Speak the Truth or Go Home

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7 After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. " (Job 42)

     God told Job's friends that He was angry with them because they misrepresented the Almighty.  In a nut shell, Job's friends told him that all of the suffering he was going through was because God was punishing Him for His sins.  They were playing the blame game.  Unfortunately, this goes on today in the Body of Christ--a place where it certainly does not belong.  If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God will not ever punish you for your sins. God is just, and it would be unjust for Him to punish a believer in Jesus Christ. Why? Because God has punished all of our sins at the cross. There is His justice. Not only were our sins punished, but they were taken away--the root of forgiveness means to send away; we are separated from our sins once for all.  It is a blasphemy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to tell a child of God that God is punishing them.  "BUT....." I know the BUT....Yes, people will suffer because of their own sins and  mistakes, but it is at their own hand they are suffering, not God's.  This is the very reason God hates sin - it hurts His children.  It never ends good. This is a different matter entirely. However, there are also times when we suffer in the world simply because we live in a sin-cursed world in sin-cursed bodies. There is a promise from Jesus that I don't see people jumping up and down in the ailes claiming. He said, "In this world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) It is in these times that we need the comfort of Almighty God knowing that He has promised to work all things together for the good--that right in the midst of it, God is for us and not against us; that He is molding and shaping us inwardly conforming us to the image of His Son.  To walk through these trials, we need to hear the truth about God, and to help others through their suffering, we need to speak the truth about God, and the Truth is Jesus; and the truth is no matter what it looks like or feels like, no matter what your circumstances say, and in spite of your pathetic performance, God sees you as holy and blameless in His sight, free from accusation, hidden in the cleft of the Rock Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:28, Epesians 1, Colossians 3)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Got it Bill,Very good article well written. Bless Bob
February 6, 2013 at 9:14 PM
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