GOD HAS A REWARD

Then Job replied to the Lord:

"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted." (Job 42:1-2)

Ron Dunn, in his book entitled "When Heaven is Silent", tells us the following:  There is a purpose, Job says. I may not know what that purpose is, but it is enough to know that there is one. And this is one of the supreme lessons of the book of Job:  Our suffering serves some larger purpose of God. "This links our human lives with a divine purpose, just at the point where the purposes of God seem broken off. Pain is transformed into privilege; sorrow becomes the sign of divine approval."

One last thing the author of Job wants us to learn - God has a reward. "After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before...The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first" (Job 42:10,12 NIV).

Well, let's see how God rewarded Job. Remember that He gave Job twice as much as he had before...sheep, camels, oxen, donkeys, and offspring. God gave back to Job seven sons and three daughters; he started with seven and three. Wait, I must have read that wrong. He had seven sons and three daughters...No, that can't be right. He started out with ten children, now he ought to have twenty.

Wait, I get it! He did have twenty children. Ten down here and ten in heaven.

Because you never lose someone when

they go to heaven.

There is a Purpose

Romans 10:13 says in its' wonderful simplicity, "For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." The gospel is simple in its approach, totally free to the person who receives it, and yet it was the most costly of gifts for it cost God the very life of His only Son Jesus Christ.

In Ron Dunn's book, "When Heaven is Silent", he asks this basic question throughout the text, "Does God have a right to do what He does?"  Dunn goes on to say that this was the first question he had to face the night he learned of Ronnie Jr.'s death. Almost immediately, a verse in Psalm 115 came to his mind and gave him comfort, "But our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased."

There is a purpose, Job says. I may not know what the purpose is, but it is enough to know that there is one. And this is one of the supreme lessons of the book of Job:  Our suffering serves some larger purpose of God. Pain is transformed into privilege; sorrows becomes signs of divine approval!

What Kind Of God Do We Have?

Revelation 14:13 says, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”

Borrowing from Max Lucado’s Book, He Still Moves Stones, referring to I Thess. 4:16-17 “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

What kind of God do we have? The God who holds the keys to life and death. The kind of God who rolls back the sleeve of the trickster and reveals death for the parlor trick it is. The kind of God you want present at your funeral.