A Word from THE WORD

Good Morning Happy Church,

Today is Friday, May 6^th, 2016. Today is the 127^th Day of 2016.

ON THIS DAY IN 1619, The Canons of Dort, a Calvinist response to the Arminian Remonstrance, are promulgated in Dort’s Great Church before a large congregation.

OK, OK, not many of you know what “The Canons of Dort” are, but, let me encourage you to be thankful for the recovery of the Biblical Gospel that occurred during the Reformation.

The Canons of Dort are a doctrinal statement that played a major role in the returning the church to an accurate understanding of the doctrines of salvation.

There are only 239 days left in this year; and, there are only 2 days left until Mother’s Day!

“A Happier, but Not Completely Happy Ending”

Job 42:10-17
¹⁰ “And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
¹¹ Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
¹² And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
¹³ He had also seven sons and three daughters.
¹⁴ And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch.
¹⁵ And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
¹⁶ And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations.
¹⁷ And Job died, an old man, and full of days.”

Oh, how we do love happy endings. It seems that the best of Hollywood screenwriters could not do a better ending than the Book of Job.

In the latter days of Job’s life, God repaid him richly for his suffering. After rebuking Job’s three friends, God poured out his blessings on him.

God gave Job twice as many sheep as he had before.

God gave Job twice as many camels as he had before.

God gave Job twice as many oxen as he had before.

God gave Job twice as many female donkeys as he had before.

God gave Job seven sons and three daughters.

Wait…

God doubled everything Job lost except his children. God gave him the same number of children as he had before… why?

Here is what I think. The sheep were gone forever, the camels were gone forever, the oxen were gone forever, and the female donkeys were gone forever.

But his original children were not gone forever.

I think there are two very valuable lessons here:

First, I believe Job “still had” the original 10 children because they were believers and after being killed in Chapter One, they were still very much alive in heaven to one day be reunited with Job.

Second, it is vitally important that all of us realize that the birth of a child cannot and does not “make up” for the loss of a child.

I cannot imagine any pain in life more painful than losing a child and more children do not make up for that loss.

Animals are possessions. When they were lost, God made up for their loss by giving more of them back to Job.

But while Job’s children were away from him for a time, they were not lost; so while God blessed him and his wife with more children, God did not need to “replace” the original children.

Job and his wife still had them… “safe in the arms of Jesus.”

Our loved ones who have died in faith are not “lost” though they be away from us for a while.

Job’s story reminds us that God does allow hardship and suffering in the life of HIS people to accomplish HIS purposes. Consider what HE allowed to come into the life of HIS Only Begotten Son, Jesus…

Job teaches us that Romans 8:28 is true; even in the most trying of circumstances.

This would be a good day to thank God for your blessings and ask God’s blessings upon those whom you know to be suffering right now.

I hope you will take the time to attend the Choral Union Concert we are hosting at our Church starting at 7pm this coming Saturday. I think you will really enjoy this event and it will be a real encouragement to the Choral Union.

Carpe Diem!