Helpful thoughts on the Book of Job from one of my Wheaton professors.

For Amanda, Mitchell, Jana, Kaitlyn, Joe, Dan, Dave, and Matt:

“Suffering is sometimes a mystery. We must affirm both the mystery and God. The paradox remained, but now at least, Job knew that it belonged there—that it is built into the moral and physical orders, and into the very nature of God as He has permitted us humans to perceive Him. In a world where the universal principle is cause-effect, the book of Job reminds us that the principle is a reflection of the mysterious, self-revealing God. It is subsumed under Him, however, and He cannot be subsumed under it. The God-speeches remind us that a Person, not a principle, is Lord.”

… C. Hassell Bullock (b. 1939), Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1979, p. 108-109

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

In the middle of our home renovation…

This quote seems exquisitely appropriate:

“We should be very sure that the ruined soul is not one who has missed a few more or less important theological points and will flunk a theological examination at the end of life. Hell is not an “oops!” or a slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid and escape God. “Outer darkness” is for one who, everything said, wants it, whose entire orientation has slowly and firmly set itself against God and therefore against how the universe actually is. It is for those who are disastrously in error about their own life and their place before God and man. The ruined soul must be willing to hear of and recognize its own ruin before it can find how to enter a different path, the path of eternal life that naturally leads into spiritual formation in Christlikeness.”
… Dallas Willard (b. 1935), The Renovation of the Heart, Colorado Springs, Colo.: Navpress, 2002, p. 59

Bookmark It

Hide Sites