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Your Story Spoiler Alert

2020-01-15 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Job 9:25-26 (NIV) 
25  “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.
26  They skim past like boats of papyrus, like eagles swooping down on their prey.

On verses 25-26:  For a lot of people, when they are in pain, time moves very slowly – minutes feel like hours, days feel like months, and months feel like years. So why is it that Job, who is in great pain, says, “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away” (v25).  I believe that is because Job has gone from the prime of his life to nearing his death so quickly.  For Job, it’s as if decades have passed in just a few days.

Job 9:27-28 (NIV) 
27  If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,’
28  I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent.

On verses 27-28:  For Job, trying to cheer himself up and choosing to be joyful is little use when he believes that in the end, God is going to punish him for his sin (v27-28).

诗篇一百廿六篇

2020-01-14 in /by

上行之诗。

1 当耶和华将那些被掳的带回锡安的时候，我们好像做梦的人。
2 我们满口喜笑、满舌欢呼的时候，外邦中就有人说：「耶和华为他们行了大事！」
3 耶和华果然为我们行了大事，我们就欢喜。
4 耶和华啊，求祢使我们被掳的人归回，好像南地的河水复流。
5 流泪撒种的，必欢呼收割。
6 那带种流泪出去的，必要欢欢乐乐地带禾捆回来。

在南国犹大被巴比伦灭掉以先，先知耶利米曾预言，七十年后，神要让那些被掳的人归回。七十年，是一段十分漫长的时间，犹大人被掳到远离家乡的巴比伦，在那里重新立下根基，重建家业。有点像现代人移民到不同的国家。经过七十年，都变成华侨或犹侨了。生活一旦稳定，还想回去那千疮百孔的老家吗？感觉上，那是属于祖辈的地方，再也不是自己的地方了。

但是当圣灵感动人的时候，当神要动工时，祂就会唤醒那些人心灵里最深的渴望：回家，归家，回到那块神为我们定意之地，重建灵魂的故乡。就这样，大约有五万人跟着所罗巴伯等人回到了迦南地。

那时没有飞机，也没有火车或汽车，那些人都是步行或骑牲畜。回想被锁链铐住带到巴比伦时，再想想可以自由身，又带着财产回到故乡，真是此一时也彼一时，仿佛做了一个好长的梦，梦醒人都老了。

The Greatest Proof That God Is Good

2020-01-14 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 9:13-24.  Let’s go!

On verses 13-24: Job feels helpless before God. In his great pain, Job sees God not as a loving Father but as an angry beast fiercer than monsters of the deep like Rahab (not Rahab the prostitute in the book of Joshua but Rahab, being the name for the Egyptian crocodile) (v13).  In Job’s eyes, God is a merciless powerhouse with whom you cannot reason or argue (v15-16).  He is like a UFC opponent who beats Job into submission and multiplies his wounds for no reason (v17), a God who is relentless in making life miserable for Job (v18). His strength cannot be matched (v19), His justice cannot be questioned (v19) and He is so sovereign and holy that even to try to speak to Him about your innocence would be a foolish and self-condemning act (v20). 

Hating life (v21), Job questions what good it is to try to live blamelessly, especially when “He destroys both the blameless and the wicked” (v22). Job also questions how good God really is.  He describes God as one who laughs at the suffering of the innocent (v23) and who gets in the way of the administration of justice, One who “blindfolds judges”.

诗篇一百廿五篇

2020-01-13 in /by

上行之诗。

1 倚靠耶和华的人好像锡安山，永不动摇。
2 众山怎样围绕耶路撒冷，耶和华也照样围绕祂的百姓，从今时直到永远。
3 恶人的杖不常落在义人的份上，免得义人伸手作恶。
4 耶和华啊，求祢善待那些为善和心里正直的人。
5 至于那偏行弯曲道路的人，耶和华必使他和作恶的人一同出去受刑。愿平安归于以色列！

锡安山是耶路撒冷老城南部一座山的名称。这个词在《圣经》中首先用于形容大卫城( 《代下》5:2 ; 《代下》11:5; 《撒下》5:7; 《王上》8:1 )，后来用于圣殿山，现在被用作古代耶路撒冷西山的名字。当诗人举头观看，回想大卫王怎样战胜耶布斯人，神怎样保守这块地，不生免生出许多赞叹。锡安代表神的居所，就是神与祂子民相会的地方。耶路撒冷常与锡安合用，代表弥赛亚要在那里作王掌权，凡被赎的子民都要与祂一同显现在荣耀里。

“众山怎样围绕耶路撒冷，耶和华也照样围绕祂的百姓”，耶路撒冷的地势：耶路撒冷位于以色列中央山脉最高处的平台上，海拔约750公尺。东有汲沦溪，西边和南边是欣嫩溪，三面溪底和城的高差在40至80公尺之间。城区包括五座山头，东南有俄斐勒山，东有摩利亚山，东北有贝西大山，西北有亚克拉山，西南有锡安山。城的东边有橄榄山，群山环绕成为屏障，外敌接近不易，但交通十分便利，是天然的统治中心。诗人用群山围绕耶路撒冷来形容神对我们的爱，也是指出我们若肯倚靠神，就可以蒙保守；反之，我们若不倚靠神，要凭自己的血气去抵抗，那么一定会失败。没有了群山环绕的耶路撒冷，就有如其他平地的城镇一样容易攻取，防不胜防。

Hollywood Theology

2020-01-13 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Job 9:2-4 (NIV) 
2  “Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can a mortal be righteous before God? 
3  Though one wished to dispute with him, he could not answer him one time out of a thousand. 
4  His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?
 
On verses 1-12:  In these verses Job is asking a very important question: “how can mere mortals prove their innocence before God?” (v2)  The answer is we can’t.  Job knows that.  God’s power, wisdom and standards are so beyond our own that there is no way we could ever compare or come close.  But the amazing message of the Bible is that when there was no way we could possibly prove ourselves innocent in God’s sight, in love God sent Jesus Christ His Son – fully God and fully man – to die on the cross for our sins.  In so doing, at the cross God’s need for justice was satisfied while His mercy and forgiveness could be extended to us. It’s only because of God’s mercy expressed through Jesus Christ that we can be righteous and innocent before God.

Check Your Assumptions Before Giving Your Advice

2020-01-13 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 8:1-22.  Let’s go!
 
Job 8:1-4 (NIV) 
1  Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: 
2  “How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind. 
3  Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? 
4  When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
 
On verses 1-4:  Wow.  The first words that come out of Bildad’s mouth to a grieving, distraught Job are these.  It helps to understand where Bildad is coming from.  Believing that Job is questioning God’s justice, Bildad feels the need to come to God’s defense.  But in trying to speak in defense of God, Bildad goes way overboard and says things that are highly offensive to a grieving person.  Bildad denounces Job’s words as nonsense – “Your words are a blustering wind.” (v2)  He also states that what happened to Job’s children was God punishing them for their sin (v4).  Like Eliphaz, Bildad has incorrectly assumed that all suffering is God’s punishment for sin.

诗篇一百廿四篇

2020-01-13 in /by

大卫上行之诗。

1 以色列人要说：「若不是耶和华帮助我们，
2 若不是耶和华帮助我们，当人起来攻击我们，
3 向我们发怒的时候，就把我们活活地吞了。
4 那时波涛必漫过我们，河水必淹没我们，
5 狂傲的水必淹没我们。」
6 耶和华是应当称颂的！祂没有把我们当野食交给他们吞吃。
7 我们好像雀鸟从捕鸟人的网罗里逃脱，网罗破裂，我们逃脱了。
8 我们得帮助，是在乎倚靠造天地之耶和华的名。

大卫在这诗篇里用三个比喻来形容他的敌人，一被当成野食吞吃，二犹如狂傲的水、波涛、河水，三是捕鸟人及其网罗。前面两种是看得见，迎面而来，却很难逃脱的危险，第三种是看不见的陷阱。在罗马皇帝逼迫基督徒时，他采用了猛兽来吞食基督徒。把他们绑在兽皮里，然后放到竞技场，任饥饿的狮子撕咬。有时是让基督徒跟饿了好几天的猛兽厮打，可想而知，结果十分褄惨。被当作野食，何等可怜。

第二种灾难像大洪水般地来临，这种灾难就好比社会上的潮流。一波波地在向信徒挑战圣经的可靠性，神的话语之权威，以及社会道德的低落，等等。当我们看到变性的男人可以进去女性使用的厕所和浴室及更衣室时，有女儿的父亲岂能不站出来抗议吗？同性婚姻的议题，大麻合法化，还有更多涉及道德底线的挑战，让人看到撒旦的手遍及这个社会，而每进一步，就听到撒旦的狂笑声。但是神依然掌权。

诗篇一百廿三篇

2020-01-11 in /by

上行之诗。

1 坐在天上的主啊，我向祢举目！
2 看哪，仆人的眼睛怎样望主人的手，使女的眼睛怎样望主母的手，我们的眼睛也照样望耶和华我们的神，直到祂怜悯我们。
3 耶和华啊，求祢怜悯我们，怜悯我们！因为我们被藐视，已到极处。
4 我们被那些安逸人的讥诮和骄傲人的藐视已到极处。

眼睛，是人的灵魂之窗。往往，人的眼睛注目的，就是他心里所在意的人或事物。不仅是自己喜欢的，就是不喜欢的，也会常常去看，为了抓住别人的把柄或弱点，以便攻击。眼睛所看的，会流露出人真正的心意。有个年轻男子在和一个年轻的女性交往时，仍然频频去看其他女子，想当然耳，那段感情就无法继续了。因为他的眼睛动态，表明了他的不专情。因此结婚后的人应该更加小心自己的眼睛往哪里看，因为你若不把心放在配偶身上，你的婚姻一定不快乐，容易失败。你的心就是你的眼睛。

古时的中东，一般家庭里都会有仆人或使女，他们的主人和主母不会一天到晚开口叫仆人或使女做事情，而是用手表达。尤其是在客人面前，开口叫仆人做事，等于表示自己对下人的训练不周全。主人示意时，往往是用某种姿势传达，挥挥手、动动手指头，所以仆人必须十分留意主人或主母的手，才能按著主人和主母的心意去完成任务。这种训练需要经过长时期的观察和配合，并不是短时间内就可以清楚主人或主母的意愿。

When You Want To Ask God, “Why Me?”

2020-01-10 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Job 7:11 (NIV) 
11  “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 

On verses 1-11:  Long, difficult days (v1-2), sleepless nights (v3-4), deteriorating health (v5), an unsightly appearance (v5), feeling cut down during the prime of his life (v6), and utter hopelessness (v7-10) – that is Job’s plight.  “Therefore,” Job says, “I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.” (v11)  In other words, because life is so hard for Job, Job has had enough.  He decides it is time to voice his complaint to God.  Has life ever gotten so tough that you felt like you had to express your frustration to God?  It is fine and in fact healthy to do so, but always with humility, remembering that God is God and we are not.

Job 7:16-17 (NIV) 
16  I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning. 
17  “What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention,

When Friends Let You Down

2020-01-09 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Job 6:14-30.  Let’s go!

Job 6:14-21 (NIV) 
14  “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15  But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow
16  when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,
17  but that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.
18  Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go up into the wasteland and perish.
19  The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.
20  They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.
21  Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.