JUNE 25, 2016

“...If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;..."
― RUDYARD KIPLING

JOB 4-6

Job's friends begin to question him and assume he has done something to deserve suffering...Job answers them...

14“Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend

forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

15But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,

as the streams that overflow

16when darkened by thawing ice

and swollen with melting snow,

17but that stop flowing in the dry season,

and in the heat vanish from their channels.

ACTS 7:20-43

Stephen continues to summarize the history of their ancestors...

35“This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.

37“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’^h 38He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

JOURNAL 

Job rebukes his friends for their questions...comparing them to fickle streams. He longs for friends to stay with him and suffer alongside him. Stephen though full of the spirit is a pillar of strength in standing up to the Jewish leaders. 

Oh again how foolish I have been so often in my own life. How I think o fGod as some magic genie who should be responsible for filling my life with happiness and ease. How and why do I think this to be the case? I guess it truly is our culture and buying into the idea that a great life is one that is lived in ease and luxury. It is what sells products and services and it is the center of our economy.  We are deluged with the messages every day. We are enticed with the idea that a product, a service, an experience will give us the happiness we desperately desire. Yet they are all empty promises...

10And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. ~ 1 PETER 5:10-11