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Mar. 13th, 2012 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tinpraA Lot of Grace
by Charles R. Swindoll
Read Job 17:1--16
You know why I love the Bible? Because it's so real. There's a lot of fog rolling into Job's life, just as in our lives. On this earth nobody "lives happily ever after." That line is a huge fairy tale. You're living in a dream world if you're waiting for things to be "happy ever after." That's why we need grace. Marriage doesn't get easier, it gets harder. So we need grace to keep it together. Work doesn't get easier, it gets more complicated, so we need grace to stay on the job. Childrearing doesn't get easier. You who have babies one, two, three years old---you think you've got it tough. Wait until they're fourteen. Or eighteen. Talk about needing grace!
I'll be painfully honest here. If I called the shots, I would have relieved Job five minutes after he lost everything. I'd have brought all his kids back to life the very next day. I would have immediately re-created everything he lost, and I would really deal with those sorry comforters! I'd have cut the lips off of Eliphaz after about three sentences. And if that didn't stop him, I'd take the neck. I mean, who needs that clod? But you know what? You would never mature under my kind of treatment. You'd just enjoy the comfort. We'd all go to picnics then on a motorcycle ride and have tons of fun. That's my style. Which explains why Cynthia says to me, "Honey, if everybody handled things like you wanted, all we'd bring to the party is balloons. Nobody would think to bring the food." As usual, she's right.
So, the fog's rolled in. As all hell breaks loose, grace takes a hike. Welcome to the human race, Job. But the wonderful old song says,
That's the ticket. Even in the fog, grace will lead us home.
Job's Longing
by Charles R. Swindoll
Read Job 19:1--29
Job longed for his words of woe to be etched into granite so that people through time could enter into all the things he was enduring. He thought his words would be forgotten. He had no idea that his words would survive him. Yet, think of it, God chose to include them in His eternal Word! Along with Scriptures like Genesis 1, Psalm 23, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 13, and Revelation 22, we call to mind Job 19:25--27 to this day!
Thanks to Handel's Magnum Opus, every Christmas season we hear that message over and over again. Little did Job realize in his dreadful anguish that his Lord would honor his name by preserving his words for all the world to hear and sing!
I need to pause right here and speak to you whose God is distant and silent. And, perhaps (like Job), your friends have begun to turn against you. There is a future that is brighter than your wildest dreams! As Job will one day experience, justice will win out, God will replace evil, and right will eclipse wrong. In the end, God wins. And so will we. Job will be vindicated and remembered and respected. And all the Zophars, Bildads, and Eliphazes will be judged, silenced, and forgotten. "Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is judgment" (Job 19:29).
In all his misery, Job had not lost sight of who was right and who was wrong. He reminded all three men that "judgment and punishment are not coming my way; they're coming yours."
Focus on the future!
A Context of Pain
by Charles R. Swindoll
Read Job 19:1--29
There is nothing like hope in the truth to clarify perspective and keep you going. Enduring a painful journey can be done a lot more easily if you embrace truth as your traveling companion. Not only will it give you hope, it will clarify your perspective. Truth reminds us that God is alive and just and good. I say again, wrong will ultimately be judged. Today may seem dark and terribly long, but there will be a bright tomorrow.
There is nothing like a lack of assurance to haunt your steps and make you afraid. Let me put it to you straight: If you are without the Lord Jesus Christ in your life, your steps are marked by uncertainty. And deep into the night when the lights are out and your head is sunk into the pillow, thoughts of your ultimate future will haunt you. Few thoughts are more frightening than not knowing where you will be when you die. If you die without Christ, you're facing a fearful judgment. "It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). To have inner peace you need to know without a doubt where you're going.
My wife and I have a commitment regarding giving our money while we're alive. I like the old saying, "Do your givin' while you're livin', then you're knowin' where it's goin'." With that in mind, be sure you're believing right while you're living, then you'll be knowing where you're going. It's scary not knowing where you're going.
Do you really know where you're going? Is your eternal destination guaranteed? Amazingly, Bildad talked to the wrong man and with the wrong motive. He had a strong message, but it was for some other person. Could that person be you? If so, there is reason to be concerned.
1. "Amazing Grace," John Newton. Public Domain.
Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
by Charles R. Swindoll
Read Job 17:1--16
You know why I love the Bible? Because it's so real. There's a lot of fog rolling into Job's life, just as in our lives. On this earth nobody "lives happily ever after." That line is a huge fairy tale. You're living in a dream world if you're waiting for things to be "happy ever after." That's why we need grace. Marriage doesn't get easier, it gets harder. So we need grace to keep it together. Work doesn't get easier, it gets more complicated, so we need grace to stay on the job. Childrearing doesn't get easier. You who have babies one, two, three years old---you think you've got it tough. Wait until they're fourteen. Or eighteen. Talk about needing grace!
I'll be painfully honest here. If I called the shots, I would have relieved Job five minutes after he lost everything. I'd have brought all his kids back to life the very next day. I would have immediately re-created everything he lost, and I would really deal with those sorry comforters! I'd have cut the lips off of Eliphaz after about three sentences. And if that didn't stop him, I'd take the neck. I mean, who needs that clod? But you know what? You would never mature under my kind of treatment. You'd just enjoy the comfort. We'd all go to picnics then on a motorcycle ride and have tons of fun. That's my style. Which explains why Cynthia says to me, "Honey, if everybody handled things like you wanted, all we'd bring to the party is balloons. Nobody would think to bring the food." As usual, she's right.
So, the fog's rolled in. As all hell breaks loose, grace takes a hike. Welcome to the human race, Job. But the wonderful old song says,
Thru many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.¹
That's the ticket. Even in the fog, grace will lead us home.
Job's Longing
by Charles R. Swindoll
Read Job 19:1--29
Job longed for his words of woe to be etched into granite so that people through time could enter into all the things he was enduring. He thought his words would be forgotten. He had no idea that his words would survive him. Yet, think of it, God chose to include them in His eternal Word! Along with Scriptures like Genesis 1, Psalm 23, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 13, and Revelation 22, we call to mind Job 19:25--27 to this day!
As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25--27)
Thanks to Handel's Magnum Opus, every Christmas season we hear that message over and over again. Little did Job realize in his dreadful anguish that his Lord would honor his name by preserving his words for all the world to hear and sing!
I need to pause right here and speak to you whose God is distant and silent. And, perhaps (like Job), your friends have begun to turn against you. There is a future that is brighter than your wildest dreams! As Job will one day experience, justice will win out, God will replace evil, and right will eclipse wrong. In the end, God wins. And so will we. Job will be vindicated and remembered and respected. And all the Zophars, Bildads, and Eliphazes will be judged, silenced, and forgotten. "Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is judgment" (Job 19:29).
In all his misery, Job had not lost sight of who was right and who was wrong. He reminded all three men that "judgment and punishment are not coming my way; they're coming yours."
Focus on the future!
A Context of Pain
by Charles R. Swindoll
Read Job 19:1--29
There is nothing like hope in the truth to clarify perspective and keep you going. Enduring a painful journey can be done a lot more easily if you embrace truth as your traveling companion. Not only will it give you hope, it will clarify your perspective. Truth reminds us that God is alive and just and good. I say again, wrong will ultimately be judged. Today may seem dark and terribly long, but there will be a bright tomorrow.
There is nothing like a lack of assurance to haunt your steps and make you afraid. Let me put it to you straight: If you are without the Lord Jesus Christ in your life, your steps are marked by uncertainty. And deep into the night when the lights are out and your head is sunk into the pillow, thoughts of your ultimate future will haunt you. Few thoughts are more frightening than not knowing where you will be when you die. If you die without Christ, you're facing a fearful judgment. "It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). To have inner peace you need to know without a doubt where you're going.
My wife and I have a commitment regarding giving our money while we're alive. I like the old saying, "Do your givin' while you're livin', then you're knowin' where it's goin'." With that in mind, be sure you're believing right while you're living, then you'll be knowing where you're going. It's scary not knowing where you're going.
Do you really know where you're going? Is your eternal destination guaranteed? Amazingly, Bildad talked to the wrong man and with the wrong motive. He had a strong message, but it was for some other person. Could that person be you? If so, there is reason to be concerned.
1. "Amazing Grace," John Newton. Public Domain.
Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.