Southern Cross Presbyterian Church

It’s so easy to just go along living life without questioning whether what we’re doing is what matters most. I’ve just had 2 weeks holiday and it was a really good opportunity to refocus and try to examine how I use my time.

Being a Dad, one fo the things that should matter most to me – because it matters so much to God – is that I help my kids to grow up to know God – the God of the Bible. As a family, we’ve always read the Bible together in the evenings but I was recently convicted of the need to start spending some time with my son Hamish each day, encouraging him to read God’s word as a daily habit.

To help us with this I bought a book called “Beginning with God” (Hamish calls it his “sticker book”) which is basically daily Bible reading notes for preschoolers. It takes us about 10 minutes each morning to go through it. Each day involves prayer, a starter question, reading the Bible a sticker representing what we read, and something to think about during the day and catch up about at the end of the day.

I love it. And best of all so does Hamish. I’m praying that God will use this special time to make himself real to my little boy so that he will grow up to be a man who builds his life firmly on Jesus and his word.

Job 37:1-40:5

Brace yourself like a man!

Image standing before God after you have questioned his character.

As the Lord speaks it exposes Job’s ignorance.

Job has doubted that God consistently rules the world in rigtheousness.

Yet here we see Gods wise provision, his proective care and amazing wisdom.

Job must now decide does he trust God?

Will he accuse God of failing to govern the world? 

Does the Lord rule in a chaotic manner?

Have you shared any of those questions? Have you ever questioned the Lords ability to love? 

Then embrace the love of God:

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Job 27:1- 30:31

Job 28 is an amazing little read.

It kicks off (vs1-11) emphasizing humans amazing cleverness with respect to discovering and uncovering earth’s riches.

Yet inspite of this ingenuity there are some things humanity just does not know (vv.12-19) true wisdom they cannot discover, this most valuable treasure alludes them.

God alone shares the monopoly on this precious resource (vv.20-28) and in his mercy speaks into our world the place of wisdom:

28 And he said to man,

‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,

and to shun evil is understanding.’ “

Job 9:25- 13:28

Job is an amazing book. We begin and end on earth. In between we swing between earth and heaven. What happens on earth is a direct result of what happens in heaven. But Job is unable to enter the heavens to approach God and find out why things happen as they do. Even as God appears at the end, heavenly secrets are not disclosed. Job has to live without knowing the secret councils of God. Earthbound Job has to be content with limited knowledge.

This causes great anguish for him. He wants to take God into the court room so he can present his case. But this prospect ends with him in despair 10:11-22.

There is a long road ahead for Job. With his limited knowledge he will ask searching questions but must not slip into being too presumptuous. He seeks an arbiter in 9:33-35. He will need one but not the kind he is suggesting.