Truth Teacher

“For I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” Job 19:25-26 How does one man, suffer the greatest level that anyone can suffer, and yet still extol the one that allowed the suffering?   Job had graduated from the school of Theology.  We learn so much about suffering, sovereignty, creation, heavenly creatures and spiritual warfare from the book of Job.  Job wasn’t just a nominal follower of God, nor a fair weather Christian.  Job lived out his belief and everyone around him knew it.  Job was constantly seeking to bring more glory to His maker.  How did Job do it?  Job didn’t stray from what he believed about God (good sound theology).  He didn’t let his eyes determine his belief.  Clearly, Job was a man that spent much of his days with his eyes closed...in prayer and in worship.  Though he did not understand why God was allowing him to suffer, he did not cast aside his

Have you ever felt like death would be a welcome alternative to living?  That life is so awful that you have lost all desire to continue existing in a world that seems to offer no hope?  Maybe you have said to yourself, “I wish I had never been born?  Don’t despair, you are not alone and there is hope for you. In my quiet times I am continuing to read Job, a man that holds fast to his integrity.  He rests in his faith alone, but that doesn’t ease the pain of his suffering.  After being bankrupt and losing his children, he is further tested by painful, loathsome sores from head to toe.  Clearly, the hand of God has come down swift and hard on this mortal man.  His days of prosperity and respect are a distant memory as friends come to sit in horror as they gaze upon this broken and downtrodden figure of a once great man. Immediately after being plagued by these excruciating boils, Job still has a healthy perspective on life.  He says, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not

I am a number, a growing statistic.  One year ago this month I was laid off work like so many others in North America.  My vocation?  Pastor.  This fact is made even stranger in that I gave up a thriving secular career to follow God’s leading into a vocation ministry.  Things become even more surreal with the knowledge that I raised my own support for the first three years of ministry so I worked for the church for free.  Therefore, on this anniversary month, it seemed like a good day to reflect on the past year.  Today, the house is strangely and wonderfully quiet.  The morning begins with a hunger to dive into His Word.  I open the Holy Bible to the book of Job . . . His timing is perfect.  It is one of my favorite books of the Bible and yet this morning chapter one seems so fresh, vibrant and new.  In lieu of the last twelve months, chapter one has new meaning, I can relate to Job like never before. Read Job 1 Job is blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil (1