Righteousness through faith

Philippians
 I have copied below a passage from today's reading in Philippians.  It is a powerful passage because of the strength of the language Paul uses to describe worldly accoutrements versus heavenly treasures.  It really puts life into perspective, for me.  Consider the verses below and just see what you can learn from them. 

Phil 3:7-11: "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.


*I included verses 10 and 11 even though they are in tomorrow's reading simply because you can't stop at verse 9!

The God of all comfort

2 Corinthians
The following passage from 2 Corinthians 1 brought to light (for me) a potential new way to think about suffering:

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our^a behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. 

Our experiences aren't for us alone.  What God has done in our lives should be shared with others to help them grow and mature.  We aren't alone in the world.  The stuff we've gone through, good and bad, can connect us with others.  The comfort that God has given in all circumstances can be a powerful tool in ministering to others as we demonstrate that through God, we can endure all things.

The real question of Job

If you want to read more about the book of Job, check out this link (click here).  It's the Quartz Hill School of Theology's brief rundown on the book itself, as well as a short little blurb on wisdom literature in general, which we have been reading through Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (and now Job).
This website actually presents a new approach to Job.  Instead of wondering why the righteous suffer, which I have been thinking about because of this book, we should really be asking why do we fear God?  This is what Satan mentioned in Job 1:9-11.  The site puts it this way:   "The question which Job faced, and which we all must face, is a profound one: "Why do we serve God?" Is it for the good stuff we get from him, or out of fear of getting bad stuff? Or, do we do it simply because we love him? That is the real question!"
We have faith in God in the good times.  Actually, in the good times it is often easy to forget about God because life is going so great.  When the trouble hits, regardless of the reason, do we still have faith, even when we don't understand what's going on?  Do we still believe that God has a master plan?  That he is in control?  We should!

Implicit trust

Key verse
Job 2:10 - "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?"

I've done some background reading on the new books we're looking at in my Archaeological study bible.   Here are some things I learned, along with my own thoughts I'd like to share.

Job
I've learned something new about the book of Job.  Apparently, when it was written, the popular idea about suffering was that if you were going through bad times, it must be because you had sinned or your ancestors had sinned.  The story of Job shows that people can suffer even though they are righteous.  This new view presents a whole different picture of what God is like, and how little we can understand of him in our finite world.  Implicit trust and faith in the ultimate goodness of God is required.

How do you reconcile the problem of suffering in this world with the belief in a good God?

Ezekiel
This book was written for the exiles to Babylon.  Ezekiel was preparing them (in 593 BC) for the destruction of Jerusalem so that they wouldn't live in the false hope that the city would somehow be spared.  The city was destroyed in 586 BC.

More suffering

Jeremiah
Well, Jeremiah ends on a somewhat happy note.  Jehoichin is released and lives on a pension.  It looks like the Jews may receive God's blessings once again, so long as they obey him!

1 Peter
Again Peter talks about suffering.  I was wondering about this emphasis, but then remembered that he was writing to people who were being persecuted.  This is actually an encouragement to them.  It pays to investigate the historical context of the bible, so that we can know why it says what it does.

Commendable to suffer

1 Peter
It is commendable to suffer for doing good.  In fact, Peter goes so far as to say that this is what we were called to (2:21)!  That's a tough one.  You really have to focus on God's love in order to endure suffering.  By thinking less of yourself and what you're going through, and thinking more about how God loves all of us, and suffered even for those people who are making your life miserable, you can hopefully endure it a little easier.