It's been a while since I've posted, but if you looked through the various notebooks I use on a daily basis, you'd find about 5 or 6 little notes written in various places about ideas for my next blog post. Today I felt it was finally time to write one as within the span of about 45 minutes I thought of 2 or 3 more things I wanted to write about.
Wednesday is pretty much the only day in my week where I get a huge chunk of time between my 10AM class and my next class to just rest. Normally in this time I'll practice for a bit or go to chapel, eat lunch, and then head back to my room to take a rest and maybe watch an episode of one of my shows. Today however, as I got back to my room after chapel and lunch, I found myself completely distracted from the episode of "John Adams" I was watching.
I've had a lot on my mind lately, and as I was sitting there half-watching the show, I just felt like God was calling me to open up and read his word. I found myself in Job, which is where my mind began exploding with ideas of things to write about. God was revealing SO much to me, far to much to write about in just one post. However, as I reached chapter 33, it became very clear to me what I wanted to write about today.
For those that are unfamiliar with the book of Job, in this chapter, Elihu, the younger of Job's friends, finally speaks up after waiting patiently for the older three men to finish what they had to say, and rebukes Job and his friends. He makes note in chapter 32 that he let the 3 older men speak first because he considered them wiser because of their age, but after hearing them speak was reminded that wisdom comes from God, not from age, as he says in verse 8:
"But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. Is it not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right."
And Elihu was indeed wise. This is where I come to what I really wish to talk about. In Job 33: 23-30, Elihu basically gives a prophesy of Jesus, saying:
"If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, and he is merciful to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom; let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor.'; then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness. He sings before men and says: 'I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid me, He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.' Behold, God does all these things twice, three times, with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life."
How awesome are those words! Our God sent us a mediator, a ransom, his own son Jesus, to deliver us from the pit that is our sinful nature...and all we have to do is pray to God and he accepts us! And when we do, God looks on us with shouts of joy!!! HOW COOL IS THAT?! Sorry, this makes me super excited. It's just so awesome, that the one-true great and powerful God of heaven and earth would look on my face with joy! Something Elihu and Job only dreamed about...but we get to have that!
Now as I finished reading that, I found a note I had written under verse 30 that said, "Our God is a God of second chances! 6/6/11!" I wrote this note at Csehy this summer and had forgotten about it until now. I wrote it after a very long struggle with sin and following my own path (something I'm still fighting), but at that time I had finally decided to let God help me through my struggles again. I had pushed him out of my life for quite some time, and though he was still there, that night I finally realized how little I was letting him carry. I do believe that is the same time I decided to start filling out an application to transfer to Roberts Wesleyan College...oh how awesome it is, the way he works things out!!!!
I just found all this stuff really cool, especially those verses in Job 33. I'd encourage you all to go through and read the book of Job, even if you already have before. I find new things in there every time I read it. Hopefully I can find some more time to write about the other things God taught me in my reading today later this week.
Well, now my rest time is up and I have to get to class. Ta for now.
-Erin
