"Who Ever Perished Being Innocent?"

I'm in Job Chapter 4-7 today and it's a doosie to contemplate. It's full of so many layers it makes me want to stop in my chronological reading and fine tune study it for a while. I'm so thankful for my John MacArthur study bible at this point as a starter to sifting through the confusing poetry phrased words in these chapters. Yet, it's so important because it's so profound! This passage of scripture just blows the prosperity gospel out of the water entirely.

Before I start though I have to take note of what I find to the most profound thing. Job never states that these afflictions are from the enemy. He acknowledges right off that they are from God. He is completely unaware of the scene in heaven where God instigates the misery brought upon Job and yet, he never seems to assume wrongly where they come from. This astounds me. I'm not even able to absorb the complete significance of why it astounds me. It has taken me many years to understand the concept (and much through the book by Jerry Bridges called "Trusting God") that EVERYTHING is sifted through and therefore from the very hand of God. We silly Christians even use the phrase "the devil's on my back" to understand why we are suffering or being tried. Job never mentions the devil and yet he is thrown into a pit I could never attempt to understand.
His friends are with him in this understanding but their perspective is way different. They credit God with these afflictions as well but from the standpoint of them being judgement for sin. More on that coming.

The very title of Chapter 4 in my bible startled me before I read anything: "Eliphaz: Innocent Do Not Suffer". I know even from my own experience of my father dying so young with cancer that this was not true. I want to walk step by step though what he says:

• He breaks his 7 day silence (can you see that scene? they arrive as his friends are just speechless for a week at the level of his suffering) by affirming that Job is wise and has had the strength to encourage and uplift many who have suffered before him but now that bad has come to him, Eliphaz concludes that he is impatient and dismayed. My first reaction to Eliphaz is "you just don't get it do you!?", but then, even I would not get it. Still, how insensitive! How dare he be impatient in his suffering! How he should bear it better and more nobly! How can he let his pain bring dismay? Are you kidding me? I like what John MacArthur says in my study commentary "Unfortunately, with the opening of their mouths for the first speech, all the wisdom of their silence departed."
• HERE is the verse that irritated me the most: vs. 7 "Remember now, who ever perished being innocent?" MacArthur states: "Eliphaz, recognizing Job's 'fear of God' and 'integrity' was likely encouraging Job at the outset by saying he wouldn't die because he was innocent of any deadly iniquity, but must be guilty of some serious sin because he was reaping such anger from God. ...He had oversimplified God's pattern of retribution. This simple axiom, 'the righteous will prosper and the wicked will suffer,' does not always hold up in human experience. It is true that plowing and sowing iniquity reaps judgment, so Eliphaz was partially right, but not everything we reap in life is the result of something we have sown. Eliphaz was replacing theology with simplistic logic. To say that wherever there is suffering, it is the result of sowing sin is wrong. (Ex 4:11, Jn 9:1-3)"
• He states that the wicked may be strong but they are defeated. In this he is right but he is using this experience to explain another which does not always work.
• Eliphaz claims to have had some vision or dream where a messenger brought him divine revelation to back up his thoughts here.
• The next section of verses I'd like to research more (vs. 17-21) but John MacArthur's conclusions are: "vs 17- here is the conclusion of Eliphaz's revelation- that Job suffered because he was not holy enough, not righteous enough. vs17-21 This is the content of the message which is, in effect that God judges sin and sinners among men as He did among angles (vs.18 cf. Rev 12:3,4)
• From here Eliphaz, I feel, kind of insults Job's theological intelligence. He tells him in summary to not be foolish and forget that sin will be punished and that every man is sinful inevitably. Eliphaz felt the solution was a needed repentance on the part of Job before God. Eliphaz emphasizes God's greatness and goodness to show his moral perfection and man's lack of righteousness. What's amazing here is that everything Eliphaz says is true! Yet, he has not judged the situation wisely. He has assumed God's motives and Job's heart condition (boy, doesn't this sound recently familiar in the news? Though I think our Eliphaz could be called Pat) He goes so far as to say that if Job would just do this, he would be happy again. "You know Job, God works like this: you did A, God does B, you repent for A and that will equal C" I just love that God does not like to be predictable, but He is ALWAYS good. He really does not like us to shrink him to formulas.
• Eliphaz tops it all with a very biblical cherry on top. He parallels Lv 26 by lamenting on how the faithful will prosper. He tells Job he will be secure, happy and rich again if he does this repenting. Again Job, if you just would follow the formula! Again, the concept is a correct one but, again Eliphaz is assuming this is the only way God could bring such pain. There had to be a just reason such as unfaithfulness and the solution had to be as easy as restoration. This thinking Eliphaz here I think is dangerous and is the basis of the prosperity gospel of today. If we belong to God, we are sure to prosper. But, that is another blog for another day.
• I'll finish this off with again what John McArthur says because I love it: "On top of his physical misery and his tempting wife, he had to respond to ignorance and insensitivity from his friend, by expressing his frustration" . That is what followed in Ch 6.

Job's response in Ch 6 is indeed grumpy. Or at least that is how we read it. I wonder if his friends had not been even more of a burden, if it would have been any more calm. Probably not. I actually do see these friends words to him as being what we would call "insult to injury" for Job though and part of his trails. Just as it was to specifically take his loving children but LEAVE him his awful wife! Not only have you lost all, been placed in beyond bearable pain and infirmity, but now your friends are telling you that you have a sin problem. Oh, man, Job. His response is to just wish for God to finish what he has started and get it over with. Yet, I find it amazing that he vents that without an ounce of anger toward God for what he has done to him. That is one of the most challenging thing to get in this! In a sense I think Job felt that God knew why he was doing what he did so he better just get it done because the doing didn't feel good at all! Job was beyond social propriety and trying to put on a happy face. He probably had no resolve left to be polite to their arrogant judgements. We are reminded in vs. 10 that his faith in God is still firm and steady. He was confused why this was happening to him since he had kept the commands of the Lord and they were precious to him. He admonishes his friends for not being more kind to him even if he HAD forsaken God. He points out that he was not even asking to be delivered (which they are trying to tell him the solution so he can be thus delivered) but to have some sympathy and since they did not give him that he says they are no help.

Job is an incredibly profound book. It has a lot to say to our theology. It takes us to the place many people don't want to go. The place in heaven when the God you love and serve faithfully would indeed present the idea of your testing in such insufferable ways. When my dad slowly faded away physically I was impacted with this and what Job later says "though he slay me, yet I serve Him". Do you know what Job points to because of this? The very foundation of our human existence. God created us with a desire for Him. NOTHING can take that away from us, not even what He may choose to let be done to us. We are created to be reconciled to Him and the book of Job proves that our faith in that is bigger than ANYTHING else. It is all set up at the beginning. Satan felt that Job's faith was only because God did good things for him. God was not about to let humanity forever think that way either. It's much deeper than that, it's about our need that can only be filled by Him. Him taking us in, Him restoring us to himself. No prosperity can fill that need and when Job was stripped of every thing a man could hold, save his very life (which, mind you, and notice, Job was willing to give that up to and quite anxious for it knowing God was beyond that), THAT was still his fulfillment. THAT was what God wanted to prove to Satan....BECAUSE IT'S POWERFUL....BECAUSE IT'S UNSHAKABLE...BECAUSE IT'S WHAT WE CANNOT PROCURE FROM OURSELVES.

There are so many lessons here.

Saturday Scraps

For a while I've been wanting to do a blog about what has been rattling around at the top of my head all week. I did not know just how to do it. Saturday mornings are the only morning the kids and I act like bums for a few hours. Rick works on Saturday first of all so we don't have the normal day off that many people around us do. So, we don't hurry to get the day going. The only to-dos we have are chores. The kids have a tradition of cartoons on one of the two stations we do get and some what we call "Saturday morning cereal" which usually is something like Coco Puffs or Lucky Charms. We don't get them every Saturday but most.
So, while they chill in their jamies I usually have my coffee and get on the computer. It makes a good time to gather those scraps together.

• I'm really enjoying the chronological reading. I'm so impressed with the issue of time. How big a barrier time is to our trust in God. Perhaps it's impressed upon me because I struggle with impatience. Looking at the bible God seems to move like a Dinosaur! Everyone in the stories struggles to wait on God and his promises. Most of the trouble comes from women trying to make things happen on their own. Yet, God still uses their meddling for all his purposes. Joseph is impressing me the most lately though with his willingness to be and do whatever the Lord puts him in and to respond trustworthy at any level of responsibility. He had such cause to be bitter for all the wrong done to him and yet he escapes this sinful attitude by continually keeping his eyes on God. He seems of higher integrity than even King David to me in many ways. Back to the timing issue as well, I was hit with the significance of that band of Ishmaelites on camels that came by and bought Joseph from his brothers. Somehow my mind took me right into that scene. Who could know that those camel hoofs as they hit and shuffled the sand, were moving history. They were ushering in the transfer of the whole nation of Israel in Egypt. God knew what was going to happen and I'm sure every hoof and every clink of coins as they were transferred must have rung in his ears. It would save the nation from dispersing itself through marriage to outsiders and redistribution of the people to new lands. It would gather them and purify their lineage but it would also bring them under great oppression for so many years. Those camels brought on their backs, a new large and significant chapter in the history of God's people. The starting thread to a great tapestry.


• I'm very disappointed with Pat Robertson and his tactless insensitivity. I don't like when Christians give the enemy fuel to feed a fire of hatred against God's people. I also don't enjoy the words he used to say that the Devil was responsible for the events against the French in that country. Satan does nothing unless God allows him and people cannot have things they want to happen happen by going to Satan and him saying "okay". Pat made Satan look powerful and God look like the impersonal crushing giant standing in heaven and saying "there you go...bam!" We can never presume what God's decisions are regarding a nation unless he tells us himself. In the OT he does do that. He says he destroyed a people because... but if he does not say, we don't dare guess at his ways. I do know that the heart of Christ weeps for these. Just as he does for every injustice, every deep painful loss, every natural disaster. The whole earth is under the curse still and all of creation cries out for relief from it. I'm sure he weeps at what the effects of that curse results in on those he created. We know that it was that love for us for which he came to die. This disaster could happen to any people at any time and God would sorrow to see it happen on any of us. It makes me remember and be thankful that he has a plan to redeem it all. "For behold, I make all things new". Pat Robertson made me feel like I was in the temple hearing the two men pray that Jesus spoke of. One who said "thank you Lord that I am not like that man, filthy and unrighteous" and the other man who beat his chest and wept and tore his clothes before God for his unrighteousness but deep desire to be saved. Jesus told us which one the Father heard.


• I've been struggling with a bizarre health problem. In early December I had woke up with a seriously painful stiff neck. It was equal on both sides and I could hardly turn it at all. It was not like you get when you sleep wrong, it was way more painful than that. It was some of the worst pain I've every felt and I've had three kids. A week later I had a huge swollen gland in my under arm that was so painful but the neck was better so I was thankful. The swelling was there about a week also and began to move down my arm with the pain. After a few more days I could not stretch my arm out palm up all the way or stretch it out above my head all the way. I finally decided to see the doctor the week after Christmas. He put me on antibiotics for 10 days thinking it was an infection in my glands. I did not notice any difference except that I could stretch it a little more out. About this time I began to battle some real fears as to what was going on in my body. I spiked a strange high fever for 24 hours as well that had no other symptoms. After seeing my dad slowly fade away and die at 54 of cancer, I knew that nothing was guaranteed me. I also knew it was probably nothing and these thoughts battled themselves out in my mind over and over. I would think things like "that's it, I just need someone to do a full body MRI to make sure I don't have cancer" and then the Lord would speak to my heart and say "I know exactly what is going on in your body, and they could do all those tests and still not see what I may be able to see". The doctor saw me again and ordered an ultrasound on my arm. It was to make sure there were no blood clots. It was fine but there was still this long hard vein in my arm that was sore and knotted inside in places (very tiny but you could feel it on the outside). He put me on a 10 day regiment of aspirin and I have noticed a slight improvement in the vein. I'm still not sure whats causing it or if there is a bigger problem but this Focus on The Family was just for me. You have to listen. A mans healing is caught on audible recording. He was just in the middle of talking about healing and how God does whatever is best for His glory. That he sometimes heals and sometimes does not. In the middle of talking you can hear him being healed. I love how he tells Dobson at the end that if we could see the purposes of God in our problems we would probably be more willing to go through them. Yet, isn't that what faith is? Falling on the certainty of the goodness of God.

I think that's it for this week. At least all that's worth a spotlight....the rest is random jumbled mess!

Thankful Thursday: Yes, I'm Thankful For The Public School

I've decided to devote my Thankful Thursday (which I've not been remembering to post enough, sorry!) to something on my heart. I've pondered and prayed about the emotions this conjured up in me and the Lord has convicted me to deal with it from a grateful heart.

I read this on someones facebook pages as a group description they had joined.

"So-called "public schools" are, in fact, "government schools." "They are operated by the government, using government employees, on property owned and controlled by the government, using government funds. Supporters of this destructive system would object to such candor, of course, since most Americans know that to identify something as a "government institution" is to brand it inefficient at best, destructive at worst. Child abuse is neither always obvious or intentional. The most rampant form of child abuse in this country is not only legal, but committed routinely. It is the act of taking what arguably is, or should be, the most precious things in your life--your children--and placing the responsibility for their education in the hands of the government."

I don't think I took that wrong when I read it to mean that I was exposing my children (or bringing it about myself) to child abuse by having them in public school. This hurt my spirit so much as a fellow member of the body of Christ.

It hurt me not because I care what men think, even Christians because see, I answer to two others above all these. (1) I answer to God who distinctly led us into the public schools all be it shocking to me and crushing to my legalistic presumptions about going public, and (2) I answer to my husband who decided this was best for our family at this time.

God would NEVER lead us into sin, NEVER. God would never lead us into abusing our children. One cannot say that attending a government school is child abuse (and therefore sinful) if they are not willing to say that all governmental institutions are sinful. Is sending your child to a state college sinful? Is it child abuse because it's government?

Is a single mother abusing her children by sending them to school when she has no husband and therefore has to work? If it is not sinful for that situation, then it is not for any family with these options. Though her reasons are desperate and extreme they are a good guideline to tell us if something is sinful or not. The family unit may have it's own less dramatic reasons for being led into the public schools. Sin is always wrong across the board. It is always clear and not altered by motive.

That is all I will say on that. I have a tender spot for this having journeyed through it and I want to be careful to be gracious though my emotions are in tumult at such "Christian" attitudes.

So...I am thankful:

• I am SO thankful for the journey the Lord has us on right now. Every day I keep an open heart and ponder what the next step is. Is it to have them back home? Is it to stay where they are? Is it for one of them to come home? What do you want Lord? I'm willing to do any of those if the Lord leads. I know His way is joyful.


• I am thankful for our little town and how close the school is to home.


• I'm thankful for great teachers, and I'm not just saying that. Each year the Lord has provided wonderful teachers for the kids so far, and guess what? I trust him to do that as long as he wants them there. Now, a bad teacher may not mean that it's not still God's will, it may mean a new challenge for us as a family and for our child. That is why we will seek him every step along the way. He will bless when we do what He wants, not what we want. To obey is better than sacrifice! Isn't it true though that sacrifice fulfills our sense of righteousness though? We feel good that we have given up something for the Lord. That may not be the sacrifice he wants us to make and obeying him is always a sure way to know what He wants.


• I am thankful for how public school has changed our family. We are able to relax more as a family and talk about life and God. Rick and I are able to have time together that we never had. My sanity level is so much better and have learned so much more what it means to trust the Lord with my children. When a homeschool mom teaches, she sacrifices ALL her time for this goal, and that is not easy. When a public school mom sends her kids in the Lord she sacrifices ALL control on what the Lord allows in their hours away. That may sound trite if you are on the homescool end and you may say "oh, that's nothing!" but trust me, it is.


• I am thankful for the branching out into the community that this has allowed us to do. Although being salt and light was not our mission statement, it is, now that we are called, a real joy to see happen. I truly trust that the exposure and challenges we face are preparing my children even now for the exact purposes God has for them in His kingdom. If I were to hold back, I would stand in His way.


• I'm thankful for the homeschooling years we had! They were great! That is until the Lord began to show me that a change was needed. That is not to say that a rough day homeschooling is a sign that you should stop. We have bad days in public school too! I go to the Lord with all of those and wait on Him. No hasty decisions, just waiting on His lead.


• I'm thankful for our freedom as Americans! We have the right to teach at home! Praise the Lord. We have the right to take part in an institution put together by our government! Praise him still. We are not shut out from those places because of our faith and that is freedom! Again I quote something that meant a lot to encourage me a few years ago by a mom blogger "we seem to want to keep God in the schools but take Christian kids out of them". Oh, dear, what sadness. If the Lord takes me back out, I pray he sends others in! Christian kids and parents ARE Christ in the public schools.

I have a heart to encourage other mom's to be open to God's leading. We serve Him before any man or woman. People will create legalistic boundaries, God will break them down. He will send us everywhere, teach us all things, call us out, put us back, use us in every way. He does not expect us to look the same, march the same, or be afraid of those who don't and who need Him. If you are a mom struggling with schooling decisions, I encourage you to pray and then speak to your husband about your concerns either way. Let God be the author of your children's education, not you, and not the government, GOD. HE does all things well.

NOTE: If the above quote is intended to mean only that the government requiring public school for children then the abuse is on our rights to freedom, not to children. It is not abusive to a child to have him in a school, it is an abuse to take away our freedom to have him at home.

From The Pantry Day 12: A Not So Great Update (and a bizzare story)

Got a little off track the challenge.
We decided to dive right into some overhauling organization which left the kitchen neglected. I should have cleaned the kitchen before I started the projects. (Note to self). It's so true that the kitchen in the heart of the home and if the heart is not functioning properly then you can't do the rest efficiently. My lack of efficiency led to Taco Bell.
At Taco Bell we met and gave a ride to a crazy lady who turned out to be very famous. I wrote a note of the whole story on Facebook (if you are on my fb, go to my profile to read) but did not want to post it here because I don't want all these other people who run into her to find my blog in their google search (which so many of them do) after their strange encounter with her and her crazy letters.
Then, I got side tracked yesterday googling some of her information and a valid name and address on her letters that led me to mind blowing information that m_i_n_d r_e_a_d_i_n_g through m_i_c_r_o_w_a_v_e technology is a real and ongoing study for use in weapon development. It was blowing my mind to know this woman may not have been just crazy, but really a victim of non consensual experimentation. I was brave enough to email the woman she referenced and she wrote me back to tell me that this lady I helped has been trying to contact her for years and has all her medical bills sent to her. She said she cannot help her but there are organizations who can. This woman is head of a group to fight against rights being violated through these scientific experiments. Did you know Russia and the US have been in a race to develop this technology to it's fullest? Ironically she the crazy woman called her problem m_i_c_r_o_w_a_v_e 6_6_7 (spaced added by me to keep search engines from my blog. people DO google this stuff) It turns out that there is technology by Panasonic with this name. I don't have time in my SAHM domestic life to research this more but I felt it was a warning to know it's happening. I felt the numbers were one godly number off from things to come if you follow my thought. When God lifts his hand from man's limits, the day will come when technology unfolds in biblical ways. I'm sure many of you don't have the time to read the documentation on this occurance which can be found if you go here: (not a real link, you will have to transfer it, I'm again adding spaces) m_i_n_d_j_u_s_t_i_c_e_._o_r_g This is the site the woman referenced in the crazy ladies letters runs. Even easier, you can watch this youtube and hear the just of the idea and see the woman referenced, Cheryl W_e_l_s_h whom I contacted, in the video. The crazy woman writes things like "no one sees what's happening" and other things that do go along with these theories. I don't know what in the world happened to this lady. It's like I've been thrown in to a strange novel (which my friend now says I should write.....IN MY SPARE TIME) or an episode of Dateline. Draw your own conclusions
(watch the whole thing if you watch any, it gets more important as you go)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7apZl_lt0A

So, anyway, back to reality. (though that may be reality too) I am trying to get back on track. We only ate out once and got pizza once but it's bothering me that I'm not staying on track. No more distractions about global conspiracy for me today.....just plain old, comforting housework. May the world continue to be crazy and going to pot, I've got my dishes to do.

BTW: the crazy lady is somehow tracked on this blog and there are copies of her disturbing documents she hands out. We gave copies to the police but I'm sure they just figure it's another crazy. Some of the documents contain upsetting material. Just remove dashes for the blog address:
a_o_w_f.blogspot.com