3.9.2017 (3.16.2017)

Scripture Read Job 19-20

Nugget Job 19:1-6, 25-27

“Then Job answered: ‘How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words? These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are not ashamed to wrong me? And even it it is true that I have erred, my error remains with me. If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my humiliation an argument against me, know that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me. … For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

Devotional thought: In the Lenten season the temptation to look others and compare ourselves to them is easy to do. O how I can make myself feel better when I exalt myself by putting others down. Job’s “friends” have done so, Job is also guilty as they banter back and forth. As believers, on the far side of Easter our Standard Bearer is Jesus Christ, He is also our Redeemer. Every day is a time to take pause and consider that in my life that separates me from Christ like, to recognize, confess and turn from all that is revealed. Then in turning from that stuff and turning to God I can live in the freedom of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ and the life giving promises of God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)