THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

JOB is apparently one of the 1st books written from the Bible. It's really a fascinating book into God's thoughts. "Were you there when I command those proud waves, here you will stop and go no further".  So much in life we take for granted and don't consider, that's now how it always was, until God "made it to be". The storage of rain in clouds, the insight into the mindset of even "a horse". We take it for granted that a horse is so strong, we take it for granted that this animal just races in battle with no fear of the sword. Try getting another animal to do that, but we take if for granted. God says, "I made the horse like that".  We get insight even in to the Ostrich, "not the wisest of animals, doesn't have much sense" but when it runs, it leaves the horse and rider behind. There's no way this insight is coming from Moses or any other man, especially way back then, what did Moses do, line up the horse and O...

 In the Book of Job today we read, "the godless are full of resentment".  It's a vicious cycle isn't it. The more we disobey God and do things our own way, the worse things get for us and the more bitter and resentful we get against God and the further we stray from Him. While the opposite is true for the sincere Christian. Those that obey spend the rest of their years in prosperity and their years in contentment; thence, drawing them closer to God.   We go on to read "For the godless are full of resentment. Even when God punishes them, they refuse to cry out to him for help".  In the book "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis, a fictional account of life for the soul in the netherworld, C.S. Lewis illustrates the truth of this scripture. Lewis shows that in the afterlife, people/souls will only become more resolute in their convictions. The lost person who dies in their sin, full of rebellion and pride against God will only become more resolute; as th...

   ALL men should be both comforted and challenged by Job's statement, in today's reading, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman."  Why did he make such a covenant with his eyes? For the obvious reason that this is what he was doing or being tempted to do. We should be glad that he did not just write, "my eyes look lustfully at young women".   If he had, we would all feel justified in unbridled lust. You think of King David, a man after God's own heart, according to scripture, he had hundreds of women that he had sex with, many wives and concubines.  He found a way to feed his lust for young women by trying to legitimize it by making them wives and concubines.  Many Preachers have joked about this, "it's hard enough to be married to one woman, who would want more than one?" If only that were the case. David was married to these women simply on paper, so to speak. He did not deal with them in the normal sense...

 I work with an elderly lady and when I walk by, I hold my breath, not because she stinks, but the perfume she wears, stinks. She does not take the time and pay the cost, to put that perfume on, so that others can say, "she stinks, but regardless, that is the end result. I'm sure there are others that will tell her that the perfume she is wearing smells very nice. Paul describes our life as a sweet smelling perfume. However Paul makes an interesting observation here, he writes that not all think our perfume is so sweet. Paul writes that to those who are being saved we are a life giving perfume, but to those who are perishing we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. At work, at school and family events, to some, as they see you walking over, they say to each other before you get there, "block your nose, he comes so and so and she/her stinks of death and doom". And they hold their breath the whole time you are there. The Word of God has a scripture that gives us insi...

Job is wanting a "one on one meeting" with God, to present his case before God. "Even till this day, my complaint is bitter". Job goes on to say. "Oh that I knew where I might find him". Job is clear here, in this text, that if he could find God, he would go to Him and plead his case, and his complaint, before Him. Recently, I did such a thing, not with God of course, but with a utility company that I have a complaint with and wanting to state my case before them. I went in, quite irate and perturbed, to say the least. They did not make any promises to change and/or reverse any charges, but would consider. The difference between the utility company and God though, is I was able to bring information to them, that they were not privy of, so that may change their recourse. However, with God, what information are we going to bring to Him that He does not already have knowledge of? Many of us, I'm sure, have at one time or another, wished if we could just h...

   One thing that is very interesting about reading through the One Year Bible is coming across days like today. Who could plan this out? Yesterday, in the Old Testament we are reading about "Lousy Comforters" and today in the New Testament we are reading about "Good Comforters". Paul writes that God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others in their troubles. The first problem then of a lousy comforter would be that he or she, is one that has not been comforted by God; therefore he cannot comfort others. The question to ask of course would be, "why hasn't he been comforted by God?". The answer is complex, but a simple answer for sake of time and space, would be that he/she is not able to be comforted by God because they are to distant from God and secondly, because they have structured their life in such a way that often there is not much trouble to be comforted in. Paul writes, "that as you share in our sufferings, you will also ...