When bad things occur, they frequently happen to the incorrect person. And when that happens, we are always left with that haunting query, “Why?” Somewhere in all this, there’s room for the tale of Job.

For, as we have learned, a better man never lived in his day. He wasn’t only a good man, he used to be a godly man. He wasn’t only a unswerving hubby, he used to be a loving and devoted pa.

With lots of land, a surplus of food, and acceptable stock and camels to back Job’s dreams, it looked as if his whole future would be a downward slide. I imagine that in the fight of that first fitful night, making an attempt to sleep after burying all 10 kids with his very own hands, laying alongside his mourning better half who had also endured the loss, much of what had occurred was still a blur. I have talked to a few of those officials who were in the building at that point.

One admitted to his very own humiliation, “It never dawned on many of us the Pentagon was next.” We may never know for sure if the 3rd plane was looking to find the government and, thanks to the foliage of mid-September, could not do so. The pilot, in his exasperating plan to collapse the plane, spotted this five-sided building and tore a hole two hundred feet wide because of a double explosion—first from the plane itself crashing into the building and then the igniting of the fuel that sent fire down the wide corridor. At least it was not fair from our point of view. He had blest his Pa ; in reality, he had worshiped Him, and Devil could not stand it.

The essence of real repentance is that the mind does a turnaround. The Greek word is metanoia, meaning, literally, “to change one’s mind.” That is exactly what’s happened to the once-proud Pharisee on the road to Damascus. He modified his mind about God, about Jesus, about the Resurrection, about those who followed Christ.

This One who knew his name also knew what he’d been doing.

The raging rebel had ultimately met his match, and there wasn’t any place or way to cover. Some Christians try and impose their stiff system of yes and no’s on the issue of conversion. I need to caution against that kind of exercise.

It’s very unlikely to find any single place in Scripture that unearths the one-and-only way each sinner comes to Christ. While the message of the Gospel is the same, strategies differ. We are so conditioned by denominational backgrounds, spiritual traditionalism, and narrow-thinking bias, we not get the point of The Lord God’s grace. Be careful about accurate necessities on someone that truly turns to the Savior. Lost folk are saved while listening to a great song about Christ or while hearing a bible basher or Bible teacher explaining God’s Word from a pulpit or over TV or on the radio. Many come to Him all alone, while praying in the privacy of their houses. Night or day a sinner can call on the Lord Jesus Christ in religion and be saved. Without reference to precisely when Saul was converted, he noticed that the living Jesus, whom he had hated and denied his complete life, was now his Savior and Lord.

On his way to make an even larger name for himself, the laser of Our Lord God’s presence stopped him in his tracks, striking him blind. Like that group of shepherds faithfully watching their sheep years earlier on another heavy night outside Jerusalem, Saul and his companions slid to the ground, shocked. You get the news in the middle of the night on the phone, and you cannot move. As the cop describes the head-on collision, you stand frozen in denial. After hearing the word “cancer,” you are so startled you can barely walk out the doctor’s office doors. A pal once admitted to me that, after hearing his feared diagnosis, he stumbled to the men’s room, puked, collapsed to his knees, and sobbed frantically. Life’s unexpected jolts grip us with such fear we will be able to scarcely go on. For the 1st time in his proud, self-sustained life, Saul found himself a desperate dependent.

Not only was he pinned to the ground, he was blind.

His other senses were on alert and, to his awe, he heard a voice from heaven say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” ( Acts 9:4 ). Instead, he found out that the true object of his evil savagery was Christ Himself. It is the sort of shoddy religion that commends God sits on the edge of heaven thinking, Wonder what they will do next.

From the instant we are conceived to the instant we die, we remain safely in the frame of His watchful gawk and His sovereign plan for us.

I never set my affections on these things in the 1st place. And when it came to the children, I have accepted from the day we had our first kid till we had our last, they’re all God’s. He’s the person who gave them, and he’s the person who has got the right to take them whenever He wants them back.”. That explains how Job could say in all truthfulness, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” And why the biblical story adds, “Through all this Job didn’t sin nor did he blame God” ( Job 1:21–22 ).

When you begin to understand that everything you have is on loan, you are more prepared to release it when the owner wants it back. And in the interlude, “Lord God, sanctified be Your name for loaning me everything I am in a position to enjoy.”.

“Through all this Job didn’t sin.” Isn’t that wonderful? “Nor did he blame God.” Why blame God? As one man has written, “God has given him a walk through for death. All things belong to God, positively, to be given as a present, not claim, to be taken back without wrong. There’s no talk about human ‘rights.’ The Lord is the sovereign owner of all, and Job rejoices in this excellent fact.”.

With twenty / twenty point of view, Job lifted himself off the ground, looked around at all that had modified, then put his arm round his grieving wife, held her close, and murmured, “God gave, and for some unrevealed reason, He selected to take back. This complete chapter could have been created in 3 words.

Due to David’s many mighty acts and the bequest he left, it is easily forgotten that for 12 or more years he lived as a fugitive and spent many hours of discouragement and disillusionment in the wasteland. He used to be a damaged, humbled man during those days as a fugitive. He learned much from those squashing years, but small good would come from his reliving the discomfort they brought into his life. How did he take the throne? Did he typhoon into the job and demand everybody to submit to his rule? No David was a delicate man.

He had learned the way to lead and the way to rally others around him in the defects of his yesterday.

Frequently we are better at handling affliction than we are at handling promotions.

As Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish essayist and historian, asserted, “But for one man who can stand wealth, there are 100 which will stand adversity.” But David was a person faced with success. If there was ever an opportunity for someone to take life by his very own 2 fists and demand a following, it was now. He revealed, actually “Begin your reign in Hebron.”. You may be in a scenario where you are curious, “God has opened the door, and I am about to stroll thru it. But is that what I should do?” Our bias is to race in when there’s some benefit which will come our way. Sometimes it’s best to start terribly noiselessly, to pace our first steps with great care.

Behind the great crisis of Saul’s life is a particularly fascinating analogy—an analogy between Saul’s death and Christ’s death.

At first impression we would say, “What in the world would we find common to both Saul and Christ?” in fact there are 6 analogies worth pointing out. First, Saul’s death seemed to be the end of all countrywide hope. When Saul died, many of us must have thought that is the end of Israel. The Philistines will certainly conquer us now.

In a corresponding way, Christ’s death seemed to be the end of all countrywide and religious hope. 2nd , with Saul’s death it appeared the enemy had won the final victory. When Christ died, it seemed as if the rival of our souls had won. He must have strutted all over the gates of hell declaring, “The victory is mine.

3rd , Saul’s death paved the way for an entirely new plan of operation and heralded David’s kingly line, which led straight to the Messiah. When Jesus Christ died, a completely new operation moved into action and set in motion our great deliverance. 4th , Saul’s death opened the chance for another who wouldn’t otherwise have been included in Our Lord God’s line of blessing, specifically David.

5th , Saul’s death stopped an age of dissatisfaction and failure. Christ’s death finished an era of law and guilt, introducing a totally new arrangement based totally on grace. Sixth, and ultimately, Saul’s death displayed the foolishness of man. Christ’s death displayed, in human terms, the foolishness of Our Lord God. Thru the “foolishness” of Our Lord God’s plan, He brings to pass the amazing.

He is taking the preached word and He changes lives due to His Child’s death.