Job

I had trouble falling asleep last night. The wind was again so hard, it shook the house. This morning I woke up thinking about the book of Job. I’m reading through the Bible in one year with Nicole. We are in the book of Job right now. Job 31 is a very interesting chapter. Job lists his own reasons for believing he was righteous. It is a pretty good list. Of course next to God, even Job is a worm. But most of us, including me can not stand next to Job with out looking pretty bad. On the one hand he did not lust. It bothers me so much that pornography is all around us. It’s in newspapers that stand at the check out counter of my local food store. It pops up on the computer screen. The kids at school have porn on their cell phones. How can my teen age sons keep their hearts and minds pure? And then Job lists his kindness and hospitality to strangers. We all live such busy lives. It is getting so hard to find a Christian willing to open their homes to a stranger. He also says he was kind to the poor. It seems to me Christians think kindness to the poor is cool, but not for everyone. If you read the whole Bible, you realize it was a very important priority to God. Kindness to the poor is on Jesus list of righteousness in Mathew 25. On the one hand Jobs friends were wrong trying to condemn Job. They were wrong that what he suffered was because of his own sin. But Job was also wrong, thinking his own righteousness was perfect. Only God is perfect. We preach grace in the church, and this is good. But I believe too many Christians never even try to live lives that please God. God was pleased with Job. I see too many Christians disqualifying their testimony with lust. And they spend a great deal of time trying to reach the world, but have no time for hospitality or service to the poor. If we would simply demonstrate hospitality and give generously to the poor we would have a testimony. Just my thoughts.


Read Job 31 Here
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+31&version=NIV