Category Archives: 18 – Job
Questioning God
Daily Bible Reading - Job 37,38; 1 Corinthians 12
Today’s Key Passage – Job 38:1-18
In much of the Book of Job, Job discussed what had happened to him with his friends. Job spent most of his time wondering why he was made to suffer. Job’s friends spent most of their time putting words in God’s mouth, and most of those words were wrong. In chapter 38, God finally spoke to Job. Instead of simply answering Job’s questions, God decided to ask Job a series of questions of his own. Job (or any other human) could not possibly answer the questions God asked, and that was the point. God was making the point to Job and his friends that He was completely sovereign and all-powerful. God created the heavens and the earth without any help from anyone. The earth and everything in it belongs to God. Job could not understand all of the inner workings of God’s creation, because he was not there when God created the world. If Job was unable to understand the creation itself, how could Job possibly understand God’s motives or what He was thinking?
We are all tempted to question God. There are many times when we simply cannot understand why things are happening as they are. In these times, we as humans tend to do one of two things. Either we question God by asking Him why He is allowing this to happen, or we put words in God’s mouth by trying to explain His motives. Sometimes, we try to do both. God, however, does not need our help. God does not need or want us to try to run the world. God’s moral purposes are so complex, that they are beyond human understanding. How can we question God when we cannot understand things like His creation or the forces of nature?
The next time you feel tempted to question God or to try to explain His actions, remember this passage. Remember that we were not there for creation. Remember that we cannot explain the intricacies of this world. Remember that we cannot explain how the wind blows or how storms move. Most importantly, remember to trust God. He has a plan. He is in control. He loves you and will always do what is best for you. When we submit to God’s authority in our lives, we can rest in the knowledge that He will care for us completely.
During your Bible reading today, what “key passages” stood out to you? Leave a comment below to share what God is showing you about His Word today.
To become a fan of The Daily Bible Plan’s Facebook Page, CLICK HERE.
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May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today.
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True Wisdom Comes Only From God
Daily Bible Reading – Job 28, 29; Galatians 1, 2
Today’s Key Passage – Job 28:20-28
People look for wisdom in strange places. Some people seek wisdom from listening to people they respect. Some seek wisdom from reading ancient philosophers. Others read self-help books or go to self-help seminars. The problem with all of these things is the source. Every leader, philosopher, author (myself included), and speaker have one thing in common – they are human.
After listening intently to his friends opinions about his current plight, Job understood the problem with human knowledge. He understood that, though his friends meant well, they did not really have the wisdom they thought they had. Because they were human, their wisdom was inherently flawed.
No single person or group of people can gain enough experience, knowledge, or insight to understand the totality of the human race. A true understanding of everyone and everything, also known as wisdom, can only come from one source – God. God’s wisdom is revealed to us through His Word and through prayer. We can certainly gain some insight and knowledge by reading and having conversations with other people, but to truly gain wisdom we must seek it from God alone. Ask Him for wisdom today, and He will surely provide.
During your Bible reading today, what “key passages” stood out to you? Leave a comment below to share what God is showing you about His Word today.
To become a fan of The Daily Bible Plan’s Facebook Page, CLICK HERE.
To follow me on Twitter for inspirational tweets, click the follow button – Follow @kevin_griggs
If you like this post, please SHARE it with others to spread the Word of God.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today.
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Are We Worthy?
Daily Bible Reading – Job 23, 24; Mark 11, 12
Today’s Key Passage – Job 23:1-10
For most of the Book of Job, Job’s “friends” accuse him of being a sinful man. They argue repeatedly that God is punishing Job for his sins. Job, however, knows that he is righteous before God. In today’s key passage, Job wishes that he could only stand before God to defend himself, because he is confident that God would find him blameless. He knows that given the opportunity, he would be, “delivered forever from [his] judge” (23:7) and would, “come forth as gold” (23:10).
We will all face God someday. I recently read somewhere that the mortality rate in the world is currently 100%. Everyone will die at some point, and everyone will have to face God to answer for all of the things they have done in their lives. The hope is that when we stand before God on our final judgment day, He will say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant”, but I think a lot of people have doubts.
I have spent much of my life constantly facing these doubts. I always worried that I was not worthy. I worried that on the Day of Judgment, God would take one look at me and remember all of the bad things I had done in my life. I worried that He would see me as a terrible sinner, and would proceed to name every one of the sinful things I ever thought, said, or did. I worried that at the end of the list (which I am quite sure would take a while to get through) He would say to me, “I am sorry, but you just were not good enough and I cannot let you into Heaven”. I feared this day, and I repeatedly begged God to have mercy on me.
Then I realized that my thinking was seriously flawed. In fact, my thinking was downright unfaithful. I was calling God a liar. See, God makes it very clear in His Divine Word that this is not the way it works. My salvation has nothing to do with my works on Earth. The moment I declared Jesus as the Lord of my life and invited Him into my heart, I was saved. From that second on, my salvation was secured. I no longer had to worry about “if” I would go to Heaven. God’s Word says that is guaranteed! While I certainly deserve for God to look at me as a terrible sinner, instead when He looks at me all He sees is the perfection of Jesus. He sees me through the “rose-colored glasses” of the blood of Christ. I am saved by His grace. I am saved by what He did. It has nothing to do with what I have done or not done.
We are all tempted at one time or another to feel guilty for what we have done in the past. We are all tempted to feel that we are not worthy. The simple truth is that none of us are actually worthy on our own, but by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, He has declared us as worthy. When we come to the realization that we can absolutely believe what God has said and we have complete faith and trust in Him, we can finally leave all of our doubts about our worthiness at the Cross of Christ and feel secure in our salvation. What a wonderful day that is indeed.
During your Bible reading today, what “key passages” stood out to you? Leave a comment below to share what God is showing you about His Word today.
To become a fan of The Daily Bible Plan’s Facebook Page, CLICK HERE.
To follow me on Twitter for inspirational tweets, click the follow button – Follow @kevin_griggs
If you like this post, please SHARE it with others to spread the Word of God.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today.
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Job’s Hope
Daily Bible Reading – Job 13, 14; Acts 17, 18
Today’s Key Passage – Job 14:7-17
In the days of the Old Testament, there was not much talk about the resurrection of the dead. At this point in history, Jesus Christ had not yet lived as a man, died, and been resurrected, so there was a lot of pessimism about what happens to a man after death. If you know the story of Job, you know that he was dealing with a lot of turmoil, both physically and mentally. This pain was not due to anything he had done wrong as some of his friends believed, but he still had to deal with it. In today’s key passage, we can clearly see some of Job’s pessimism about death, but more importantly, we can also see Job’s hope for eternal life. Given Job’s current pain and suffering, he was hoping for life after death. He was hoping for a time when he would be renewed and when his sins would be forgotten. In John 14:19, Jesus said, “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” Obviously, Job did not know about this because it had not yet happened, but Job still had hope that this would come to pass.
We have a distinct advantage over Job. We no longer have to hope for eternal life. We do not have to wonder about what will happen when we die. We have God’s Word that tells us exactly what will happen. We know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we know what that means for us. Aside from John 14:19, we can also look to other areas of the bible that tell us exactly what Jesus said about the subject. Here are two of the many examples:
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36)
We have God’s divine Word that tells us that we CAN have eternal life. If we choose to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and if we repent of our sins, we can all be saved. How powerful is it that we can move outside of just “hoping” for something to happen and it can instantly become truth. Do you know people who are still “hoping” for eternal life? Are there people in your life who do not know about the promise of Jesus Christ? YOU can help them today. YOU can help them move past hoping to truth. YOU can share with them the gift of God’s mercy. YOU can tell them what Job could only hope for – that they can live forever with Jesus Christ.
During your Bible reading today, what “key passages” stood out to you? Leave a comment below to share what God is showing you about His Word today.
To become a fan of The Daily Bible Plan’s Facebook Page, CLICK HERE.
To follow me on Twitter for inspirational tweets, click the follow button – Follow @kevin_griggs
If you like this post, please SHARE it with others to spread the Word of God.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today.
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Weathering the Storm
Daily Bible Reading – Job 1, 2; Acts 6, 7
Today’s Key Passage – Job 2:1-10 - CLICK HERE to read the key passage
Stories of bad things happening to good people constantly bombard us. Many people believe that God should shield good people from the bad things in life, and that if He really loved us He would not allow these bad things to happen. We must realize, however, that the bad things that happen today are all due to a series of events that began in the Garden of Eden when Eve ate the apple. Man’s rebellion from God changed a perfect world into an imperfect one. While God is more than capable from putting an end to all of the suffering in the world today, that is not His plan. It is difficult for our human minds to understand God’s plan sometimes, but that is because a human mind can never fully comprehend God.
God knew that Job was a good man. He viewed Job as “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil”. (2:3) Satan argued that Job was only faithful to God because God had been so good to him and had never given Job a reason to lose his faith. (2:4-5) God, fully knowing what the outcome would ultimately be, allowed Satan to test Job. (2:6) In the first test (1:6-22), Job lost his possessions and his family. In the second test (2:7), Satan inflicted physical pain on Job. Throughout the tests, Job remained faithful to God. Even when Job’s wife chided him for staying faithful to God, he continued to be blameless. Job told his wife “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (2:10) Job knew that while it is easy to be faithful to God during good times, it is the mark of a truly good man to be faithful during bad times.
In the face of adversity, clinging to God is the only way to weather the storm. Do not give up on Him. The enemy uses these bad times as the perfect opportunity to try to test our faith. We learn from the story of Job that Satan is only allowed to do what God lets him do, and God will never let him give us more than we can handle. Stay faithful to God in the good times and the bad, and live a life blameless and upright in His sight.
During your Bible reading today, what “key passages” stood out to you? Leave a comment below to share what God is showing you about His Word today.
To become a fan of The Daily Bible Plan’s Facebook Page, CLICK HERE.
To follow me on Twitter for inspirational tweets, click the follow button – Follow @kevin_griggs
If you like this post, please SHARE it with others to spread the Word of God.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today.
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Questioning God
Daily Bible Reading – Job 37,37; 1 Corinthians 12
Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Prepare to defend yourself; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. (Job 38:1-18)
In much of the Book of Job, Job and his friends discussed what had happened to Job. Job spent most of his time wondering why he was made to suffer. Job’s friends spent most of their time putting words in God’s mouth, and most of those words were wrong. In chapter 38, God finally spoke to Job. Instead of simply answering Job’s questions, God decided to ask Job a series of questions of his own. The questions God asked could not possibly be answered by Job or any other human. That was the point. God was making the point to Job and his friends that He was completely sovereign and all powerful. God created the heavens and the earth without any help from anyone. The earth and everything in it belongs to God. Job could not understand all of the inner workings of God’s creation, because he was not there when God created the world. If Job was unable to understand the creation itself, how could Job possibly understand God’s motives or what He was thinking?
We are all tempted to question God. There are many times when we simply cannot understand why things are happening as they are. In these times, we as humans tend to do one of two things. We either question God by asking Him why He is allowing this to happen, or we put words in God’s mouth by trying to explain His motives. Sometimes, we try to do both. But God does not need our help. God does not need or want us to try to run the world. God’s moral purposes are so complex, that they are beyond human understanding. How can we question God when we cannot understand things like His creation or the forces of nature?
The next time you feel tempted to question God or to try to explain His actions, remember this passage. Remember that we were not there for creation. Remember that we cannot explain the intricacies of this world. Remember that we cannot explain how the wind blows or how storms move. Most importantly, remember to trust God. He has a plan. He is in control. He loves you and will always do what is best for you. Submit to God’s authority in your life, and rest in the knowledge that He will care for you.
To become a fan of The Daily Bible Plan’s Facebook Page, CLICK HERE.
This morning I was reading different blogs and I found a great post that I wanted to share with all of you. The blog is written by Pastor Brad Henson of Four Rivers Church in Kentucky. In this post, Pastor Brad discusses defending the Bible. I really liked the message of this post – CLICK HERE to check it out…
What do you think about today’s post? Please post your comments below – I would love to hear what you think…
True Wisdom Comes Only From God
Daily Bible Reading – Job 28, 29; Galatians 1,2
Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
concealed even from the birds in the sky. Destruction and Death say, “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.” God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters, when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it. And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” (Job 28:20-28)
People look for wisdom in strange places. Some people seek wisdom from listening to people they respect. Some people seek wisdom from reading ancient philosophers. Some people read self-help books or go to self-help seminars. The problem with all of these things is the source. Every leader, philosopher, author (myself included), and speaker have one thing in common – they are human.
No single person or group of people can gain enough experience, knowledge, or insight to understand the totality of the human race. A true understanding of everyone and everything, aka wisdom, can only come from one source – God. God’s wisdom is revealed to us through His Word and through prayer. We can certainly gain some insight and knowledge by reading and having conversations with other people, but to truly gain wisdom we must seek it from God alone.
For more information about gaining wisdom from God, read Arlin Sorensen’s Thoughts on Scripture blog by CLICKING HERE.
Become a fan of The Daily Bible Plan’s Facebook Page by CLICKING HERE.
What do you think about today’s post? Please post your comments below – I would love to hear what you think…
Are We Worthy?
Daily Bible Reading – Job 23,24; Mark 11,12
If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say to me. Would he vigorously oppose me? No, he would not press charges against me. There the upright can establish their innocence before him, and there I would be delivered forever from my judge. 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. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:3-10)
For most of the Book of Job, Job’s “friends” accuse him of being a sinful man. They argue time and again that Job is being punished by God for his sins. Job, however, knows that he is righteous before God. In this passage, Job wishes that he could only stand before God to defend himself, because he is confident that God would find him blameless and that he would be “delivered forever from [his] judge” and would “come forth as gold”.
We will all face God someday. I recently read somewhere that the mortality rate in the world is currently 100%. Everyone will die at some point, and everyone will have to face God to answer for all of the things they have done in their lives. The hope is that when we stand before God on our final judgment day, He will say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant”. But I think a lot of people have doubts.
I have spent much of my life constantly facing these doubts. I always worried that I was not worthy. I worried that on the day of judgment, God would take one look at me and remember all of the bad things I had done in my life. I worried that He would see me as a terrible sinner, and would proceed to name every one of the sinful things I ever thought, said, or did. I worried that at the end of the list (which I’m quite sure would take a while to get through) He would say to me “I’m sorry, but you just weren’t good enough and I can’t let you into Heaven”. I feared this day, and I begged God over and over to have mercy on me.
Then I realized that my thinking was seriously flawed. In fact, my thinking was downright unfaithful. Basically, I was calling God a liar. You see, God makes it very clear in His Divine Word that this is not the way it works. My salvation has nothing to do with my works on Earth. Jesus Christ lived, died, and was resurrected for our sins. He took the punishment that is rightly due to all of us. John 3:16 is perhaps the most widely quoted verse in the Bible for a reason – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Basically, this one verse sums up the entirety of Biblical Christianity. As my Pastor likes to say – our salvation is dependent on “Jesus plus nothing”.
The moment I declared Jesus as the Lord of my life and invited Him into my heart – I was saved. From that second on, my salvation was secured. I no longer had to worry about “if” I would go to Heaven. God’s Word says that is guaranteed! While I certainly deserve for God to look at me as a terrible sinner, instead when He looks at me all He sees is the perfection of Jesus Christ. He sees me through “rose-colored glasses” and because all He sees is the blood of Jesus. I am saved by His grace. I am saved by what He did. It has nothing to do with what I have done or not done.
We are all tempted at one time or another to feel guilty for what we have done in the past. We are all tempted to feel that we are not worthy. The simple truth is that none of us are actually worthy on our own, but by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, He has declared us as worthy. Even if we don’t feel worthy in our hearts, 1 John 3:20 says that “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” When we come to the realization that we can absolutely believe what God has said and we have complete faith and trust in Him, we can finally leave all of our doubts about our worthiness at the Cross of Christ and feel secure in our salvation. What a wonderful day that is indeed.
As a personal note, just yesterday I was talking to a person who is very, very dear to me and whom I love unconditionally, and we discussed this very topic in depth. When I opened God’s word today for my daily devotional time, this passage of Scripture was pointed out to me as if it were highlighted even before I actually highlighted it. It never ceases to amaze me how awesome God truly is. He always gives us exactly what we need exactly when we need it.
Please post your thoughts and reflections in the comments below so we can all learn from each other. Feel free to like, comment, and share this with your friends to help spread the Word of God.
Job’s Hope
Daily Bible Reading – Job 13,14; Acts 17,18
“At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant. But man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more. As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so man lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep. ”If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me! If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made. Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin. (Job 14:7-17)
In Old Testament times, there was not a lot of talk about the resurrection of the dead. At this point in history, Jesus Christ had not yet lived as a man, died, and been resurrected, so there was a lot of pessimism about what happens to a man after death. If you know the story of Job, you know that he was dealing with a lot of turmoil in his life – physical pain and emotional pain. This pain was not due to anything he had done wrong as some of his friends believed, but he still had to deal with it. In the passage above, you can clearly see some of Job’s pessimism about death, but more importantly you can also see Job’s hope for eternal life. Given Job’s current pain and suffering, he was hoping for life after death. He was hoping for a time when he would be renewed and when his sins would be forgotten. In John 14:19, Jesus said “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” Obviously Job did not know about this because it hadn’t happened yet, but Job still had hope that this would come to pass.
We have a distinct advantage over Job. We no longer have to hope for eternal life. We do not have to wonder about what will happen when we die. We have God’s Word that tells us exactly what will happen. We know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we know what that means for us. Aside from John 14:19, we can also look to other areas of the bible that tell us exactly what Jesus said about the subject. Here are two of the many examples:
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36)
We have God’s divine Word that tells us that we CAN have eternal life. If we choose to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and if we repent of our sins, we can all be saved. We WILL have eternal life. How powerful is it that we can move outside of just “hoping” for something to happen and it can instantly become truth. Do you know people who are still “hoping” for eternal life? Are there people in your life who do not know about the promise of Jesus Christ? YOU can help them today. YOU can help them move past hoping to truth. YOU can share with them about the gift of God’s mercy. YOU can tell them what Job didn’t know to be fact – that they can live forever with Jesus Christ.
Weathering the Storm
Daily Reading – Job 1,2; Acts 6,7
Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.” ”Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. (Job 2:3-10)
God knew that Job was a good man. He viewed Job as “blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil”. Satan argued that Job was only faithful to God because God had been so good to him and had never given Job a reason to lose his faith. God, fully knowing what the outcome would ultimately be, allowed Satan to test Job. In the first test (see Job 1:6-22) Job lost his possessions and his family. In the second test (Job 2:3-10), Satan inflicted physical pain on Job. Throughout the tests, Job remained faithful to God. Even when Job’s wife chided him for staying faithful to God, he continued to be blameless. Job told his wife “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”. Job knew that while it is easy to be faithful to God during good times, it is the mark of a truly good man to be faithful during bad times.
The story of Job’s faithfulness is a timeless lesson. Today we are constantly bombarded with stories of bad things happening to good people. Many people believe that good people should be shielded from the bad things in life, and that if God really loved us He would not allow these bad things to happen. But we must realize that the bad things that happen today are all due to a series of events that began in the Garden of Eden when Eve ate the apple. Man’s rebellion from God changed a perfect world into an imperfect one. While God is more than capable from putting an end to all of the suffering in the world today, that is not His plan. It is difficult for our human minds to understand God’s plan sometimes, but that is because a human mind can never fully comprehend God.
In the face of adversity, clinging to God is the only way to weather the storm. Do not give up on Him. The enemy uses these bad times as the perfect opportunity to try to test our faith. But the story of Job shows us that Satan is only allowed to do what God let’s him do, and God will never let him give us more than we can handle. Stay faithful to God in the good times and the bad, and live a life blameless and upright in His sight.
