With only a couple minutes left in the break room at work the other day, I was asked to summarize the 42 chapter book of Job. I stated that in a ‘nutshell’, it was basically about God telling Job and his three friends(?): 

                            
                

The book of Job is about human suffering. A lot of questions are asked. A lot of crazy statements are made, but there are very few answers given. From the perspective of obtaining explanations concerning life and its struggles, the content of the book provides precious little by way of satisfaction. Even when God made His appearance before Job, aside from the tremendous awe Job experienced, God just did not seem to feel obligated in providing enlightenment to Job and his dilemma of suffering. And that is so often the situation that we face in our lives.

In various places throughout the book, Job expressed the deep desire to have an audience with God so that he could lay out his complaints and offer a defense before God. When at last, God granted this great longing and Job was confronted with the majesty of His presence, the best Job could muster was an awed silence. At the end of the book, even after everything God had said, Job remained clueless. His deepest questions regarding his suffering and great losses remained for the most part, a mystery. But at that point he was so overwhelmed by the power, wisdom and magnificence of God, the questions and objections that were once so very important to him, had melted into utter irrelevancy.

I think this is not a unique experience to Job. The writer of Psalms touches, to some extent upon this issue. He said: "...When I tried to figure it [all] out, all I got was a splitting headache.... Until I entered the sanctuary of God. Then I saw the whole picture" (Psalm 73:16 [MSG]). God is not so interested in providing us with all the answers so much as He is interested in filling us with Himself so that the maddening questions, frustrations and suffering we have experienced for so long cease to dominate and affect our lives so incessantly and profoundly. Instead, He desires that we come to the place of peace in the assurance that He cares deeply for us in all that we experience (I Peter 5:7).

My Struggle with Prayer....

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with the concept of prayer. I know that the Scriptures clearly state in many places that prayer is very very important–even vital to the believer–a lifeline between ourselves and heaven. But I haven’t become that mighty ‘prayer warrior’—a force to be reckoned with, just yet. Don’t misunderstand me–I pray each and every day–usually. But for me, it is an ongoing daily struggle–one which I am not at all certain I will ever win.

In fact, I have been inclined lately, to feel a little discouraged over the whole matter. I have a friend who has openly declared (not once, but twice) that for the believer [read: for him], prayer is one of the easiest things in the world. And he should be right!! I mean, we don’t need complex hard to use equipment, or have to go to a special place or chamber for our prayers to be heard, or have to use a particular language or have to address God in some exceptional manner. In fact, we don’t even have to speak at all–we can just think our requests if we want to. Prayer is available to us night or day no matter where we are or what we are doing. We can petition God with as little as one word appeals and He is willing to hear and answer. Prayer is one of the easiest things in the world–right there near at hand! So what’s the problem?

I’m not sure. I don’t think I can put my finger on it exactly, even though I have grappled with the issue off and on for many years. I am aware of two pertinent things Peter said about prayer: 

               

There is one other item I have come across in recent days that has encouraged me to some degree in the continuing struggle I experience with prayer. It is the very familiar passage dealing with the Holy Spirit’s work of interceding for us when we find it difficult if not impossible to express in words what we long to communicate to our God. Though Paul had always been a strong advocate of praying "...on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests...," in the context of Romans 8:, Paul very candidly just lets er’ rip:

                        

What was Paul’s confession here?—That on occasion, he struggled to know what to pray–That he often didn’t know how to pray–Or that he always found it difficult to know what was needed in prayer? I’m not at all certain. But one thing I know; If the inspired Apostle Paul found prayer difficult (even occasionally), then I will not be so discouraged when I often find myself in the uncomfortable and troubling situation of not knowing how or what to pray for. Besides, I am confident in the Spirit’s ability to bear that clumsy or elusive request to the throne of grace so that it is perfectly communicated to my Father in heaven. And that brings me great comfort. How about you?

                                                                                                                                          LAW

 We have often heard the stinging criticism about just how insecure and weak believers are. Critics of Christianity have often derisively leveled the charge that Christianity is just a huge crutch that believers must have to hobble around on in order to get through life. Well, my wife and I were returning home from dinner with our oldest daughter, and we were listening to the Walk in the Word program with James McDonald. He made an amazing statement in connection with the above criticism. He said:
                               

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Concluding his lesson, McDonald said; "I’m helpless apart from God . . . I’m helpless, and so the attitude [must be humility] . . . . God forgive our arrogance . . . . God forgive our boastful[ness] . . . . I can’t accomplish [anything] without . . . God."

When are we ever going let go of our deep craving to be independent of God and finally cling to Him as if our very existence depended upon it—because after everything's said and done, it does-- you know!!

                                                                                                                                           LAW

As Jesus’ life is revealed in Scripture, it becomes very clear very soon that He is much more than a good man or an outstanding teacher/philosopher. Early on, even before His birth, amazing things were being said about him. The angel Gabriel came to Mary with a startling pronouncement; "The Holy Spirit will . . . overshadow you. So the one to be born will be called the Son of God . . . . For nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:26-37). Joseph, deeply troubled at the news of his betrothed wife’s pregnancy, was also visited by an angel. He was told in a dream; "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son...and they will call him Immanuel—which means, ‘God with us’."

What is it in Jesus’ life that convinces us that He is indeed "God with us?" How do we come to the place in our lives where the only conclusion we can reach is that truly He is the divine Son of God? Perhaps, there is no solitary event or circumstance. Instead, it may be the culmination of tiny bits and pieces (relatively insignificant by themselves) of information that eventually trips the switch in our heads, and the ‘lights finally come on’.

 
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Although this teaching probably had the disciples as its primary target, elements from the sermon on the mount constantly surfaced throughout Jesus’ ministry wherever He and His disciples traveled. And so they (along with many others) not only heard these messages repeated continuously, but saw Jesus ‘flesh out’ these principles in a practical way through His life day after day after day. These life qualities of humility, gentleness, courage, purity–the focused determination to carry out God’s program, His all consuming desire for God and the sharing of that knowledge with others along with His capacity for peacemaking and the ability to endure the extreme difficulties others imposed upon Him were constantly evident.

[Read through Matthew 5:-7: –Now, stop for a minute--think about how you might put these many principles to use in your life day in and day out over a long period of time.-In light of some of the same pressures Jesus had faced from day to day, how well do you suppose you might do living in this manner?]

Do you realize that how Jesus lived was a human impossibility ? This realization began to dawn on the disciples and others who finally allowed what they were seeing and hearing to penetrate the very depths of their hearts. And almost invariably they experienced a moment in their lives when all of these bits and pieces of pertinent information came together in a culminating event that led them to the irresistible earth shaking conclusion that Jesus just had to be more than a man–in fact, the very only begotten divine Son of God.

Peter’s moment came early on in the ministry of Jesus. He had not yet left his father’s fishing nets for good to follow this young rabbi. But he had spent a good amount of time walking with Jesus from village to village, hearing the Good News proclaimed, witnessing the various miracles Jesus did and watching Jesus interact with the people He had encountered from day to day. Peter saw how Jesus had lived. On this life changing occasion, though he and his fishing partners were exhausted from a night’s work over their nets with no fish, that morning Peter invited Jesus to board his boat from which Jesus used it to teach. At Jesus’ request, a skeptical Peter moved to deeper waters and lowered the nets which were immediately inundated with a vast catch of fish so much so that even with the help of James and John in another vessel, both boats began to sink. When Peter saw this, he fell at the feet of Jesus and cried;

                                                                          "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord:!"
                                                                                                                            (Luke 5:1-11 [NASV])

This event paved the way for Peter’s later confession when Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was. Without hesitation, Peter blurted it out: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:13-16). The subtle miracles of Jesus’ life were combined with the other wonderful things Jesus did to force the irresistible conclusion of Jesus’ divine Sonship. It was then and so it is today!
                                                                                                                                                                         LAW

Though Jesus often taught in parables, He also seemed to favor the use of paradox as a style of instruction. Careful thought was needed so as not to miss the point of His message. However, when it came to understanding what He expected from those who would be His disciples, there could be little doubt;

              

Jesus did not coddle people. The rich young ruler came to Him expecting Jesus to commend and embrace him for his deep devotion to God and the law ("from my youth, I have kept them all . . ."). Instead, Jesus instructed him to give all he had to the poor, and when the young man dejectedly turned away, Jesus let him go, refusing to soften His stance in order to win over a disciple to Himself (cf. Mark 10:17-23).

I think, therefore, it has become relatively easy for followers of Christ to assume an ‘All or Nothing’ mindset and attitude. And this in turn, has encouraged us to take more of an ‘hard nosed’‘ approach toward would be believers. Distinct perimeters or boundaries are set regarding what a perspective follower must do or be if he/she expects to experience Jesus’ acceptance as one of His bonafide followers. And despite the seemingly clear stance we think Jesus has taken, I’m not so sure we have clearly understood or properly represented Him to people who would follow Jesus.

The story of Peter may be useful in helping us sort all of this out. Peter and his brother, Andrew were fishermen working the waters of the Sea of Galilee along with James and John, the sons of Zebudee. Jesus called them to leave their nets in order to follow Him and they did. Although it was very soon apparent that John was "the disciple that Jesus loved" (John 19:26), Peter was their leader. It seemed he was always the first in everything. Peter was brash and bold. He was the first to ask and answer questions; the first to propose this or that; the first to challenge Jesus and to suggest and to explain. And of course, he always seemed to excel at being the first to insert both feet into his mouth at the same time with great ease and finesse. When the disciples debated who would be the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom, surely Peter was the frontrunner, and he knew it!

The evening before Jesus was to die, He declared that all the disciples would abandon Him. However, Peter jumped right in; "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will . . . . I [will] die with you, [and] will never disown you" (Matthew 26:31-35 [NIV]). When the mob arrived in the garden of Gethsemane to apprehend Jesus, it looked as though Peter would make good on his impulsive oath. He drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant (John 18:10). But it was not to be.  It was as his Lord had said; Peter ‘choked’ and later denied three times that he even knew who Jesus was (Matthew 26:69-75).

As far as Peter was concerned, that was it- his career as a disciple of Jesus was over forever. He was done. Except for one thing; Jesus wasn’t! Peter no longer considered himself a follower of Jesus and the angel at the abandoned tomb following the resurrection seemed to be very much aware of this. His instructions to the women coming to embalm Jesus’ body were explicit: "He is risen . . . . But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you’" (Mark 16:6-8).