Thursday, March 25, 2010

Pain, Perplexity and Promotion

Again this week a quote from Bob Sorge's book on Job - Pain, Perplexity and Promotion:

"Here is the justice in the Job crucible: God intends to promote Job to a much higher place of intimacy and influence in the kingdom. But if he gives Job the promotion without the pruning, Job will self-destruct through spiritual pride. It's the undeserved distress that turns up the flame, and it's the flame that will save Job from himself. The delaying of justice is the very thing that qualifies and prepares Job for the higher place. No delay, no promotion...The delay is painful, but God in His justice has determined that the value of the promotion surpasses the pain of the delay. You don't become a symbol of Christ's cross and a blessing to all generations without a price-tag..."

Lord, Your ways and thoughts are much higher than ours; thank You for making a way for Your children to be saved from the tyranny of the self life to walk in the freedom and joy of increasing dependence on You. Holy Spirit, do all that You need to do to bring us into the likeness of Jesus. You are so kind in Your dealings, and we trust Your delays even when we don't understand all that's going on. Jesus, thank You that You refused to take a short-cut, and in His precise timing, Your Father exalted/promoted You; in Your loving obedience to Him, we receive empowering to go the Father's way as well. We love and adore You, oh Lord! Amen.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Pain, Perplexity and Promotion

In his wonderful book about Job, "Pain, Perplexity and Promotion", Bob Sorge says the following:

"Job got as high marks from God as any broken, weak, sinful man could hope to get, and yet he collapsed under the weight of his grief. When we're in the crucible, God doesn't expect all of our responses to be perfect. The purpose of the crucible, after all, is to bring imperfections to the surface. God is big enough to handle our fears, frustrations, yearnings, anxieties, depression, anger, and self-pity...

"If you look at Job and think, 'I would never get angry at God like that,' then you're deceived. You think too highly of yourself. You've never been angry at God because in His grace He has spared you that degree of calamity...God expected Job to get angry at him. It's part of the package. But He didn't expect him to stay angry. He expected him to seek earnestly and find God in his calamity. When you find the face of God in your calamity, the anger is dealt with."


Dear Father, thank You for such books as Job and the Psalms where we get a glimpse of what it means to be truly human; how much You love us knowing how frail and weak we are. Thank You that You call us lovely and noble even in our weakness and confusion; thank You for Your infinite patience and for Your holy zeal that motivates You to allow Your beloved ones to pass through pain and difficulties in this age so that we are conformed to Your image to dwell with Your forever. Thank You that You understand human emotions and can handle every kind of human reaction to pain; and thank You that You know how to lift our faces toward You and discover that You are our Reward and that we can trust You with all. We love You because You have loved us first.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Knowing God through Prayer

The quote for this week's posting comes from Watchman Nee's book, "Spiritual Knowledge." In his chapter entitled "Knowing God in Prayer", Nee says the following,

"Many hardly have any experience of God answering their prayer. I do not mean they do not pray. I only mean their prayers are ineffective...The problem is that many know prayer only through the Bible; they do not know prayer in the presence of God...you may pray fervently or casually, pray at length or briefly. Yet the strangest thing is, you never think of knowing God in such a time of prayer...Through this time of prayer you (should) come to know God a little more. Our knowledge ought not to come from reading the Bible alone; we must have it also directly from God."

Lord, thank You that prayer is about relating with You. Thank You that you want us to know You through prayer and that every time we pray, it is an opportunity to know and understand You - what's in Your heart and what You're thinking. Oh Lord, teach us to pray in such a way that we are continually going deeper into union with You. You are what we want; reveal Yourself to us in prayer for the sake of Jesus. Amen.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Our Accountability to God

Arthur W. Pink says in his book, "Our Accountability to God":

"The theology of the last century has failed lamentably at two essential points, namely, its teaching concerning God and its teaching concerning fallen man. As one writer expressed it, 'On the one hand, they have not ascended high enough...on the other hand, they do not descend low enough.' God is infinitely greater and His dominion far more absolute and extensive than more theologians admit, and man has sunk much lower and is far more depraved than they will allow."

Dear Lord, thank You that You do "not deal with us according to our sin nor repay us according to our iniquity"; increasingly open my eyes to see Your greatness and my utter lostness so that I may live in continual awe and gratitude and radical worship; deliver me from lukewarmness which comes from lack of revelation of how high You are and how low I am apart from You. Thank You, thank You, thank You for so great a salvation!

Thoughts for Lent (9) - On Changing Our Minds

In this reading from Walter Brueggemann's  A Way Other Than Our Own , the author issues an invitation to us as the final week of Lent be...