Along the Way w/ Bro. Ryan

“ For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me .” -Job 6:4 Job is a fascinating story, albeit, it can be a bit depressing in many parts.   Job’s story gives us insight into many facets of life, the most prominent regarding suffering.   We have the benefit of seeing the whole story played out, while Job, his wife, and his friends could only experience things as they happened. As things unfold, in Job’s estimation, God is out to get him.   Do you ever feel like that?   Job’s story is one for the record books -   he went from being the extremely blessed, wealthy man of God with a big family to a man with absolutely nothing left.   In the span of one day, from what we see in the narrative, Job loses all of his property to theft, terrorism, and homicide, he loses all of his kids in a natural disaster, and when its only he and his wife left, he loses his health (Job 1:14-2:7).   ...

“Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; So was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absalom.” -2 Sam. 16:23 Ahithophel was a trusted counselor of King David up to the point until David’s son, Absalom, developed a conspiracy to overthrow David and take his throne. Absalom sent for Ahithophel and he joined his ranks as a member of his royal counsel in the coup. Ahithophel, likely with biased and cloud ed judgement since he was Bathsheba’s grandfather, counseled Absalom to not only sleep openly with David’s concubines, but he also advised Absalom to hunt down and kill David. The above verse is how his counsel was regarded in those days. Sin and “esteemed” counsel seen as one “consulting the word of God” cannot go together. False teaching and misrepresenting God’s Word are not new practices; they’ve been around forever. One thing to note here though, when we talk about being aware of the “false teachers,” ...

(*The following is from an article written by Dr. Tony Cleaver, a family friend of mine, BMA Seminary professor, Director of Distance Learning for BMA Seminary, and retired US Army Chaplain.) Malachi 1:5 - “The Lord is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.” We Christians are sometimes provincial and territorial in our view of God, the works of God, and His involvement in our small planet. At times Baptists might think , “God is a Baptist and deals only with Baptist interests.” The same can be said of Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, even Independent Churches of all stripes. The Lord is great, even beyond the smallness of our denomination. He is great beyond our city, state, even our nation with all its peculiar nationalistic views and policies. God is at work. He has many servants. This multitude of servants might not be of our denomination, culture, or nationality. The hand of God is at work in our world--in real time-- though we might not accept it as His greatness. Hi...

"Then they believed His words; they sang His praise . But they soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel…. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt.” - Psalm 106:12-13, 21             This Psalm speaks of the goodness of God, specifically how He protected and provided for His people, Israel, in the desert.   This Psalm praises God’s grace, mercy, patience and understanding toward His people while also accounting their depravity and arrogant forgetfulness of Him and His mighty works.   The Psalter (writer of the Psalm) recounts how God’s “steadfast love endures forever” (v.1) and how there is great hope, even the sense of a guarantee, that God would save His people from their future troubles and beyond (v.4-5).   Riddled throughout this psalm of praise and remembrance of God’s great works, the people are steeped in a history of sin, rebellion and forgetfulness. ...