A Week in Job

So last week we went through Job with Morille Blanchette. He spent the majority of the week on outlining the book, so I guess you could say we laid the foundation for our own personal study. Now I can at least make sense of what's happening in the book of Job! But I'll give you a couple things that I learned...

• Satan. Satan is subject to God's permission - he's on a leash, so to speak (Job 1:6-12). Satan is obviously powerful, but his power has been broken by the cross (Hebrews 2:14). However, satan will use any means to discourage you. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
• "Suffering shows us how fragile we are, keads us to examine ouselves, strenghtens our relationship with God, drives us to pray, makes us more compassionate, and plants the flag of truth in our rebel soul." -Timothy Keller
• Jesus is well familiar with our sufferings (Isaiah 53). He knows what we are going through. He walks beside us and asks us to cast our burdens on him (Psalm 55:22, 1 Peter 5:7)
• One difference between Jesus and Job: Job often defends himself...Jesus did not (Isaiah 53:7)
• Unbelievers shut out the voice of God because they do not want to confront their sin... how much are you like them - do you shut out that still, small voice?
• God is enough. He will sustain you through anything and everything. Do you trust that God is enough for you? God is always in control.
• No purpose of God can be hindered or thwarted - God is always in control - even wjen I go through a hard time, it's mot that his plan has been thwarted. Trust God, who obviously knows more than the whole human race put together over the past couple thousand years! (Job 38-41)
• Forgiveness: an act of God removing the effect and punishment for sin.
• The wrath of God will never be kindled against us as believers - all because of Christ! How different this is from the old testament! 

And those are just some of the things that I've learned as we traveled through the book of Job! God is good, and one verse that He really brought to mind this past week is Matthew 6:33 - "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Now the reason this verse came to mind, is because of the things that I've learned. Over the past 6 months or thereabouts, there have been things that came up and I know I needed to grow in them. So for months I tried to grow in those things... and to no avail - if anything, I started backtracking. But over the past couple weeks, I've really been seeking God, and guess what - ALL those things that I was striving to grow into on my own, well when I surrendered to God... He did wonders in me! In these past two weeks alone, he has grown me in those ways that I've wanted to grow into for months! This has been a great lesson to seek God first, in everything!

As for the church situation... Well this past Sunday, we all went to the french baptist church. And I discovered that they translate through a little headset that you wear - so I think this is God's way of answering my prayers, it looks like I will be able to go to the french church after all! 

In a couple of weeks, my ministry/worship team will be going into Quebec City to do some musical outreach and testimonies! Matt told me he'd like me to pick up the guitar and play guitar - even though piano is my strong point. So not only am I playing guitar... but we are doing FRENCH songs!!! This will be a little bit stretching... but I'm definitely looking forward to this challenge!

This week, we are going through 1&2 Timothy. So far it's been great, and I can't wait to see what else God is going to teach us!

April