Friday, January 18, 2008

• JOB

  I have been feeling real good the last of couple of days and it sure has been nice.  Wont go back for scans until Feb 19.  Please continue to pray that the med is working.  Hope you enjoy the following info from Charles Spurgeon on Job.  Will make you think about a lot.

  We love you guys,  MW

  JOB – "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord"

  Some of the rarest pearls have been found in the deepest waters, and some of the choicest utterances of believes have come from them when God’s waves and billows have been made to roll over them. The fire consumes nothing but the dross, and leaves the gold all the purer.

  Two things to learn from Job 1:21 - learn to see the Lord’s hand in everything and learn to bless the Lord’s name in everything.

  Job did not ascribe any of his wealth either to his own wit, or to his own industry, but he said it all, "The Lord gave it to me." As a Christian, learn the wisdom of never ascribing any earthly comfort to any earthly source. All our possessions are God’s gifts, the remembrance that they are all undeserved gifts. It does not matter how rich or how poor we may be. God gives us all that we have, is that it ought never to be difficult for us to give back to God as much as ever we can. God does not so much claim a return from us as a matter of right, but leaves our liberality to be aroused by the love which constrains us, rather than by the law which compels us; yet let us not give God less because he has given us more. "The Lord gave;" – then we must worship the Giver, and not the gifts. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols," if God sees us making idols of anything, he will either break our idols or break us. And never let the joys and comforts of this life usurp God’s rightful position in our hearts.

  The Lord hath taketh away! So long as we look at the secondary causes of our trouble, we see reason to sorrow; but when our faith can pierce the veil, and see the Great First Cause (God), and then our comfort begins. If you strike a dog with a stick, he will try to bite the stick, because he is a dog; but if he knew better, he would try to bite you, and not the stick. His hand weighs out our share of grief, and measures our portion of pain, then we should not dare to rebel or bewail; but, like David, we should say, "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it", or like Job who said "The Lord givith, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

  There never was an action of God’s but was done "after the counsel of his own will." He does as he wills, but he always wills to do that which is not only most for his own glory, but also most for our real good. When we know that the Lord takes away our possessions, the knowledge that they are his effectually prevents us from complaining. Let each one of us say to our Master, "My Lord, if it pleases you to take it away, it pleases me to lose it. Why should I complain because you have taken from me what is really your own?"

  Bless the name of the Lord in everything! John Bunyan used to say that the very chickens shame us if we are ungrateful, for they do not take a drink of water without lifting up their heads, as if in thankfulness for the refreshing drink. A story told some years ago of a poor mother with her two little fatherless children. On a cold winter night they discovered an empty house, into which they went for shelter. There was an old door standing by itself, and the mother took it, placed it across a corner of the room, and told the children to creep behind it so as to get a little protection from the cold wind. One of the children said, "Oh mother, what will those poor children do that do not have a door to set up to keep out the wind?" That child was grateful even for such a poor shelter as that; yet there are some, who have thousands of greater blessings than that, and yet do not see God’s hand in them. With thanksgiving in our heart let us say to the Lord, with David, "Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever." A Christian man, with a gratitude for a small income, is really richer than the man who lives a graceless life, and has plenty of worldly wealth. David spoke truly when he said, "A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked."

  It is a much more difficult thing to bless the name of the Lord for what he takes away from us. It is not natural or easy for the flesh and blood to praise God for what he takes away; yet this painful experience often wakes up the gratitude of the Christian, and he who forgets to praise the Lord before makes up for it now. "Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept his words." Let us say with Job: "Though he says me, yet will I trust in him."

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