Jen's Job....a play on words part I

I'm still waiting...which I'm beginning to believe is one of the major lessons for this season in my life. Nothing much has changed about my current situation; in fact, in some ways it has gotten worse. Because I am now entering the fourth month of my 'captivity' I've really been struggling with the purpose behind it all. When I first entered this season of life, it came right on the heels of our family's new years resolution to participate in the "Radical Experiment." It was a significant spiritual covenant for our family and any time you plan to conquer new ground for God you can expect an attack from the enemy. So initially I thought my current life events were an attack. But when things don't change, and God doesn't immediately come to your rescue, it is natural I think to begin to question, "Is this an attack from the enemy or is it a test from God?" I started to think it was much more of a test because it wasn't being resolved quickly. But when another wave came and hit me, and that wave was full of hostility, evil intent, deceit, and fear...I knew who was the force behind this whole situation. This is an attack from my enemy. He's not known as the Accuser, the Father of Lies, and the Serpent for nothing. He owns those names because it's the way he operates and he loves having people on Earth who will do his dirty work for him. Someone I highly respect told me that if something is a test, we should walk in humility. But if it is an attack we should walk boldly and courageous (with the full armor of God). What kind of walk should I have? How does that translate into daily living?
The Holy Spirit reminded me of a well known biblical character that people often debate as to whether his afflictions were an attack or test. The Lord told me to read the story of Job. (is this God's sense of humor since my problem is at work?)  God's word is alive and active (Heb 4:12) and it is amazing how a bible story you have read before will come alive to you when it has something new to speak into your current situation. The story of Job begins by telling us that Job was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. What does blameless mean? Does it mean he didn't sin? No; Romans tell us that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Only Jesus was sinless. Blameless means he didn't intend or set out to sin; yes, he was human and made mistakes and did not live up to everything God's law commands of us. But he feared God and when he saw evil in others, or in himself, he was quick to go the other direction. We are also told he was wealthy in material goods.
In the first scene set for us, the angels come to present themselves to God. Satan also comes into the Lord's presence after "roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
--"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings." 1st Peter 5:7-9
The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant, Job? Okay stop right there. Why would the Lord direct our enemy's attentions towards us? Truth be told, if he is prowling for someone to devour, I'm trying to fly under the radar. I'd rather he pass me by and mess with someone else. Satan responds by reminding God that he has put a "hedge around him and his household...you have blessed the work of his hands"; if you remove that hedge, surely Job will curse God.
This passage pretty much tells us that the enemy can only have access to true believers only if God first allows it; a "hedge of protection" has to be removed first. And the access he is allowed is only as much as God grants. This brings us back to our initial dilemma. Is it an attack or a test? Or.....is it a little of both? I'm going to suggest it is both based on the scripture I have read and what is going on in my own heart during this season of life. I know that I have been attacked. And based on scripture I have to believe that God allowed it to happen, which is the part that is a test. He would only allow it because he knows that ultimately it can be worked for my good. Being given more than I can handle on my own has caused me to press in closer to God than I probably have ever been. I hang on his every word waiting for his will to be revealed.
Like Job, "what I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil." Eventually Job is so overwhelmed emotionally, and physically that he actually just wants God to take his life. He wanted to quit:
--"We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." 2nd Corinth 8-9  This is the scriptural proof that sometimes God does give you more than you handle, but only for a single purpose.
God knows that if through the attack we learn to press closer into him, we ultimately will defeat our enemy by persevering. Persevering through the attacks matures our faith. (James 1) Maturing in our faith ultimately makes our faith more genuine. I remember my pastor's wife used to tell a story that she slept on the top bunk of a bunk bed and always kept falling out. Her mother told her, "don't stay so close to the edge. that way you won't fall out." The same is true for our faith; we have to keep pressing inward.
--"In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 2nd Corinth 8-9
Satan intends for the attack to cause our faith to ultimately weaken and eventually fail. But God knows we have the ability to persevere and that's why he allows it in the first place; rather than cursing God, we end up giving glory to Jesus Christ. So HA! You thought your attack was going to cripple me and discredit my God, but in reality all your doing is making my faith more genuine. So, I thank you.  How's that for boldness?

The Perspective of Passover

Last night I attended my first Passover Seder meal. Our meal was a messianic passover celebration at Destiny Worship Center and the message was powerful. Passover is a celebration to remember the day the Lord delivered the Jews from slavery out of Egypt. The Lord told Moses that he must tell Pharaoh to let his people go so that they can travel into the wilderness to have a feast and worship him. Pharaoh would not listen so God sent ten plagues over the land of Egypt, each one worse than the last. Finally the Lord told Moses that the angel of death would pass through Egypt killing the firstborn of every household, including the first born of all their animals. The people of Israel were told to select a perfect year old lamb without blemish. They were to care for it diligently for four days. Then at twilight they were to slaughter the lamb. Next they were to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of their door frames. That night they were to eat a meal of the lamb meat roasted over a fire, along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.
"This is how you will eat it: with your cloak tucked in your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover." (Exod 12:11)

That night the angel of death passed over Egypt.  Everyone who was inside a house covered by the blood of the lamb were saved. Those who were not experienced the judgment against Egypt, which was death.
What the Jews experience in the natural, we now experience in the Spiritual. God wants to set apart his church so they can worship him as he intended. Egypt represents sin and things in life we have become slave to; Jesus came to set the captive free. Apart from Jesus, sin leads to death both naturally and spiritually. He was the perfect Lamb who was sacrificed for us. When you are covered by his blood, the angel of death and God's judgment will pass over you. God is constantly working in our lives to accomplish this goal, both through warnings and world events. Sometimes we get so caught up the plagues of our lives, that we lose perspective. I know this happens to me a lot. I am so distracted by my current situational afflictions that I lose perspective about what really matters. There is a lot of suffering in this world....there is a lot of suffering in my town, my workplace..my peers. It distracts us from the bigger picture and what really matters. Life or death.  I forget what is coming for those who don't know him. I am surrounded  by people who don't know him. We lose the urgency that  we need to have. Notice how God told the Israelite to eat their meal...as if they were getting ready to run out the door.  We need some urgency.

“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.  On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.  Remember Lot’s wife!  Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.  I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” (Luke 17)

This week's cover of Time Magazine asked this question:  What if there is no hell? 

This is a really scary article to me. There is a place called hell. It is real and not somewhere that we should want any one to go. God did not create hell to put people there. He created it as a place to put the devil and his angels when they rebelled against God in heaven. It is the only place that God is not...it is dark, terrifying, full of torment and lasts for eternity. If someone chooses a life without God and specifically the sacrifice of Jesus' blood to save them, hell is the only alternative place for them to go. It is the natural consequence of not choosing God...you go to the only place He is not.  God doesn't want anyone to go there: "For God so loved the world, that he sent his one and only son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
There is a final judgment of God coming. We should not get so lost in current afflictions that we forget to try and get as many people into the house protected by the blood of the lamb as possible. It has helped me to remember that the things in life that are plaguing me are ALL for this purpose.
Make sure you invite someone to church this weekend for Easter.