Coro Baptist Church

James exhorts us to be patient and not cave in when life throws us a curve ball. He provides some vivid examples of what it means to be steadfast in the light of Christ's coming, no matter what we face. We may struggle with the shock and despair that suffering brings and wonder what on earth God is doing. As with Job, the reason behind our suffering may be hidden from us, but we need not doubt the Lord's purpose nor His compassion and mercy even in the darkest of times. This is not an encouragement to passive resignation. It is an invitation to exercise active faith – a faith that is not closed off to the powerful action of believing prayer whereby even the sick may be healed.

1 Peter is a letter written to Christians spread across several regions. Folks who have been chosen, destined, and sanctified by the Father and Spirit to be obedient to Jesus. While many are aware of the blessing of such a calling from the Lord, the Apostle Peter knows that it comes with a cost. It is not for nothing that Peter refers to the church as Exiles, and spends a great deal of time in the letter addressing the suffering of the church. To call Jesus Lord and live accordingly results in the contempt of the world and various trials in life. How do we respond to such a foretelling of the future? It is easy for the believer to dwell on the difficulty and bleakness of such a hostile and isolating future. It is easy to be overcome with hopelessness, insecurity, and fear. It is also common not to know how to comfort brothers and sisters of the faith when they are faced with such bleak prospects. Peter addresses these very issues by offering believers a different way to look at their future. Not denying the seriousness of suffering, Peter would have the church set all their hope for the future on the grace of Jesus Christ, and the blessings he has bought and secured for us, to be revealed on the day of the Lord. Blessings that are a new birth to a living hope, an eternal inheritance of salvation kept for us in heaven, and a joy that endures every trial. Peter shows that on that final day when Christ appears, even our suffering will be revealed to have served a purpose, the testing and refining of faith, which results in the praise, glory, and honour of Christ.

Here the Apostle is giving a passage chock full of assurances for us the believers– assurances given under the backdrop of suffering in this life. We live in a sinful world, opposed to God, where the creation and we with it groan, even the Holy Spirit within us groans, as we await the final revealing of the glorified community. For this is not our home. We will be with God in the renewed creation, glorified like the Son. What is the way to glorification, it is suffering. As those who are joined to the Son, Jesus, we will all suffer too. And God will work all things out for good for those who love Him, a passage we know well and often quote. But do things always work out for "the best"? We know that they don't and know great pain in the midst of trial. To quote Ray "So what is the good that all things are working towards?" It is the being conformed to the image of the radiant Son of God, being prepared for an eternal weight of glory, of a type and manner that we cannot imagine. Is suffering the cost of glorification? No, but it is way.

After spending four months in our 'Lessons From Job' series, I wonder what we have learned. I do hope and pray we have learned something of God– his sovereignty, his justice, his love. What might we now say to a friend or loved one going through a difficult time? What comfort and counsel might we offer to those in deep anguish? I wonder what Job's three friends would tell their families when they return home after their time with Job? And especially after this final chapter in the story? They spoke wrongly of God, and yet still the Lord provides for them a path of restoration through sacrifice and intercession, just as he has for us in his Son. Even in this final 'lesson' there is much to learn.

This is the last of five studies on the topic Unstoppable Divine Blessings. Our primary focus is in the letter to the Ephesians 1:3-14 which begins, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. These blessings in Christ are revealed to have been planned before the foundation of the world and are many. These blessings are in Christ bring us to the place of seeking His kingdom over any other and cause us to praise Him for His glorious grace. The study concludes by highlighting the seven beatitudes contained in the Revelation of St John the Divine. The final beatitude describes those who have had their robes washed in the blood of the Lamb as blessed with the right to the tree of life and to enter the city by the gates where we joyful worship our triune God.

Behold Behemoth! Consider Leviathan! No matter how big and strong you might think you are; no matter how good and righteous, blameless and upright, or clever and wise you think you are, none of us are able to save ourselves. This is the lesson Job learns at the end of the Book of Job. The blameless and upright man repents, and puts himself in the dust and ashes. It is a lesson we all need to learn time and time again. We don't have an arm like God. He is God, and we are not. His arm alone is mighty and able to save. And in his love and his grace, he does just that! These things are "too wonderful for me, which I did not know." But now we do! What strength! What love! What grace! What a faithful covenant Father we have in the Lord God.

This is the fourth of five studies on the topic Unstoppable Divine Blessings, this time considering Jesus' teaching in the Beatitudes which appear to be in tension with Old Covenant (Mosaic) prosperity blessings. The approach is to begin with Mosaic promises of blessings in their homeland that were conditional on heart obedience. We need to see Jesus Christ as the only obedient Israelite and who is deserving of such blessing yet became curse for His redeemed people. We can then consider His teaching on blessing that rouses in us what is needed to renew our hearts to love God as He leads us to the everlasting homeland.

Where is wisdom found? Job has been looking for the wisdom needed to place his suffering in the world. His search for wisdom has been in seeking an answer to the question of "why?" Not alone, Job's friends have sought to help him out with their own answers. Yet, wisdom has eluded Job. This week, God makes Himself known. Speaking to Job from within a whirlwind, God will reveal to Job that the wisdom he is seeking isn't found in knowing the "why" of his suffering, but "who" is sovereign over it. Intent on revealing Himself as sovereign creator and sustainer, God asks Job question after question, leading him from the foundation of the world to the life of a majestic eagle. Thus, Job will begin to grow in his wisdom, through a deepening fear of the Lord, seeing his own life, the times of blessing and suffering, as in the hands of an awesome God. Pray that, like Job, we might all bear witness to the immeasurable greatness of God's power, and in that knowledge have wisdom for all seasons of life.

This is the third of five studies on the topic of Unstoppable Divine Blessings. It focuses in on the blessings contained in the Aaronic High Priestly prayer, a familiar and often recited benedictory blessing. Do we understand what it means for the Lord to bless you by keeping you, to graciously make His face shine upon you, and for you to know peace with Him when He lifts His countenance upon you? God's plan to bless Israel, His firstborn son, is revealed through their redemption and covenant. The blessings brought through sacrificial atonement are highlighted in the Aaronic high priestly blessing. It is a prayer, given by God, that points to the efficacious prayer of our High Priest who always lives to make intercession for us.

Last week Wayne introduced us to the young, angry man who name is Elihu. His name means, 'He is my God' and he is intent on telling Job who his God is and how he acts towards us mere mortals. But sadly, Elihu does not truly know his God. In fact, he admits, "God is great, and we know him not… The Almighty – we cannot find him." Elihu knows only of a deity who is distant and indifferent to us. A God who has no regard at all for the proud. But why then does the Lord come and speak to Job? Why is he mindful of us? Why does visit and speak to us? Why does he come to be with us in his Son - Immanuel? All of this suggests, not a distant and indifferent God but one who longs to know us and to be known by us, one who loves us and draws near to those who draw near to him in faith. He is my God. I pray he is yours too.

This is the second of five studies on the topic Unstoppable Divine Blessing. This study focusses on the blessings given to Abraham and Israel and their spiritual significance for believers today. It highlights God's redemptive favour through the central blessing of relational presence, alongside the blessings of place (homeland), people (offspring/nationhood), purpose and protection. The promises to Abraham are received by faith. Those of faith in Abraham's seed, Jesus Christ, are the spiritual descendants of Abraham and the "Israel of God". Those in Christ are the recipients of the covenanted blessings in His new creation. In the now, and in the yet to come, they are fulfilled more gloriously in Christ than any alternative prosperity could hope for.

Chapter 32 introduces us to Elihu, a young man who burns with anger at Job and his three friends. He thinks he has the perfect wisdom to settle the argument between them and he is busting to have his say. And he certainly lets it rip! So does he have the irrefutable answer for Job's situation? Sadly, no. His passion and self-confidence do not guarantee wisdom. While Elihu says a few things differently to the others, he still shares the shortcomings of their strict justice/retributive view of God. Lacking a covenantal understanding of God, Elihu paints God as one who may save us from destruction by terrorising us in our dreams as we sleep or by inflicting us with immense pain. He also sees God as inaccessible and so rigid in his exercise of justice that he considers Job to be blasphemous in seeking an explanation from God for his suffering. This is a far cry from the true God revealed to us in the Son, who loved us, entered our world of suffering and gave his life for us. God does speak to us in our suffering, not to terrify us but to draw us into a deeper appreciation of his own suffering for us as the cost of his atonement for sin. So it is through suffering we come to know more of the love of the Triune God for us and are led to worship him.

Whilst God blesses all of creation to flourish, People are specifically blessed by God's Word spoken directly to them. They are blessed to flourish in this blessed Place; blessed with a wonderful Purpose to Edenize the world and, most importantly to obediently walk in His Presence. In the Fall (disobedience, distrust, sin, autonomy) Man chose death, barring the way into Eden … but God has an unstoppable plan to bless through His Word.

This week, Job offers up his final defence to his friends and God. He reveals that the greatest longing of his heart is a restored intimate friendship with God. This isn't just a prize in the eyes of Job; it is the most fantastic prize any person could ever desire, let alone have. A relationship of glory and enjoyment between God and a person. It is a longing to walk with God that humanity has had from creation and will one day have again. Like all great treasures though, it can only be acquired at great cost. The cost of extreme humility, unanswered prayer, unjust suffering, and perfect obedience. Job's story is a foreshadowing of Jesus'. Jesus' humility, unanswered prayers, unjust suffering, and perfect obedience, and his reward of the ultimate prize, intimate friendship and unity with God. For Job and us, the cost for this treasure has already been paid for by our Lord Jesus Christ, and given freely to us through grace and faith. Such a prize is ours already in Him. The humility, unanswered prayer, and unjust suffering we may experience as believers are God's work in making the sufferings of Christ complete in us. He is waking us up to the glorious prize of friendship with God that we can boldly claim in Jesus' perfect obedience, that we might rejoice more fully in it even today!

In our sinful depravity we may well deserve the moniker of "maggots" that Bildad attributes to us, but that is not how God treats us. We may well be small in comparison to his infinite majesty and might as Job argues but the Lord makes much of us, having made us in his image and likeness. More than that, he has made us for his glory and speaks to us as his own children, telling us mere "worms" where it is we can find true wisdom - wisdom which equates to a true knowledge of God himself, and therefore a true knowledge of ourselves. Do you know where to find this wisdom?