll be healed and get everything back”? Job’s greatest test was not the pain; it was not knowing why he was suffering.

Our greatest test may be that we must trust God’s goodness even though we don’t understand why our lives are going a certain way. We must learn to trust in God, who is good, and not in the goodness of life.

Respond

What questions are you facing today? Have you considered that perhaps those questions are part of what God is doing? What would it take for you to trust God without knowing the answers to your questions? Are you willing to get to that place?

Streams in the Desert – June 8

…because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world. This is the conquering power that has conquered the world: our faith. (1 John 5:4)

At every turn in the road one can find something that will rob him of his victory and peace of mind, if he permits it. Satan is a long way from having retired from the business of deluding and ruining God’s children if he can. At every milestone it is well to look carefully to the thermometer of one’s experience, to see whether the temperature is well up.

Sometimes a person can, if he will, actually snatch victory from the very jaws of defeat, if he will resolutely put his faith up at just the right moment.

Faith can change any situation. No matter how dark it is, no matter what the trouble may be, a quick lifting of the heart to God in a moment of real, actual faith in Him, will alter the situation in a moment.

God is still on His throne, and He can turn defeat into victory in a second of time, if we really trust Him.

“God is mighty! He is able to deliver;
Faith can victor be in every trying hour;
Fear and care and sin and sorrow be defeated
By our faith in God’s almighty, conquering power.

“Have faith in God, the sun will shine,
Though dark the clouds may be today;
His heart has planned your path and mine,
Have faith in God, have faith alway.”

“When one has faith, one does not retire; one stops the enemy where he finds him.”
—Marshal Foch

DIGGING DEEPER

06/08/2015 Impossible is God’s Starting Point Encouraging word by Christine Caine Impossible is God’s Starting PointBlessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. Luke 1:45 Ready is a tricky word when it comes to following Jesus. Why? Because there is a huge difference between feeling ready and actually being ready. Did Moses feel ready to return to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let his people go? No. It seemed an impossible mission. Did Gideon feel ready to go strike down the Midianites and save Israel? No. Did Jeremiah feel ready to be a prophet to the nations? No. Did young Mary, a virgin teenager, feel ready to carry the Son of God in her womb? No. God starts at impossible! In fact, we can go through the Bible page by page and find person after person who didn’t feel ready to do what God called them to do. But God didn’t ask them whether they felt ready. He decided they were ready!My point is that God starts at impossible! Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Let God determine when you’re ready to run for him and carry the love of God and the truth of his power into the lives of others. Today’s devotional was taken from her latest book Unstoppable.

Genesis 48:1-22

Jacob is quite old and nearing death. The time has come for him to give his final blessings to his sons.

Jacob’s Blessings

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Joseph moved the boys, who were at their grandfather’s knees, and he bowed with his face to the ground. Then he positioned the boys in front of Jacob. With his right hand he directed Ephraim toward Jacob’s left hand, and with his left hand he put Manasseh at Jacob’s right hand. But Jacob crossed his arms as he reached out to lay his hands on the boys’ heads. He put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, though he was the younger boy, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, though he was the firstborn.
(Genesis 48:12-14)

Reflect

When Joseph became a slave, Jacob thought he was dead and wept in despair (Genesis 37:34). But eventually God’s plan allowed Jacob to regain not only his son but his grandchildren as well. This dramatic turn of events shows that circumstances are never beyond God’s reach. Jacob regained his son. Job got a new family (Job 42:10-17). Mary and Martha regained their brother Lazarus (John 11:1-44). We need never despair because we belong to a loving God. We don’t yet know what good he may bring out of a seemingly hopeless situation.

Jacob included Joseph’s sons in his blessings. These verbal blessings were very important, carrying the weight of a “last will and testament.” Jacob surprised Joseph by giving Ephraim the greater blessing, even though he was younger. When Joseph tried to correct his father, Jacob refused to listen because God had told him that Ephraim would become greater. Then Jacob blessed Joseph, the son he thought he would never see again.

God often works in unexpected ways. He certainly did when he restored Joseph to his family. And when God chooses people to be part of his plans, he always goes deeper than appearance, tradition, or position. He sometimes surprises us by choosing the person that human reasoning sets aside.

Respond

God can use you to carry out his plans, even if you don’t think you have all the qualifications or face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Look for how God can work through you and for you in every situation, even those that seem hopeless.

Streams in the Desert – May 25

So I endure all things for the sake of those chosen by God, that they too may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus and its eternal glory. (2 Tim 2:10)

If Job could have known as he sat there in the ashes, bruising his heart on this problem of Providence—that in the trouble that had come upon him he was doing what one man may do to work out the problem for the world, he might again have taken courage. No man lives to himself. Job’s life is but your life and mine written in larger text….So, then, though we may not know what trials wait on any of us, we can believe that, as the days in which Job wrestled with his dark maladies are the only days that make him worth remembrance, and but for which his name had never been written in the book of life, so the days through which we struggle, finding no way, but never losing the light, will be the most significant we are called to live.
—Robert Collye

Who does not know that our most sorrowful days have been amongst our best? When the face is wreathed in smiles and we trip lightly over meadows bespangled with spring flowers, the heart is often running to waste.

The soul which is always blithe and gay misses the deepest life. It has its reward, and it is satisfied to its measure, though that measure is a very scanty one. But the heart is dwarfed; and the nature, which is capable of the highest heights, the deepest depths, is undeveloped; and life presently burns down to its socket without having known the resonance of the deepest chords of joy.

“Blessed are they that mourn.” Stars shine brightest in the long dark night of winter. The gentians show their fairest bloom amid almost inaccessible heights of snow and ice.

God’s promises seem to wait for the pressure of pain to trample out their richest juice as in a wine-press. Only those who have sorrowed know how tender is the “Man of Sorrows.”
—Selected

Thou hast but little sunshine, but thy long glooms are wisely appointed thee; for perhaps a stretch of summer weather would have made thee as a parched land and barren wilderness. Thy Lord knows best, and He has the clouds and the sun at His disposal.
—Selected

“It is a gray day.” “Yes, but dinna ye see the patch of blue?”
—Scotch Shoemaker

DIGGING DEEPER 05/25/2015 We HONOR Our Soldiers I Like Veteran – I Like Giving Excerpt from Fearless, by Eric Blehm When Adam Brown woke up on March 17, 2010, he didn’t know he would die that night in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan—but he was ready. Seven thousand miles away, in a suburb of Virginia Beach, his ten-year-old son, Nathan, was worried about him. From the moment he’d opened his eyes that morning, he felt something bad was going to happen to his daddy, but he kept it to himself, rolled out of bed, and got ready for school. It was Saint Patrick’s Day, and he made sure to wear something green so he wouldn’t get pinched. On a previous deployment, Adam had written in his journal to both Nathan and Savannah, Nathan’s seven-year-old sister, a letter they weren’t meant to see unless the worst happened: I’m not afraid of anything that might happen to me on this Earth because I know no matter what, nothing can take my spirit from me.… How much it pains me…to think about not watching my boy excel in life, or giving my little baby girl away in marriage.… Buddy, I’ll be there, you’ll feel me there when you steal your first base, smash someone on the football field, make all A’s. I’ll be there for all of your achievements. But much more, Buddy, I’ll be there for every failure. Remember, I know tears, I know pain and disappointment, and I will be there for you with every drop. You cannot disappoint me. I understand! I will be there for you Adam Brown did understand what it meant to disappoint, to feel the shame he’d experienced on a hot, humid August afternoon years earlier when his parents had him arrested. “It’s time for you to face what you’ve done,” his father had told him in 1996, just before Adam was handcuffed and escorted to the backseat of the Garland County sheriff’s cruiser. When the deputy slammed the car door shut, Adam watched his mother’s legs buckle, and as she collapsed, his dad caught her and held her tightly against him. She began to cry, and Adam knew he had broken her heart. That vision—of his mother sobbing into his father’s chest—would haunt him for the rest of his life, but it also sparked the journey that defined who he would become. Officially known as a Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL), Adam Brown was one of the most respected Special Operations warriors in the U.S. Navy. Before May 2011, details about Adam’s unit—popularly called SEAL Team SIX—were neither confirmed nor commented on by the Pentagon and the White House. One night changed everything; the wave of publicity following Osama bin Laden’s death thrust the little-known unit into the spotlight. While prepping his equipment for his next mission, Adam folded the Arkansas flag his brother, Shawn, had given him. He always carried it into battle, tucking it proudly between his body armor and his uniform. Every SEAL who encountered Adam Brown knew in short order where he was from. He loved his home state right down to the dirt. “It is the one state in our country that can sustain itself,” he’d tell you while explaining his Arkansas Bubble Theory. “Y’all could put a bubble over it, cut us off from importing anything from the rest of the world, and we would not only survive, we would eat well and prosper.” To read more about the courage, determination, and ultimate sacrifice of Adam Brown, one of SEAL Team SIX’s most legendary operators, check out the book FEARLESS, By Eric Blehm

Genesis 29:31–30:24

Even though Jacob loves her, Rachel is discontent without a baby. When she sees her sister having children, Rachel refuses to wait any longer.

Baby Competition

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Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. Bilhah became pregnant and presented him with a son. Rachel named him Dan, for she said, “God has vindicated me! He has heard my request and given me a son.” Then Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. Rachel named him Naphtali, for she said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and I’m winning!”

Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore, so she took her servant, Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Soon Zilpah presented him with a son. Leah named him Gad, for she said, “How fortunate I am!” Then Zilpah gave Jacob a second son. And Leah named him Asher, for she said, “What joy is mine! Now the other women will celebrate with me.”
(Genesis 30:4-13)

Reflect

Rachel and Leah were competing in an arrogant contest. Racing to have more children, they both gave their servants to Jacob as concubines. This was an accepted custom of the day, but Jacob would have been wise to refuse. He was perpetuating bad relationships between the women. The fact that a custom is socially acceptable does not mean it is wise or beneficial.

There are many socially acceptable choices that have negative effects on others. Society often prioritizes a person’s freedom to choose above considering the impact those choices have on others. The choices of Jacob and his wives resulted in bitterness, anger, resentment, and jealousy among their sons. The rivalry and fighting between Leah’s sons and Rachel’s sons continued years later among the tribes that descended from them.

Respond

Think about how your choices might affect others. Will you help them or hurt them? Are you willing to give up some of your freedom to ensure that others do not suffer harm? Are you willing to go a step further and do something that will benefit them?

DIGGING DEEPER 05/11/2015

Teaching Your Child to Honor

Excerpt from Motivate Your Child: Christian Parent’s Guide to Raising Kids Who Do What They Need to do Without Being Told By: Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN

To motivate children to develop new patterns, parents often have to stretch their kids beyond the tendency to be selfish by requiring that they look for ways to think of others. A great place to start is with God’s Word. God designed our world and knows what works most effectively. He has given us principles that will guide our thinking.

For example, Philippians 2:3–4 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” That’s a great family verse and can help get kids thinking of ways to contribute to the well-being of others.

Romans 12:10 is our favorite verse for this area of the conscience. “Honor one another above yourselves.” That verse is for all people, not just children. However, honor is one of the qualities learned at home. Eight times in the Bible it says, “Honor your father and mother.” In fact, according to Ephesians 6:1–3, there are two parts to a child’s job description, obedience and honor. God has created a conscience inside a child that can be trained with those two principles. As children learn obedience, they’re learning to do what’s right. As children learn honor, they’re learning to think about others.

STAND BEFORE CHRIST AND SHARE IN HIS MERCY

Hebrews 13:18 ties the concept of living honorably with the conscience. “We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.” The conscience God places inside a person provides an internal satisfaction when that individual does something kind for others. You feel good when you allow someone else to go first or have the best seat. In that moment you often feel a sense of greatness, having risen above the crowd.

That’s what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples when he said to them in Mark 10:42–44, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” In fact, when we consider others or serve others, we become like Jesus. That’s why he added in verse 45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Teresa needed to think about others, become more aware of how her actions were affecting others, and then make some significant changes in how she lived and operated.

Honor is a practical tool for conscience development, and teaching about honor can raise a child’s internal motivation in the area of thinking about others. We define honor in simple terms for children. As we see the concept taught in God’s Word, we say that honor is treating people as special, doing more than what’s expected, and having a good attitude. That’s a working definition of honor, helping children know how to put honor into practice. Even young children can memorize that definition.

But honor isn’t just for young children. We tell teens that God has hidden within honor the secret ingredients you’ll need to be successful in life. When you treat others as special, it often comes back to you. Let’s take that honor definition, look at its three parts, and discuss how to use it in family life.
By
Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller