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   Random Verse    God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble! (Psalm 46:1)

   Random Quote    There is NO such thing as a single lie
  A Lesson From Job   There are times in our lives that we might have a bad day.  There may even be seasons in our lives that we struggle and have concerns.  Those aren’t the times I’m speaking about.  I’m talking about times in our lives when we go through devastation.  Let’s face it, we all go through times like that at least once in our lives.  Life is simply hard and bad things happen.  Many of us have gone through times in our lives when we face real seasons of pain and despair.  Maybe physical injury, a hard hit financially that is not easily recovered from, or even the loss of a loved one.  You may have heard these times called “deserts” in our lives.  We use this term because as we walk along our life journey we come across places that are uncomfortable, but a desert is associated with great pain and suffering on a grand scale.  Deserts are lands we must travel through where we face hardships, pains, struggles and even possible personal peril to get to that place on the other side.  Back to that familiar place of comfort and peace.  I’ve been in that place where you are enjoying a comfortable life and suddenly you feel thrown into such turmoil that you begin to question yourself and God.  This lesson is about my personal journey through a great desert in my own life and an example of one person in scripture who traveled a desert with personal character so great that his story is recorded for all time.  
For me, my desert came with the loss of a job.  Doesn’t sound like much, however it began a long period of trial and struggle that changed my life and character for good.  I once had a very comfortable job that was five minutes from our house.  It allowed me to go home for lunch each day and be with my family in ways most people don’t have.  After eating lunch with my children I got to lay them down for their naps every work day, what a joy it was.  To be honest, I really didn’t have very much responsibility in my job, didn’t take much responsibility for my home life and wasn’t taking a leadership roll in my spiritual life either.  Life was a very comfortable, easy and simple.  Than one day my life was ripped away.  
Our company was bought out.  I remember it well.  It was a normal day like all others for all of us.  Then we were one by one called into a conference room and each told we no longer had a job.  During these devastating meetings my wife called and told me that a national tragedy was happening and that our nation was under attack.  That day was 9/11.  My job was in customer service and engineering for industry, closely tied to oil and natural gas markets.  9/11 destroyed the US stock market and most companies suspended hiring until the country recovered and we all knew what was going to be the result of the attacks.  The job market across the US as well as Wichita was frozen. I looked everywhere every day searching for a job and many said they wanted to hire me, but to give them six months or so for things to settle down.  I didn’t have six months, I needed to feed my family and our health insurance was running out.  I had bills to pay and a family to care for.  

Following this very depressing time of looking for a job and finding nothing, I received a call one day out of the blue from a company I hadn’t applied for offering me what sounded like a dream job in management with a huge international company.  I thought, “Thank God!”  The desert was over.  God had brought a huge blessing through opening up this position I couldn’t have even hoped for.  However there was one catch, the job was in St Louis.  Seven hours from home and family.  Still I believed that I had now made it through the desert and into a place of peace.  How wrong I was.  It had just begun.  
I took the job and we moved to a city five times the size of any I had ever known.  My office was an hour and a half away from home.  The only houses we could afford in this huge city were in the very farthest outskirts.  Even then the neighborhood was different.  The lifestyle was different.  People acted like they really didn’t like each other at all, there was competition for everything from jobs to your place in the traffic jam ahead.  My world was totally different than what I had known before.  To get by, every household was a dual income home.  Most all wives had their own career but mine so our income base was greatly smaller than most.  The cost of living was very different from Wichita and so was the life.  As I arrived the first day at work they pointed me to a dark corner in a metal shop and said that is my desk, my comfortable office with a window was gone.  To get to work I usually left in the dark of morning and due to traffic got home in the dark of night.  My new life in a dark corner of a stinky valve repair shop was very different from the one I had and now I was to handle customer complaints.  I had come from a position of helping people, working from that nice office that was close to home and now God had placed me in a job that being cussed out was a daily event, the atmosphere around my desk was dark, dirty and smelled of burnt weld slag.  I was unable to be around my children due to my long commute taking away even my little bit of time in the evenings before bed.  My mind struggled all the time with thoughts like; “did I  hear God say to go?”, “did I make the biggest mistake of my life coming here?”  I hated traffic but lived in it daily.  Due to my emotions traffic jams even played on my emotions and made me feel helpless and like my family was growing up without me and I was trapped here in traffic, unable to move and be a part of my family’s lives.  After several months my emotional state stunk.  I got depressed.  I began to ask God, “What did I do so wrong that you are cursing me like this?” and “What are you trying to teach me, tell me and I’ll change, please?”  But God refused to speak or even open a door to change my situation.  He was silent.  I lived in this torment for almost two years daily struggling with my life.  That was the biggest desert I had experienced in my life and I had been through some big ones.  I didn’t know why God had brought me to this place and I quickly began to resent God.  I began to think God was either unjustly punishing me for some sin or He had made a gross mistake.  A bad choice for my life.  


Struggling through this I looked for comfort in the scriptures and found a guy going through a similar situation – but on a much greater scale than me.  I found an example I could really relate to.  It was Job.
If you read through the book of Job you will find the book is a story of a man.  A man devoted to God and his family.  He had seven sons and three daughters.  The Word states in chapter 1, verse 1 that he was perfect and upright, feared God and fled evil.  Who showed his devotion to God by sacrificing daily for himself and his children in chapter 1, verse 5.  Job was blessed with wealth and was said to be the richest man in the east.  He had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 oxen, 500 female mules and a great number of slaves.  God had greatly blessed him.  One day satan came to God and God asked him if he had noticed His servant Job.  God began to brag about Job’s devotion and uprightness.  Satan belittled Job’s devotion saying that it was God had protected him and blessed everything he did.  Then satan challenged God and said that if he lost his positions then he would fall and curse God.  God accepted his challenge and in verse 11 of chapter 1, told satan to take all that Job had away but don’t kill him and see that his devotion was true.  So in verse 13 Job’s life began to crumble around him in a devastation most of us can’t imagine.  
Chapter 1, and oddly enough verse 13 begins the destruction.  As he was sitting at dinner a messenger came running in.  This messenger told him that a rival tribe, the Sabean’s had attacked and taken his oxen and mules and killed the servants who were working with them.  A third of his wealth was gone.  Yet, while they were speaking the Bible states another messenger came running in bringing more bad news.  “A fire fell from heaven that killed the sheep and servants watching them!” the messenger exclaimed.  Two thirds of his wealth was gone.  And again, while they were talking a third messenger arrived and told him that another rival tribe, the Chaldeans had raided his camels and taken them killing the slaves who were caring for them too.  He was ruined.  
I had dealt with my job loss over the course of about six months from the time I lost my job to my transition to St Louis, I can’t imagine having news that all I had worked for was gone in a mater of moments.  However, Job’s troubles hadn’t reached their worst.  Satan wanted to take away his most precious positions to insure he would curse God, his children.  The Bible says in Job chapter 1, verse 18 that while he was speaking to the messengers who had delivered the news that all his wealth was gone another came in.  This messenger held the worst news.  He told of a tornado that fell upon the house his seven sons and three daughters were eating in, collapsing the home and killing them all.   Financially ruined, personally devastated and in constant pain, Job fell on the ground, ripping his garments in morning.  Satan I am sure felt he had Job here, but the Bible states something very different, something so powerful that sermons would be preached for generation in it.  The Word says in chapter 1, verse 20 that Job tore his garments, shaved his head, fell upon the ground and worshiped.  

Everything he had was gone.  And he worshiped.  What a testimony to this man’s devotion and character.  I know I would not have done the same.  I know I would have been destroyed and be horribly angry in my loss.  And I know who I would have been most angry with.  The one I believe holds the world.  The one I look to for protection, guidance and care – God.  
I say that because I did.  Through my time in St Louis I became very bitter towards God for handing me this life.  For taking my old life away.  For turning on me.  My feelings were full of resentment and childlike rage.  I stamped around in my little pity party resenting God for the place I was in, how he must have been looking down on me in shame.  Looking to the scriptures Proverbs 29:26 says “He that trust in his own heart is a fool”.  Many times our feelings or heart can deceive us and lead us to sin.  My feelings had created resentment and told me that I should be angry with God, that was wrong.  Our feelings or heart so many times can lead us astray and many times can not to be trusted.  In situations like these we are to trust God and not our emotions.   But for Job, satan wasn’t finished with him yet.
It says in the scriptures that following this satan came to God again and God asked him if he had noticed Job and his devotion through his loss.  Satan said to God, “If he was about to die and his life was in jeopardy he would curse you, that’s for sure.”  So God said to satan, I don’t believe he will curse me.  You may do as you wish to him, God said but don’t kill him.  So satan went and cursed Job with sore boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.  There wasn’t a portion of his body wasn’t in pain.  This was the completion of Job’s devastation.  
What a truly horrible situation.  How shockingly devastating was this life and low had it been reduced to. But surely he had friends he could depend on for comfort or at least encouragement.  Surely his wife would offer him tenderness.  The Bible tells in  chapter two through verse twenty-six of his wife’s encouragement and of friends that came to visit. His wife, his helpmate was the first to offer comfort to Job in his time of such great personal sorrow.  The Bible says in verse 9 of chapter 2 that his wife gives him encouragement ”curse God and die.”  What great words of encouragement.  Job’s answer in verse 10 of chapter 2 was full of wisdom and great respect for his Lord, “shall we receive good from the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?”  Or shall we praise Him in joy and not in sorrow?  So many times in our own lives we are more than happy to follow God’s direction as long as things are comfortable for us.  But when hardships come along we are quick to fall away and question Gods provision.  It makes me think back to the old testament when Moses was leading the children of Israel through the desert following their exodus from Egypt.  They were happy with God only as long as they were comfortable.  Each time they were challenged and went through hard times they whined at God and became angry at Moses.  


In a season of quiet while God was giving the Ten Commandments to Moses they even decided to build a statue and worship it.  How we are so like them in our lives that when times of trial come we whine and when seasons come where it seems God is distant we run off to find something else to fill that stillness instead of waiting on the Lord.  
Verse 11 tells of three friends that came to visit and how they were so shocked by his appearance and his great sorrow that for seven days and nights no one spoke.  The boils had ravaged his body so much that he was gross to look at.  His constant mourning was so great that words of encouragement were not appropriate.  So they simply sat with him and mourned.  The chapters that followed this time of silence between his friends and Job and tells of Job cursing the day he was born.  Seeing Job’s condition and the events that brought him to this place his friends believed God was angry at Job for some hidden sin.  Finally, his friends spoke up and accused him of sinning against God and that God was punishing him for his sins.  God had taken everything away from him as a punishment.  If he would repent God would again bless his life and take the curse on his body away.  One by one his friends confronted him and over and over Job defends himself that he was upright in all his ways and had done nothing to deserve this hardship on his life.  But his friends continued to push him to confess.  Finally, Job begins to backup his clam to righteousness with examples of his lifestyle. stating that he is righteous and upright and that God had no right to punish him.  
One friend, Elihu finally spoke the truth.  In Chapters 32 through 37 bringing Job’s pride in question.  That Job had placed his righteousness higher than God’s ways.  That who are we that we should say we deserve Gods blessings and not trials.  Finally in chapter 38, God speaks and answers Job.  This is the highlight of the book.  This is the true lesson where God teaches all of us His authority and our place as we challenge Him.  
After Job had proclaimed innocence and questioned why he was required to endure this burden, in chapter 38, verse 4 God states to Job “where were you when I placed the foundations of the earth?”  This states it all.  God questions Job that you think you know it everything?  You really believe you have my ways figured out and know what I’m doing?  Then God says you tell me where you were when I created the world!  
My first impression of God’s response was shock at how hard His words were.  How in this man’s grief and great pain God could be so insensitive?  Just WHO is God anyway?  What RIGHT does He have to say such things to Job in his time of trouble?  Then I thought for a second, what place DOES God have in our lives?  Isn’t he Lord?  Isn’t he King?  My highest authority.  If He is over our lives as Lord what does that mean to my life?  If He is truly Lord and King of our life then he has complete authority to do as He wishes with it.  Honestly, what right do we have to challenge what He brings us.  As parents many times we don’t allow our children to question our decisions.  We believe they should trust our judgment and simply obey our wishes.  


Isn’t it the same with God?  Shouldn’t we trust him even through hardship that he is making the right decisions?  Shouldn’t we want to bring him glory through our life even if it takes pain and sorrow in our lives to bring Him glory that we accept that and worship Him through it?  If He really is our father then do we really have the right to question his authority over our lives?  That if God decides our life would best suit Him as a garbage man, then we should thank God that we are a blessing to Him in that roll.  If God brings us trials and hardships then we are to bless Him for those trials.  The book of James speaks about this saying in chapter 1 verse 2 that we are to count it as joy when diverse temptations come upon us knowing that the testing of our faith grows patience in us.  Above even this we are to know that God is God regardless of things in this world and that the trials are to grow us up as Christians and make us strong then we should praise Him for those trials as Job did.   But, we believe we have all these rights.  Even the constitution states we have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  But if God is truly the lord of our lives do we really have any rights?  Do we have the right to happiness, do we have the right to comfort, do we have the right to a good paying job and do we have the right to demand these things or are we to submit to God in all things He gives us?  As I’m saying this understand that God does want us to be happy, comfortable and successful, but His greatest concern is our person.  Many times in scripture He has shown that He is willing to sacrifice those things to build us into a mature and strong person of character.  Another part of this that goes along with God being our Father is trust.  It says in the scriptures that all things work for the good of them that love the Lord.  It doesn’t say that everything will be ‘good’ but that all things ‘work’ for the good.  This is a trust issue.  Do we trust our father enough that whatever He gives us to bare is for our ‘good’ then I believe we will be able to worship Him through those situations.  If we truly believe that God has a plan and that plan will bring Him glory, then I believe we would be able to submit to those life trials knowing that those trials will bring God glory and that the trial is for our good  
In the story of Job we are shown something Job is not.  We are given a glimpse of what God is doing and why these trials are brought on Job.  We get a chance to hear the conversations between God and satan that tell us why all this happened.  We get to know that the trials are to display a servant’s devotion to their King and bring Him glory.  
God displays in the scripture of Job in chapter 1 that a challenge was going on that Job had no idea of.  A challenge in the spiritual realms and he was the focus.  I wonder how different Job would have handled the situation if he had known that God was displaying his Lordship through Job’s devotion and that God was betting on him to come through.  I wonder how many hardships are brought into our lives and we grumble and fall away not having a clue what’s truly behind them.  I wonder for us how different we would handle our trials if we knew what was behind them.  Even still, the bottom line in Job and in our lives is that we truly don’t know Gods motivations.  


He might at some point show us why He had things come into our lives but mostly we just don’t know.  But He is still Lord and because of that we don’t have the right to shake our finger at Him as His servant.  Because He is our authority, our King we should say, “Yes Lord”.  This might again sound very harsh, but if we trust God we should know He has a plan that is for our good and He is in control.  Really we might not ever know the reasons behind our trials, its God’s choice to reveal the reasons or if He chooses not to.  I think a lot of the time He doesn’t reveal His motives simply because He wants to teach us to trust him.  And if God is Lord, he doesn’t have to tell us why He does what He does.  In old times, a king never had to explain himself.  He was sovereign.  He didn’t have to explain himself because everything was his to do with as he pleases.  The land, the cattle, the people belonged to him and if he chose to make life easy or hard was his decision.  No one questioned because of his position.  He was king.  
We can now see that even though all these things happened to Job, it was to bring God glory.  It also brought Job glory.  His devotion is now displayed in the Bible for all time.  And God is faithful and just.  We see in the final chapters of Job restoration and blessing,  As you read the last chapters of Job you see God pours out a blessing on Job’s life that was greater than he had prior to his time in the desert.  God restored Job’s finances with 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 oxen and 1,000 female mules and a great number of slaves.  If you remember the first chapter of Job where it tells us his possessions, God restored twice what he had in the beginning.  God had doubled His blessings upon Job.  And God is faithful and gave him seven sons and three daughters.  Exactly what he had before the trial.  For me looking back on my time of trial and struggle I see why God put me through the trials.  I use to simply float through life.  I didn’t want responsibility for anything and didn’t really wanting to grow up.  Spiritually I was still a child.  I had grown up in the church but was comfortable not growing.  God sent my trials to grow me up.  Having made it through the trials and struggles has made me strong enough as a person to take on responsibility for my family, my life and my spirituality.  Im actually thankful for that time and praise God for the lessons learned there.  I know that sounds strange, to thank Him for pain, but that time has helped make me a much better person, father and husband than I was.  I see now that what I did because of my pride, God used for my good.  He’s so great and good!  Remember, all things work for the good of them that love the Lord.  God is faithful and just in all things.  We might not ever know the ‘why’ but if we trust our Lord we can rest in the fact that His plan is best.  As his servants we should desire to bring Him glory even through the deserts.  He is still Lord.    

~Lesson Contributed By Jeff -- Thank You Jeff!