Tuesday, August 18, 2015

A BIG QUESTION

Today’s Reading: Job 14-15

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

 

As you enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher you can climb a set of stone stairs on the right. This stairway, according to the Orthodox tradition, leads to Calvary (Golgotha), regarded as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. It is the most lavishly decorated part of the church. The main altar belongs to the Greek Orthodox, which contains The Rock of Calvary (12th Station of the Cross). The rock can be seen under glass on both sides of the altar, and beneath the altar there is a hole believed to be the place where the Cross was raised.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

 

Key Verses: Job 14:14a

If a man dies, shall he live again?

 

The answer to that question is “YES!” Job was a man of great faith. Although he did not understand all that was happening to him and had a lot of questions for God about his troubles, his overall trust in God never wavered.

Job did not have the advantage of a completed Bible as we have. He did not know the Words of Jesus promising eternal life to all who believe in Him (John 3:16) or the assurance Jesus gave to Martha, as recorded in John 11:25-44. But Job did know that God is a just God. He knew that someday he would stand before God. Praise God that the truth of which Job had a partial revelation is now revealed in completeness by Jesus!

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I have questions about the timing of the resurrection to come, which You promised. I have questions about my time here on earth. However, You have chosen to ask me to simply trust You for my future. I pray for grace and patience as my daily portion. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

In past blogs I’ve used pictures of what is known as “The Garden Tomb.” In our tours to Israel we have visited both the Garden Tomb and the great church building (pictured above), which is believed by many to cover the places of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection. I am not dogmatic about the exact place where these events took place, but I am dogmatic that they did take place!!! Throughout the years, I’ve stood beside many graves, watched as the body was lowered into the ground, and quoted the Words of Jesus to Martha about the resurrection to come.

There’s a story in my new book about Win Johnson’s funeral. This was my very first time conducting a funeral, and it was a life-changer for me. I invite everyone to read it in “This Far By Faith.” Here’s how to get your copy and order copies for others.

Yours for complete confidence in the “YES” answer to Job’s question,

David

Just inside the entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is The Stone of Anointing, also known as The Stone of Unction, which tradition claims to be the spot where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea. However, this tradition is only attested since the Crusader Era, (eleventh century)and the present stone was added in the 1810 reconstruction.

18 thoughts on “Tuesday, August 18, 2015

  1. Thank You, dear Lord, for by Your example, and the blessing of the Holy Bible, we stand on our faith and it is renewed, constantly. You are our Redeemer, our Comforter, our Saviour. We are nothing without You but everything with You. To You, be all the power and the glory and the praise! In Jesus’ precious Name. Amen! Blessings dearest saints.

    “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
    My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25-26 ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you;
    there is no Rock like our God.'” 1 Samuel 2:2

    Jesus Messiah, Chris Tomlin
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwJzTV1uurU

  2. In the picture of the Anointing Stone,I see an image on the left of Jesus praying.Was this done by the camera or is it a hologram?

  3. I too see the Lord in prayer in the second picture.

    Today I have surgery on my eyes and I cover your prayers.

    Thank you for our reading and prayer today Pastor David.

    Praise God for His Word.

    Job suffered much but endured!!!

    Thank you Beverlee for your encouraging links. Blessings to all.

  4. Lovely family photos David and Norme-Jean! See the photo of Jesus as well. Thank you for praying for me on Facebook Eleanor, Kathie, Audrey and Sah. The Lord is blessing there and I am delighted about it. God bless you. Thank you Jesus that you are the Resurrection and the Life! Admire Job’s tenacity and faith in God through all his trials! Appreciate this blog as it provides inspiration, order and fellowship in my life to name a few.

  5. Good morning blog friends,

    I’m reading a book by Randy Alcorn titled “Heaven”. It actually arouses more questions in me than he attempts to answer with references to scripture… but I do like his comments on will Heaven be boring? Here is what he says:

    Our belief that Heaven will be boring betrays a heresy – that God is boring. There’s no greater nonsense. Our desire for pleasure and the experience of joy come directly from God’s hand. He made our taste buds, adrenaline, sex drives, and the nerve endings that convey pleasure to our brains. Likewise, our imaginations and our capacity for joy and exhilaration were made by the very God we accuse of being boring. Are we so arrogant as to imagine that human beings came up with the idea of having fun?

    “Won’t it be boring to be good all the time?” someone asked. Note the assumption: sin is exciting and righteousness is boring. We’ve fallen for the devil’s lie. His most basic strategy, the same one he employed with Adam and Eve, is to make us believe that sin brings fulfillment. However, in reality, sin robs us of fulfillment. Sin doesn’t make life interesting: it makes life empty. Sin doesn’t create adventure; it blunts it. Sin doesn’t expand life; it shrinks it. Sin’s emptiness inevitably leads to boredom. When there’s fulfillment, when there’s beauty, when we see God as He truly is – an endless reservoir of fascination – boredom becomes impossible.

    Those who believe that excitement can’t exist without sin are thinking with sin-poisoned minds. Drug addicts are convinced that without their drugs they can’t live happy lives. In fact – as everyone else can see – drugs make them miserable. Freedom from sin will mean freedom to be what God intended, freedom to find far greater joy in everything. In Heaven we’ll be filled – as Psalm 16:11 describes it – with joy and eternal pleasures.

    …needed to share that…

    Have a blessed day blog friends in Christ

    • Thanks so much for sharing that, David, because you reminded me I have that book, and have yet to read it! A prompting from the Holy Spirit–I just pulled it out of my bookshelf. Oh, indeed, our pleasure in heaven and ecstasy we will share outshines any sinful pleasure on earth, a hundred-fold. What a joy it will be–endless eternity! God bless you, dear brother-in-Christ!

    • A truly Holy Spirit inspired insight, thanks for sharing.

      I don’t know what heaven will be like, but I do know in the here and now, the moments I have experience the most profound happiness, excitement and fulfillment have been when I have been given glimpses of being in the direct presence of God.

      I have actually told God a number of times to stop it because I could not bear the flood or the intensity of that reality– so if I felt that in mere moment cannot fathom how a eternity of being directly there could compare to anything we could find in this world.

      • thanks Donna for sharing, I also have had those moments and it makes me nearly faint with joy because I know it is all God’s going….I get goosebumps, and tingling all over and I just know it is from God, and my heart is racing, and it has no boundaries, it could be when I hear a lovely song, when I look at nature and watch how nature works, the birds, I have a bird bath/fountain and to watch the birds and how they enter the place and things they do, it takes my breath!
        I nealy faint when I remember how God removed smokes/alcohol from in a FLASH! My friend Eva spoke these words, we have the Holy Spirit that enables us to do more than we ever dreamt! I thanked her and said she was right and I threw smokes into the lake (because we went down to he beach after an Easter service April 16, 1995) so that was it! 10 days later I broke my leg and God turned that into me learning to swim and; well, you guessed it; that was it!
        I sometimes feel I do more fainting than anything else because of His Glory being revealed in my life!

  6. come on people! How come I can see 2 people praying, a man and a woman! what is all this? I’m getting goosebumps!!!!!!
    I sure do like all the words of encouragment by all the people who respond! Very smart people blog and very good insight from everyone! It’s really a priviledge to be part of this blog!
    Rarely does it happen BUT I DID NOT GO SWIMMING TONIGHT! I feel all topsy-turvy inside, 1st quarter of the full moon starting!
    Lord God I have laid out he desires of my heart to You! I pray for You to bring completion of my dreams! Thank you Lord God, AMEN
    Blessings to everyone!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.