GOD’S QUESTIONS?
Today’s Reading: Job 40
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
It was in this area of the Jordan River that Jesus was baptized. Looking from the Jordanian side, you can see the Greek Orthodox Church in the distance. Five kilometres beyond the church is Jericho. Today’s reading says of the Behemoth creature, “The Jordan gushes into his mouth” (Job 40:23b). This may have been a description 0f a brontosaurus dinosaur who, so it is estimated, could grow to a weight of 30 tons.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verse: Job 40:7-8
Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me: Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?
Some day at the final judgement, God will ask the questions. This may be one of those questions. It is often said, “If God is good and all powerful, why does He let people die in war, famine, and disease?” Our answer is found in the key verse. People try to justify themselves or our fellow humans by making God out to be the culprit. Take the current events in Syria and iraq for example. In order to make the killing stop, God would have to violate His own moral standards and rob Isis leaders of their free will. They pray unwittingly to Satan, and the result is that they become destroyers like Satan. Free choices, the very qualities that make us human, are ours to make, and thus we suffer the consequences. The 20th century saw the greatest number (millions) of people in human history murdered. Perhaps 10 million perished as a result of what was called National Socialism in Europe (Hitler), and as many as 100 million in Russia, the Ukraine, China, Cambodia and other countries through Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and others (Communism). The undergirding belief common to both was that lower forms of life should be wiped off the earth so that more highly evolved people could thrive in a socialist paradise.
Dress the holocausts up however we will, it was the belief that we will never stand before God in judgment (either He does not exist or as one of the fathers of such thinking taught, “God is dead”), along with the belief in “the survival of the fittest,” which was the genesis of such tremendous evil!!! People who claim to believe that they are answerable to the great Creator of the Universe could not commit such atrocities without trembling in fear.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I pray that increasingly I will fear You in great awe and respect, so that I’ll live my life honouring You, Your creation, and all the people on earth. Because You, Lord Jesus, took judgment for evil upon Yourself as You suffered on the Cross, I am justified in Your sight, O Holy God. Thank You for changing everything, Lord Jesus! In Your Name, Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
As a boy I was intrigued by dinosaur skeletons which we would visit in Canada’s national museum in Ottawa. When I made it clear that I believed God created these amazing creatures, I was ridiculed by my teacher. I felt like saying, “Pick on someone your own size,” but I did not believe I could defend my position at the time. I would have loved to have shown my science teacher our Crossroads Creation Series, which aired on television across the Soviet Union about 25 years ago. I’ll try to attach one of these episodes called “Dinosaurs and Man” (click here). The set of 13 shows fell into the hands of the head of the Russian Academy of Science, and he in turn gave them to the head of Radio and Television Moscow. I received a fax asking me for permission to air them across all 15 republics. I faxed back to the effect that I could’nt believe that the USSR, the centre for the promotion of world atheism, would do such a thing. I asked for an affidavit and a formal contract before I would believe them and agree to their request. Within a week they complied and carried our series in prime time for 13 weeks from January through the end of March,1989. They were released as the first Christian-produced telecasts ever carried on USSR television. Forgive me if I’m repeating myself, but my mind is still boggled at the magnitude of this development. This resulted in my invitation to preach the very first ever conference of church leaders from all 15 Soviet republics in Moscow. A mobile TV production truck, which Crossroads donated to a newly created Russian ministry, covered the conference, but that is another story far too complicated for this blog (I think I covered it in my “This Far By Faith” book).
Yours for the greater glory of our great Creator God!
David
P.S. The descriptions of unusual creatures in today’s and tomorrow’s readings cannot be anything other than Dinosaurs. Today’s sounds like a brontosaurus (the Behemoth, Job 40:15-24). Dinosaurs are so exciting to children that my great-grandson, James Stowell, wore a dinosaur hat. I find it difficult to resist sharing such pictures with you. Here it is…
Apatosaurus, also known as the Brontosaurus, possibly fits the unusual description of the Behemoth in today’s reading.
thanks David that was so interesting and worth reading and seeing the video.
Incredible, indeed, David, as the scripture explains the Behemoth. Praise God for your work bringing the ministry to Russia; thinking of all those who would never have known Jesus! I am looking forward to seeing you and Norma-Jean at the 50+ retreat at Wesley Acres. Saints, I am asking for prayer, today. My back surgery (laminectomy at L4/5) will be sometime between 6-8 weeks; I am wanting it sooner than that and am praying for a cancellation; the surgery without complications and repairing all that needs to be done to bring healing and restoration to my lumbar region. God knows the best timing and I lift it up to Him. Thank you for holding me in your prayers.
“Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth…” (1 Sam. 3.9)
September, Echoes of Eternity, Helms
“Speak, Lord, in the stillness,
While I wait on Thee;
Hushed my heart to listen,
In expectancy.
Speak, O blessed Master,
In this quiet hour;
Let me see Thy face, Lord,
Feel Thy touch of power.
For the words Thou speakest,
“They are life” indeed;
Living bread from heaven,
Now my spirit feed!
All to Thee is yielded,
I am not my own;
Blissful, glad surrender,
I am Thine alone.
Speak, Thy servant heareth,
Be not silent, Lord;
Waits my soul upon Thee
For the quickening word.
Fill me with the knowledge
Of Thy glorious will;
All Thine own good pleasure
In Thy child fulfill.
Like a watered garden,
Full of fragrance rare,
Lingering in Thy presence,
Let my life appear.”
E. May Grimes Crawford, 1864-1927
Speak, Lord, in the stillness
https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/809
Great prayer song, Beverlee. Will remember you in prayer.
Thank you dearest Beverlee for that beautiful poem and I will lift you up before Our Mighty and Healing Lord blessings kUpon you dear sister in Christ.
thanks Beverlee…will remember your request before The Lord…and thank you David for your dedication…and The Lord’s faithfulness 🙂
I’ll pray your prayer over and over again today David. Amen AND Amen!! I revelled in the description of the Behemoth-how fantastical! James makes an awesome dinosaurface- I can hear him growl.
I’m holding you up in prayer Beverlee continuously until the ordeal is done and yes thank God for His perfect timing! Blessings fellow boggers!
Lord Jesus, in Thy Stillness, grant all the desires of Beverlee’s heart today supernaturally for Thy Glory and for the restored health of our dear sister, in Your Name. Amen. Love you Beverlee and will keep you in prayer.
That is an interesting post today David and praise God for all the changed lives in Russia because of your videos. I remember teaching about dinosaurs when I was teaching in Quebec and the children making plastisene models of them.. Glad I wasn’t teaching error as they talk about the behemoth in Job.
A word of encouragement to Beverlee Kay, my husband husband had back surgery (laminectomy) a year ago, and is doing much better. The Lord blessed the hands of the surgeons and blessed the process of healing.
He, the Lord, will not leave or forsake you.
Blessings to all the bloggers!
I pray that God will watch over you and provide the necessary surgery and healing that you need Beverlee! Thank you David, for being such a faithful servant of the Lord. Spasibo (thank you in Russian)!
Thanks for the link , what a great little document on dinosaurs and evolution
Please pray for a nephew named Jeremy. He is bitter after two failed marriages and rejects all advice to seek the Lord; hence being a real challenge for me on Facebook. He had earlier experiences with the Lord and blames his problems on Him. Thanking you so much.
Dear Lord sometimes you have to break us to put us back together and so I pray for Jeremy who is struggling and seems to blame you Father. Help him to understand that You alone can start to heal his hurt. I pray Ger will receive the words from you to start this healing process. In the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen
I
Am praying for you Bev. May God heal you … Iknow what a back ache is
like .Am praying for a complete healing amen…..R….
you are in my prayers Beverlee and so is Jeremy
Lianne Hogg
Lord God I pray that you open a door for Beverlee’s surgery to take place at an earlier than has been set and that all will go well. I pray for your intervention on behalf of this need. I pray this in Your Name Jesus!!
Thank you Pastor David for that video and for the pictures you included in this blog. Praise God for the truth the was brought into Russia through that video.
What a Personal, Gracious and Faithful God we have One who makes Himself known; He does to Job, and to us His children.
Thank you Irene.
What an amazing opportunity you had David (to preach in Russia).
Great and informative reading today. Thank you Pastor David for your input and sharing you wonderful pictures with us. Never realized the Behometh could be a dinosaur! Sure fits the description!
Blessings fellow saints
Children, today, are being challenged in their belief in our schools. Lord, as you have kept David in your care, keep the little children as lights in their classrooms, protected by the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. My heart cries for them. Keep them strong in You through Jesus Christ, our saviour.
Ger, ask your precious nephew in a comfortable conversation what happened to him when he was little? He may ask “what do you mean? and you can respond by saying :”It seems that you are hurting and I’m just wondering what could have happened and who might have hurt you and I’m here if you ever want to talk”
I’m 1000% convinced he’s been when he was a child, and he’s acting out now and God has put you, Ger, into his life to be there in case he starts talking……you have to remember that it may take severla nudges from you before he will talk, but your care very much for him, and as I said, God has put you in his life for a reason……so, Lord God here is Ger, here is her hephew Jeremy, with Your help Lord, may Jeremy be healed through this relationship, in Jesus Name We Pray AMEN!