Post by cspain03 on Sept 9, 2014 19:12:39 GMT
"Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back!" kinda like back to school :-)
Thank you Kia for getting us all back together! I trust this will be another blessed forum experienced - lets all push to participate. And lets remember what Kia said, it's should be about OBLIGATION, it should be about DESIRE! As children of The Almighty God, we should have a longing to read His Word and press into His presence daily. Let's encourage one another through word AND deed by being fully committed to God and to reading His Word, and while we are at it, we might as well WRITE about it, so lets get to it!!! The worst thing you can do is stop participating just because you miss a day or two (you don't want to make it a habit of course) but brush that off and get back to it!
These are the verses that stood out to me:
8 So the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a pure and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil."
9 Then Satan answered the Lord , "Is it for nothing that Job fears God?
10 Have you not made a hedge around him and his household and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock have increased in the land.
1) Verse 8: What an honor it would be to have The Lord bring up my name specifically in conversation. Out of ALL the people in the world! It's a reminder that He knows us each by name. But now the question I have to ask myself is: WOULD God have been able to replace Job's name with mine? Would He be quick to say 'Satan, have you considered my servant Courtney' ? Am I pure and upright, does my heart reflect the fear (respect and love) I have for my Lord and Savior? Do my actions show that I turn away from evil? Honestly, not always, like Kia mentioned, too often we just try to "squeeze" God into our busy schedules and the demanding lives we have. But that's not how it should be. We can all do better to make a more meaningful effort to really put God first so that He'd be just as willing to replace Job's name with our own. (Not that I am begging to go through all that Job went through O.O)
2) Verses 9-10: For me, this is a reflection of how we're often quick to thank God and praise God and go to church and "do the right thing" when things are going well in our lives and following the plans we laid out and going how we expect them to go. BUT how often do we find ourselves turning away from God with things get hard? Or ready to through a fit and be angry when things don't go our way? It's human nature, it the sin factor we have to fight against daily. We have to remember that we haven't earn ANYTHING from God, everything we have is because of his Grace, Mercy, and Favor. But with that in mind, if God took it all away (or allowed the devil to take it away) we have to realize that God is STILL GREAT and GREATLY TO BE PRAISED. He is great simply in Himself, but that greatness is ever magnified when you about ALL He's done since the beginning of creation. And if you just want to bring things home/to a more present time, God didn't have to bless us like He has. We are richer than 80% of the world merely because we have access to clean running water, so to that add, all the other things and experiences we've been blessed with- WOW! God is a mighty good God! It's not a matter of viewing life/a situation as the glass being half full or half empty, stop and take a moment to appreciate the fact that a) YOU HAVE A GLASS and b) THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE GLASS! Satan brings up a really good point that we all need to be mindful of - we can't get caught up in only giving God the GREAT PRAISE that He deserves just because/when things are good or we feel blessed. We have to follow His Word ALL of the time (which means we need to READ His Word so we know what to follow), we need to give Him Honor ALL the time, our lives should be an ever living and constant reflection of Him (being loving and kind and giving and forgiving ALL the time).
This "life" thing isn't easy, but there is no need for us to make it harder on ourselves by being inconsistent with our dedication to a CONSTANT God.
Job had every material thing that people in the land attributed to his "greatness" taken from him but he remained faithful through it all (it wasn't easy, especially with those LAME "friends" of his..but we'll get to that lol). I know what it's like to have things stolen from me, have my sense of peace/security shaken, have things of value (replace and some not) never to be in my possession again, it's a very hard and low place to be in, but even that can't compare to Job (I didn't lose family). But Job didn't curse God rather, in verse 21 he states "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away" - wow, what perspective. At the end of the day, God's just lending it to me, this life is only temporary and is preparation for eternal life with Him - that's what our aim should be, that's what our lives should reflect.
Out of all of this, I feel most comforted by verse 12: "So the Lord said to Satan, 'All right then, everything he has is in your power. Only do not extend you hand against the man himself!' So Satan went out form the presence of the Lord" and again in Chapter 2:6 So the Lord said to Satan, "All right, he is in your power; only preserve his life."
The Lord allowed Satan to test Job to prove a point, but He would not let the devil take Job's life - did you catch that?!?! HE WOULD NOT ALLOW SATAN TO TAKE JOB'S LIFE! And what the Lord says goes, for His Word shall not return to him void. Satan may take your possessions, your boyfriend, your job, your scholarship, your family/friends, your sanity and even your health, BUT HE CAN'T HAVE YOUR LIFE - So DON'T GIVE IT TO HIM! We belong to the Lord and we are His and His alone, the devil CAN'T HAVE US, so don't live in defeat. Regroup, rebuild, stay faithful to God.
Something else we all need to keep in mind is to NOT be like Job's wife (verse 9 Then his wife said to him, "Are you still holding firmly to your integrity? Curse God, and die!") we all have to be encourages as supporters to one another! We can't walk around trying to convince others to curse God and die just because from the outside looking in their situation seems too great of a burden to carry. We serve a GREAT God and nothing is too hard for Him! It would be easy to curse God and die, but Jesus never said the journey the journey would be easy. But WE ARE VICTORIOUS. So we can enter any situation with peace because we already know we are going to come out as winners!!!!!!
love y'all!
Thank you Kia for getting us all back together! I trust this will be another blessed forum experienced - lets all push to participate. And lets remember what Kia said, it's should be about OBLIGATION, it should be about DESIRE! As children of The Almighty God, we should have a longing to read His Word and press into His presence daily. Let's encourage one another through word AND deed by being fully committed to God and to reading His Word, and while we are at it, we might as well WRITE about it, so lets get to it!!! The worst thing you can do is stop participating just because you miss a day or two (you don't want to make it a habit of course) but brush that off and get back to it!
These are the verses that stood out to me:
8 So the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a pure and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil."
9 Then Satan answered the Lord , "Is it for nothing that Job fears God?
10 Have you not made a hedge around him and his household and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock have increased in the land.
1) Verse 8: What an honor it would be to have The Lord bring up my name specifically in conversation. Out of ALL the people in the world! It's a reminder that He knows us each by name. But now the question I have to ask myself is: WOULD God have been able to replace Job's name with mine? Would He be quick to say 'Satan, have you considered my servant Courtney' ? Am I pure and upright, does my heart reflect the fear (respect and love) I have for my Lord and Savior? Do my actions show that I turn away from evil? Honestly, not always, like Kia mentioned, too often we just try to "squeeze" God into our busy schedules and the demanding lives we have. But that's not how it should be. We can all do better to make a more meaningful effort to really put God first so that He'd be just as willing to replace Job's name with our own. (Not that I am begging to go through all that Job went through O.O)
2) Verses 9-10: For me, this is a reflection of how we're often quick to thank God and praise God and go to church and "do the right thing" when things are going well in our lives and following the plans we laid out and going how we expect them to go. BUT how often do we find ourselves turning away from God with things get hard? Or ready to through a fit and be angry when things don't go our way? It's human nature, it the sin factor we have to fight against daily. We have to remember that we haven't earn ANYTHING from God, everything we have is because of his Grace, Mercy, and Favor. But with that in mind, if God took it all away (or allowed the devil to take it away) we have to realize that God is STILL GREAT and GREATLY TO BE PRAISED. He is great simply in Himself, but that greatness is ever magnified when you about ALL He's done since the beginning of creation. And if you just want to bring things home/to a more present time, God didn't have to bless us like He has. We are richer than 80% of the world merely because we have access to clean running water, so to that add, all the other things and experiences we've been blessed with- WOW! God is a mighty good God! It's not a matter of viewing life/a situation as the glass being half full or half empty, stop and take a moment to appreciate the fact that a) YOU HAVE A GLASS and b) THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE GLASS! Satan brings up a really good point that we all need to be mindful of - we can't get caught up in only giving God the GREAT PRAISE that He deserves just because/when things are good or we feel blessed. We have to follow His Word ALL of the time (which means we need to READ His Word so we know what to follow), we need to give Him Honor ALL the time, our lives should be an ever living and constant reflection of Him (being loving and kind and giving and forgiving ALL the time).
This "life" thing isn't easy, but there is no need for us to make it harder on ourselves by being inconsistent with our dedication to a CONSTANT God.
Job had every material thing that people in the land attributed to his "greatness" taken from him but he remained faithful through it all (it wasn't easy, especially with those LAME "friends" of his..but we'll get to that lol). I know what it's like to have things stolen from me, have my sense of peace/security shaken, have things of value (replace and some not) never to be in my possession again, it's a very hard and low place to be in, but even that can't compare to Job (I didn't lose family). But Job didn't curse God rather, in verse 21 he states "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away" - wow, what perspective. At the end of the day, God's just lending it to me, this life is only temporary and is preparation for eternal life with Him - that's what our aim should be, that's what our lives should reflect.
Out of all of this, I feel most comforted by verse 12: "So the Lord said to Satan, 'All right then, everything he has is in your power. Only do not extend you hand against the man himself!' So Satan went out form the presence of the Lord" and again in Chapter 2:6 So the Lord said to Satan, "All right, he is in your power; only preserve his life."
The Lord allowed Satan to test Job to prove a point, but He would not let the devil take Job's life - did you catch that?!?! HE WOULD NOT ALLOW SATAN TO TAKE JOB'S LIFE! And what the Lord says goes, for His Word shall not return to him void. Satan may take your possessions, your boyfriend, your job, your scholarship, your family/friends, your sanity and even your health, BUT HE CAN'T HAVE YOUR LIFE - So DON'T GIVE IT TO HIM! We belong to the Lord and we are His and His alone, the devil CAN'T HAVE US, so don't live in defeat. Regroup, rebuild, stay faithful to God.
Something else we all need to keep in mind is to NOT be like Job's wife (verse 9 Then his wife said to him, "Are you still holding firmly to your integrity? Curse God, and die!") we all have to be encourages as supporters to one another! We can't walk around trying to convince others to curse God and die just because from the outside looking in their situation seems too great of a burden to carry. We serve a GREAT God and nothing is too hard for Him! It would be easy to curse God and die, but Jesus never said the journey the journey would be easy. But WE ARE VICTORIOUS. So we can enter any situation with peace because we already know we are going to come out as winners!!!!!!
love y'all!
