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Job 18:5-6 Discernment - we buy the truth Day 49

Good morning fellow pilgrims,

 Do you have the "sense of awe" that Mel Sharp (orginally from Oct '20) spoke of yesterday.  I don't know why God should love me, but He does.  This "love from a foreign country."  One day in Your house is better than a thousand elsewhere.

Blessings

Jeff

Bildad's second speech.  Continues to insist on "bad things happen to the wicked, bad things have happened to you, therefore, you must be wicked"  I do have to admire the picture he paints.  Physical darkness used to symbolize moral darkness and death.  How many of us have a light on a timer when we go on vacation?  Supposed to make a burglar think that somebody is home.  Bildad's image is that if the normal sources of light (lamp, fire) are put out, the person is dead.  Putting on my "engineer hat" for a moment, a scientific theory is supposed to explain the way something works.  Early atomic theory said electrons orbit the nucleus just like planets orbit the sun.  This explained many of the observed phenomena but not all of them. Therefore the theory was incorrect.  In Bildad's case, his logical theory explained everything that Bildad had encountered , but it did not explain Job.  So the theory must be discarded.

But consider Jesus' warning about false prophets (Mt 7:15-20).  He says we can recognize them by their fruit.  Jesus is not referring to outward appearances for they look like sheep but are really ravenous wolves.  Jesus does not give us a theory that explains most things, but not everything.  Jesus gives us truth.   We fail to recognize false prophets/teachers because we don't look at the fruit.  We look at appearance.  

Instruction - What do these thoughts teach me about what God expects of me?  I need Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.  When we pray "deliver us from evil" this is one of the ways God does this.

Thanksgiving - Your word is truth. Discernment is result of constant practice.  Not a "logical" explanation like Bildad.

Confess - The sad state of discernment in my life and to a large degree in the visible church.  "Reliable news source" seems to be a popular arbiter of truth.  I want some one to tell me what to believe.  No practice involved.

Petition - May I be like Pilgrim and Faithful.  When they enter the town, Christian and Faithful cause a stir, because their clothes are different and they spoke a different language. But what really upset the citizens of Vanity Fair was the attitude of Christian and Faithful toward the goods displayed at the fair. They would look around to the items in the city for sale and begged God to help them turn their eyes away from worthless things.

Christian and Faithful were mocked for their distance from these meaningless things and they were asked, “What do you intend to buy?”

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