In All Things I Attempted To Be Righteous
Considering Job 29:1-25
“I long for the years gone by when God took care of me, when he lit up the way before me and I walked safely through the darkness. When I was in my prime, God’s friendship was felt in my home. The Almighty was still with me, and my children were around me. My steps were awash in cream, and the rocks gushed olive oil for me.”
“Those were the days when I went to the city gate and took my place among the honored leaders. The young stepped aside when they saw me, and even the aged rose in respect at my coming. The princes stood in silence and put their hands over their mouths. The highest officials of the city stood quietly, holding their tongues in respect.
“All who heard me praised me. All who saw me spoke well of me. For I assisted the poor in their need and the orphans who required help. I helped those without hope, and they blessed me. And I caused the widows’ hearts to sing for joy. Everything I did was honest. Righteousness covered me like a robe, and I wore justice like a turban. I served as eyes for the blind and feet for the lame. I was a father to the poor and assisted strangers who needed help. I broke the jaws of godless oppressors and plucked their victims from their teeth.” (Job 29:2-17)
Job’s accomplishments in God were many. He was a model for you and me to follow. Sadly, it was this upright behavior that rankled Satan so much and gave him cause to ask God’s permission to harm Job and prove to God that neither Job nor anyone else was righteous and therefore worthy of God’s favor.
God knew all before it happened. He always does. He allowed Satan to do his worst but don’t kill him or cause permanent debility. Job’s condition was so terrible even his wife recommended he should just die. Thus even Job’s wife as no longer a friend, a comforter, or a help to him. Everyone, even his wife, imagined he must have done something to deserve this curse of illness and loss.
But God knew Job would not speak blasphemously and would Love The Lord to his very end, and then God would reward Job for his righteousness and raise him up.
Ummmm…… Are you catching the pattern? Job blazed the trails for you and me. He was righteous as was Jesus and other disciples. He suffered terribly but would not give in to Satan’s guile. He was a man of clean lips and at the end of his life he would be raised up, as Jesus was raised, and rewarded as Jesus is, and so in the same way, YOU can be rescued, with the forgiveness of The Christ and a change toward keeping God’s Righteous Ways. No matter what pressure is placed against you to give in to the ways of “the world,” Job’s voice echoes down that long passageway through the cold, dank, depths of some 5,000 and more years.
That voice calls, “Keep God’s Ways, be righteous, generous, helpful, kindly, do unto others as you would have them do to you, love the Lord Your God completely and then love your neighbor in the same way as you love yourself.”
I say, Do more! Love your neighbor and give him more than you give yourself. I feed my hungry visitors more than I eat. I always do and I am thankful to God. The next day, alone, I praise God for the simple comfort I have and I am thankful and clean and well enough fed.
My Friend!, We are running out of time. Do you see? The neighbors are lost in cell phones and behaving like the lower animals after filling their minds with the effluent of “bold (xxx) movies.” Do you see? They mock prayer, insist God is a myth, claim that “science has proven this.” In fact science has proven nothing of the sort! The preponderance of evidence indicates the universe must have been carefully designed (to perfect) and then created! And apparently it was not a long process. It happened in “the twinkling of an eye!” What do you say to that?
Middle Eastern and Western societies are tearing themselves apart, and Asian societies are still admiring and emulating the western dress and behavior. Yesterday, here near Cebu City, The Philippines, I rode to the grocer and saw a woman on the street wearing blue jeans so tight they looked like they were Spandex or Spray Painted onto her. Really? Where is the practicality to that? It’s only practical for women seeking to make their lives as sex workers! The rest of us need clothing we can work in wash and wear again and again!
Job said: “All who heard me praised me. All who saw me spoke well of me. For I assisted the poor in their need and the orphans who required help. I helped those without hope, and they blessed me. And I caused the widows’ hearts to sing for joy. Everything I did was honest. Righteousness covered me like a robe, and I wore justice like a turban. I served as eyes for the blind and feet for the lame. I was a father to the poor and assisted strangers who needed help. …”
There is the lesson. Do as Job did and expect to be well rewarded for it is also as Jesus did and as the other disciples did, and such actions changed history, and culture and the entire world! Such actions have brought us to the doorstep of the greatest controversy the world ever saw.
Soon, “The Righteous Coach” will blow the whistle and end the game. The team that loves the coach wins. Which team are you planning to be on?
If you haven’t found your way to The Christ yet, START HERE, near the top find “The True Gospel Quickly Explained.” Open that and learn the hidden truths most never heard.
723 total views, 1 views today
