I have been reading Gary Benfold's book "Why Lord? The book of Job for today", and the sensitive and compassionate nature of the book has been a real help to me.
Today's chapter was on Job's well meaning friends... it is true that all their theology was correct. They quoted scriptures at Job, which were technically accurate and spot on. And yet, as Gary points out in his book, they were without compassion!
Here's something to think on:
"True holiness is never unfeeling or insensitive. Our Lord Jesus was the holiest man of them all, but he was never uncaring. He hated sin; everything in his holy nature cried out against it. Yet he cared, and still cares, about the sinner. When he looked on the crowds, full of sin as they were, we are not told that he thought 'They deserve all they get.' Instead we are told 'he was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.' (Matthew 9v36). A little bit of compassion goes a long way; true Christlikeness will make us very compassionate indeed."
I know the doctrines of grace in my head. In my head and with my intellect I know that the Bible tells me that I am precious in God's sight. I know that even if I am not, it is an honour to live and work for such a wonderful God, and that the sufferings we go through in this life are all we deserve before him...
And yet, this morning, a little of that doctrine of Grace has sunk into my heart. We are NOT under the law, we are under Grace. Christ has compassion for us, he sympathises with our weaknesses. No, he doesn't excuse our sin, but HE died for it.. isn't Grace amazing?!!
Let me quote Gary again "It is a good thing to know our Bibles, and it is a good thing to know the system of theology that the Bible teaches. It is very dangerous though, when we start to think that everything is simple... without love, we become a sounding brass, a clanging symbold"
"If any one of [Job's comforters] had said 'I can understand how you must be feeling. If I suffered like you, I would probably react very badly', it would have made all the difference in the world. But no-one did. Their attitude was the exact opposite. 'Oh now come on' said Eliphaz in effect, 'Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees, you have been a pastoral counsellor, telling others to put their trust in God. Now a little bit of trouble comes to you and it strikes you with dismay' (Job4v1-5) He did not feel what Job felt; he did not seem to understand that there are limits to human endurance and did not recognise that Job had been pushed to the edge of those limits.
Thank God that God Himself is not like that. 'He knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust' (PS103v14). When we sin, we must remember that God knows about the temptations that pushed us there. He knows our circumstances. This does not excuse our sin and must never encourage us to sin; but the Lord Jesus came to save, not comdemn. He knows our frame 'from the inside'. He has been tempted in all points as we are"
Wednesday 10 November 2010
Friday 5 November 2010
Created, Chosen, Celebrated and Cherished
In God’s heart, you are…
Created
I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. PSALM 139:14 NIV
Chosen
The Lord has chosen you to be His treasured possession. DEUTERONOMY 14:2 NIV
Celebrated
He will take great delight in you…
He will rejoice over you with singing. ZEPHANIAH 3:17 NIV
Cherished
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. JEREMIAH 31:3 NIV
Created
I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. PSALM 139:14 NIV
Chosen
The Lord has chosen you to be His treasured possession. DEUTERONOMY 14:2 NIV
Celebrated
He will take great delight in you…
He will rejoice over you with singing. ZEPHANIAH 3:17 NIV
Cherished
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. JEREMIAH 31:3 NIV
Thursday 4 November 2010
When love came down
When Love came down to earth and made His home with man
The hopeless found a hope, the sinner found a friend
Not to the powerful, but to the poor He came
And humble, hungry hearts were satisfied in Him
What joy, what peace has come to us
What hope, what help, what love
When every unclean thought and every sinful deed
Was scourged upon his back and hammered through his feet
The Innocent is cursed, the guilty are released
The punishment of God on God has brought me peace
Come lay your heavy load down at the Master’s feet
Your shame will be removed, your joy will be complete
Come crucify your pride and enter as a child
For those who bow down low He’ll lift up to His side
How hard it is to crucify pride, and enter as a child! If we truly crucifed pride, we would realise that we deserve nothing! We would realise that Jesus Christ took on Himself all of our sin in order that we might be saved, our cup of joy should overflow even through the most painful of circumstances.
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name
The hopeless found a hope, the sinner found a friend
Not to the powerful, but to the poor He came
And humble, hungry hearts were satisfied in Him
What joy, what peace has come to us
What hope, what help, what love
When every unclean thought and every sinful deed
Was scourged upon his back and hammered through his feet
The Innocent is cursed, the guilty are released
The punishment of God on God has brought me peace
Come lay your heavy load down at the Master’s feet
Your shame will be removed, your joy will be complete
Come crucify your pride and enter as a child
For those who bow down low He’ll lift up to His side
How hard it is to crucify pride, and enter as a child! If we truly crucifed pride, we would realise that we deserve nothing! We would realise that Jesus Christ took on Himself all of our sin in order that we might be saved, our cup of joy should overflow even through the most painful of circumstances.
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Who is God?
For who is God, except the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?
God is my strength and power,
And He makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places.
2 Sam 22 v 32-34
And who is a rock, except our God?
God is my strength and power,
And He makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places.
2 Sam 22 v 32-34
I can do all things
I have started reading a book that someone leant me, called 'When God Weeps, Why our sufferings matter to the Almighty'.
I've only got a few chapters into it and already it's helped me to pray. The authors say some pretty hard hitting stuff. The one sentence so far which has stayed with me is "It is worth anything to be his friend." It really did get me thinking... yes it is isn't it? The God of the universe, the Almighty Powerful creator; yes it is worth anything to be His. To be His child, his sister, his bride, his friend.
And yet it's not just as simple as that, it's not like we simply endure a life of suffering and then get to Heaven, no it's better than that. God, the Almighty, endures the suffering as well, when we suffer He suffers with us. He's so complex that He can ordain our suffering and yet suffer with us. We are made in the image of God, and therefore our characters are so complex that we suffer and yet at the same time as suffering, through our tears we are able to say 'Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice'. Don't they say that laughter heals all ills? Why is that? Laughter is a sign of joy, and it is the joy of the Lord that is our strength.
The world will tell us that when we are down, we have to be miserable; we can't show a smiling face because no-one will believe we are upset. Yet, the Bible, full of delightful truths, tells us that when we are suffering we will rejoice in Christ, when we suffer we can joy in the fact that our light afflictions are for this world only, and soon we will be in Heaven with Him, rejoicing with no tears and no pain.
And yet we have to live in this world, we do have to keep on keeping on, we do have to find the strength from somewhere to get out of bed in the morning and keep on fighting the fight. Sometimes our strength is exhausted. Sometimes we just can't take anymore. Sometime's Gods answer to a cry for help is "By my Grace, you can take more than this". And yet, He's there, He's carrying us, He gives us strength to live day by day, to make the difficult choices. He gives us friends and brothers and sisters in Christ to bear our burdens with us, to weep with us when we weep.
By God's grace I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
All this may seem glib, and I assure you that I can only write it because I have spent the morning in tears and in prayer. It doesn't mean that we aren't allowed to ask 'Why Lord?' didn't Christ on the cross ask 'Why have you forsaken me?' . And those are the hardest times; when we are in the midst of trial and unlike the 3 Hebrew boys in Babylon, Christ doesn't seem to be there in the midst of the fire; we can't see Him, can't feel His presence. Those are the times that we have to trust in His promises. I was hearing on Sunday night that we have to "Trust in the God of Promises and Believe in the Promises of God" and there are some wonderful promises.
A bruised reed he will not break
Great peace have those who love your law and nothing can make them stumble
He will set my feet upon a rock
We have a high priest who sympathises with our weaknesses
God has for us a future and a hope
He knows the path that I take
His word will be a lamp to our feet
Now all we need to do is use His strength to Trust in the God of Promises and Believe in the Promises of God.
I've only got a few chapters into it and already it's helped me to pray. The authors say some pretty hard hitting stuff. The one sentence so far which has stayed with me is "It is worth anything to be his friend." It really did get me thinking... yes it is isn't it? The God of the universe, the Almighty Powerful creator; yes it is worth anything to be His. To be His child, his sister, his bride, his friend.
And yet it's not just as simple as that, it's not like we simply endure a life of suffering and then get to Heaven, no it's better than that. God, the Almighty, endures the suffering as well, when we suffer He suffers with us. He's so complex that He can ordain our suffering and yet suffer with us. We are made in the image of God, and therefore our characters are so complex that we suffer and yet at the same time as suffering, through our tears we are able to say 'Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice'. Don't they say that laughter heals all ills? Why is that? Laughter is a sign of joy, and it is the joy of the Lord that is our strength.
The world will tell us that when we are down, we have to be miserable; we can't show a smiling face because no-one will believe we are upset. Yet, the Bible, full of delightful truths, tells us that when we are suffering we will rejoice in Christ, when we suffer we can joy in the fact that our light afflictions are for this world only, and soon we will be in Heaven with Him, rejoicing with no tears and no pain.
And yet we have to live in this world, we do have to keep on keeping on, we do have to find the strength from somewhere to get out of bed in the morning and keep on fighting the fight. Sometimes our strength is exhausted. Sometimes we just can't take anymore. Sometime's Gods answer to a cry for help is "By my Grace, you can take more than this". And yet, He's there, He's carrying us, He gives us strength to live day by day, to make the difficult choices. He gives us friends and brothers and sisters in Christ to bear our burdens with us, to weep with us when we weep.
By God's grace I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
All this may seem glib, and I assure you that I can only write it because I have spent the morning in tears and in prayer. It doesn't mean that we aren't allowed to ask 'Why Lord?' didn't Christ on the cross ask 'Why have you forsaken me?' . And those are the hardest times; when we are in the midst of trial and unlike the 3 Hebrew boys in Babylon, Christ doesn't seem to be there in the midst of the fire; we can't see Him, can't feel His presence. Those are the times that we have to trust in His promises. I was hearing on Sunday night that we have to "Trust in the God of Promises and Believe in the Promises of God" and there are some wonderful promises.
A bruised reed he will not break
Great peace have those who love your law and nothing can make them stumble
He will set my feet upon a rock
We have a high priest who sympathises with our weaknesses
God has for us a future and a hope
He knows the path that I take
His word will be a lamp to our feet
Now all we need to do is use His strength to Trust in the God of Promises and Believe in the Promises of God.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
Catch up
I realise more than 1 blog in a day is maybe a bit much... however I have a lot of catching up to do, as I have missed my blogs!!
Looking back and reading through some of my old blogs, I see that the last thing I mentioned of the car and the flat, was that my little red car had been broken into, and the flat had just gone on the market.
Well, re: little red car, Mark fixed it.. ok maybe Mark bodged the wires back in any old way, but hey! it started and ran ok! The thing is, that I don't think it would have stood up to the current mileage that I'm doing - poor little thing, so it had to be sold. The woman who bought it, said she was buying it for her 18 year old son, who is 6ft 3... now if you never saw my little red car, that will mean nothing to you. However if you did, you will be crying laughing, and pitying that poor lad! I read an article on Perodua's; and the article started off by saying that they didn't just have no street cred, they might even have minus street cred!
As for the flat... well now isn't that a saga.
To cut a long story short, we did have a buyer, and now we don't. We are ready (at a cost!!) to exchange contracts on the place we're buying; however if we don't find a buyer in 10 days, they are going to put it back on the market.
They do say that moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do in your life... as well as a new job... hmmm... :)
Looking back and reading through some of my old blogs, I see that the last thing I mentioned of the car and the flat, was that my little red car had been broken into, and the flat had just gone on the market.
Well, re: little red car, Mark fixed it.. ok maybe Mark bodged the wires back in any old way, but hey! it started and ran ok! The thing is, that I don't think it would have stood up to the current mileage that I'm doing - poor little thing, so it had to be sold. The woman who bought it, said she was buying it for her 18 year old son, who is 6ft 3... now if you never saw my little red car, that will mean nothing to you. However if you did, you will be crying laughing, and pitying that poor lad! I read an article on Perodua's; and the article started off by saying that they didn't just have no street cred, they might even have minus street cred!
As for the flat... well now isn't that a saga.
To cut a long story short, we did have a buyer, and now we don't. We are ready (at a cost!!) to exchange contracts on the place we're buying; however if we don't find a buyer in 10 days, they are going to put it back on the market.
They do say that moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do in your life... as well as a new job... hmmm... :)
Lest we forget
I've had this blog in my head for nearly 6 months now; since a visit to the National Memorial Arboretum. I guess it falls under the category of random ramblings from my soap box!
We went to the National Memorial Arboretum and wondered round all the beautiful memorials. The sadness just gets you, if you let it.
There's one memorial to the Prisoners of War in Burma; and pictures of the brutal treatment that they received, which just made me realise the true meaning of 'Lest we forget'. Because we are starting to lose the generation who experienced war atrocities first hand, we are losing the people who lost loved ones. We are losing the people who knew what it was to ration. We are losing the people who stood in the trenches, with the fear of a gun behind them and fear of death infront of them. We are losing the generation of people who saw what human beings in the right circumstances are capable of.
We say don't we, that humans are the only animals who kill their own. See how the Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" How God knows the human heart. And the generation of people who witnessed this first hand are starting to fade out. Their children are growing old, and the current generation have no knowledge of what devestation greed and ambition can bring.
Hear's a quote from a film I watched the other day:-
"When did ambition cease to be a sin and become something we all aspire to"
They are still finding bones in Flanders fields in Belgium. The farmers who harvest those fields, dump them at the end of the road, and special trucks come and carry them away. And yes, the horror of it grabs you - but I present to you a worse thought - what about when they stop finding the bones? What happens when there is no real and present reminder of the horrors of war. What happens when we forget?
How long before we stop with the memorial services, how long before the world is moving so fast that we cannot stop for 2 minutes to remember?
Life is cheap in our society. A 'life sentence' for committing murder, sometimes lasts only 8 years. 8 years for a human life - how we cheapen it. We are made in the image of God; and yet we have natural hearts that live for the devil. Wouldn't the devil love us to forget.
Jesus Christ, son of God, Saviour of the world, knows our frailty and our weakness, He knows our propensity to forget. He left us the Commmunion/Lord's Supper, to remind us of the New Covenant of Salvation in Christ alone; to remind us of His death on the cross - why? Lest we forget!
www.thenma.org.uk
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