Job...

...as in the book of Job, not a j-o-b. It was one of those uncoincidental coincidences that the topic of the St. John's high school study and my own small group study this week were both the book of Job. I know it sounds so weird, but I am comforted by the book of Job. Yes, God gives Satan free reign to do with Job and his family as Satan so chooses, short of killing him. Yes, Job loses everything dear to him on this earth and is plagued with horrible things. But he never loses faith. Job comforts me because he wrestles with God. He questions him, gets angry with him, but he never loses faith. I don't know if you've ever read Job 19 before, but I highly suggest doing it. The hardships I have been through pale in comparison to what Job experienced. And if, after it all, he can still say that he knows his Redeemer lives (before Jesus walked the earth, mind you), then why can't I? A friend of mine was beautifully honest in discussing Job with me and said he didn't understand the book and Job's circumstance makes him question God's love, goodness and justice. How could God just so readily hand Job over to Satan like that when Job was blameless and faithful? How could God watch Job go through what he did and not step in? These are serious, legitimate questions to wrestle with when reading through Job. Then the questions popped into my head: How could God the father so readily hand Jesus over? How could God the father watch Jesus go through what he did on the cross and not step in? I think we as humans are naturally born with these enormous blinders on. We can only see what's in our reality. God's scope and view is infinitely bigger than our own, and God is therefore infinitely wiser. He knew what he put Jesus through was so worth the outcome, and he knew that Job's temporal sorrows were meaningless in the scope of eternity. And, after all is said and done, God gives Job double what he had before. The fact of the matter is that we all deserve the worst of what Job experienced, and nothing more. We are sinners who deserve death, but God freely gives us so much more. I think entitlement is one of Satan's greatest tools. I'm entitled to nothing, but God has given me everything through his son. Eternity is all that matters. Like Job says, "after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eys." What an awesome day that will be!

Retreat!

What an amazing weekend! I headed up to Forest Home Ojai Valley with 88 Eighth graders and 12 other leaders on Friday for Confirmation retreat. The weekend was incredible to say the least. Why was it incredible? Because God showed up. The Holy Spirit was palpable throughout the retreat and I was amazed as I watched lives be transformed and restored by his power and love. I feel like there were points in the weekend where I got that rare glimpse of what Christian fellowship was intended to look like. We were one body, relying on each other, loving on each other and being real with each other. It was so beautiful.

Jesus is it. He's everything we need. We are blessed not because of people or things, but because One person gave us His everything. At one point in the weekend we all nailed our sins to the cross and as each person came up I just saw Jesus looking so lovingly at them saying "I'll take that one. And that one too. Whatever it takes to be with you." We deserve nothing good in this world. Nothing. But Jesus, the one perfect person who ever deserved good took on all of our filth and went through the worst of this world to give us everything.

My 40 days of the gospel are still rocking my world. I read Luke 4 this morning and was humbled by the way Jesus was able to combat every temptation with the Word of God. I was also appalled almost to the point of laughter by what a blatant liar Satan is. Early in the chapter he tries to tell Jesus that he has the authority to give everything to Jesus if Jesus will only worship him, and then a few verses later his minions, the evil spirits, are proclaiming that Jesus is the Holy One of God and fall down to the ground.

More pictures of retreat to come soon. Not too many though. Nicolle Miller only took about 700 :) Blessings!