The Job type of sinner.
It is the month of the year that we pray for the persecuted church, and I was led by the Lord to share some truths he revealed to me, as I was laid up in ICU in October and couldn’t sleep. I had the opportunity to pray and listen to some challenging audio books, which impacted me.
Job isn’t a story that we think of as a “persecution” story, but when you consider the book’s context it absolutely is. Many believe Job was the first book of the Bible written and therefore our first look at the Hebrew understanding of why evil and suffering exist.
Job isn’t a story that we think of as a “persecution” story, but when you consider the book’s context it absolutely is. Many believe Job was the first book of the Bible written and therefore our first look at the Hebrew understanding of why evil and suffering exist.
The Hebrews were surrounded by cultures who said suffering came from fickle gods who enjoyed human suffering. If you worked hard to please the gods then they might reward you, if not you would be punished. Job refutes this, showing suffering as coming from a (then) mysterious “accuser” who wages accusations against us before the one true God. This God may allow suffering to happen, but he does not cause it and he ultimately honors Job’s faithfulness, restoring what he lost. Open Doors website.
The Job type of sinner.
This type of sinner has been living a blessed, God protected life and then Satan is allowed to touch them.
People are shocked by what God allows to happen to this type of sinner.
Maybe God has some great plan for your life, that even now He is boasting to Satan about you and Satan always takes up the challenge.
Satan even took up the challenge of tempting and trying to destroy the Son of man, God incarnate.
Job 1.
In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants.
He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified.
Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. This was Job’s regular custom. One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. This was Job’s regular custom. One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
The LORD said to Satan, Where have you come from?
Satan answered the LORD, From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.
Then the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.
Then the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.
Does Job fear God for nothing?
Satan replied.
Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?
You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.
You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.
The LORD said to Satan, Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!
While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you! While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!
While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you! While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!
While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
The Job type sinner is on Satan’s radar.
You know why, because they have a Father in heaven who is proud of them, and he is watching them run the race and it has got to the stage that He is so confident about them, that He has boasted about them to Satan.
If God the father has boasted about you, you better be prepared, because things are going to change, Satan has you in his sights and God has removed some of your hedge.
The Satan is a powerful (adversary)
The whole world is under the control of 70 angelic beings (fallen angels) and the only good angelic being over the nation of Israel, which was established a while after the tower of babel, is Michael the Prince of Israel.
Who is our struggle with?
The Sons of God (The divine council).
The first mention of "sons of God" in the Hebrew Bible occurs in
Genesis 6:1–4.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also after ward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man
and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
Genesis chapter 10 constitutes what is known as “The Table of Nations” in the Bible. The text is as follows, “These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth…”
In Jewish tradition there were 70 original nations after the Flood, corresponding to the 70 names in this chapter.
THE 70 SONS OF GOD
In the aftermath of the Tower of Babel, God placed 70 sons of God over the nations but reserved Israel for himself.
Deut 32:8-9 (ESV) When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the LORD’s [Yahweh] portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
English translations based on the traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text read “sons of Israel” instead of “sons of God”, a strange reading as Israel was not in existence at the time of the Tower of Babel incident. Furthermore there were 12 sons of Israel – not 70!
THE 70 SONS OF GOD
But the Septuagint (the 3rd-century BC translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, renders it either “angels of God” or “sons of God”. The Septuagint translators regarded “sons of God” and angels to be equivalent terms, rendering Bene Elohim that way several times (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7) in order to clarify the meaning.
Deut 32:8-9 (Brenton Septuagint Translation) When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.
Added support for this rendering came from the Hebrew manuscripts of Deuteronomy found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. They too used the term Bene Elohim (sons of God) in Deut 32:8.
THE 70 SONS OF GOD
So it appears that after Babel and the division of the
THE 70 SONS OF GOD
nations by language, God allocated 70 angels to oversee the affairs of these nations
in the spiritual realm.
The Sons of God (The divine council).
Deuteronomy 32:8-9. (ESV)
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
(GNT) The Most High assigned nations their lands; he determined where peoples should live. He assigned to each nation a heavenly being.
(ERV) God Most High separated the people on earth and gave each nation its land. He set up borders for all people. He made as many nations as there are angels.
(ESV) When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
The divine Council.
Daniel 10:10 -14.
A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you. And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.
Then he continued, Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.
But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.
The divine Council.
Daniel 10:20-21. ESV
If the angel in Daniel 10 is Gabriel, which seems quite likely (as he appears to Daniel in both chapters 8 and 9), then he is the second warrior angel assisted by Michael.
Gabriel leaves Daniel with these words, “But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.
But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.”
The Sons of God.
Psalm 82:1-2 (NIV)
God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods” How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?
(ESV) God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.
(ISV) God takes his stand in the divine assembly; among the divine beings he renders judgment.
WHO ARE THE gods IN PSALM 82?
Psalm 82:1-8.
God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods” How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High. But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.
Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are your inheritance.
Jude:6-9.
And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling, these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, The Lord rebuke you!
The Sons of God.
Isaiah 14:12-14.
How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
THIS IS VIEWED BY SCHOLARS AS A REFERENCE TO SATAN’ FALL.
The Sons of God.
Angels referred to as stars: Job 38:7.
When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Revelation 12:3-4.
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.
WHO IS THE DRAGON OF REVELATION 12?
The Sons of God.
Revelation 12:9.
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
This is a future event during the tribulation period that is still to come.
Revelation 12:12.
Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!
The Sons of God.
1 John 3:8.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8.
No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The rulers of this world, the divine council and not the Pharisees, were responsible for the death of Jesus.
The Sons of God.
Matthew 4:8-11.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you he said, if you will bow down and worship me.
Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
The devil offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world without having to go to the cross.
The Sons of God.
Acts 7:42.
But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars.
(ASV) But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did ye offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
AMP) But God turned away [from them] and handed them over to serve the host of heaven.
Satan and the fallen angels want to be worshipped, the carved idols were not worshipped as just a piece of wood, but the entity that aligned itself with the idol.
The Sons of God.
1 Corinthians 8:4-6.
So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that An idol is nothing at all in the world and that There is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord,
Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
God uses the divine council not only to refine the righteous, but to punish the wicked.
1 Kings 22:4-23.
Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.
But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, First seek the counsel of the LORD.
So the king of Israel brought together the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?
Go, they answered, for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand. But Jehoshaphat asked, Is there no longer a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?
The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.
The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.
The king should not say such a thing, Jehoshaphat replied.
So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once……..
All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing.
Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious, they said, for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.
Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably. Micaiah said, As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me.
When he arrived, the king asked him, Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not? Attack and be victorious, he answered, for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand. The king said to him, How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?
When he arrived, the king asked him, Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not? Attack and be victorious, he answered, for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand. The king said to him, How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?
Then Micaiah answered, I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad? Micaiah continued, Therefore hear the word of the LORD:
I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?
I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?
One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, I will entice him.
By what means? the LORD asked. I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets, he said. You will succeed in enticing him, said the LORD.
Go and do it. So now the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours.
The LORD has decreed disaster for you.
The Sons of God.
Mention Gavin’s book on Angels and fallen Angels.
Matthew 25:41.
Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Hell has not been prepared for mankind, but for the Devil and his angels.
FB article on Omnipotence.
Omnipotence.
If God created all things, and sin is inherent only to what has been created. We must conclude that God created sin. No matter if it be indirectly. So ... Did God create sin? If so, wouldn't that mean God is a sinner?
Let me begin by reminding you that we are not what we create.
Humans create cars. No human is a car. It is literally impossible for God Himself to sin. So if your idea of omnipotence requires that God be able to sin, and be able to contradict Himself. Your understanding of omnipotence is flawed.
To be all powerful means to be able to do all of what can be done, not also what can't be done. If God created a being more powerful than Himself. Nothing would happen because it's not possible. God being sovereign over creation is ultimately responsible for all things created. Only if sin is not eternal, is sin created.
Sin came into existence through a guardian Cherub now called the Satan (Adversary).
The Satan is the facilitator of sin because his nature became corrupt with envy over God's worship.
It is written that God commanded the angels to worship the Son of Man (God incarnate) the God Man. Whom God placed as higher than the angelic beings.
For humans not angels are made in the image of God. And are charged to minister to God's elect within mankind.
The Satan refused to submit to the Christ. But instead sought to place himself on the mountain of God. His argument was persuasive enough to convince one third of heaven to follow him in rebellion.
Everything that transpires is not a shock to God. There are no maverick molecules. When God established that 4+4=8. He also ordained that it could not equal 9.
The Satan is the facilitator of sin because his nature became corrupt with envy over God's worship.
It is written that God commanded the angels to worship the Son of Man (God incarnate) the God Man. Whom God placed as higher than the angelic beings.
For humans not angels are made in the image of God. And are charged to minister to God's elect within mankind.
The Satan refused to submit to the Christ. But instead sought to place himself on the mountain of God. His argument was persuasive enough to convince one third of heaven to follow him in rebellion.
Everything that transpires is not a shock to God. There are no maverick molecules. When God established that 4+4=8. He also ordained that it could not equal 9.
In like manner, the creation of a people that would know and love God as He desires to be loved required that sin come into the world, and that the Christ, (God incarnate) sacrifice His human life because of it.
God made a way where it would seem there was no way.
God paid the price for the creation of sin.
In a way you can say that all things conceptually, are eternal. Less you posit that God is not omniscient.
But we must be careful to not project onto God our limitations.
Only those that grow in appreciation of God's sovereignty over creation, grow in knowledge and understanding.
God made a way where it would seem there was no way.
God paid the price for the creation of sin.
In a way you can say that all things conceptually, are eternal. Less you posit that God is not omniscient.
But we must be careful to not project onto God our limitations.
Only those that grow in appreciation of God's sovereignty over creation, grow in knowledge and understanding.
Ultimately even though indirectly, God did create creatures that could sin.
Sin is the transgression of God's Laws.
God created creatures that could choose to transgress His Laws.
When if even only one of His creatures decides to sin.
That creature is exercising a choice previously given, not one created by its own volition.
God created the angels and mankind.
God knew that some of the more powerful beings of the first creation (Angels), would rebel against Him. He knew too that man, would rebel and sin would spread to all man-kind through pro-creation. He knew that some of His more powerful creatures would deceive and enslave mankind and that He Himself, God incarnate in the flesh, would have to by His atoning work on the cross, restore man-kind to Himself.
God created the angels and mankind.
Satan is not omnipresent like GOD. He also is not all knowing, but certain people like Job, get onto his radar and suffer greatly at his hand. For the most part Satan can ignore professing Christians and leave them for the world and the flesh to drag into sin and defeat.
God created the angels and mankind.
God knew the cost of having an eternal relationship with man and he willingly stepped down from heaven in human form, into the Arena, lowering Himself in the flesh to a level even lower than the angels.
Have you ever prayed, “Lord I want to be like you”? Well you may say, I have and I do, but it comes at a high price, and when most see the cross that it takes to be like Jesus, they turn around like the rich young ruler.
That is why He doesn’t reveal Himself to everyone, Because when God revealed Himself to man, it was to those who would suffer much sacrifice for His name.
Jesus is in the arena saying do you want to be like me, do you want to share in my sufferings?
The powers and authorities, the rulers of this age.
Colossians 2:13-15.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.
He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities,
he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Have there been unrealized benefits to Covid-19.
Have you ever thought of praying? Please Lord don’t boast about me to the devil, I am not ready yet, I am still so shallow and selfish.
Have you ever thought of our praying and singing and the Lord saying I am going to block my ears?
Amos 5:23-24.
Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Have there been unrealized benefits to Covid-19.
Isaiah 1 :11-15.
The multitude of your sacrifices what are they to me?” says the LORD.
I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations
Have there been unrealized benefits to Covid-19.
Isaiah 1 :11-15 (continued)
I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many
prayers, I am not listening.
We thought that the Lord was upset about Covid-19 and the closing of many churches, but I propose that perhaps he has enjoyed the absence of shallow singing and selfish prayers.
The Job type sinner may have a long journey.
1 Corinthians 9-13.
For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.
God’s children walk at the back of the procession being mocked and ridiculed and spat upon, on their way to the arena to meet the lions.
God loves His children so much that He never misses one of their games. We look at men and women lined up to face lions and it turns our stomach, but God the Father turns up at the sports field and says, “I hope they run a good race and finish strong.”
Do you think that, that is bad theology?
Isaiah 53:2-10.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
Daniel was a Job type sinner.
No mention of Daniel sinning is recorded in God’s Word, but Daniel like each one of us, was a sinner.
There was only one perfect man, and that is the God man Jesus Christ, crucified before the foundation of the earth.
Revelation 13:8.
All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
God created the world with the cross in full sight, knowing what it would cost Him to redeem mankind.
God is good and faithful?
For man to say that is almost like blasphemy, who are we to discuss goodness, we don’t even know what it is.
Jesus said to the rich young ruler “Why do you call me good?”
Don’t you think he is going to ask us the same question. But we are so learned and Biblically based that we say, “Well you give me all I ask for, a nice car, a nice house a healthy body and a good job”
Do you see why the world scorns us because that God doesn’t exist, we made him up in our minds. They look at us suffering, sick and persecuted etc but some have a big secret, “Positive confession” I AM HEALED, I AM…...ETC
I BELIEVE YOU ARE ABLE
I BELIEVE YOU ARE GOOD
I BELIEVE YOU ARE WITH ME
EVEN NOW
I BELIEVE YOU ARE GREATER
THAN EVERY MOUNTAIN
THAT I FACE
I BELIEVE YOU WILL SUPPLY
ALL I NEED
YOU’RE ALL I NEED
The “Prodigal son” sinner.
Our problem is that we think that we are good, we don’t need God to brag about us, we’ll do it ourselves.
We like the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son, don’t realise that we have the greater sin. We want God to brag about how good we are.
On our way to Church we saw a man in a pig stye, eating the husks that the pigs were eating, so we gave him a Nando’s burger and we testified about it to see how many people we could inspire to feed all the other folk in the area who were feeding pigs. (That is our idea of good). I would rather pray that the prodigal comes home to the father’s house, than set up soup kitchens in the pig styes in the land.
Ministry to the “Prodigal son” sinner.
Ministry to the “Prodigal son” sinner.
The Gospel in some form must always accompany the helping hand, or it is missing out on an opportunity.
I have no criticism of the work of ministries like “Samaritan’s purse” and “Hellenic Ministries”, where help goes hand in hand with the Gospel. Bev and I and a number of folk in the church here have seen first hand how that kind of ministry leads to souls being saved as well as needs been met. If you haven’t seen the movie “Jesus in Athens”, you don’t know what you are missing. I am sure we have it or a link to it from Nico Bougas. In fact if you want to go to Greece and see first hand the ministry among the refugees, there is a vision tour in the 2nd quarter of next year and I can give you Nico’s contact details.
Monday 11 November (Vision trip 2017 )
God is good and faithful?
Why is God good, well He gave me a good job, He gave me a nice car and house, He gave me a wonderful family.
If that is your reasoning, then if you loose your job, your house, your family, is God still good?
Some contend that Job brought these things upon himself as he said “The thing that I have feared has come upon me”.
If that is your reasoning, then you are finding a fault that God didn’t find and you are like Job’s friends who had to be prayed for by Job for God to forgive them for their poor counsel. Everything was fine until his friends opened their mouths, and the best you can do when people are suffering, is don’t give them your “Doctrines of demons”
God is good and faithful?
Job prayed for his children every day and offered up a sacrifice for them, but the day came when the hedge around his children was removed by God in spite of Job’s prayer.
Do you think that it was an act of God?
Of course it was God that removed the hedge, but Satan was the aggressor. Sometimes we protect our children from things that God wants them to experience to bring them to their senses, why do we do it, because we think we know better than God and we unfortunately don’t know what good is. God saw Job’s righteousness, but He also saw Job’s comfort and He knew that if He wanted Job to be more like Him, He had to get Job’s attention, so He said to Satan, you can touch everything He has, but not Job himself.
God is good and faithful?
Satan failed the first round and Job had to get used to having nothing. We don’t know how often the divine council meets, but definitely there was a time period that passed before their next meeting.
Then the next council meeting took place and God bragged about Job again so Satan ramped things up and said let me touch Job himself and so God removed a bit more of the hedge but told Satan to spare Job’s life.
God is good and faithful?
So Job was afflicted all over his body with boils and his wife said to him “Curse God and die.
Satan had a reason for leaving Job’s wife around.
God is good and faithful?
I pray for more good testimonies like:
“God is so good, I lost my Job”..
“God is so good, I lost my car”..
“God is so good, I lost my house”… but I saw my sin and repented”.
My testimony is that God is so good.
I had to have open heart surgery, because he loves me too much to stand back and let my self-centred, self-righteous and slothful heart drive me from His presence, and as The Lord operated on me, He allowed skilled surgeons to repair a valve in my other heart, that was leaking.
God answers Job’s complaints.
Job 38:1-7.
Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?...
God answers Job’s complaints.
Psalm 19:1.
The Heavens declare the Glory of the Lord.
I believe that this is why Satan promotes the fairy tale of evolution, because it is a way of stealing “God’s Glory” and making out that the beauty that we see all around us in nature and the amazing creatures on Earth, including ourselves, is the result of some cosmic accident and not design.
Job sees himself and answers the Lord.
Job 42:4-6.
You said, Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me. My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.
If Job says that, how can we see ourselves any differently.
This should cause us to throw aside any attempt at self improvement.
Do you see things from God’s perspective?
Andrew the Apostle, while en route to the place of his execution, and seeing the cross waiting for him, never changed his expression, nor did he stumble in his words.
With his bold faith maintained, he said, “Oh cross, most welcome and longed for, with a willing mind, joyfully and desirously I come to you being the scholar of him which did hang on you because I have always been your lover and yearn to embrace you.”
I would be lying to say that I share that love for the cross. I am thankful for the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus, but the cross that I must face, which is nothing compared to the Job type sinner, I all too often do without enthusiasm.
My last night in hospital.
I was spending my last night in the Sunninghill hospital on Tuesday 27 October and I would much rather have been discharged and be at home with my wife, but they had to shock my heart a second time on the Monday and so had kept me an extra day in ICU.
In the evening, they admitted a 19 year old youngster, and the Lord said to me, that I had learnt a lesson on how to witness to the nurses at ICU, but there was a young man that needed to be prayed for.
Once they had prepared the young man for theatre to repair a broken femur, I had the opportunity to introduce myself to him as a Pastor and ask him if I could pray for him and his operation.
He was keen and after doing so, I went on to witness to him and give him a link to our website and share about Francis Asbury as he turned out to be from Church of England.
He was keen and after doing so, I went on to witness to him and give him a link to our website and share about Francis Asbury as he turned out to be from Church of England.
I said to him that I wanted to have been able to have gone home already, but I was glad that I had to spend another night in hospital so that I could share with him and pray for him.
Isn’t God amazing?
I would never dare to think of myself as a Job type sinner, I am very far away from being that, but the Lord did some much needed surgery on my hardened heart as I was in hospital, and one thing was that he showed me my lack of concern for those who don’t know Him.
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