FROM JOY: Ladies I am so sorry. I have struggled for over two hours now to listen to the video today and get this transcription posted. The video wouldn't play. My computer wouldn't co-operate. Needless to say, I'm pretty frustrated. I finally moved to my son's laptop, but I still was faced with challenges. I am so sorry for how late this post is appearing. A thousand aplogies.
Wendy thanks everyone for their sweet comments and prayers concerning her cold.
Today is our second day with out new friend Job and we actually got to hear Job have some dialogue with his first friend, Eliphaz about the situation Job is in. If you are not familiar with the book of Job, there is a lot of dialogue to come between Job and his friends. It’s not until chapter 38 that God appears in the conversation. He finally has had enough and He just intervenes. We have several days of dialogue to unpack, so don’t be discouraged and ask God for that nugget each day.
Wendy found it humorous yesterday that when Job’s friends first appeared they sat around for seven days in silence. She thought that if Job had been a woman that would never have happened. Women just can’t sit around for seven minutes in silence when another sister is crying or in pain. Those men sat there in silence for seven days, yet in the chapters to come they certainly will make up for their week of silence. Today we met Eliphaz and he responded back to Job when he said he wished he had not been born and declared his innocence. Job claimed he was not guilty of anything. His friends think that he is guilty of something and you can tell by the way they talk.
Eliphaz says in Job 5:8, “If I were you, I’d go to God and present my case to Him.” Eliphaz is saying that he believes Job must have something he has to get off his chest, so go to God and talk to Him about it. He then goes on a little monologue about how wonderful God is. He says God does “great things, too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles. He gives rain for the earth and water for the fields. He gives prosperity to the poor and protects those who suffer. He frustrates the plans of schemers so the work of their hands will not succeed.” Job 5:9-12 Wendy loves that we have a God that will do that. He sees all. The enemy cannot do that. God can interfere with the plans of the schemers. God's Word continues in verses 13-18, “He traps the wise in their own cleverness so their cunning schemes are thwarted.” Sometimes people are too wise in their own eyes and have plans that they think are real clever, but God can thwart these plans. “He rescues the poor from the cutting words of the strong, and rescue them from the clutches of the powerful. And so at last the poor have hope, and the snapping jaws of the wicked are shut." The poor have hope. Wendy loved the way in which that is written. This is our God. El Shaddai. "But consider the joy of those corrected by God! Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin. For though he wounds, he also bandages. He strikes, but his hands also heal."
Wendy circled the word “joy” in her notes. There is joy in correction. Coming from someone who has needed a lot of correction in her life, she doesn't like correction. She never really cared for it very much. She doesn't like discipline or someone telling her that they would prefer her to do something in a different way...until the last ten years when she has been in a strong pursuit of Jesus Christ. Prior to this she didn't like discipline, nor did she look at herself through the eyes of Christ, therefore she didn't feel like she needed discipline until she started to let Christ into parts of her life. Now she looks at discipline and realizes the Lord is bringing her closer to Him and molding her into His image. It shows her that God cares about her and that this is an act of love that He corrects us.
The word “corrected” in the KJV says “correcteth”. The NASB says “reprove” meaning to criticize, correct, strongly disagree or censor, to rebuke or express strong, stern disapproval of. The word “blessed” is translated as happy. We should be happy when we are disciplined by the Lord. We should be happy when He strongly expresses disapproval for what we are doing. That sounds like a bunch of “ouchy”. Wendy never wants to do anything that her heavenly Father could look upon her and say, “Child, I strongly disapprove of what you are doing”, yet at the same time she appreciates that He loves her enough to do that very thing.
In the next verse it says, “Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin.” Despise there means reject. Do not reject the discipline of the Lord. It is for our good. Don't fight against it, go with it. God loves us. Wendy encourages us to please go and read Hebrews 12:5-6. She couldn't include it here for sake of time.
“For those he wounds, he also bandages. He strikes, but his hands also heal.” John Gill says that a surgeon makes a wound more sore by probing and opening it up, but what he does is he releases the sickness and illness to come out so the medicine can go in. Wendy loves the picture that portrays. God opens us up with painful discipline so that sin can go out and His grace can go in. Wendy just loves that illustration.
(All thoughts transcribed from Wendy's blog to aid those whose computers are not capatible to view these videos.)
1 comment:
Thank you Joy. No matter how late it is when you find time to do it, I appreciate it.
How is you dad after his surgery? Some one mentioned he was having the same surgery that he had last year.
Jan TN
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