Job's Wife

Have you ever thought about Job's wife?  I mean, really.  We love our Mr. Job, but what about the missus?  Just think.  There she was, the wife of a successful man-- and if you ascribe to the tenet that behind every successful man is a hard-working woman, she had to have some part in his fame and success.  First of all, she gave birth to  seven children in ancient 2nd millenium primitive conditions.  Granted she was rich, but let's face it girls, no amount of gold or silk pillows changes the fact that childbirth is no picnic.  Seven children 2,000 years before Christ?  That's 63 months of pregnancy, or 5-1/4 years of her life in a maternity tunic.   The children grew up to be fun-loving young people and Job loved and prayed for them.  This must have been gratifying to Mrs. Job.  Every woman wants her children to be loved by a caring dad, right?   But then one day her world crashed down around her.  Everything she worked for, built, believed in, loved, trusted, and been proud of was gone, beginning with their thousands of  animals and the hired help.   Then on her eldest son's birthday, a tornado struck, and he was killed in his house along with the rest of her children .  She was left with absolutely nothing but a bereft husband who was in horrible, inconsolable grief.   And  if things weren't bad enough, suddenly this formerly richest man in the East  broke out in agonizing boils from head to toe.  She had to be beside herself in confusion, terror and grief.  Well, we know the end of the story, don't we?  God gave Job twice what he started out with, plus seven more children-- (that's 14 pregnancies all together)  When we start to complain in life, Beloved, let's remember Mrs. Job and praise God, for God blessed her and Job both.   He loved them both.  Let's  look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen--and think about our light affliction, which is but for a moment...  Read 2 Cor. 4:16-18 with me and let's be glad together.

New Year- New Life

I've been travelling and doing some serious thinking about this new year.  The prophesies we're receiving are filled with words regarding government, global turmoil, but also God's outpouring of blessings.  I tell you, I'm expecting great things of God.  I look forward into 2010 and I see His people take hold of Who Jesus Is more fervently than ever.  I keep having visions and dreams of us, you and me-- the family of God, and we're climbing ladders, reaching heights, moving up, up, up.  It's beautiful.  My calling in this life is to minister the love and glory of God through learning the victorious, overcoming Christian life-- and I see us doing just that-- overcoming, standing strong.  I have always taught my children, to be brave and do hard things, and I can only praise the Lord for the hard things in life because He also gives us the gift of courage.  Moses was trained as a shepherd in the desert before he could lead his people to the Promised Land across the desert--  Joseph was trained in Potiphar's house and in prison before he could be 2nd in command in Egypt and rescue his people from extinction-- and you and I?  We're in training, too.  No matter where we stand spiritually at the  birth of this new year, we are called to burst forth and move higher.  The year is new, and so is our life.  This year, let's be more courageous than we've ever been.