TRUST

Today’s Reading: Job 11-13

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

The gladiatorial games in the Roman Colosseum often included killing Christians. A person becomes like the “God” they serve. The one called “the god of this world” in Scripture is Satan. Those who serve his hateful purposes, regardless of the religion they profess, are worshipping Satan whether they know it or not.

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

Key Verses: Job 13:15a, 20-21

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him…Only two things do not do to me, then I will not hide myself from You: Withdraw Your hand far from me, and let not the dread of You make me afraid.

Job had a clear conscience. Abraham, perhaps Job’s contemporary, “Believed in the Lord, and He (God) accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). This fact is repeated twice in the New Testament (Romans 4:3 & Galatians 3:6). It is reasonable to assume that Job had approximately the same revelation of God as did Abraham. In the key verses for today, we see Job’s total confidence in God’s actions, and also Job’s prayer for God’s constant hand of providence upon him.

Believers in the God of the Bible have been tested severely throughout the ages. The photo above depicts a time when God did allow His people to be killed. It’s been shown that in our time more followers of Jesus have been murdered than all of history.  Muslims are killing Christians and each other in an unprecedented wave of Satan-inspired violence. In all this, God’s people have “TRUST” in God!

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray fervently for strength for Your people in the Middle East and elsewhere who are being killed for Your Name’s sake. May they “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Lord Jesus, You have inspired me to read this prayer from Ephesians 6:10. Thank You for this encouragement. Also I’m thinking of the Apostle Paul who “fought with beasts at Ephesus” (1 Corinthians 15:30-32). Please continue to give to Your people, and to me also, the strength to endure, whatever may come our way. In Your Strong Name I ask these things, Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

The persecution of God’s people and extreme violence is not new to the Middle East. On one occasion, my father, Roy Mainse, arose one morning to find painted on his garage door in Assiut, Egypt, “You are dogs, we will kill you.” He went about his regular missionary duties just the same. God protected him. On another occasion, when the British ruled Egypt, he was in a village where the garrison of British soldiers had been killed. Their bodies were thrown in a cart and pulled through the streets, the killers shouting, “British meat for sale – cheap!” The violence in Egypt, Syria, and in other places is from the same source, Satan himself. My Dad told me of one time when those he had led to Jesus were in the process of erecting a church building. The enemies of the Gospel threatened to destroy it, even as it was being built. The men of the church who were building it put a chair in the middle of the structure and asked Dad to sit in it for several days while they built. Knowing him, he would rather have been building too, but he complied with their request. He said that the would-be attackers were circling the building, but it seemed that a force kept them back. The building was completed. The Scripture says, “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Amen! While the Church of Egypt is a persecuted minority, it is still strong (click here for a report from Brian Stiller which aired on 100 Huntley Street).

Yours in full confidence that Jesus is building His church and all the powers of Hell shall not stop His Church! Amen!!! (Matthew 16:18),

David

P.S. Here is my favourite picture of seven of our eleven great-grandchildren taken four years ago. By the end of the book of Job, we will read that God blessed Job with many more descendants.

Great-grandchildren from left to right – Kaylin Stowell, Autumn Neilson, Noelle Neilson, Aliyah Stowell, James Stowell, Myles Neilson, Jadice Patterson.

P.P.S. Again, here is Crossroads CEO Lorna Dueck’s important message for August…