Job 8:22 - "their house of cards collapsed." C.S. Lewis talks about living in a house of cards. In A Grief Observed, Lewis wrote that if my house collapsed at one blow, it was a house of cards. My house of cards collapsed 4 years ago with one blow only for God to take that house built on sand and rebuild it on the rocks. Lewis talked about if his house was a house of cards, the sooner it was knocked down the better---and only suffering could do that. "God always knew that my temple was a house of cards." C.S. Lewis.
Job 9:13 How can mere mortals get right with God? Job 9:20 God wins, hands down. So what's the point?
Job 10:2 "How does this fit into what you once called 'good'? Giving me a hard time---how is that good, God? Job, like the rest of us, believes "God should relieve his struggles and replace it with rest. But God uses struggle to uncover a rest beneath the struggle that no anguish can destroy." 66 LL. Job's foolish understanding of the road to find real life is not right. My understanding is what I have to deal with this day, this set of circumstances. Foolish Understanding! So throw the anchor over in the midst of my storm and it will hold true. There is an Anchor in my raging storm. I just want the storm to go away instead of a sure and steady Anchor in my mess. Remember Crabb's quote in the First Love Letter---"You must now live between Anguish and Hope."
Sylvia, I just wept when I heard your message tonight. I played it a couple of times. Your words meant so much to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I couldn't call you back because I am out of minutes until Saturday. Will call then. I just loved the message cause I love the messenger!
ReplyDeleteI still haven't called about my tumor markers---keep forgetting to do it---I don't know if that's good or bad?? They've been ready since Tuesday. I'll call today! I drove down the street tonight where I would meet Merry Nell and just wept and wondered how much her husband is missing her and I stopped to pray for him in his grief.
ReplyDeleteI got kissed at the Post Office tonight! I had so much paperwork to do today and so wanted to be with people. But duty called. Went to mail about 20 things and there was a senior citizen without a stamp to pay a due bill. She was frantically going through her purse and had no credit card. I stopped what I was doing to help her and went and bought a dollar's worth of stamps. You would have thought I had given her a rather large amount of money by her response. She hugged and kissed me! It so touched me. A Postal Kiss. I just wept on the drive home. A cup of cold water or 44 cent stamp given in His Name...
ReplyDeleteMy trials have not been near as hard as yours Bev or other people that I know, but they have been suited to me I guess. Anyway, in reading Job and 66 LL with it..I saw Job in an entirely new light and was so blessed to have new understanding of Job. We ususally don't want to read it, for I think we project ourselves into Job's situation and none of us wants to lose everything....it's all we know. But, I can truly say after reading it along with 66 LL I have a different view of Job and appreciate the story that God shares with us there. Bev, you have such a heart for Jesus and you share Him so well and so naturally...I am sure that woman is thanking God, even IF she is not a believer, for the help that you gave her. He uses you over and over and over. Please call about the markers today. I thought you said last week that you got a good report....want to hear all of it. Praying much for you. Love you in Him, Mary Lou
ReplyDelete"Can't you let up, and let me smile just once"
ReplyDeleteI just wish I could time-travel and go back to sit with Job. His prayer is like the sound of a far-off train blowing it's horn of warning. How deep the sorrow sounds in his prayer. He needs a hand to hold, or a warm pot of chicken soup made with loving hands. Or maybe a piece of my homemade pecan pie.
Don't you just want to love him and tell them how grand this story is???
I'm telling y'all. I don't know how many times in my life I've gone back to this book of the Bible to feel God's precious message that, Yes, sometimes the righteous suffer. And suffer hard! And it is not punishment. It is an honor bestowed. A trust. A duel between The God of Righteousness and the accuser of the brethren.
The really sad thing about this message...Job didn't have this book of the Bible to give him courage and comfort. I do. And I am so tender towards him for how he has touched me when life hurts. And you've done nothing wrong to deserve the pain except follow Christ humbly and obediently.
We will survive the ultimate test of our faith when we can express our hurt while worshipping God on our face.
I don't believe you can really love God until you've been where Job has been. It's where God changes from the genie-in-the-bottle who grants us all our wishes...and becomes GOD...sovereign and holy beyond description or definition.
One of our sisters from Cover to Cover, Helen at A Work of Heart, lost her grandmother this last week. She has a poignant post up if you'd like to drop by her blog and wish her well.
ReplyDeleteDeborah, your heart is so in tune with the wooing of the Lord. I think we'd all like a moment with Job to encourage him at this point--to think he never knew the
ReplyDelete"why." I imagine when he reached heaven, God showed him the beautifully woven tapestry that He had representing Job's life in His bigger Plan A. None of us want heartache, but most of us do want that kind of remembrance in God's Book of Life. The way Job has been an encouragement to others for the thousands of years it's been recorded, the years it was carefully told through the mouths of the patriarchs, every detail so carefully calculated to be God's story and our own.
And you, sweet Deborah, again back to read Job today after yesterday not being sure you could stand all the pain of the book. Your faithfulness is so dear to Him. Your words touch me deeply.