January 31 - Job 40:6-42:17

Year Through the Bible

Good morning everyone,

Well here we are, the final chapters of Job. Yesterday we read a series of startling questions God put to Job. Today as we begin in chapter 40, Job sits in humble silence as God  points out the infinite distance between Job and Himself, making it perfectly clear that nobody is an equal match for God. God will use the Behemoth and the Leviathan who God alone created and who God alone can capture them, as examples of His power.

Having never heard of these creatures outside of the Bible I thought I would ask my good friend Wikipedia about them and so I was informed; 

Both beasts are chaos ( preceding the creation) monsters destroyed by the deity at the time of creation, although such a conflict is not found in the creation account. It goes on to say that Leviathan is identified figuratively with both the primeval sea and in literature – describing the end-time – as that adversary, the Devil, from before creation who will finally be defeated. In the divine speeches in Job, Behemoth and Leviathan may both be seen as composite and mythical creatures with enormous strength, which humans like Job could not hope to control. But both are reduced to the status of divine pets, with rings through their noses and Leviathan on a leash.

Suffice to say God made his point to Job, that being, if God can make and handle creatures like that then God is well equipped to deal with Job and his problems, Pam and her problems, you and your problems. God almighty is so much bigger than any grief we may have, real or imaginary. I promise!

In chapter 42, Job so humbled tells God “I know you can do all things, no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”  I have to say it is so awesome when, and I am speaking from experience here, you finally let go of something that you have tried desperately to control but have no control over. Something that has been stressing you to the point that you are so tight you don’t know what it feels like to really breathe anymore. It is only when you finally go in humble submission and lay whatever it is at the cross, let go and let God, that you will be set free from those chains that bind you. When Jesus was hanging on the cross at Calvary, agonizing and suffering in unbelievable pain, He finally said “It is finished” and gave it all up, “all” being His life for our sins, then He suffered no more. We do not have to hang on a cross to be finished with whatever is causing us grief, for us it is as simple as dropping it off and walking away; and when you do, when you really, really take all hands off and give it to God, you will know an unbelievable peace. It is an awesome feeling of freedom. 

In finishing up we see how Job is rewarded for his faithfulness to God. Would the message of the book of Job change if God had not rewarded Job for his faithfulness? No! If Job walked away to live in poverty and rags forever, God is still God Almighty. However, Jesus said that anyone who gives up something for the Kingdom of God will be repaid, so even if you don’t see that payment or restoration here on earth, it will happen. God loves us and our God is a just God. He will give us more than we could ever imagine as we relish in His glory for all eternity in heaven. Amen?!  

I pray you have a great day. To God be the glory!

God bless you all.

January 30 - Job 38:1-40:5

Good morning everyone,

Before I say anything else today, because I don’t want to get wrapped up in my writing and forget to mention, that when God speaks to us, to you, to me, it is the single best thing in the whole wide world. I am not talking the “direction” kind of talk that you get from the Bible which is usually confirmed by another source and is indeed awesome, but I am talking about that unmistakable voice of God, His gentle whisper in you ear that gives you goose bumps, that is such a rare and unique treasure delivered to us only on very special occasions. It is so subtle, like gold dust sprinkled through the sky yet is always unmistakable and it is always with such clarity, it always stops me in my tracks, I don’t want to breathe I just want to relish in it. When He is through speaking I am left feeling incredibly humbled. It is this wisp of fragrance in the wind, this tiny sliver of matchless time that I know eternity in heaven will be full of. Oh happy days.

Anyway, today in our reading we have come to the point in the story where Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu have exhausted their effort to convince Job to repent from the sin that has caused all this grief in his life, while Job has listened, spoke and maintained his innocence. Now, as they sit there the wind picks up, it is just a breeze at first but it quickly gains speed coaxing Job’s  attention. I can  imagine Job looking up, perhaps with a puzzled look on his face wondering about this sudden change in weather as the wind gains speed. I envision a tornado type funnel, huge and powerful dancing at their feet, their hair whipping about, them clinging to their robes and it is from this whirlwind that the Lord finally speaks to Job but instead of answering Job’s questions directly, God asks Job a series of rhetorical questions, which no human could possibly answer, beginning with “ Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words?”  

Now it is here where once again I would ask you to go through the next two chapters slowly, ponder each question God puts to Job. Envision, if you will the foundation of the earth. The ocean’s bottom varies so much in depth that in some places let’s just say where the Titanic sunk it is quite deep while in other places such as the Bahamas the ocean’s floor is quite close allowing us to explore the floor with just a snorkel, I recently heard that if you took all the waters of all the oceans in the world and spread them out over the earth’s surface making them the exact same depth the water would be 1.5 miles deep. Now that’s a lot of water and it is only God’s amazing power that keeps the sea inside its boundaries.

Another one of my favorite visions are the store houses of snow and hail. I mean seriously, can you imagine going to a warehouse, and this has got to be a huge warehouse not just a dinky ole’ Home Depot, and saying “ Angel two, dump three feet of that snow on Anywhere, World.” Awesome! Awesome!! Awesome in power is our Lord, and those are just a couple of the many, some fifty plus, questions God puts to Job. Please allow yourself the privilege to really think about each one of the examples God lists that describe how big He really is, see them in your mind, be awed by them. Know that because He can do all of that, He is more than capable of taking care of anything that causes you grief.

Job will respond by recognizing God’s ways are best and it is when we find ourselves going through hard times that we too must remember our position before the Almighty God. His ways and His comprehension are so much greater than ours. When we look to heaven with tears in our eyes and say “Why??” and it seems as though He does not give us an answer, it is because He IS the answer. God is the answer for all that hurts our hearts if we will just lean on Him, trust in Him we will be allowed toß know that peace Paul tells us about in Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Believe it, it’s true! 

I pray you have a great day. To God be the glory.

God bless you all.

January 29 - Job 35:1-37:24

Good morning everyone,

Today we begin our reading with Job still silent and Elihu, well … not. For a third time Elihu attempts to show Job that he has misspoken. Elihu says that Job has said it does not matter whether he sins or not because he gains nothing by not sinning. Elihu thinks it is unjust and inconsistent for Job to expect vindication, to be proved right, from God and at the same time imply God does not care whether we are righteous or not.

I am going to be honest with you here, this dialog has gone on and on and on, with the very same things being said to Job over and over again and quite frankly I get a little frustrated at all the supposed wisdom, miss quotes and false accusations coming from those addressing Job, and while there are some truths in what is being said I can only imagine how “over it” he, Job, with all his physical discomfort, and knowing he is innocent, must have been too. What was in the beginning meant to be encouragement has now turned into plain hurtful talk. 

When we are going through trials and grief such as Job was, I think it is perfectly normal for us to express our feelings, wonder where God is, long for Him. Look at Psalm 42:1-5 for a moment, the author, though unknown is thought to be King David, he is at a terrible time in his life and he writes, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” - He is heart broken, he wants to feel the presence of his God close to him once more. Is it any different for Job? No, not even.

It is these times, when our faith is being exercised, that we need to dig deeper. We need to take a good look at what’s going on around us and then use all the tools God has provided us with to get through it, to get the job done. Where I live we don’t have water from the city instead we have a well on our property. Now, my husband’s job takes him away from the home for days at a time and inevitably it is when he is gone that the well stops working. Knowing this can happen my husband has spent an obscene amount of time trying to explain to me what to do “IF” the well quits. He has gone over dozens of scenarios and solutions to the problems, and has a little blue toolbox in the pump house with all the possible proper tools I would ever need to do the job. I am equipped, but still when the pump breaks down my first thought is “ughh, where is my husband when I need him” and I panic thinking ,”now what am I going to do”. It is when I exercise my faith in what my husband has told me and use the tools he has left me that I am able to get through the unpleasant situation. Although on a much grander scale it is the exact same thing with God. He has left us the the proper tool, the BIBLE, our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, we just need to use it along with exercising our faith in Him and it won’t be long before we will feel God’s presence close to us again once more. Job will! Job will not only feel God’s presence but will be rewarded for his having come through the trials without cursing God. 

God loves us. He loves you! He loves me! 

I pray you have a great day. To God be the glory!

God bless you all …

January 28 - Job 32:1-34:37

Good morning everyone,

Today we will begin our reading with someone new on the scene, Elihu, who has apparently been there to listen in on the dialog going back and forth between Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and  Job. Elihu is younger than the others and a bit conceited or some would say cocky. Having said that, out of respect he has waited for the older men to weigh in with their thoughts before speaking but then makes a point in saying “it is not only the old who are wise and understand what is right”. He will rebuke the  three friends for not being able to give Job a reasonable answer for why he was suffering, but he himself gives only a partial answer by saying that people cannot understand all that God allows but must just trust Him.

In chapter 33 Elihu, in an effort to make this a more personal conversation calls Job by name, something the three friends did not do. Elihu tries to reassure Job by telling him that he, Elihu, speaks with sincerity and truth and that Job should not fear him, however, with all the many good points Elihu will make, it doesn’t take long before the tune changes from one of endearment to one of accusing. In verse 9 Elihu will essentially bare false witness by telling Job “ you said, ‘ I am pure; I am without sin; I am innocent; I have no quilt’ “ Well, Job never said that, it was Zophar who said those words to Job. Job never said he was without sin he merely said that there is no specific sin that has caused this specific suffering. It would be like, well, picture this, I have been asked to supply 48 cookies for a party. I bake them and leave them on the counter in the kitchen to cool. A little while later I go to put them in a box to deliver them and find on the counter 40 cookies only. Now my husband, who loves warm cookies, has been known, from time to time, to help himself whenever he sees them sitting there. A guilty cookie snatcher he can be! (which I am totally okay with btw), however on this particular day he is miles away in another state and couldn’t possibly have taken the missing cookies, he is innocent of this particular snatching. To draw the parallel, is he guilty of ever snitching a cookie? Why, yes he is. He is NOT a guiltless cookie snatching kind of guy. Is he guilty in this case? No, he is blameless here and does not deserve to be accused. Does that make sense? Job knows he has sinned in the past but maintains he is blameless in the sufferings which are now being heaped upon him.

In chapter 34 Elihu will again falsely accuse Job but will come back with a totally accurate account of God’s qualities and actions. Sadly by the end of the chapter he too is totally in Job’s face, telling Job that he ought to be tested further because of the wicked ways he, Job, has talked.

It is crazy sometimes how everybody seems to have all the answers. I guess we need to ask the question to what extent was Elihu correct? Certainly he was accurate in speaking to God’s authority, control and power, even Job argued for those truths, however, none of the five men, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu or Job knew of the contest going on in heaven between God and Satan. In order to defend God, what made the most sense to Elihu and the others was to assume Job was lying about his innocence. 

As Christians it can sometimes get so frustrating for us as well when sharing the gospel. We know God’s truth, we know God’s promises, we know the end of the story; so when those we love or even those we don’t love, refuse to listen, refuse to believe it can be heartbreaking. It is in those times we must exercise our faith and pray. Plant those seeds, water them from time to time and ask God to grow them.

1 John 5:14 says  “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” and 

John 14:14 encourages us with “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” 

To God be the glory!

I pray you have a great day.

God bless you all …

January 27 - Job 30:1-31:40

Good morning everyone,

Today in our reading we come to the final two chapters of Job’s speech before he speaks with God. He is weary and confused. A man who was once wealthy and respected by all is now being taunted by even the young folks. In 30:9-15 we read that they mock him with vulgar songs. They provoke him, and they spit in his face. They spit in his face!! Who gets to do that? It makes me so angry to read those words. Why do some people feel like they are so much better than others? It is incredibly pathetic and sad when one person has to bring another down in an effort to make themselves look better, bigger or stronger. The bully does not realize that their youth, strength and apparent power are shore lived, one day all too soon they too will be old and weak and one day they, like everyone else, will bow a knee to God and they will “have some splainin’ to do Lucy”. At any rate, Job is humiliated, you can just feel how tired he is.

In chapter 31 he goes on to proclaim his innocence in not only the outward sins, but inward sins as well. Job lists the sins he has not committed in his heart, against his neighbor or against God. It is those inward sins that are so super dangerous and can get you every time. That is where the enemy does his best work. He LOVES to mess with your head, to plant his seeds of destruction in your mind and it is so subtle you don’t even realize it is happening. The enemy wants you, wants me to be discontent with what the Lord has given us. He wants us to want more so what does he do? He will use his favorite tool of TV to get us to lust after a new car, a vacation, new electronics, a “better” life whispering in you ear “look what they have, you can have it too”. He will even get you looking at poisonous candy in the form of someone topless and well built, if you know what I mean, beware it will destroy what you love. The enemy will tell you it is okay to fantasize, as day by day he waters the seed of discontent, as that poisonous vine grows and chokes you out of your marriage, or into addiction, or maybe bankruptcy.  I am here to beg you to please don’t fall for that, don’t let the seed of discontent, of lust be watered by the enemy. Don’t let the sins of the heart trip you up and don’t be fooled by thinking no one can see them because God sees. He knows your heart, He sees right to it. It is those sins that we need to look God straight in the face and claim. We need to repent, ask for forgiveness, and you can believe He will pick you up, dust you off, give you a great big ole hug and say “of course you’re forgiven. I love you child”, then send you back out with a dash of wisdom sprinkled about you.

Well, I am wondering if there is anyone out there whose reading this that does not know God to be their personal Savior. If that is you and you would like to claim the promises of God and the peace beyond all understanding but the best yet, know that you will spend eternity in heaven with our Lord and Savior then would you please say the prayer below, but know it is not the prayer that saves you but the attitude of your heart, a heart that longs for Jesus.

Dear God in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I acknowledge to You that I am a sinner, and I am sorry for my sins and the life that I have lived; I need your forgiveness. I believe that your only begotten Son Jesus Christ shed His precious blood on the cross at Calvary and died for my sins, and I am now willing to turn from my sin.

You said in Your Holy Word, Romans 10:9 that if we confess the Lord our God and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we shall be saved.

Right now I confess Jesus as the Lord of my soul. With my heart, I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. This very moment I accept Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior and according to His Word, right now I am saved.

Thank you Jesus for your unlimited grace which has saved me from my sins. Lord Jesus transform my life so that I may bring glory and honor to you alone and not to myself.  Amen.

If you just said this prayer and you meant it with all your heart and you have repented for your sins, you can trust that you just got saved and are born again. You were dead but now you live, for the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed you for a price! The price was His death on the cross. You may ask, "Now that I am saved, what's next?" First of all you need to get into a bible-based church, and study God's Word. Tell others of your choice, the enemy is very real and will desperately try to capture you back, so surround yourself with like-minded people, and hold on tightly to God’s hand. He loves you, He loves you, He loves you!! Believe it! May God Bless You! 

I pray you all have a very good day.

God bless you all …

January 26 - Job 26:1-29:25

Good morning everyone,

This morning as we begin reading, Job is once more shaking his head with a rebuttal to Bildad, telling him he’s got it all wrong, Job maintaining he has not compromised his integrity and with the longest speech in this book of Job, six chapters, Job will share a few more of his thoughts.

I love in  chapter 28:1-28 where Job speaks to wisdom and understanding. Read these verses 

s-l-o-w-l-y, totally take them in, envision them, live them in your mind. I know I say that a lot, and I probably will continue to do so but in our lives, our instant gratification type of lives, it is so easy for us to say and think “how big, how great is our God”, those words just roll off our lips with so much ease that I fear we, from time to time, they loose their value, we forget what they mean. Often, we don’t appreciate how much our God has to offer us if only, again, if only we will go to Him in search of what we need. In this case wisdom, I love the visual Job gives.

We have read that Eliphaz maintains that wisdom is learned by observing life, his attitude being one of; I have personally observed how God works and figured it out. Bildad claims wisdom is inherited from the past, his attitude being; Those who have gone before us figured God out and all we have to do is use that knowledge.Then there is Zophar, oh … Zophar all he’s got figured out is (sorry, I could not help myself, tee hee) wisdom belongs to the wise. He based his advise on his wisdom, that had no other source than himself, his attitude being; The wise know what God is like but there aren’t many of us around. Now Job, the one going through all this grief in his life is the only one who really gets it, he alone understands that God is the source of wisdom and the first step towards wisdom is to know God and hat God reveals His wisdom to those who humbly trust Him.

In chapter 29 Job speaks of his former blessings. Though no where near the level of grief Job suffered, I know a little bit about having your life ripped out from underneath you and thinking about former blessings. Nearly two decades ago that happened to me. I can clearly remember feeling like I was standing on the outside of my old life looking in, similar to that of standing on a sidewalk, while with no home of your own, no money in hand, your stomach is growling, you’re starving for food and you’re looking through the windows of a restaurant, desperately longing to be that person sitting at the table eating that marvelous meal; and no matter how bad you want it, how truly desperate you are for it, it just is not available for you at this time or ever again. It is beyond belief frustrating at best, incredibly defeating and yet such was life. Well, sometimes God moves us out of relationships, or maybe to a different city or maybe just a different church and while we may never see on this side of heaven the “why” of it all, we must trust in God’s perfect plan. It is when we just let ourselves rest in God’s loving arms that He will deliver us to something so much better than what we had before. He did for me. My life today is so much richer, so very blessed, and is so much more desirable than I could have ever imagined it to be all that time ago. While I am still a work in progress, I have learned that when I let go and let God, get out of His way and quit questioning the why, that’s when He will do His best work in my life and He will do the same for you in your life too if you let Him.  Thank you Jesus!

I pray you have a great day.

God bless you all and to God be the glory!!

January 25 - Job 22:1-25:6

Good morning everyone,

If you are joining us for the first time today, welcome! We are on a day by day, chronological, journey through the Bible which will take us just one year. It is an exciting way to read through your Bible, bringing all of what God would have us use to model our lives by to life. I am glad you are here :-)

Today we begin reading with Eliphaz giving his third and final speech to Job. While he says nothing new in this speech, he does get more specific. He can not accept Job at his word and get past his belief that Job’s suffering is God’s punishment for some secret evil deed Job has committed, suggesting several possible scenarios.

Job’s response to that is, that if there was sin for which he could repent he would, declaring his confidence in his integrity and God’s justice. Job goes on to say in 23:8-9 “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.” Job believed in the fact of God and in the justice of God, the problem was he could not reach God. 

I think sometimes when we are under pressure or in a desperate situation we can be like that too. We will go on for days, months or even years then suddenly and unexpectedly we get bad news from the doctor, or we loose our job, or a love one passes away, whatever the situation there comes a time when we feel we need God now! We desperately cry out in hopes of him hearing us, but really it has been so long, we don’t know how or where to find Him. Well, I am here to tell you that God is always there but the closeness in which you feel God is relative to the time you choose to spend with God, the time you take know God. 

I like to bake cookies for my husband, it pleases him. I have been making him chocolate chip cookies for over 16 years. I know the cookie recipe so well that when the cookie jar gets empty and it is time to make more, I do not even have to look the recipe up. It is with confidence that I mix all the required ingredients together, spoon them out and bake them off and know I will get an awesome chocolate chip cookie. That’s how well we should know our God. You need to know the promises He has made to you so that in times of trouble you can claim those promises, He wants you to claim those promises by name and have the confidence that He will not only hear but fulfill those promises; but you can not do that if you do not know what the promises are? How are you going to know them so well to claim them? The answer is simple, read your Bible, know God’s Word. God is so awesome He has made so many provisions for you and me. I suggest you know, really, really know God. He loves you and desperately longs for you to love Him back. He does not want to be a “video on demand” God, He agape loves you and wants to be a “share every moment with you “ God. So instead of like Job searching to the east and to the west, may I suggest you simply look up and see God’s hand reaching out to you and then hold it. It is with the voice of experience I can tell you that when you do you will know a peace that surpasses all understanding.

I pray you have a super awesome day.

God bless you all …

January 24 - Job 19:1-21:34

Good morning everyone,

This morning we begin with Job now on his 6th speech, a response to Bildad.

Once again, while reading 19:6, I remind myself that Job did not have the advantage of being able to read Job 1 and 2, the first two chapters of the book. He does not know that it is Satan, the destroyer, the father of lies who is bringing all this havoc, all this torment down on his life, not God. One might argue, “well, yes, but it is God who allowed it”, and for sure this is true but let’s remember how all this came about. Satan went to God and told him basically that God buys the love He gets from Job with the success he has given Job in his life, that if Job’s business, family and friends were to all disappear Job would curse God, yet … yet, Job has not cursed God. Let’s also remember that God knows Job, as He knows you and me, very, very well. He knows how much pain, disappointment and hurt we can endure. The closer we are to God, and Job a very righteous man was crazy close, the more hardship it will take to sharpen our swords, to put us through the refining fire, you know? We are assured in 1Corinthians 10:13 that we can trust God. He will not let us be tempted more than we can bear. That when we are tempted, God will also give us a way to escape that temptation, but once again Job isn’t privy to that scripture, it will not be written for quite some time. So having said all that, though Job’s faith is strong, claiming in 19:25 “I know that my redeemer lives” he is still wondering why God has wronged him, why God does not answer when he cries out.

Chapter 20 will be the last time we hear from Zophar. As he is sitting there listening to all the dialog going on, can’t you just see him chomping at the bit ready to get right back in there to give his second speech, his “yes, buts”? He is clearly disturbed by the rebuke he received, and in his is anxiety he’ll list the things that a wicked man does. Zophar was wrong in directing his anger against Job but I think he is pretty spot on about the final end of evil people.

Chapter 21 we see Job though baffled, stunned by the reasons for his suffering he continues to proclaim God’s superior understanding by asking in vs. 22 “Who can teach a lesson to God, since He judges even the most powerful?” … To which I can only say, who indeed? 

I love, love, love this mans faith! There is so much encouragement and strength to be gleaned from how he blindly, desperately holds on tighter and tighter, digging his heals in deeper and deeper as the onslaught of harassment  from the three men who originally came in love and friendship are now his accusers in their desperate effort to be right. Job knows that his Redeemer lives and has put his faith and hope in the Rock. It is my prayer that I, that we can all have the faith of Job when temptations or grief stare us straight in the face.

I pray you have a great day.

God bless you all …

January 23 - Job15:1-18:2

Good morning everyone,

Today our reading begins with round two of the talks between Job and his three friends. They will speak in the same order, Eliphaz leading off and while saying nothing new, this time he is a little more intense, more threatening. He began by saying Job’s words  are empty, useless and reiterates that Job must be a great sinner. Eliphaz is a pretty arrogant guy, he assumed his words were as true as God’s own. Do you think that perhaps there was a bit of fear behind Eliphaz’s words? I mean to say that, here we have Job who by all accounts is a righteous man, who promises his friends that he does not sin, however he is clearly going through a great deal of suffering which according to Eliphaz is a direct result of Job sinning. Now Eliphaz is an elderly fellow who also is a man of God and we can take from his conversation that considers himself sinless. So I am sure Eliphaz doesn’t want to believe that such sufferings can happen to a man who “plays by the rules” because if that is the case then this same thing could happen to him too, and quite frankly seeing Job, smelling Job, just plain witnessing the state Job was in would most likely scare the daylights out of any one of us, right?! So it causes Eliphaz to instead of “doing the right thing” to “want to be right”, huge difference.

When next Job speaks he will tell his friends what miserable source of contentment they are. He tells them that in a similar situation he would strengthen and comfort them. He also speaks to God. Though he feels God has abandoned him Job pours out his heart out to God about his sufferings, being adamant that his sufferings are not payment for sin saying “I have done no wrong, my prayer is pure”. In 16:19 Job says “ Even now my witness is in heaven, my advocate is there on high”. He has no hope of anyone on earth ever believing him innocent, he is placing all his hope for a fair defense on God in heaven. Do you ever feel that way? I do sometimes when I will do or say something, anything, it could be as simple as just voicing my opinion or walking into a room. I will see someone roll their eyes, or laugh out loud and 99.9% of the time it has nothing to do with me BUT immediately the enemy starts working on my mind filling it with doubt and fear causing me to want to shrink away. Well, it is at those times I look straight to God to to be my judge, search my heart O Lord, and if He comes back and says “you’re all good” then I just go on putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that at the end of the day it is God and God alone that I am here to please. He is also quick to let me know if I am in need of apologizing to someone, and I will do that too.

In 16:21 Job says “ I need someone to meditate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.” As a Christian we have have that person in Jesus Christ. It is such a gift to us to have Jesus as our mediator, our friend. That verse immediately took me to a song that first I heard a long, long  time ago sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford, called ‘What A Friend We Have in Jesus’, I know you all know it, and that’s what I’ll leave you with today,

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; Take it to the Lord in prayer.

I pray you have a very good day.

God bless you all …

January 22 - Job 12:1- 14:22

Good morning everyone,

This morning we begin with Job’s reply to all the observations, counseling and advise his three friends have given him. Again, I urge you to remember the condition Job is in, close your eyes for just a moment and picture this man first as a wealthy, happy rancher with regular routines of praying and presenting sacrifices to his God, gathering with his family over meals, laughing it up, kind of like the Ben Cartwright of Bonanza, if you’re old enough to remember that television show. Life is great for Job. Now, close your eyes again and see this same man but now broken, instead of long hair his head is shaved, he has sores all over his body, open wounds in fact, oozing with puss. His bowels are boiling, he has diarrhea, his skin is black, his breath is so foul it is said to be like death, he is depressed, desperate and more than a little bewildered by all that is happening to him. Can you see that? Can you just for a moment put yourself in his place? How does that feel to you?

You know that Job has been sitting there since this whole thing started, racking his brain, pondering, going through the mental check points trying to figure out the “why” of it all, he had already thought of everything they have been telling him. Also, he recognizes that he is a laughing stock, people pointing fingers at him because of his misfortune. They are not telling him anything he has not already thought of so finally, Job, while sitting on the heaps of ash has heard enough of their whys and wherefores, he looks up, and in the greatest form of sarcasm rips into his friends. Is this godly behavior? Absolutely not, but it serves to show us how utterly confused and disorientated with life Job really is. He says to them, (and say this with attitude) “ I’m sure you think you are the only wise people left. You think that when you die, wisdom will be gone with you.”, then he tells them that his mind is good, and they are not any smarter than he is. 

I like how Job argues that if those who openly sin against God or have no relationship with Him do not suffer as Job is suffering, then how can suffering be said to be caused by sin. - That is to say that, yes, in life there is consequence of choice and if you choose to sin you very may will suffer, however, just because you suffer does not mean that you are being punished for a sin. Make sense? In the case for Job, as with many, it is simply an attack of the enemy. 

I loved Job’s reminder to them in 12:13 that true wisdom and power are found in God and we read in chapter 13:20 that Job breaks from speaking to his friends and turns to speak to God. The solid Rock, though he can no longer feel God, it the one place that has always been a constant, the one place he knows to turn. He asks two things; first, that his suffering will stop. He is feeling abandoned and lonely I am sure he totally misses being with God, don’t you when you are away from His word? Second, that God would show him his sins if he’s committed any. He feels adrift, like a boat with no port in a storm. You see, even in Job’s despair he knows that God will be his salvation. When all else failed Job relied on his basic foundation of faith. Faith in God’s perfect plan is what will always see us through.

I pray you have a most awesome day.

God bless you all …

January 21 - Job 8:1-11:20

Good morning everyone,

Well, as we begin reading this morning, we’ll remember Job is in a very miserable state. He has lost all his worldly possessions and family with the exception of his wife, and his health has deteriorated to a point where the man questions why he was even born. His three friends traveled a great distance to be with him in his time of trouble and for seven days sat quietly while he mourned. Finally, Job spoke which opened the door for his friends to give their council. Yesterday we heard from the first of the three, Eliphaz, and Job’s response to that. This morning we will read what Bildad and Zophar have to say to Job.

While I feel Bildad could have shown a bit more compassion for his friend I really liked the analogy he made in 8:11-13 “Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water? While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass. Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.” I camped out on this for a bit. We all need God’s word to keep us going, the daily nourishment, encouragement, water to help us grow. You know as well as I do what a struggle it can be out in the world, how it can drain you of all our strength. I saw this passage and immediately thought of Jesus telling the woman at the well “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I  will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Eternal life! Oh, such a great promise.

Zophar, was the last to speak, probably making him the youngest and as young people can be a little more “matter-of-fact-ish”, if you know what I mean. Again, these three guys obviously loved Job, they traveled a great distance to be with him so however crass or “cowboy up” their words sounded, I am confident their hearts were in the right place.

While reading these chapters where Job is having dialog with Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar it is important for us to remember that it was not God who inflicted any of this mayhem on Job. It was Satan. Satan had challenged God saying the only reason Job was so righteous and loved Him was because of all his success, but God believed in Job. God knew Job to be the man He claimed him to be and because Job never once cursed God, he was able to silence the voice of the enemy. We too have the ability to silence the voice of the enemy when we choose righteous,  when we choose God. You see, Job didn't have the opportunity like we do to read the book of Job, to know how the enemy can work in us and on us. Job didn’t get a heads up on what can come our way, the chance to be aware and prepare. He had to ride it out all on his own, he didn’t know the rewards he would receive for being faithful to his God, our God. We, on the other hand, have resource after resource and the Bible to help us know God’s voice and way. To see what can be lurking around the corner ready to pounce on us, we are in-fact, provided with the armor to fight the enemy with.

We will all be tested, put through the fire the question is, how will we what will we do with it? Job sits in heaven today not thinking “why did I have to go through all that”. No, no, no, he sits there probably front row center praising the God who loves him. That’s where I want to be! And that’s where I hope to see you too.

Just as a side note that has nothing to do with anything, it was so hard for me to, while writing today, not say something to the effect of “Zo phar (so far) we have been reading …. (you know that’s kind of funny), I did kind of restrain though :-)

I pray your day is incredibly awesome.

God bless you all.

January 20 - Job 5:1-7:21

Good morning everyone,

As we take a look at today’s verses I want you, for a moment, to stop and really consider the state of mind Job was in. This man had been a wealthy man in material objects, family, and health. He also had a close relationship with God, could feel His presence, we are told he was a righteous man and now in a very short span of time all of that is taken away. Everything Job knew and was familiar with in the way he lived his life, had changed. He is now in a broken physical and mental state trying to figure out what to do next, not to mention he is dealing with the grief of loosing his children. Let’s not underestimate any of that, put yourself there, visualize this. What would you do? What would your response to this be? In 1929 on Black Tuesday with the crash of Wall Street people were throwing themselves out of windows, putting guns to their heads, killing themselves because they’d lost all their money they felt they’d lost it all. Yesterday we read that Job wanted God to take his life away, he even cursed the day he was born, but not once did he contemplate suicide or curse God.

We read that three of Job’s friends traveled a great distance to be with him in his time of grief which was so touching. You want to know who your friends are? They are the ones who are with you through thick and thin, so here these Job’s friends are and for seven days they did THE best thing I believe that they could have done, they sat silently. While in a time of loss, being reminded of God’s promises in scripture, and being assured God loves you and that there is a reason for everything is all really thoughtful and nice, sometimes that person who is grieving just needs someone to be there quietly, so they don’t feel so alone and yet can have their own thoughts with the freedom to speak or not speak when they are ready. Ancient Jewish tradition calls for the mourners to remain quiet until the person in mourning speaks, so when Job cried out to God that gave the friends a green light to express their thoughts, and sadly that’s what they did. Eliphaz was the first to speak up and while his view of Job’s situation represented well known ways to deal with suffering, Job was not comforted but rather felt condemned.

There are a couple of things I think what we need to take from this; one, is that when we do try to comfort someone we should consider empathy before explanations. We can not just assume, unless we have traveled that road ourselves, that we know how they feel; we could be adding insult to injury. Another is, we do not always have the answer to “why” only God always does and that will be revealed in His time.

In reading today’s scripture, over and over I kept thinking of how alone Job must have felt while his seemingly being abandoned by God. How seemingly abandoned Jesus cried out from the cross when God had to turn His back on Him when Jesus wore all our sins. How seemingly abandoned I am, we are, when we can not feel God’s presence in the times when we are called to walk by faith, but God is always right there. David in the 23rd Psalm said “ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” 

If you know nothing else in this crazy world we live in, you must know that as a Christian you are never abandoned by God, you must know that God is always there with you, He loves you! God loves you!! Oh how He loves you!

Have a super good day.

God bless you all …

January 19 - Job 1:1-4:21

Good morning everyone,

Today we come to the book of Job. Now, the Old Testament is divided into 5 parts; the Pentateuch, History, Poetry or Writings, Major Prophets, and Minor Prophets, we will find Job in the third part with poetry. You’re saying what? Poetry? It’s true. The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible being penned somewhere around 2000 BC, quite possibly making it one of, if not THE, oldest book ever. The author is, though unknown, believed to be an Israelite since the covenant name Yahweh is used for God. 

Job doesn’t seem to be a member of God’s chosen family line but he was a very godly man who  not only knew God but deeply believed in God, not just as a passing statement you might hear someone say today that could sound like “Well sure, I believe in God”. Job truly believed in and had faith in God’s decisions and the ways of God. He knew right from wrong and spent a lot of time burning sacrifices to God on behalf of his children whom he feared may curse God at their family gatherings, his fear being justified as we will see later the heart of his wife.

Often people will say “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Recently I heard a reply to that, that quite honestly I plan to use a lot, it was, “ That’s easy, there are no good people. Romans 3:10 tells us ‘There is no one righteous, not one.’ So the better question would be, why do good things happen to us, we are all sinners?” The answer of course is Jesus, He died His blood covering our sins. We will see that though Job was a righteous man in the end he was a sinner just like you and me and will repent before the Lord and all his riches will be restored.

One thing that I do want to point out here from the first couple of chapters is that Satan, though God tossed him from heaven, he still, along with all the angels living in heaven, has to make an account to God of what he has been up to, and ….  this is a VERY big “AND”, he does not get to do anything to us unless he has God’s permission, 1Corinthians 10:13 tells us “we will not be tempted beyond what we can bear”, why?? because it is all in God’s control. God knows us so well, so very, very well and He “agape”, unconditionally, loves us more than we could ever fathom, so He will allow us to be tempted to strengthen us, to give us not only confidence in ourselves but faith and confidence in the almighty God himself, our Abba Father. Like Job, we too must trust God when we face hard times, bad days, cranky people, financial difficulties, health issues, you name it;  staying strong in our faith even when someone may say to you, like Job’s wife said to him, “are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”  Now in all fairness, maybe she was just wishing him to die to put him out of his misery, I don’t know, but given the fact that Job would make regular sacrifices to God for his kids I am thinking that maybe her faith was not as strong as Jobs. What I do know is God loves me, He loves you very much, and like I’ve said before, He’s got a plan, and His plan is perfect.

Oh gosh, there is so much more I wanted to say today, these first few chapters were incredibly  full of hope and encouragement. I pray you will all just let the wealth of information and wisdom soak into you from this book of Job. Feel the depth of God’s love and let it carry you through each and every moment this week.

I hope you have a really good day.

God bless you all

January 18 - Genesis 47:28-50:26

Good morning everyone,

Today we will finish up the book of Genesis and what a great read it has been. We open up this morning with Jacob knowing that his time to die is drawing near, calls for Joseph asks him to promise to take Israel to be buried with his ancestors, after he dies. I liked how Jacob made sure he had Joseph’s undivided attention by placing Joseph’s hand under his thigh, he would have to look him in the eye, understand what was being said. How many times do you feel like you need to ask someone to look up from their phone or other electronic to get their attention. Imagine their surprise if you took their hand and placed it under your thigh. :-)

Not long after that Joseph would get word that Israel was failing rapidly and take his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim up to visit him. While there Israel would give the boys their blessings and once again just like with, Able not Cain, Isaac not Ishmael, Jacob not Esau, Joseph not Rueben, Moses not Aaron it will be Joseph’s younger son Ephraim  not Manasseh who will receive the greater blessing. Joseph was a little upset by this but Israel reassured him that although Manasseh will become a great people, his younger brother will become even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations. It is so like God to use the “lesser” to achieve the greater even to the point of sending His son into this world with nothing.  

I love in chapter 48:15-16 it says: Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,the Angel who has delivered me from all harm —may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.”  Jacob, Israel, spoke of God as his shepherd throughout his life. In his old age he could see his dependence upon God all of his life, what a remarkable change from the Jacob of old. The scheming, dishonest Jacob who tricked his brother out of his birth right and blessing instead of waiting on God to provide it for him. When we chase after things that we want and want now, we’re often willing to do anything, even if it is wrong in order to get it. The wrong doesn’t have to be as drastic as murder or stealing it could be abusing your credit cards, not using wisely the allotment God has given you. Sin is sin, wrong is wrong but to follow God and do as He commands is right. It is better to trust Him and realize all the good that comes from that.

Well, Israel dies then later at the age of 110 Joseph dies too but before he does he does he tells his brothers, “ God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” Great promise!!

I loved that you read through it with me, tomorrow I look forward to beginning the book of Job.

I pray you have a great day today.

God bless you all.

January 17 - Genesis 45:16-47:27

Good morning everyone,

Today begins with the news of Joseph’s brothers reaching Pharaoh. He is happy for Joseph and  gives wagons and provisions for Jacob, who is now called Israel,  and all of his family to travel to Egypt and settle in the land of Goshen to be nearer to Joseph.

Imagine, if you will, the shock of finding out that your son, the son you loved most and thought dead for the last 20 years is now alive. All the emotions you would experience, the disbelief, the joy, excitement, the anticipation of once more being able to wrap your arms around him and whisper those words “I love you”, it all had to be a bit overwhelming. And what about the brothers? Yes, Joseph has forgiven them for the way they treated him all those years ago when they were young and did a really dumb thing as young people often do; but now dad, Jacob is going to find out the truth of their foolish behavior, how ashamed they must have felt when the truth came to light but the father just loved them. Very beautiful.

So they set out for Egypt but along the way stopped at Beersheba where Jacob offered sacrifices to God, after the experience Abraham had in Egypt I’m thinking Jacob wanted to be sure that this was all good with God, and it was. God told Jacob to not be afraid to go to Egypt that there He would make his family a great nation, and so they did. We read in vs 29 that “Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.”

Though all those years apart were hard on both, I do not believe the absolute joy, the moment of suspended time could adequately be put into words. These are gifts from God. 

One more thing I just want to make note of, in 46:17, one of the sons of Issachar is Jashub, if you are reading this in the King James Version you will read Job. Most biblical scholars will agree that this is THE Job, the book in the Bible, Job. I really don’t have a whole lot more to say about that only that it is another time that the I have said “cool” while reading a genealogy.

Have a most wonderful day.

God bless you all

January 16 - Genesis 42:1-45:15

Good morning everyone,

As we begin reading today, the famine has spread through out all of Canaan. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt he sent 10 of his sons, leaving Benjamin behind, to buy some. Since Joseph was the governor of the land it would be him that the brothers would have to face to make the request for grain. When they met him they showed the proper respect and bowed down to Joseph who recognized them immediately, however they had no idea that it was Joseph they were talking to. We know that Joseph was glad to see them, we’re told he wept but for the time being Joseph kept his identity a secret, he confronted them with life and death, made them squirm a bit, causing them to remember what they had done to Joseph many years ago. He created a situation where they would have to bring Benjamin, his only brother by his mother Rachel, to Egypt and as far as they knew in jeopardy of becoming enslaved. Then Joseph set them up, he hid his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack and accused him of stealing it. When Joseph told the ten brothers that they could go back home but Benjamin would have to stay to pay for the crime of taking the cup Judah asked for a word with Joseph. Judah pleaded on behalf of Benjamin and Jacob, knowing what it would do to his father, offering to exchange places with Benjamin. This touched Joseph so deeply that he revealed his true identity to the brothers and could be heard weeping throughout the house. Imagine the brothers surprise and fear when they realized it was, in fact, Joseph they were talking to. They were quickly reassured that they had nothing to fear then sent back to get Jacob to bring him and the entire family to Joseph, where they would have plenty to eat.

This is beautiful story of faith and forgiveness. Joseph had, what most people would consider, every right to still be angry with his brothers, hold a grudge, get even, but he didn’t. He was so overcome with joy he wept on more than one occasion. Love, love, love his heart!! We should all be more like that. Sometimes terrible things happen and we just don’t get the “why”. In this story  Joseph saw the “why” and before Jacob died he was able to see the “why” in his heart being broken with his favorite son being taken from him at such a young age, presumably dead. Since most of us don’t live to be 147 years old, more often than not we don’t see the “why” of what God does, we don’t see the whole picture. God calls us to trust Him and as Christians to not only ‘talk the talk’ but ‘walk the walk’, to have faith in our God. He is an awesome God and His plans and ways are perfect.

I pray you have a good day.

God bless you all.

January 15 - Genesis 40:1-23 | Genesis 35:28-29 | Genesis 41:1-57

Good morning everyone,

Today we open up with Joseph still in prison, after being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, where he will meet the kings cup bearer and baker both also having landed themselves in prison. While in there Joseph will interpret dreams for them which tells of their future. Later when the king himself has a couple of disturbing dreams the cup bearer will remember what Joseph had done and mention it to the king. The king sends for Joseph and after interpreting the kings dreams Joseph is immediately placed in charge of the land, second in command, answering only to the king himself. 

Is that something or what? Joseph’s life has been one of a roller coaster ride, born into a wealthy household, sold into slavery, put in charge of the Captain of the  Guards, Potiphar’s, estate, then back to prison and now he is second in command of all the land. What I see here and love is that not once do we read that Joseph was bitter or angry with God  over his circumstances. He carried on and even in slavery and prison he did well, he did not sit around being miserable he instead worked at making things better so that even the guards took notice and put him in charge of other prisoners.

How do you react when things don’t go your way or just how you have them planned out? Do you spend a lot of time being angry, kicking a can around, so to speak; or do you look around at the place God has you and see opportunities to do a whole different kind of work, something you would not have planned but the need is there and the reward is so much greater if only you get over yourself and be content, happy with what you do have.

I wonder how many lives were changed at just getting the opportunity to hear from Joseph when he was in prison. Today there is a christian woman named Hannah Overton who despite the lack of evidence sits in a prison cell in Texas. Without going into her whole story, she was falsely accused of contributing to the death of her foster child. It is shocking how blinded and inconsistent the system has been in her case and yet there she sits. Does she mope about crying “why me”? No, instead she has started Bible study after Bible study and has brought countless women to the Lord. When she gets to heaven not only will her reward will be great, but she will get to see all the many people, God’s plan to have her where she is today, saved.

How is God using you?

Have a great day.

God bless you all …

January 14 - Genesis 37-38:30; 1 Chronicles 2:3-6; 1 Chronicles 2:8; Genesis 39:1-23

Good morning everyone,

Today we will take a look at Joseph’s life from the time he was a strapping young lad of 17 working as a shepherd in his father’s fields up to the time he gets falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife an lands in prison. 

Joseph’s confidence and natural self-assurance was continually fed by a father who loved him the most, this proving to be quite frustrating at best, to his ten older brothers. It was after Joseph revealed to them a dream he had where he saw them all bowing down to him that the brothers finally lost it and while they originally planned to kill him instead sold him into slavery where he would become the property of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials.

Under the guidance of the Lord Joseph prospered there giving him success in all that he did until Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his entire household. Potiphar’s wife was a woman with too much time on her hands and continually sought to have he way with Joseph, but being the loyal servant to God and Potiphar would have nothing to do with her. One day while Potiphar was away Joseph went to the home to see to his daily work and found all of the servants gone and Potiphar’s wife with trouble written all over her. Once more Joseph runs from her attempt but she grabs on to his cloak and in her humility summons the household servants and proceeds to tell them a lie which ends up with Joseph in prison.

In the middle of the retelling of Josephs story we have the account of Tamar and Judah. When Judah was very young, about 15 he left his family clan and married a Canaaite woman who bore him sons and Tamar was married to Judah’s first born son Er however he was a wicked man so the Lord put him to death. In that day the if widow had no children it would be the responsibility for the brother of the deceased to make sure the widow became pregnant. When Onan would marry Tamar he did not want to raise his brother’s seed and wouldn’t fulfill his duty to Tamar in that way so the Lord saw this as wicked and he was also put to death. 

The choice he made was so much worse that death, because the Messiah was going to descend from Judah and had he followed his fathers instructions, the actual law of the land, instead of being guilty of wickedness he might have had a place of honor in the Messiah’s line of ancestors. Well, Tamar will become pregnant through Judah, making her a part of Jesus’s family tree, forever linking her name to His.

This is a great story and a really good illustration of how if we would just follow God our Father’s instructions we will be blessed beyond our wildest dreams. It is when we choose to be defiant and do things our own way that disaster comes knocking on our door. It is my prayer that we all have an ear to hear the loving voice of Jesus beckoning us to choose Christ.

I pray you have a good day.

God bless you all …

January 13 - 

Genesis 36:1-19 | 1 Chronicles 1:35-37 | Genesis36:20-30 | 1 Chronicles1:38-42 | Genesis 36:31-43 | 1 Chronicles 1:43-2:2

Good morning everyone,

Today we get to take a look at a lot of genealogy along with a rundown on who the kings were that reined in Edom before any Israelite ever reined there. Again, while tedious I found it very interesting, Tell me, what did you think? :-)

Tomorrow we will move on to the life of Joseph, so I thought that because there is not a whole lot for me to say in reference to the genealogy I would share a few fun facts about Joseph.

Joseph was one of Jacob’s twelve sons but shared a mother, Rachel, with only one of his brothers,  Benjamin. Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son and in the chapters coming up we will read of how that caused him a bit of grief. We will also read of some very interesting fact about Joseph that parallel with Jesus such as; respectively, their fathers loved them dearly, their brothers were less than nice to them, others plotted to harm them, they were both tempted, both falsely accused, both placed with two prisoners of which one was saved and one lost, and both forgave those who wronged them, to name a few. I know you are going to enjoy reading about Joseph, it really is a terrific story.

In the meantime I hope you have a super good day.

God bless you all …

January 12 - Genesis 32:1-35:27

Good morning everyone,

Today we read how Jacob is preparing to meet Esau. You can imagine how nervous Jacob must have been over returning to his home. Jacob hasn’t seen or talked to his brother since he fled after tricking Esau out of his birth right and blessing. Jacob wants to pave the way and sends waves of gifts ahead of himself, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, plus male and female servants along with a message for Esau, in hopes of a favorable meeting. Jacob divided his group of people so that  if Esau did attacked he would not get all of them, he also sent his two wives and children across the ford of the Jabbok. While alone Jacob wrestled all night long in hand to hand combat with an angel, however Jacob over powered him and when the angel realized this he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip leaving him with a permanent limp. In Hosea 12:4 we will read that this was not only a physical struggle but it was a spiritual struggle as well, that Jacob wept and made supplication, he cried out to God and prayed. His faith saw him through and that night Jacob is told “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” 

We’ll see that all Jacob’s fears about meeting his brother were in vain, Esau was overjoyed to see Jacob and meet his family. The enemy loves to work in our heads, loves to make us believe the worst. We need to always remember to go boldly in God.

God bless you all …