Re: Monday September 17th Job 38-42

I forgot to put this link at the end of my blog.  So sorry for that.  It is to the Casting Crowns song I spoke of.  Ruth


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9Kcm2OAWNA

-----Original Message-----
From: Ruth Goulart <regoulart@aol.com>
To: brgpost <brgpost@gracestamford.org>
Sent: Mon, Sep 17, 2012 8:17 pm
Subject: Monday September 17th Job 38-42

How would you describe me?  How do you believe I handle stressful situations?  How do you believe I show people I love them?  How do you believe I show fairness towards others?  Tell me how do I think?  Tell me how do I form an opinion?  Tell me what makes me loose my temper?  Tell me how easy or difficult is it for me to be patient?  Tell me who Ruth Goulart is in your eyes?

For some of you these questions will be very difficult as I know that some of you don't really know me.  We haven't met therefore we haven't spent time together so how would you know the answers?  Others will fair a little better, as you know me some, but you will have difficulty still.  You have not spent enough time with me to have seen me in these many different elements.  There are just a few of you who will do somewhat well as you have spent time, in some cases years, getting to know me and seeing me in many different phases of my life.

How do you think I would feel if you started telling people about my character and nature and you were dead wrong?  If you had based your knowledge of me only on the Monday bogs I have written this year?  If you thought you knew me from simply observing me a few times in Church?  If you thought you could be a witness to my personality and character based on what other people told you about me?  I will tell you that I would be hurt and very upset.  Why?  Because you would be wrong.  You would not be revealing a complete picture of who I am.  How dare someone spread false or incomplete information about me.  That affects how others see me and it can affect the relationships I have with others.  Unless you take the time to build a relationship with me and take the time to truly get to know me and understand me you can never speak to who I am as a wife, mother, Christian, friend, a person.

Job's friends were guilt of this with God.  They thought they knew God based on things they had observed and what others thought based on what they observed.  They failed to build a relationship with their Lord, the Redeemer as Job call's God (19:25).  The problem is they could not see, and they were unwilling to hear, the truth of God's character as it contradicted their understanding.  They saw God as nothing more then Judge and Jury.  Vindictive and wrathful.  Lacking in love and mercy.  When a friend of theirs was found to be in the midst of one of life's storms all they could bring with them was finger pointing and judgment. 

As Christians I think we are guilty of the same thing as these 3 friends.  We show the world a God of judgment and wrath.  A loveless God who is out to right the wrongs of mankind.  We are constantly pointing our spiritually lofty finger at the world around us and telling them of all the wrongs they do and how God will punish them.  We forget to first approach with open arms in love.  To embrace them just as Christ did when He walked the earth.  Remember it was not the spiritual religious leaders home that Jesus went and had diner at.  No it was in the home of "sinners".  He ate with prostitutes, tax collectors, thieves, the social outcasts.  He wanted them to spend time getting to know who He truly was.  He wanted to make sure they were able to see His heart of love and compassion, the desire to give grace and mercy to ANYONE who wanted to receive it.  Later, once He had built the relationship He would speak of right living and repentance.  He wanted to heal not condemn (Rom 8:1)

Job's friends were reprimanded by God:

"I am angry with you (Eliphaz) and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."   Job 42:7

God wants us to be proper witnesses to His Character.  To speak the complete truth of who He is.  To reveal the fullness of His being to all who we meet.  We are to speak of Him what is right.  The only way we can do this is to spend time every single day getting to know Him better and better. To remember the love, grace and mercy He has shown us and to show the same to others.

There is a song by Casting Crowns that I just love that really convicts my heart to be careful as to how I am living my life as a Christian in a world that doesn't truly know the right Character of God.  I encourage you to listen to the song and read the lyrics and to pray and ask God to help us to know Him better so that we can be better witnesses for Christ & portray a complete and accurate picture of who our Redeemer is (Job 19:25).