Tag Archives: talking

Life Lessons

Why do Bad Things happen to Good People? (Part three)

Leave a comment

Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People?  Part Three. 

                                    Job’s Further Trial.

     In the second chapter of the book of Job, we now have a another picture of the council of God meeting, with Satan present once more. Once again God asks Satan “What have you been doing?” with the answer that he had been roving backwards and forwards over the earth. We can rest assured, that just as he was doing that then, he will still be doing it today, and with all the crime and violence that is going on, it is obvious he is not idle!      God said to him, “Have you taken notice of Job? He still holds firm to his convictions in spite of losing everything he had.” “Ho ho,” replied Satan, “You touch his health and it will be a different story!” “Alright,” God replied, “He is in your power, but you are not to take his life.”

    We see from this conversation that Satan can only go so far in touching God’s people. We know that God allows certain things to happen to us to correct us and teach us more of His comfort. Paul said that his affliction (whatever it was), was a messenger of Satan to keep him humble and dependent on God  (2 Corinthians 12:7)    This answers the age old question of “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” We see from Job’s reply to his wife’s comment, that he too, thought this disaster had come on him from God. We all tend to blame God when some circumstance  outside our control brings disaster to us. Rather, we should look on these things as corrections and times of growing in His knowledge.

   Satan went out from God’s presence thinking he had Job this time, and chose the worst thing he could think of to torment him with….being covered with boils! There was no rest for Job with this….he could not sit or lie comfortably anywhere!    In spite of Job being such a devout and godly man, yet there were still things for him to learn from this experience, so this trial had a double point. It was showing Satan (and his cohorts) that there was a man who would remain firm in his convictions, no matter what happened to him, and at the same time teach him (Job) more valuable lessons about God’s faithfulness.

   This time Job’s trial really begins. His three friends heard about all the calamities that had befallen him, and how he was now in worse straits than ever with his health having given out. So they all came to visit him, to sympathise with him and show their support.    When they arrived, they were shocked at just how bad he was! They hardly recognised him as the person they knew! They showed their shock by weeping loudly and tearing at their clothes. Each of them sat down with dust on their heads, and then just sat there with him not saying a word! They stayed like that for seven days before they started talking….Job’s pain was so great with the boils that covered him, and he made matters worse by scraping the tops off them with a scraper of some sort. But even that, as they began to talk to him, paled into insignificance against what they had to say. It would have almost been better if they had all kept their mouths shut!

   What a lesson for us to learn! For those in deep grief it is some times better to say nothing than to even say “I know what it’s like for you!” Even when we’ve been through some traumatic experience, no-one else can step into your mind and know how you feel, as everyone is different.   

     So next time we will look at Job’s friends’ advice and see what we can learn from it all…..

Grandma's Stories, Stories for Teens

Pilgrim’s Progress (7)

Leave a comment

                               More Setbacks in Christian’s Way.

“Dad, can we go round to Uncle Jeff’s place this afternoon?” Bobby asked one Saturday. “Well, you’ll have to make sure you get all your chores done this morning then”, Dad said, “And as it turns out, Mum and I want to go shopping this afternoon so we can drop you off on our way and pick you up when we get back”. “Ooh, goody!” said Betty who had been listening, “I want more story!”

   So later on when they were left at Uncle Jeff’s place, they all settled down nibbling at some nuts that Uncle Jeff had on his little table by the couch. “Well, we left Christian and Faithful walking along together enjoying chatting as they went. They were talking about the goodness of the King, and what they expected to find when they got to the Heavenly Land. They were so busy talking as they went that they didn’t see the tall man coming up behind them.

 ‘Hoho,’ he said as he caught up with them, ‘How is the travelling going?’ ‘Where are you off to?’ Christian asked, ‘We are going to the Celestial City’. ‘So am I!’ said Talkative ( that was his name, and also what he was) Come and walk with us then’, said Christian ‘and we can enjoy talking as we go along’. ‘Nothing would suit me better’, said Talkative, ‘I can talk about all sorts of things you like to bring up’. ‘We’ve been talking about the Celestial City’, said Faithful, ‘and the things that we will find there’. ‘There are better things to talk about than that’, said Talkative, ‘Why no-one has ever come back from there to tell us what it’s like. Now I prefer to talk about things I can see around me….’ and he kept on talking and talking as they went along. Christian strode along ahead and the other two started to lag behind, as Talkative was so busy talking, he started walking slower. Finally, Faithful caught up to Christian and said, ‘Why don’t you join in with us back here?’

‘I don’t think so’, Christian said, ‘I remember what he was like when I knew him back in the city of Destruction. Wherever he was, he talked to suit those who were there. You should have heard what he was like in the pub! People said he was a saint when he was out and a devil when he was at home!’ ‘Really?’ said Faithful, ‘How can we get rid of him then?’ ‘Just ask him what made him want to come to the Celestial City, and tell him how good God is to have called us like He did!’    Faithful began to talk to him about these things, and it wasn’t long before Talkative said, ‘I’ve just remembered  something, I’d better go back and attend to it!’ and he turned around and went back where he had come from.”

“It’s funny that,” Sarah said, “The kids at school who don’t go to Youth Club don’t like to hear us talk about things we do there either. They say we are sissies for taking notice of that sort of thing!” “Silly things!” said Betty, “They don’t know much do they?” “What happened next, Uncle Jeff?” Bobby asked. “The path was going through a dry rough place where nothing much was growing, in fact it seemed like a wilderness with no green grass and nothing very nice to look at. Just like Talkative’s talk was, dry and pointless. As they were about to leave this area, another person was hurrying up behind them. Christian turned around, and exclaimed, ‘Oh look, here comes our old friend Evangelist, he’ll have something worthwhile to say to us!’

   And so it was. ‘ Peace be with you!’ Evangelist said as he caught up with them, ‘May the Lord be with you….how are you doing now you are this far on your trip?’ ‘We were just saying that if it weren’t for your encouragement back in the city of Destruction, we might never have started on this journey. We are so thankful for your preaching and teaching in past days! By the way, did you see anything of Twisty after he got back to city of Destruction? I thought he was going to stay and be a good friend to me on the way, but he said the road was too hard’.

‘Yes, he is back where he started from, and harder than ever. He is saying now that it was all a big mistake and he found that it was just a load of rubbish! I think he was one of those people who start off with great enthusiasm and then when hard things happen, they change their minds and turn away from the things of God’.”

“I know a girl like that at school”, Sarah said, “She seemed really keen at the Easter Camp, and went forwards to talk to the leader, and even got up at the testimony time, but to listen to her now, she has changed right back again”.

“Yes, you find that happens sometimes”, said Uncle Jeff, “Well, while they were walking along, Evangelist started to look very sad. ‘What’s wrong, Evangelist?’ Christian asked. ‘The King has given me a message that as you pass through the next town called Vanity Fair, one of you is not going to get past there, but will die’. Christian and Faithful looked at each other with sad faces at this news. Evangelist said, ‘I know this is very sad news, but the one who will be taken will be better off than the one that is left because he will reach the Celestial City first, and will be saved from many hard times in this world before the other one gets there. But for the one who is left, let me say in the words of our Master, ‘Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world’. And now I must leave you and go back to continue my work of pointing more pilgrims to this way’.    With that, he turned around and sadly walked away, while the others carried on forward towards this town of doom.”

Uncle Jeff got up and stretched. “I think that will do for today”, he said, “It won’t be long before your Mum and Dad come back….let’s go outside and fill the wheelbarrow up with firewood for tonight”.

Miracles

The Young Backpacker.

Leave a comment

The young man got off the plane in Auckland with his back-pack, not knowing which way to turn. He only had five days in New Zealand and all he knew was that he would like to see the Bay of Islands and have a day or so on a farm.

    So he turned to the north, and caught a bus to Kerikeri. Whether he made his travels a matter of prayer or not, I don’t know, and some would call this a mere coincidence, but we prefer to call it a miracle, or perhaps even more so, a matter of the Lord honouring those who honour Him.  After all,  how many young back packers carry a large Bible around with them and take the time out of a tight schedule to go to church in a strange country?

    It was the summer holidays at this time and as we usually did, we were spending the time on our yacht (sail boat)  in the Bay of Islands. We always made a point of attending a small church fellowship in Kerikeri while on holiday and this particular Sunday morning we went there as usual. We saw this tall young man sitting at the back of the church carrying a large Bible with him…by the look of his clothes we guessed he was an American, and when we heard him speak all doubt was removed!

    Our friends invited him as well as ourselves home for lunch, and we had a lively discussion over the meal. When he told us about the two things he wanted to see while in New Zealand, we looked at each other and then told him that we could probably point him in the direction of both of them at no cost if he liked.

    He did like, and so he came back with us to the yacht and stayed a couple of days with us. We were able to take him to all the popular tourist spots, and my, how we did talk. We talked well into the night about Christians things. There were many things he wanted to know that we were able to tell him and we all had a thoroughly enjoyable time. 

     When he left us, we got in touch with our brother on his dairy farm and sent him there for another day or so. So this was a case of the Lord granting him his desire in a way that could not have been engineered in any other way! He came as a stranger and left as a  brother.

     We kept in touch for many years and the spin-off was that we were able to pay a visit to the town in Oregon where he eventually had a tourist business, and he gave us a wonderful and memorable trip on one of the lakes in his area.