TO GOD BE THE GLORY AND PRAISE! THIS WEEK WE'RE EXPLORING ‘THE GLORY' HERE ON EARTH. LOOKING AT THE LIFE OF JOB. NONE OF HIS FRIENDS COULD SEE GLORY. ONLY SHAME. THE ONLOOKERS WHO WATCHED THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST WOULD SWEAR THERE WAS NO GLORY. . . ONLY SHAME. BUT, WE'VE EMPLOYED SOME UNWILLING WITNESSES WHO SAW. . . "THE GLORY."

This week Dr. Charles Swindol is preaching a series on Job. Listening to this wonderful teaching, it's hard NOT to visualize Job, in his tortuous misery.

When GOD volunteered Job to be the target of Satan, you had to wonder why? Why did GOD literally [sic] Satan on Job? This is a question that hasn't been answered in all of the years that the Bible has been read. The best answer is that GOD is Sovereign, and His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

The only real relief, if you'd call it that, is that we find out that ANYONE of us is vulnerable to a situation of like determination. Can we look at Job for a little while?

Job was blameless and upright. He feared GOD, and yet he was given over to Satan. BUT…GOD instructed Satan NOT to take his life. All of his possessions and his children and his live stock were given into Satan's hands. Satan stole livestock and took the lives of Job's children and most of his servants that were given over to him. (He comes to steal, kill and destroy.) Even the body of Job was riddled with disease and sores.

Job, after the touch of Satan, was a mangled mass of misery. He sat in sack cloth and ashes all the days of his torment. The outward observation results in the formation of one type of thought…Job must have DESERVED it. (And believe it or not, this conclusion is synonymous to what even your best friends will think when you are going through your trials.)

But, when this type of misery stops on our doorstep, "Life's NOT FAIR!"And as hard as you try, there is no way that you can explain demonic attacks on yourself. BUT…GOD has given us Job to decipher some of life's misery as it may fall on those of us that NEVER DESERVED IT. (Or think that we don't deserve it.)

Job is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Jesus was blameless and without fault. He took on himself the sins of us all so that we would be freed from our bondage, sickness, and sin. Jesus suffered untold abuse, hatred, and hurt. He was beaten; mocked; persecuted; lied on; spat on; dishonored and disrespected. No one believed that He was the Son of GOD. Jesus never opened his mouth in His own defense. He was led, as a lamb, to the slaughter, for you and me.

The bitter cup of sin was given to Jesus, and He took it in all of its fullness. He then became that which sin carved so well, in his body. Sin stole everything from Jesus that would make anyone desirous of Him. Satan used authorities of every known nation to kill the body of Jesus in the most impassionate manner. Satan destroyed Jesus' Name (or so he thought.) His Name meant healing, comfort and provision.

Satan stole everything that the earthly Jesus possessed but, there was one thing that Satan couldn't take…The Glory. The Glory was wrapped in Love Hope and Faith. These intangibles escaped Satan's destructive hand. They would only appear when His obedience, to GOD the Father, was fulfilled in the flesh. And appear, they did! ON THE THIRD DAY! The unwilling witnesses first to see His Resurrected Glory were the Roman Guards. There was no denying that the Incarnate Glory had broken forth from the boundaries of the carnal flesh and the hindrances of the sealed tomb.

Job was a good man. But, Jesus told someone, when he called Him ‘good'; " Why do you call me good? There is none good, but the Father." In comparison to other men, Job was good; but, all of our goodness compared to The Glory is but filthy rags.

Job endured the ridicule of his friends and all of his acquaintances as he waited on the Lord to either deliver him or take him home to Glory. What the Onlookers didn't or couldn't observe is the Glory, which was hidden beneath the trials and disappointments of a righteous life. Our physical eyes have a tendency to deceive us. No one could see the hope that Job continued to have in GOD. (Colossians states, "Christ in you, the Hope of Glory.")

No Righteous Man has ever lived and skipped trials. What we have to remember, like Job, is to keep your relationship with Almighty GOD, through Jesus Christ. Jesus let us know the feeling of total depravity when He asked His Father from the cross, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" But, because of His sacrifice, we NEVER have to go through ANYTHING on this earth, without Jesus. That's the greatest comfort that you, as a Christian, could ever have. Trials and testing come quickly. Real trials give no warning. (And sometimes they are long staying.) In Job's case, he was praying and offering sacrifice when his servants one by one brought him bad reports in rapid succession. He had no warning. He went from sacrificing to mourning in a twenty-four-hour period.

In this world we have been taught to recognize possessions and wealth as ‘glorious.' In America the "Rich and Famous" and/or "The Stars" catch the attention of average people. The lust of the eyes causes many people to long for ‘the glory of the Stars.' Their ‘glory' bleeds over into golden faucets and toilets, even tubs. Their trials are never mentioned, and if they are, they're so minute that the average American would gladly trade. To the untrained mind, their ‘glory' is enviable.

GOD NEVER put that type of ‘glory' before us. He gave us Abraham digging wells and walking from country to country; Moses, walking through the wilderness; Faithful Ruth who refused to leave an impoverished Mother-in-law; King David running from King Saul while writing "The Psalms." GOD gave us the Prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea who was told to marry a prostitute; Daniel taken from his land and never returned, falsely subjected to the den of lions.

The Glory of the Prophets wasn't enviable, because it wasn't seen. The Glory was hidden in the loins of Abraham and didn't come forth until Abraham and Sarah reached "The Promised Land." So that the seed was a born native of that land. The Glory was in the bosom of Ruth as she found favor with the kinsman of her Mother-in-law, Boaz; and eventually gave the old woman a grandson. The Glory was wrapped in the sack cloth and ashes that became familiar garb for Job. After he prayed for his friends…The Glory emerged and GOD restored him.

Jesus Christ's Name was mocked and ridiculed. The Cross should have been the last component of confirming the disgrace of this individual…But The GLORY COULDN'T BE CRUCIFIED! And from the ashes of death rose "the Name above all names…" The Glory.

Christians, let's NOT be FOOLED by the imitation glory. The Glory in you is greater and more powerful than anything that you will ever see with your physical eyes.

These are only a few words. This is a fun game to play with your family at the dinner table OR WHILE TAKING A FAMILY CAR TRIP. Challenge the family to find as many synonyms as you can. It makes time fly by. TER

IN THE MIRROR:
Question: What time was it when you last looked at the clock?
I have a hands clock and due to my lack of a simple battery change, that clock has remained at 11:59 just long enough for God to inspire me to write about what I learned through this experience.

One day it dawned on me that twice a day depending on a.m., or p.m. that [dead] clock can have the appearance of being exactly right.(Are you getting where I'm going with this? Stay with me.)

As my determination grows to get the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the hearts of millions, I am simultaneously brought into a greater understanding as to why many people have not been able to bring themselves into a saving faith or a working knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I remember my pastor quoting a frequent response he receives often after much witnessing, "You Christians are all alike, trying to get everybody to think like you do!" (I hope you're smiling about his obvious retort; my obvious retort; and hopefully yours.) YES! YES!! YES!!!

Actually we're not trying to get you to "think like us," but to think in the manner in which Jesus has taught us, because when that phenomena takes place, every Christian knows that now the joys, and the riches, and the wealth, and all the heavenly treasures that you possess, now also have been given to someone else to be comforted by not only in this life, but in the life to come.

Have you heard the invitation,(to Christ) in the context of deceit, or perhaps mendaciously? When you heard it was it about joining a Church membership; Wednesday night Bible study; reading the Bible; Praying; Giving, Sharing, and Loving? Because given the proper context none of these things are a burden, but a privilege and an opportunity given to us by God, because we have nothing that He did not first give unto us.

If you are willing to admit with me today that everything in this world of any measurable value has a counterfeit, an imitation, or you can almost count on a forgery; therefore why would you feel the Gospel of Jesus Christ would come along uncontested, or unchallenged by unregenerated man? [I use ‘unregenerated' biblically in terms of not being renewed in the Spirit.]

Science, education, technology are some of the means by which the world has greatly changed today, and while its been revolutionary on one hand, on the other we've lost the core foundation of the early church. I'm referring to when the message of the Resurrection was more than enough to keep the hearts and the minds of the believers, which also validated the fact we could now believe everything else Jesus said was true.

You may read this and say, ‘Well it all sounds good, but my best thinking just won't allow me to concur with you just because Jesus said all these wonderful words. He could have easily been a charlatan.'

That's why I shared with you about the revelation after looking at my clock so many days I realized how in a framework of time anything is capable of looking so right, but following careful scrutiny can be so wrong.

I have total and complete respect for those who meet me and don't understand my relationship with Jesus Christ, but I didn't take just a glancing look at Him. I watch Him as often as possible through His word and in my own life's experience.

1 LARGE HEAD OF CABBAGE, (CUT IN HALF; THEN IN FOURTHS; THEN IN POTATOES.)
3-4 POUNDS OF GROUND MEAT (PREFERABLY TURKEY, BUT CAN USE GROUND BEEF.)
3 PEELED AND LARGELY CUT POTATOES.
1 LARGE ONION SLICED
½ GREEN PEPPER, SLICED
SEASONINGS: GARLIC POWDER; BAY LEAVES; OREGANO; SWEET BASIL; SALT AND PEPPER. (OPTIONAL)
¼ CUP OLIVE OIL
2 CUPS CUT CORN

DIRECTIONS:
IN A LARGE POT, PLACE 2 CUPS COLD WATER; CUT CABBAGE; POTATOES; GROUND MEAT; ONIONS; GREEN PEPPERS; AND ALL SEASONINGS AND THE OLIVE OIL .
BRING THIS POT TO A BOIL; BOIL FOR 5 MINUTES OR LONGER; TURN DOWN AND LET COOK ON MEDIUM CHECKING FOR STICKING FREQUENTLY.
WHEN POTATOES ARE SOFT AND OTHER INGREDIENTS ARE AT DESIRED TENDERNESS, SPRINKLE CUT CORN ON TOP OF ENTIRE POT LET SIMMER ANOTHER 5 MINUTES; COVER AND TURN HEAT OFF.