Month: October 2018

Job 1:6-12, 2:1-10, 42:1-6
Hebrews 10:32-39

Sometimes it’s all about perspective.

A woman was exploring the waiting room at her first appointment with a new dentist when she noticed his full name on his diploma. Suddenly she remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in her high school class so many years ago. Could this be the same guy I had a crush on way back then? she wondered. She quickly discarded any such thought when she met the balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face. He’s way too old to have been my classmate, she thought to herself. Still, after he examined her teeth, she asked, “Did you happen to attend Morgan Park High School?”
“Yes! I’m a Mustang,” he gleamed with pride.
“When did you graduate?” she asked.
“1969.”
“Oh my, you were in my class!” she exclaimed.
“Really?” he said, looking at her closely; “What did you teach?”

Sometimes it’s all about perspective.

How many times have you been sitting in your living room watching a football game when the referee calls a pass interference penalty against your team. You yell, “Hey ref! Are you blind; that was interference!” And you are convinced the ref blew the call. Until the replay shows a different angle and suddenly you clearly see that the ref was right and you were wrong. Why? Because you saw the play from your limited two dimensional perspective. You were mistaken because you couldn’t see the entire picture from your limited perspective.

I bring this up because when we read the Book of Job we have this tendency to view the story from the perspective of Job.

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Psalm 13

Disappointment occurs when experience falls short of our expectation.

Jim Bridgewater had every expectation of depositing a paper bag full of cash at his local bank. But when he pulled up to the drive-through window, instead of picking up the bag of money laying next to him on the seat, he picked up a bag of grass; and I’m not talking fescue or bluegrass. The teller discovered 2.5 grams and 3 hand rolled joints and called the police. Bridgewater was still waiting for his receipt when the cops showed up. And disappointment began to set in as Jim’s experience fell far short of his expectation.

All of us have experienced disappointment at some time in our lives. And the truth is that for many of us, the scars we carry on our souls are there because we’ve been deeply disappointed; by other people and sometimes even by God.

The Bible is chock full of people who experienced disappointment, even disappointment in God. Beyond the person who penned the 13th Psalm, listen to these:

Psalm 6: 3-6: “My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? Turn, Lord, and deliver me, save me because of your unfailing love.” 

Psalm 10:1-2: “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

Psalm 44:24: “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?”

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Psalm 60
Luke 22:14-20
Romans 5:1-11

When was the last time you were astonished, astounded or stunned?

According to Paul Harvey, if you had been in Swan Quarter, NC in September of 1876, you would have been. A small group of Methodist Christians had been meeting in homes and desired to build a church building. As Swan Quarter is located near the Outer Banks, they attempted to purchase a vacant piece of elevated property near the downtown but the owner, Sam Sadler, refused to sell. Unfortunately the only land they could obtain was a low lying property down on Oyster Creek Road.

So they erected a white clapboard building and set it on brick pilings to provide as much protection as possible from flooding. They planned a Dedication Service for Sunday, September 17, but on Saturday a hurricane struck that area and most of the town was flooded. Three days later, it stopped raining and as people began to peek out their windows were amazed to see their newly constructed church building slowly floating down Oyster Creek Road! A dozen or so townspeople threw ropes around it and tried to stop but to no avail. They were amazed when it came to an intersection and the church building, as though it had a mind of its own made right-hand turn. But they were absolutely flabbergasted when, two blocks later, it settled on that same little knoll they had attempted to purchase, and slowly turned around in the currents to face the road. The owner subsequently sold the property to the church where it still stands to this day. ¹

After this astounding miracle, the church name was changed from Swan Quarter Methodist Church to Providence Methodist Church. You better believe it! If you don’t I invite you to go on-line and check it on Snopes.

I asked you, ‘When was the last time you were ‘astonished,’ ‘confused,’ or stunned to the point that it made you ‘stagger’ in dismay?’

I asked you this because while reading Psalm 60 as part of my devotional time this week I came across a phrase that reached out from the Bible and grabbed me.

The New Living renders verse 3 “You have been very hard on us, making us drink wine that sent us reeling.” But other translators render the phrase, (Darby) ‘wine of bewilderment’, (NKJV) ‘wine of confusion,’ (BBE) ‘wine of shaking,’ (NIV, NASB) ‘wine of staggering,’, (Young’s) ‘wine of trembling.’ I don’t usually care for the old King James Version but I became enamored with the its rendering ‘the wine of astonishment.’ because I saw it as an apt description of the communion cup, for certainly it contains the wine of astonishment or so it should.

But let’s not leap into New Testament theology until we discover why this author, David, chose to use that phrase.

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