{"id":333,"date":"2014-03-14T18:31:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T23:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.com\/?p=333"},"modified":"2014-03-14T18:31:11","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T23:31:11","slug":"nugget-the-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/?p=333","title":{"rendered":"Nugget – The Process"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

“The Process”<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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While going through an illness recently, I did the usual Christian (and human) response, namely: pray for healing; seek medical attention; take medication; pray some more; get frustrated; argue with God; etc. This time though, I was confronted with the question (and the need to write it for here<\/em>):
\nWhat was God doing to Job? Surely it wasn’t just to determine if Job feared him? I mean, God already knew that \u2013 He stated it to Satan before the whole episode. If that was all, why was the cost so high?
\nIn the process, he lost his children (which Godly parent takes the lost of a child lightly, let alone all of them at once<\/em>?); he lost his wealth – no, all his material possessions (sigh); then he lost his health! (groan).
\nAnd all this happened while he was \u2018serving God\u2019. I really should be describing this as ‘God took these things from Job – via Satan’. God\u00a0was<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in charge of the whole process. We know this because (a) God\u00a0is<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2018sovereignly\u2019 in control of all of His creation; (b) we are viewing this from hind-sight, and the Scripture gives us the dialogue between Satan and the Lord (Job 1, esp v 8-9)*1.
\nBut, why would God do this? Why allow (or even provoke) suffering to come to His loved ones; \u201cThe problem of pain\u201d*2 as CS Lewis writes in his book of said title.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

When we face our own\u00a0brushes<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0baptisms<\/em>\u00a0of suffering, we usually respond not only with grief but the haunting thought of betrayal by God, among other things. But even though we may think His ways\u00a0unsearchable<\/em>, (Job 11:7*3) we can always trust His heart (Rom 8:28)*4\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>His goals. I want to highlight one of the main goals \u2013 preparing\u00a0us\u00a0as a\u00a0habitation<\/em>\u00a0for\u00a0Himself<\/em>\u00a0– (Ex 15:2*5 ; 2 Cor 5:17-19 and esp Eph 2:21*7).
\nWe have no idea what kind of preparation this \u2018building material<\/em>\u2019 has to go through but He does and so we have to trust Him. Obviously, suffering is part of the process. May you find His strength to endure the cost of your \u2018alabaster box\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

*1 – Job 1:8-9 [8]\u00a0The LORD said to Satan, \u201cHave you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.\u201d [9]\u00a0Then Satan answered the LORD, \u201cDoes Job fear God for nothing? (NRSV)<\/p>\n

*2 – CS Lewis: The Problem of Pain \u2013 on Amazon here \u2026 .<\/p>\n

*3 – Job 11:7 \u201cCan you penetrate God’s depths? Can you find out Shaddai’s limits? (CJB)<\/p>\n

*4 – Rom 8:28 and 32 – [28]\u00a0Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with his purpose;
\n[32]\u00a0He who did not spare even his own Son, but gave him up on behalf of us all\u2014is it possible that, having given us his Son, he would not give us everything else too? (CJB)<\/p>\n

*5 – Ex:15:2 [2]\u00a0The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. (KJV)
\n(- remember the song?)<\/p>\n

*6 – 2 Cor 5: 17-19 way. [17]\u00a0So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! [18]\u00a0All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; [19]\u00a0that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.<\/p>\n

*7 – Ephesians 2:22 [22]\u00a0Yes, in union with him, you yourselves are being built together into a spiritual dwelling-place for God! (CJB)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Process” While going through an illness recently, I did the usual Christian (and human) response, namely: pray for healing; seek medical attention; take medication; pray some more; get frustrated; argue with God; etc. This time though, I was confronted with the question (and the need to write it for here): What was God doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newcreationgeneration.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}