Job 4:1-7:21; 1 Cor 14:18-40; PS 37:30-40; PR 21:27
Corinthians - Paul deals a lot here with the order of a service. Verse 33 even states that "God is not the author of confusion..." Everything done in a church service should be to "edify" or encourage everyone there. There should be a balance in everything that is done. Verse 36-39 Paul does a little heart check with them. He asks them, did this all start with you? Are you the original people the gospel came through? He knows this isn't the case and thereby makes his point for them to stop trying to rewrite the gospel and how they think things should be done. What he is telling them to do are the commands of God, recognize that and listen.
Proverbs - When you fake being holy and bring a sacrifice to God it is disgusting to Him, especially when you bring it thinking you can fool God into blessing you because of it. God does not look at our outward actions alone, but sees into our heart and knows our every motive in what we do. If you are not pure in heart in your actions, it is not a pleasing sacrifice to Him. The point of sacrifice is to give with no expectation of anything in return. Jesus sacrificed His life for us before we were ever born. He gave it to restore a relationship.
Job 4 - Have you ever heard people say that sickness is caused by sin in that persons life? Read Job 4 and you will. The first of Job's "friends" speaks and this is his theory. Verses 7-8 are pretty clear as he says; "who ever perished being innocent?" "Those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same." There is only one problem with his theory of why Job is going through all this...we saw the conversation between God and Satan at the beginning of the book. While this "friend" calls Job's walk with God and his righteousness into question, we already know that it is because Job was a righteous man that he is now under such attack. Be careful not to judge people's situations. I've been guilty of saying, well they could help themselves out of this situation but making some different choices. But honestly we have no idea what goes on in the realm of God.
Job 6 - Even in his pain, suffering and questioning. Even at his weakest point. There is something in Job that allows him to make a statement that I'm not sure he even realizes the power of...vs 9 "...That He (God) would loose His hand and cut me off." Even after he has lost everything but his own life, he realizes the only reason for that is because God is still holding onto him.
Often I think we have this impression that God has removed Himself from our lives because everything seems to be going wrong. Let me just say, you don't ever want to experience a day when God's hand gets removed from your life. Even at life's worst, God still holds you in His hand. Remember the deal God made with the devil? He told him, you can do whatever you want to do to Job, you just can't kill him. God held Job's life in His hand. God did not cause these terrible things to happen to Job, but He did allow it. But the bible also tells us that He will not allow us to go through anything that we can't handle. What happened to Job was devastating (understatement). But he overcame it and remained faithful. I don't get it all the time, why we are allowed to go through what we go through but I know and I BELEIVE that God's ways are not my ways and His thoughts are far greater than my thoughts.
