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I LOVE THIS JOB!


Closet update: I installed the shelf today and now have a fully functioning small walk-in closet. Don't talk to me about the number of times I plastered and sanded and painted - I have discovered that I am not the best plasterer ever and will gladly hire a professional for any project that is not the inside of an unlit storage closet (a.k.a. people will actually see it in daylight).
Job Update: I am currently reading through the book of Job in the Bible and wow - I like it! I am sure the translation (Peterson's The Message) has something to do with it and also, I guess I am seeing and understanding and able to hear things that I could not at other times in my life. It really is not the wretched and pitiful tale that we have made it out to be: that of a man suffering while God stands back and encourages the devil to take his best shot. To me, at least at this reading, it is a story that calls for our idea of God to be enlarged. Job's trouble is not his awful circumstances - it is his inability to think that God is bigger than his situation!
Here are a few quotes...
"God is far greater than any human. So how dare you haul him into court, and then complain that he won't answer your charges? God always answers, one way or another, even when people don't recognize his presence." Job 33
"If God is silent, what's that to you? If he turns his face away, what can you do about it? But whether silent or hidden, he's there, ruling, so that those who hate God won't take over and ruin people's lives...Just because you refuse to live on God's terms, do you think he should start living on yours?" Job 34
"If you sin what difference could that make to God? No matter how much you sin, will it matter to him? Even if you're good, what would God get out of that? Do you think he's dependent on your accomplishments?" Job 35
"Oh, Job, don't you see how God's wooing you from the jaws of danger? How he's drawing you into wide-open places - inviting you to feast at a table laden with blessings? And here you are laden with the guilt of the wicked, obsessed with putting the blame on God!" Job 36
"No one can escape the weather - it's there. And no one can escape from God...Whether for discipline or grace or extravagant love, he makes sure they make their mark...As gold comes from the northern mountains, so a terrible beauty streams from God...Mighty God! Far beyond our reach! Unsurpassable in power and justice! It's unthinkable that he'd treat anyone unfairly. So bow to him in deep reverence, one and all! If you're wise, you'll most certainly worship him." Job 37
This is the fence at Kelsey's where we had supper on the terrace on Tuesday night.
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shane magee said…
i love job as well - an entire book FILLED brimful of the most outrageous heresy! so much so that god himself has to interrupt! interesting that you quote mostly from the end chapters where we start to get back onto familiar ground again. but there are sermons to be preached on the middle chapters that leave loose ends untied and questions very much up in the air. or one on ecclessiates that doesn't feel it has to RUN for safety in the final chapter!!

i LOVE that the bible is deep and complex and not easily squashed into a systematic theology!!

fun!
1:59 PM
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