Day 10: Forever Summer

The sun is shining.

Summer is still here,

even though the school bells are ringing.

The temperatures are getting a little cooler.

The countdown to CHRISTMAS is beginning to happen,

as the pumpkins are being birthed.

The trees are getting ready to do what they do.

when the season changes.

One by one they will FALL,

to officially welcome the season of FALL. 

CHANGE.

It happens ALWAYS.

Just ask the CLOCK.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Just look at your birth certificate.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

CHANGE.

But what makes CHANGE beautiful?

FAITH.

For FAITH never CHANGES,

but it CHANGES you.

FAITH is

F.orever A.lways I T.rust H.IM!

Where is FAITH when everything around you CHANGES?  

Hmm.

Once Upon A Time

there lived a man named

JOB,

who had it all and then he didn't,

as GOD allowed it all to be taken away.

JOB'S story CHANGED.

BUT JOB'S FAITH didn't~

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised ”

 (Job 1:21).

 In all of this, JOB did not sin,

 by charging GOD with wrongdoing.

Could you have not?

Would you have not cursed GOD

when the going gets tough.

Oh how little this makes me feel,

when my story CHANGES

and goes in the direction I don't want it to.

But

LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WHAT

 YOU HAVE PLANNED HAS CHANGED.

And that is where

FAITH IS.

Because tucked

 IN FAITH

is where

HOPE is written in your STORY.

HOPE is your

STORY CHANGER.

If you don't have HOPE, 

you don't have.

JOB

was just an ordinary man,

living his ordinary life,

not knowing what was about to happen.

In a moment, what was his life was no longer.

He didn't see it coming, and then it came.

He lost it all.

First his possessions.

Then his family.

Then his health.

Then his friends.

His worst FEARS happening.

Where was GOD?

With him.

GOD never left.

But did JOB question GOD by wondering where HE was?

Because how could GOD,

why would GOD

allow all this misery

to happen to one of

HIS creations?

Have you ever questioned GOD?

Oh I have, as I have questioned HIS whereabouts,

when I couldn't FEEL HIM.

Oh the terror of just thinking of

LIFE WITHOUT GOD. 

 Didn't GOD'S SON question

HIS FATHER'S whereabouts

as HE was bleeding to death on the Cross~

"MY GOD MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME"

(Matthew 27:46).

Oh, you can hear HIS pain.

That space and place

 where you are stripped down

left to yourself,

yet you still have enough breath in your lungs

to CRY OUT TO GOD,

because deep down you KNOW that GOD didn't leave you.

JESUS KNEW where GOD was.

JESUS KNEW GOD didn't FORSAKE HIM. 

But in that moment,

JESUS EXPERIENCED LIFE WITHOUT GOD,

the terror of LIVING COVERED WITH SIN,

as HE became SIN.

JESUS stripped down to the end of HIMSELF,

for you and for me.

 "For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS one and only SON,

that whoever believes IN HIM shall not perish but have eternal life"

 (John 3:16).

Those words of LIFE, that JESUS died for.

Once Upon A Time

there lived a man named

JOB

who had it all,

but who didn't lose it all,

because

he had

THE GOD OF his FAITH!

But was JOB grieved?

Oh yes.

But did JOB curse the day of his birth?

Oh yes.

But did JOB want to die?

Oh yes.

But did JOB complain and challenge GOD?

Oh yes.

Did GOD hear him?

Oh yes,

as HE ANSWERED him

with a question~

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

(Job 38:4).

Oh you.

Oh me.

Where were we when GOD CREATED ALL THINGS?

GOD IS GOD. 

Who am I to question GOD?  

THE TEST OF FAITH ALWAYS WINS.

Is your FAITH being TESTED now?

Where is GOD in the TEST?

OH HE IS THE ANSWER TO THE TEST.

GOD WAS. GOD IS. GOD WILL ALWAYS BE.

GOD so LOVES you

that HE is sitting right next to you right now,

even if you are sitting in a space and place

that you don't want to be sitting.

GOD CHANGED JOB'S LIFE,

even though JOB wasn't asking for his life to be

 CHANGED.

"Then Job answered the LORD and said,

 'I know that YOU can do all things, and that no purpose of YOURS can be thwarted' "

(Job 42:1-2).

GOD'S WILL IS GOD'S WILL

and it is ALWAYS better than our WILL. 

Therefore,

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances;

for this is GOD'S WILL for you in CHRIST JESUS"

(I Thessalonians 516-18),

because

JOY is yours... ALWAYS,

because

JESUS is yours... ALWAYS

because

you

are

ALWAYS GOD'S CHILD!

Get Ready. Get Set. Go.

"SING LIKE YOU HAVE ALREADY WON"

(listen to the song below)