To ensure you receive the best experience on LifeWay.com, we use cookies to process information about your visit. The Red Cross delivered the first loads of food and juices, and families bathed outside from a water spigot. "The roots of that tree pulled the porch up in front of the door, so we had to climb out a window. . Job responded to his suffering with great faith. Eventually, God would work his greatest triumph through what appeared to be His greatest loss. That's part of the point. God wasn't tricked by Satan. Inside the school, toilets refused to flush, and conditions were becoming dangerously unhealthy. Paul lived those words. Choosing faith in the midst of suffering, as Job did, may look like insanity to all who watch. Your trusted source of Christian resources since 1891, Sermon: Choosing Faith in the Midst of Suffering, Job 1-2. In the book of Job, two chapters of great faith are followed immediately by 35 chapters of great questions. All the parents arrived for the big Christmas play, and when the students left for home, they were finally allowed to take their ceramic presents home. By doing so, he made the better choice, by far, and survived his season of grief. A beam fell on my back, so I couldn't hardly walk. That God is always worthy of praise. In time, the family found even better lodging at a local church, and complete medical care. Beyond that, Job learned a lesson that must be remembered in a time of suffering. It was made of plaster, resembled nothing in particular, but with some paint, sparkle and time in a kiln, it was ready to be wrapped as a gift. When the child finished praying, the water started receding. At the middle school, more than 350 people, many of them injured, lived without running water or electricity for the next week and a half. We want for every new baby a good family, a good childhood, a good education, eventually a fulfilling and well-compensated job, a good home, and a retirement set against the sunset of a perfect life. When they return, however, the family will be profoundly different in one additional way. Job wasn't the last man to give such a gift to the God who allowed terrible pain. And yet in the midst of such pain and heartache, Job issued some of the greatest statements of faith ever heard. (2:9), A lot of things about faith don't make sense to those outside the circle of faith. People ridiculed him (30:1, 9) and that can be hard to take. His wife glared at the great professor. After the heady days of popularity disappeared, the disciples knew suffering. Job’s friends were sure that his sins had caused his suffering. Find answers to some of the more asked questions. How long will you hide your face from me? Jeremiah couldn't preach without weeping, questioning how God could have allowed such despair. "It was heaven," Carlotta Bennett said of her arrival at the assembly in Norman Park. How else could it be? "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing," Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Throughout the entire event, God is always in control. He knows what you’re going through even when it … The professor's son secured his gift, ran toward his parents, tripped, and fell to the floor. Key Illustration, Part I: When 38-year-old Carlotta Bennett realized the water in her house had reached her family's hiding place in the attic, she lost control of her emotions. CSB Holy Land Illustrated Bible (Hardcover). As the house shifted from side to side, the trees wedged the house in place and kept it from collapsing. The book of Job presents one of the most unusual pictures in all the Bible. Curse God and die!" Romans 8:26-27 "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. God knows all. We lost everything.". Paul wasted two years in a prison cell in Caesarea, right in the middle of his best church-planting days. Both parents rushed to their son, but the father was uncomfortable with the moment. These (meaning trials)have come so that... 2. He became the most beloved song-writer in the history of faith, and most of his great psalms came straight out of his seasons of suffering. * Indicated Required Field See our Privacy Policy. Carlotta says she'll never return to her job in a Biloxi casino, and she says the entire family will be committed to Christ, and active in a local church. Two, huge pecan trees had fallen around the house, one in the front, the other in the back. Job wanted God to vindicate him in the eyes of his friends. Maybe that's where he learned that the Holy Spirit would take over his desperate prayers, when he had run out of painful words. The alternative to grief is to never love at all, and Job simply would not take that alternative. Pharaoh, for instance, destroyed his entire country when he refused to acknowledge God in the midst of the pre-exodus suffering. Study the conversation between God and Satan. A rich man, afraid to suffer the loss of his material wealth, missed walking with the Messiah. He wrapped it himself, and was beside himself with excitement. In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. And so with mother's magic and a glue gun, they put together from the broken pieces a multi-colored butterfly. Job's wife certainly didn't think highly of her husband's nonsensical faith. Ever since, those who have suffered and looked for God have been finding hope in the Savior who died for them. We'd love to hear from you. Though he didn't know it yet, Job was on his way to the most intimate encounter with God that he'd ever have in his lifetime. "I just know I can't work in the casino again, no sir," she said. Had they missed the opportunity, they would have never had such a great harvest in that community. His son was crying. When the storms finally subside, another battle rages. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Few reporters had waded the waters of Mississippi to see the damage there. "We found the Lord – it was time. "I've never been so scared in my life," Bennett said, "but that's when Arminta said, 'Mama, you've got to calm down. On the one hand, we could reject the God who allows suffering. Key Illustration, part II: For more than a week, the Bennett's suffered in a forgotten corner of Biloxi. He repented of his own … "Now," said the mother, "let's go home and see what can be made with what's left." Select an option and chat directly with a member of our support team. "After this experience, we just changed our lives," Carlotta said. People were watching. But there's no doubt that the conversation was crystal clear to God. If you're in the midst of suffering, you're also in the midst of an incredible opportunity. (Job 2:10). "I know that my Redeemer lives," he told his more comfortable friends, "and that in the end he will stand upon the earth." With their world in disarray, and fading hopes for a rescue, the Bennett's and other destitute families began to pray for a miracle. Unfortunately, not every person comes closer to God on the road of suffering.
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