August 27

Today's Reading

More and more, Job fails to see his suffering in the right way. Like us, his big question is, "Why?" Since he maintains his integrity and can't understand why God has allowed this, he complains that God made up His mind and won't change it. He fails to draw near to God in his anguish. Instead, he complains that God left him. We are to seek God with our whole hearts, in good times and bad; in happiness and in suffering. He is never really far off, if we are in Christ.

2 Corinthians. In chapter 2, Paul reminds them of the man who was mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5. Obviously he had responded well to the discipline Paul had prescribed. Now, Paul prescribed forgiveness and encouragement. Notice that the lack of forgiveness for the man would allow Satan to outsmart them. Satan's schemes are what we see so often, even among God's people. Someone sins and nothing is done (except gossip, which does no good at all) so the sin continues. When the sin is finally confronted, the church "shoots its own wounded."

Psalms. It is easy to be critical of the poor, especially when you have never been poor yourself. However, the earth is teeming with poor people who can find no way out of their poverty. I see it more and more in the region where we live. Unemployment is high. Many are struggling and don't know what to do. It is time for the church to rise up and find ways to help them.

Proverbs. Those of us to have experienced the pain of a prodigal child hold on to today's promise from Proverbs.

What are you holding to? What speaks to you today?