“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”…“for instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.” - Romans 15:4 NASB, James 5:11 NLT
Even though the book of Job is placed almost in the middle of the Bible, right before the Psalms, the story actually takes place right around the same time as Abraham’s grandson Jacob. It’s early in history. It’s early in the work of God among people. God is trying to get something foundational across right from the start.
The Bible isn’t a step by step set of instructions like those that come with buying a new bike or a grill; do this first, then this, then that, and so on. It’s a story. A story of a Creator who gave us everything of Himself, including a choice. A story of people, people that have found themselves without their Creator and longing for that relationship again. A story of what happens when foreign agents like sin and rebellion enter paradise. A story of deceit and injustice. A story of brokenness. A story of redemption and forgiveness. Read it. Listen to the heart of the people – both rebellious and good-hearted people. See the heart of God constantly showing up and giving grace and mercy, discipline and direction with tenderness and kindness and righteousness. It’s all in there.
The book of Job is about patience, trust, suffering, endurance, faithfulness, justice, friendship, hope, influence, and truth. And that’s just describing God’s role in the book. The people in the book, as well as Job himself, although they observe and learn these things from God actually example things like self-realization, self-justification, self-control, doubt, pride, confusion, false conclusions, passing the buck, finger-pointing, and ultimately helplessness.
One of the most intrinsic and human of comments in the whole story is from Job himself. He realizes that he can do nothing to control his situation and wonders if there is life after this crisis of pain and loneliness. He’s imagining what that could possibly look like. He says to God, “You would call and I would answer, and You would yearn for me, Your handiwork…instead of watching for my sins…You would cover my guilt.” - Job 14:15-17
I can't get to You, You have to come to me. I know I am Yours but I can't fix my sin; but I do know that You can.
This story is a microcosm of the story of God interacting with humanity itself.
God isn’t being mean to Job. God isn’t using Job to prove some narcissistic notion of ego or supremacy. God is unfolding His ultimate wisdom and preference that He is for us and not against us. Job is our example. Job is our school of hard knocks. Job is who God saw as close enough to Him to use him to show all of humanity that He is faithful. That life can be hard. That we can learn from pain and suffering. That God sees injustice. That our friends don’t always tell us the truth. And that ultimately faith is rewarding.
Bill Cosby, in the old Fat Albert cartoon series, used to begin each show by doing a narrative that would set up the plot. The gang was always going to get into trouble involving some misunderstanding or a choice and then learn from their mistakes. He would always end his monologue with, “…And if you’re not careful, you may learn something!”
I think this is applicable to the story of Job too.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Sitting in the Dirt
Many of us go through the tough times in life without anyone to walk with us. There are multiple reasons that this happens. We are embarrassed to be in a situation so we don’t let anyone know. We are too confident in our own ability so we keep trying to do it ourselves. We keep friendships at a distance afraid of getting too close to anyone with the reality our life. Maybe it falls under not wanting to be rejected; maybe it’s that we are too proud and independent to ask for help. Maybe it’s just that there isn’t anybody around us willing to be there! Whatever the case may be there are many of us who go through tough times alone.
This need not be. This shouldn’t be – especially in the church.
Jesus asked the Father in John 17 to make the relationships of His people the same as the relationship between Him and His Father. They are one. They are interacting with unity of purpose and thinking. Just prior to this prayer He had taught His disciples that the only way that those who do not know God will know who God’s people are is by the love they see that they have for one another.
I think we’re missing it.
Church life, as we have come to know it, has leaned toward programmatic and away from relational. It’s no longer a culture, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, of people caring for one another and being there with one another and taking care of one another. We have left that up to church programs to do that for us.
We let the calendar choose when we get together. We find an addicting sense of comfort in the weekly schedule of meetings and have adjusted our priorities from looking after our neighbor to being in attendance at our church meetings. We write a check and place it in the benevolence envelope so that the people who take care of that sort of thing can do it for us. I have found that we spend more time inviting people “to church” than we do sitting with them at their table.
Now, I know that it is important to gather together as a congregation to worship, to encourage, and to strengthen each other in our faith. The Bible says that we should not forsake the gathering of ourselves together and so much the more as we see the days getting closer to Jesus’ return. (Hebrews 10:25) What I do not see anywhere in the gospels is where Jesus placed the agenda of the temple or synagogue over the needs of the people. Just the opposite in fact!
Reading through the first two chapters of Job sort of rocked our world this weekend. Job was in so much pain and suffering, he had lost so much, his business was gone, his kids and employees were dead, and thinking about his future was futile. His health had been afflicted to the point where he had nothing left to do each day but to grieve and try and stay alive.
When his close friends heard of the deep suffering he was in they came right away. As they approached him they didn’t even recognize him for the pain he was in and the disease that was covering his body. They were not afraid. The singer/songwriter, Sara Groves, has a line in one of her songs that says, “I am not afraid of you” while she is asking to sit with her friend and hear the story of their life. The Bible says that when Job’s three friends got to him they just sat down in the dirt with him and no one said a word for seven days and seven nights for there were no words for such suffering.
Like we said on Sunday; the church today has more congregations, more pastors and teachers, more youth workers that are trying to be relevant to their generation, more Bible colleges, more scholars, more summer programs and mission adventures, more weekly prayer meetings, more Sunday meetings than ever before in the history of the church. But what we have gotten away from is having a friend that will sit in the dirt of your life with you when life gets hard and the pain is unbearable and the unthinkable has just happened.
We were not meant to do life alone, who are we sitting in the dirt with this week?
Pastor Mike
This need not be. This shouldn’t be – especially in the church.
Jesus asked the Father in John 17 to make the relationships of His people the same as the relationship between Him and His Father. They are one. They are interacting with unity of purpose and thinking. Just prior to this prayer He had taught His disciples that the only way that those who do not know God will know who God’s people are is by the love they see that they have for one another.
I think we’re missing it.
Church life, as we have come to know it, has leaned toward programmatic and away from relational. It’s no longer a culture, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, of people caring for one another and being there with one another and taking care of one another. We have left that up to church programs to do that for us.
We let the calendar choose when we get together. We find an addicting sense of comfort in the weekly schedule of meetings and have adjusted our priorities from looking after our neighbor to being in attendance at our church meetings. We write a check and place it in the benevolence envelope so that the people who take care of that sort of thing can do it for us. I have found that we spend more time inviting people “to church” than we do sitting with them at their table.
Now, I know that it is important to gather together as a congregation to worship, to encourage, and to strengthen each other in our faith. The Bible says that we should not forsake the gathering of ourselves together and so much the more as we see the days getting closer to Jesus’ return. (Hebrews 10:25) What I do not see anywhere in the gospels is where Jesus placed the agenda of the temple or synagogue over the needs of the people. Just the opposite in fact!
Reading through the first two chapters of Job sort of rocked our world this weekend. Job was in so much pain and suffering, he had lost so much, his business was gone, his kids and employees were dead, and thinking about his future was futile. His health had been afflicted to the point where he had nothing left to do each day but to grieve and try and stay alive.
When his close friends heard of the deep suffering he was in they came right away. As they approached him they didn’t even recognize him for the pain he was in and the disease that was covering his body. They were not afraid. The singer/songwriter, Sara Groves, has a line in one of her songs that says, “I am not afraid of you” while she is asking to sit with her friend and hear the story of their life. The Bible says that when Job’s three friends got to him they just sat down in the dirt with him and no one said a word for seven days and seven nights for there were no words for such suffering.
Like we said on Sunday; the church today has more congregations, more pastors and teachers, more youth workers that are trying to be relevant to their generation, more Bible colleges, more scholars, more summer programs and mission adventures, more weekly prayer meetings, more Sunday meetings than ever before in the history of the church. But what we have gotten away from is having a friend that will sit in the dirt of your life with you when life gets hard and the pain is unbearable and the unthinkable has just happened.
We were not meant to do life alone, who are we sitting in the dirt with this week?
Pastor Mike
Monday, January 16, 2012
There is Hope
God said through the prophet Isaiah, “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established.’” - Isaiah 46:9-10 NASB.
As Branches Church goes through the bible from cover to cover this year, we find there are many details that we just cannot get covered in the hour we spend together each week on Sunday mornings. Following along with the daily and weekly readings will help fill in the details and put you in the context of the stories. And the Wednesday Night IMPACT! Men’s Group is following along week by week for more details. But the goal is not to attempt to learn all the details and become great experts on why this story or that account is written in the Bible.
The goal of going Cover to Cover in 2012 is to follow the thread of God’s hand in dealing with humanity. God’s characteristics of patience, tolerance, kindness, grace, redemption, and restoration in particular are blatantly evident as we learn how He intervenes with humanity again and again. He has always had a plan; He has always been on our side; He has always been setting things up for setting things right again!
He hears Adam and Eve tell Him about their shame and nakedness so He graciously covers them with clothes. He warns Cain ahead of time to control his temper and when he doesn’t, and kills his brother, God hears him out about his fear of being retaliated against and in His kindness provides a place for him to live and raise his family in relative safety.
We read of God’s broken heart at the global wickedness and how He concludes to wipe humanity off the earth because they never even think of Him anymore. On the surface we could read into this that God is a God of punishment and intolerance; but He takes time to recognize Noah’s faith and righteous life. In His grace, He saves not only Noah, but Noah’s family – who, by the way, the Bible never mentions any relationship with God they may have – but it’s God’s grace for Noah. God is the God of second chances also.
We learn of Abraham and his descendants and their not-so-perfect lives and choices and God shows up again and again to bless them through their good choices and bad choices. This next week we will see how the lives of two men who find themselves on the wrong side of the law, one wracked with pain and in bad health, both alone, having lost almost everything, can say that God has been in this from the start and we’re right where we’re supposed to be!
What we should be getting out of all of this is that God is for us – not against us. And regardless of where we may find ourselves in this life we should be able to say, "There’s hope for me!"
Mike
As Branches Church goes through the bible from cover to cover this year, we find there are many details that we just cannot get covered in the hour we spend together each week on Sunday mornings. Following along with the daily and weekly readings will help fill in the details and put you in the context of the stories. And the Wednesday Night IMPACT! Men’s Group is following along week by week for more details. But the goal is not to attempt to learn all the details and become great experts on why this story or that account is written in the Bible.
The goal of going Cover to Cover in 2012 is to follow the thread of God’s hand in dealing with humanity. God’s characteristics of patience, tolerance, kindness, grace, redemption, and restoration in particular are blatantly evident as we learn how He intervenes with humanity again and again. He has always had a plan; He has always been on our side; He has always been setting things up for setting things right again!
He hears Adam and Eve tell Him about their shame and nakedness so He graciously covers them with clothes. He warns Cain ahead of time to control his temper and when he doesn’t, and kills his brother, God hears him out about his fear of being retaliated against and in His kindness provides a place for him to live and raise his family in relative safety.
We read of God’s broken heart at the global wickedness and how He concludes to wipe humanity off the earth because they never even think of Him anymore. On the surface we could read into this that God is a God of punishment and intolerance; but He takes time to recognize Noah’s faith and righteous life. In His grace, He saves not only Noah, but Noah’s family – who, by the way, the Bible never mentions any relationship with God they may have – but it’s God’s grace for Noah. God is the God of second chances also.
We learn of Abraham and his descendants and their not-so-perfect lives and choices and God shows up again and again to bless them through their good choices and bad choices. This next week we will see how the lives of two men who find themselves on the wrong side of the law, one wracked with pain and in bad health, both alone, having lost almost everything, can say that God has been in this from the start and we’re right where we’re supposed to be!
What we should be getting out of all of this is that God is for us – not against us. And regardless of where we may find ourselves in this life we should be able to say, "There’s hope for me!"
Mike
Monday, January 9, 2012
Starting the New Year from the Beginning
Discipline, accountability, regiments, resolutions, good intentions, and wishful thinking are things we all have in varying degrees now and again. They help us in everything from diets and exercise to volunteering our services in our communities and reading our Bible. Most of the time it’s easy to have the good intentions and wishful thinking but we’re a little more reserved when it comes to things like discipline and accountability. I agree with the writer John Eldredge who said that the way we use accountability makes him feel like he’s expected to fail.
Of course we’re all going to fail now and again; we’re human. Finger pointing and judging only lead to negative responses from those being targeted and easily removes the individual’s drive and desire to succeed at whatever it is we want to get to. Remember the saying, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks?” I believe it’s referring to the fact that whatever goes around comes around! Even the comedian Steve Smith says, “We’re all in this together!”
So, it still doesn’t change the fact that discipline, accountability, regiments, resolutions, and such are a part of our lives. We just have to use them in positive, life giving, and confidence building ways.
The Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah saying, “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established.’” (Isaiah 46:9-10 NASB)
I see a thread that God wants us to discover and follow as He “declares the end from the beginning’ and to anticipate what the future holds by gaining understanding of what He has said already. To do this we have to be in the Bible. We have to know what He’s been up to. We have to connect the dots with this thread God has set from the beginning tying together all of history until the end of time as we know it. But it’s hard. How many times have many of us started to read the Bible all the way through only to get sidetracked by busy schedules or the book of Leviticus? We need help, not pressure!
Branches Church is starting the year 2012 at the beginning! Anyone who wishes can participate in the fifteen minute daily and weekly chronological readings through the entire Bible cover to cover. We will share the discoveries and the thread that connects the dots showing God’s purposes on Sunday mornings.
Call it accountability, discipline, a regiment, a resolution, good intentions, or just wishful thinking, but it is exciting to open the book, read what God is doing in the lives of people, and connect the dots of God’s purposes to our own daily lives.
Of course we’re all going to fail now and again; we’re human. Finger pointing and judging only lead to negative responses from those being targeted and easily removes the individual’s drive and desire to succeed at whatever it is we want to get to. Remember the saying, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks?” I believe it’s referring to the fact that whatever goes around comes around! Even the comedian Steve Smith says, “We’re all in this together!”
So, it still doesn’t change the fact that discipline, accountability, regiments, resolutions, and such are a part of our lives. We just have to use them in positive, life giving, and confidence building ways.
The Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah saying, “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established.’” (Isaiah 46:9-10 NASB)
I see a thread that God wants us to discover and follow as He “declares the end from the beginning’ and to anticipate what the future holds by gaining understanding of what He has said already. To do this we have to be in the Bible. We have to know what He’s been up to. We have to connect the dots with this thread God has set from the beginning tying together all of history until the end of time as we know it. But it’s hard. How many times have many of us started to read the Bible all the way through only to get sidetracked by busy schedules or the book of Leviticus? We need help, not pressure!
Branches Church is starting the year 2012 at the beginning! Anyone who wishes can participate in the fifteen minute daily and weekly chronological readings through the entire Bible cover to cover. We will share the discoveries and the thread that connects the dots showing God’s purposes on Sunday mornings.
Call it accountability, discipline, a regiment, a resolution, good intentions, or just wishful thinking, but it is exciting to open the book, read what God is doing in the lives of people, and connect the dots of God’s purposes to our own daily lives.
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