JUNE 24, 2016

"...If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise..."
― RUDYARD KIPLING

JOB 1-3

Job loses everything including his children and then is overcome by sores ...

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I will depart.^c

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

may the name of the Lord be praised.”

22In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

24For sighing has become my daily food;

my groans pour out like water.

25What I feared has come upon me;

what I dreaded has happened to me.

26I have no peace, no quietness;

I have no rest, but only turmoil.” 

ACTS 7:1-19

The leaders question Stephen in accusations and Stephen full of the spirit begins to respond by giving a summary of God and the history of the Jews.

1Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

2To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. 3‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’^a

JOURNAL 

Again, there is no easy way. Page after page, from Abraham to Stephen...it is a path of suffering. Suffering to live, love and give the Kingdom of God. To expect different...to get angry and flustered at wrongdoing or things that are unfair is so childish. It is naive and silly. Here I sit in the lap of luxury and yet I complain and think I deserve better. How foolish and selfish!

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ~ 2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-4