In the end of course Job confronts God and continues to ask
Him why, why this happened to him, to his faithful servant, why did God forsake
him. And God’s one answer and the answer He has always given to me when I ask
why. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ‘Who is this
that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a
man: for I will demand of thee, and answer thee me. Where was thou when I laid
foundations of the earth? Declare, If thou has understanding. Who hath
laid the measures thereof, if thou
knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it?’” (Job 38:1-3) It is the same message
He gave to Moses when Moses said he was slow of tongue. And it is the same
message He gives me when I say I cannot do a particular task that He asks me to
do. God has a plan for me, and it takes faith for me to believe in Him as my
deliverer through that plan, because it won’t be easy. And yet He tells me over
and over He is with me. It is my smallness as a human that refuses to accept
that His truth is the real truth. And it is the smallness of my humanness that
doesn’t see that God cannot bless me without faith, because I don’t please Him
otherwise. (Heb 11:6). So in my smallness, I convince myself that I am not seen
by Him in what I do. (Ezek 33:17-20) and that God is lukewarm (Zep 1;12). But
what I don’t realize is that the Lord will not be mocked. (Ezek 25:12,13; Dan
7:25; Dan 11:36-37) and that my own end is coming even if I don’t realize it.
(Hosea 7:13). And He tells me when I take His name in vain, and when I am cruel
or steal from Him (and there are many ways I can do that) I cannot hope to be
blessed. (Zec 5:3,4) What good does it do me to do things my way, to steal from
Him, and ultimately to run from Him. (Mal 3:13,14) I must believe that God has
given me enough faith to get me through those dry times when I feel as though I
cannot go on without water and enough faith to realize where the water comes
from is truly Jesus and God. (Matt 13:31,32) I need to believe that the
goodness in my heart comes from Him, and that in my own heart comes all sorts
of evils. (Matt 15:19). And the ultimate blasphemy against God? When I
blaspheme the Holy Spirit, the essence and core of God. (Mk 3:29,30) How do I
do that? When I don’t take Him or His Spirit seriously, when I put words in His
mouth, when I think that I can sin and God won’t care, finally when I lead
others astray. I can repent from any of these. But I must truly repent. I must
tell God I want to do things His way and I must then do those things His way. I
must not believe that God is not around and so give Him up for pleasures. (Mark
7:21-23) Jesus says that I can say what I want to against him, after all he is
human, but if I decide to truly blasphemy the Holy Spirit then I am doomed. If
I decide that God is not powerful, that I can put words in His mouth and make
His Spirit speak, when I stop taking Him seriously and thinking I can hide from
Him, then I blaspheme the Spirit and I will not be blessed if I live my life
like that. It is all in my attitude. If I live my life as though in my heart I
have come to oppose and hate the Holy Spirit nothing can save me because I have
in my heart denied the power of God to part the Red Sea, to fell the walls of
Jericho, to bring manna in the wilderness, to keep and maintain the Jews while
they rebuilt the temple under Nehemiah’s and Ezra’s leadership, to raise His
only begotten Son. I may deny Jesus all I want to, that is what Jesus tells me.
(Luke 12:10) But I cannot deny God’s power and say that Jesus lies because he
says he is the Son of God. (John 18:7) not without calling God a liar. I cannot
because I become a hypocrite and a fool every time I sit in the pew. (Rom 2:24)
Either I believe in Him or I don’t. There is no in between. And while my
worship may appear godly, if someone looks to the surface it is not. I have to
come to grips with whether or not I am going to call on Jesus’ name and believe
and stretch those spiritual muscles that God equipped me with or not. (1 Cor
12:3) I must take on His life through His Son, or that too is a denial of the
Spirit. (Col 3:8) I cannot live and breathe one way and worship another way. I
cannot live following the one that exalts himself above God and expect God to
say, “It’s OK.” (2 Thes 2:4). I cannot live my life in sin and expect God to
say I get a one-way ticket to His house. (2 Tim 3:2) If it didn’t work for the
Jews, then how can I think it could work for me? (Heb 10:27) Not only that, but
if I go to worship and tell God how much I love Him and praise Him and want to
serve Him, what happens when I deny a poor person food, or someone in need of
shelter a place to sleep? (James 2:7) It’s pure hypocrisy for me to hold on to
what I’ve got all the while telling God He is the one in control of my life.
(James 3:10) And if I think that I can hide from God or His Son is not coming
back or that He is not listening, all I need to do is to read 2 Peter 3:3-4, which
says, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers
walking after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning.’” I have to hold on to his words that he is coming back and that he
will take me up to meet God finally and at last. I don’t know when, how, or
where. Only God knows when my time is done. I cannot have the attitude of the
beast in Rev 13:1-6 and expect to see God in a happy mood. It won’t happen. I
must not be like those who refused to praise him in Rev 16:9,11,21, nor have
the love of idolatry in Rev 17:3. If I have these attitudes and am mad at God
and then turn my heart around, will it matter to God? Of course it will. God
will take me and remold me and forgive me to become His daughter. I have seen
it happen in a dear friend of mine. She abandoned God for 3 months because she
got tired of serving Him, found Him to be a farce, didn’t love Him anymore and
then her life turned around by seeing another friend die. She was restored, I
believe that with all my heart, and I believe that God restored her. It was a
powerful example to me to stick with the Creator, but also of His great
tenderness and mercy. It also speaks to me of the necessity of my obedience.
Think of Number 21:5,6. God had very little mercy on such an ungrateful people.
In fact serpents bit them in the midst of their grumblings and the population
was reduced. Also look at those who worshipped at the Asherah poles and when
Hezekiah took them down how they grumbled, listening to false teachers. (2
Kings 18:22) My attitude needs to be like Job when his wife told him to “curse
God and die” (Job 2:9) refused to put the blame on the Creator. And then I
think back to Peter who denied the Lord three times, even cursing in the
process. (Matt 26:74; Mk 14:71). And yet God and Jesus had mercy on Him,
because of his penitent heart. Paul was forgiven of His blasphemy against God.
(Acts 26:11) But I am warned, warned of not following deceivers and making up
my own mind what is right, told that I am equipped with the best tool in order
to do so. (2 Thes 2:3,4; Rev 2:9) Even if there are those who will stone me (1
Kings 21:13), falsely accuse me (Matt 26:65), mock and twist my words (Mk
14:58; Lk 22:70,71; John 19:7) my faith that ultimately comes from God must be
strong because it is He who can take my soul from me and leave me as Saul in 1
Samuel 19:9, when not the Spirit of the Lord but an evil spirit descended upon
him. God doesn’t guarantee that when I express my love for Jesus I will be
accepted, even by my own people (Lk 5:21).
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