Saturday Night Musings

Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:11

You have heard There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job and according to the Bible he was the greatest man in the east known among men. There was none like him by God’s comparisons. He was a man of integrity who lived righteously before men and was godly before God. He offended none by his lifestyle and was an example of the great blessings of health and wealth.

This man was the target of the blessings of God and the bruising of Satan. God took his hand of prosperity off of Job and Satan put his hand of pain upon him. In a moment of time, Job went from the possessions of abundance to a pile of ashes. His life turned from peace and assurance to pain and agony. His body was inflamed with boils, terrifying dreams, running tears, redness of the eyes, horrible breath, loss of weight, weakening of bones, and the peeling of the skin. Satan’s attack on Job under the sovereignty of God was not pretty. He lost it all! All that remained was a wife who wished he would die and friends who denounced him as a great sinner.

We all have heard of Job’s patience and have read the last chapter of the book. We are encouraged by his story to trust in God and endure hard times. That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:12). Job’s latter end was blessed twice as much. He lived a life full of plenty and rejoiced in his family unto the fourth generation.

Be patient in praying for lost loved ones to come into the fold. Keep the throne of God hot for repentance and Godly sorrow to come from their broken hearts and a contrite spirit. Your rejoicing over their salvation will be twice the time spent in worry and fear.

Be patient when hard times hit. Trial and tribulations are part of the landscape. Be patient when you face the loss of retirement and investment accounts. Remember you brought nothing into this world and you will leave like you came.

Be patient after you have done the will of God. The promises of God have not lost their value nor will the Word of God return void. Faithful is He that promised.

Be patient unto the coming of the Lord. Remember a day is as a thousand years with the Lord. He has been away for 2,000 years; it seems like a couple of days! He’s coming!

It seems to me when you submit your will to the will of God and have faith in him, your hearts will not be troubled. You will experience joy in sorrow, life in death, strength in weakness, gain in loss, and victory in defeat. Herein lays the patience of Job.

Visit: www.cliffhartley.com

Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Does Job fear God for nothing?

Job 1:9 If on Monday morning you woke up and discovered all your retirement and investment accounts disappeared over night, would you have anything left? If you suddenly were diagnosed with an incurable disease, would you still retain a positive attitude about life? If one disaster followed another that affected your family and resources, would you question God’s promises? If your long time friends became critical and made condescending accusations about your integrity, would you loose self esteem and begin to loose hope? 

Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He seeks to devour all of you. He seeks to steal from you, and he wants to destroy you. If he can do this, he will have a leg up on God’s ability to keep and to protect you. Satan’s ultimate goal is not only to bring you down, but to bring God down. He wants to be God, sit where God sits, and control what God controls. His avenue to get to God is through the weakness of humanity.  The hedge that protects us when Satan is permitted to move his hand against us is not our resources, but the reasons we fear him. When all Lord gives is taken away, we will retain our integrity and not charge God foolishly. If all you have is God, then you can take on any amount of water in the ship! 

There was a man…named Job,…and one that feared God (Job 1:1). His substance made him the greatest of all men in his day. God said there is none like him in all the earth. Job was a Godly man and he knew the reasons why he feared God. In one day, his stock did not fall twenty percent, but it crashed to the bottom. In one day, 500 yoke of oxen were stolen by thieves. On that day, lightening fell from the sky and killed 7,000 sheep and his servants. Also on that day, his 3,000 camels were stolen and thieves killed all his all of his workers. Also on that day, a tornado touched down on his children and they were all killed. This day was Job’s worst nightmare. He later said: For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me (Job 3:25). 

Job’s reason to fear God was because he knew God’s will. He said: The Lord gave, and the lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.  

Job’s reason to fear God was that he worshipped God in spirit and in truth. The Father seeks such to worship him. Job did not worship God for what he got from God. Job worshipped God because He is worthy. Nothing in my hands I bring, only to him I cling! 

Job’s reason to fear God was because of his faith in God. In all  this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. Job believed God and righteousness was credited to him. 

It seems to me there are many reasons why we fear God. Our behavior will reveal how much we fear in Him. Those who fear him, live a life that is pleasing to him. Those who know him have nothing to fear no matter what.

Visit: www.cliffhartley.com

Is it cancer? Is it the loss of a child? A woman recently said: My greatest fear is that my rapist will be free from jail and come to attack me again. Your worst nightmare may yet have to happen even though you have just experienced a turn of events that you thought could not getter any worse.  

For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. Job 3:25 

What was Job’s greatest fear? I’m not sure. I can only imagine! This Warren Buffet of his day had just lost all that men could loose. Could it be after Job lost it all, and had to live with the suffering of loosing it all?  Could it be living with never knowing why it was all taken away? Job’s greatest fear that has come upon him is anyone’s guess?  

Pardon me if I may ponder on this for a moment. My greatest fear would be… 

Loosing God’s favor in my life. Having the Lord’s hand upon me turning to the negative, would be a fear I would never want to experience. The fear of loosing His approval!  

Loosing my focus in the will of God. The gifts and the calling of God can never be repented of. To have the call of God on my life and to purposely let it go to the tank would be sheer misery and intolerable. Being irresponsible would bring this fear to a surface. 

Living to an age when bitterness can become an issue. Age sometimes can be a burden. I only hope I never see one single day of cynicism in my life. 

Facing my Heavenly Father not being prepared or ready is a great fear of mine.  

Loosing a burden to win souls would put me into a death basket. The only purpose driven reason why God has left me here is to win others to him. God spare me of this fear! 

Living alone without Jeanie is an ever present fear. I have never known a day that I have not known her. I fear living one second without her in my life. 

I fear to see the day in my life if my prayers for my family are never answered because of sin, or a tear no longer falls from my eyes over the lost, or failing to care for the poor.  

I fear never having a second opportunity for a failed moment to witness. 

It seems to me when your worst nightmare becomes a reality, you can trust the Holy Spirit to guide you and the wonderful grace of God to sustain you.

How does a foolish woman or a foolish man speak? They speak contrary to God’s will. They speak in lack of faith in God’s work. They speak as if there is no God.  

Mrs. Job witnessed her husband sitting on a pile of ashes smitten by Satan with boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. While broken hearted over loosing all her possessions and family, yet she speaks as if Satan were speaking through her: Curse God and die! Job says to his wife: “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.” (NKJ) It is interesting; Mrs. Job is never heard of speaking again!  

People speak from the books they have read and the people they are associated with. When placed into leadership, they will either lead to higher levels of living or they will be the blind leading the blind straight into a ditch.  

Enter Mr. Barack Obama and notice his associations like those of William Ayres, who admitted bombing the Pentagon as part of a protest plot to overthrow the U.S. He has been a follower for more than 20 years of the anti-America, ill-hatred, radical Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He also is endorsed by anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan. When you listen to the likes of these, you will speak as one of the foolish women. 

Mr. Obama speaks as one of the foolish women when he supports the death of a child in the mother’s womb. Denver’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput labeled Barack Obama the “most committed” abortion-rights candidate from a major party in 35 years.” Since Roe v Wade in 1973, this country alone has murdered a generation of babies. Someone needs to put a stop to this national sin. Mr. Obama will not stop this brutal atrocity if elected. If he becomes President, he will use our tax dollars to kill babies by way of abortion. A vote for Obama is voting against the 5^th Amendment of our Constitution!  

Mr. Obama opposes the Bible. Go to… www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FCNKwHRCQM and listen as he ridicules the Ten Commandments and makes light of the Sermon on the Mount.  America is one nation under God, not one nation or world under Mr. Barack Obama. When Mr. Obama criticizes the Bible, he speaks as one of the foolish women.

 This presidential candidate is against any state mandate defining marriages between one man and one woman. He would oppose Proposition 8 in California! Heterosexual marriages are right for California, and right for America.Mr. Obama speaks as one of the foolish women by opposing the Federal Defense of Marriage Act. 

It seems to me the only way to stop this foolish jangling is for the salt of the earth and the light of the world to show up on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 and vote. The Christian right will be heard; we will speak with a voice that will silence this blasphemous rhetoric from the far left to which will never be heard of again! Honor God and live!

Visit: www.cliffhartley.com

To win friends and influence people, you must become “mighty in words”. When those words are well said, no one will know where their influence might end.  

Forcible right words are words like Billy Graham’s prayer for our Nation:‘Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.  We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done.  We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.  We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.  We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.  We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.  We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.  We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.  Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!  

Listen America to what Job said: Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words! Job 6:24, 25 

Forcible right words are gracious words from the wise. Those who speak the truth with wisdom, speaks when the timing is right. Provocative words will often turn into wrath. When a brother is offended, it is harder to win that person back than is it to take a strong city. Keep your words seasoned with grace and bathed in love. Then the error of one’s ways will be corrected. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.  

Forcible right words change lives, change direction and change addresses. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. 

It seems to me the humanist and the atheists today are getting upset because the redeemed of the Lord are saying so. The people have spoken forcibly on Proposition 8 and will speak forcibly on any tingling cymbal that comes from the White House. 

Visit: www.cliffhartley.com