Encouraging Words!!!

Reflection: We all know the power of a good friend who helps comfort us in our troubles and intercedes on our behalf.  I was blessed to have a very close friend who has walked in the Lord with me since we were teenagers.  We have been there for each other at various times in our lives when things went south.  As Job listens to his friends who try to “fix him”, he says this:

2 “I have heard many things like these;

    you are miserable comforters, all of you!

3 Will your long-winded speeches never end?

    What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4 I also could speak like you,

    if you were in my place;

I could make fine speeches against you

    and shake my head at you.

5 But my mouth would encourage you;

    comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

But then he has a vision for another kind of encouragement when he prophesies,

19 Even now my witness is in heaven;

    my advocate is on high.

20 My intercessor is my friend

    as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God

    as one pleads for a friend.

Of course he is foreshadowing the ministry of Jesus who made intercession for us on the cross.  He stood in the gap between us and our heavenly Father, when God laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  As Paul ends Romans, he ends with a long list of colleagues, friends and associates in ministry.  When we see Paul’s long resume of starting and sustaining church plants across the known world at that time, we know how many people he had to rely on to keep the churches going and often he pleaded for them to intercede for his work. 

At the end of Romans he also warns of those who will cause division in the church.  Division is the opposite of edification.  To edify someone else builds up the body, whereas divisive behavior tears the body down!  And, of course, one of the most edifying aspects of the body of Christ is those who encourage others.  Because of all the troubles and trials we all face in this life, there will be times where we will all need others to intercede for us.  Of course Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, but God also sends others to come alongside of us to intercede for us. 

In fact, the third person of the Holy Spirit is a gift given to us and intercedes for us as we pray.  The Holy Spirit encourages as we read the Word and it builds us up in confidence of God’s promises that are all true in Jesus Christ.  So we see the ministry of the Trinity to encourage so He who began a good work in us can complete it. But we also see the ministry of the Church of which incarnates God’s love.  That is why it is so important to be a part of a group in your church for encouragement, study in the Word, and prayer.  Jesus works powerfully in these small groups which we read were an integral part of the early church. 

I hope these daily readings encourage you, I know they encourage me!  As we walk through the bible together even in this indirect way via the Daily Bread, we are relying on the Bread of Life together!  May God richly you bless you today as you remember your intercessor in heaven who stands in the gap for you!  One day we will meet Him face to face!

Psalm 48

A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.

1 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,

    in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

2 Beautiful in its loftiness,

    the joy of the whole earth,

like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion,

    the city of the Great King.

3 God is in her citadels;

    he has shown himself to be her fortress.

4 When the kings joined forces,

    when they advanced together,

5 they saw her and were astounded;

    they fled in terror.

6 Trembling seized them there,

    pain like that of a woman in labor.

7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish

    shattered by an east wind.

8 As we have heard,

    so we have seen

in the city of the Lord Almighty,

    in the city of our God:

God makes her secure

    forever.

9 Within your temple, O God,

    we meditate on your unfailing love.

10 Like your name, O God,

    your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;

    your right hand is filled with righteousness.

11 Mount Zion rejoices,

    the villages of Judah are glad

    because of your judgments.

12 Walk about Zion, go around her,

    count her towers,

13 consider well her ramparts,

    view her citadels,

that you may tell of them

    to the next generation.

14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;

    he will be our guide even to the end.

Job 15,16

Eliphaz

15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 “Would a wise person answer with empty notions

    or fill their belly with the hot east wind?

3 Would they argue with useless words,

    with speeches that have no value?

4 But you even undermine piety

    and hinder devotion to God.

5 Your sin prompts your mouth;

    you adopt the tongue of the crafty.

6 Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;

    your own lips testify against you.

7 “Are you the first man ever born?

    Were you brought forth before the hills?

8 Do you listen in on God’s council?

    Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?

9 What do you know that we do not know?

    What insights do you have that we do not have?

10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,

    men even older than your father.

11 Are God’s consolations not enough for you,

    words spoken gently to you?

12 Why has your heart carried you away,

    and why do your eyes flash,

13 so that you vent your rage against God

    and pour out such words from your mouth?

14 “What are mortals, that they could be pure,

    or those born of woman, that they could be righteous?

15 If God places no trust in his holy ones,

    if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes,

16 how much less mortals, who are vile and corrupt,

    who drink up evil like water!

17 “Listen to me and I will explain to you;

    let me tell you what I have seen,

18 what the wise have declared,

    hiding nothing received from their ancestors

19 (to whom alone the land was given

    when no foreigners moved among them):

20 All his days the wicked man suffers torment,

    the ruthless man through all the years stored up for him.

21 Terrifying sounds fill his ears;

    when all seems well, marauders attack him.

22 He despairs of escaping the realm of darkness;

    he is marked for the sword.

23 He wanders about for food like a vulture;

    he knows the day of darkness is at hand.

24 Distress and anguish fill him with terror;

    troubles overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack,

25 because he shakes his fist at God

    and vaunts himself against the Almighty,

26 defiantly charging against him

    with a thick, strong shield.

27 “Though his face is covered with fat

    and his waist bulges with flesh,

28 he will inhabit ruined towns

    and houses where no one lives,

    houses crumbling to rubble.

29 He will no longer be rich and his wealth will not endure,

    nor will his possessions spread over the land.

30 He will not escape the darkness;

    a flame will wither his shoots,

    and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.

31 Let him not deceive himself by trusting what is worthless,

    for he will get nothing in return.

32 Before his time he will wither,

    and his branches will not flourish.

33 He will be like a vine stripped of its unripe grapes,

    like an olive tree shedding its blossoms.

34 For the company of the godless will be barren,

    and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.

35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;

    their womb fashions deceit.”

Job

16 Then Job replied:

2 “I have heard many things like these;

    you are miserable comforters, all of you!

3 Will your long-winded speeches never end?

    What ails you that you keep on arguing?

4 I also could speak like you,

    if you were in my place;

I could make fine speeches against you

    and shake my head at you.

5 But my mouth would encourage you;

    comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

6 “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;

    and if I refrain, it does not go away.

7 Surely, God, you have worn me out;

    you have devastated my entire household.

8 You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;

    my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

9 God assails me and tears me in his anger

    and gnashes his teeth at me;

    my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

10 People open their mouths to jeer at me;

    they strike my cheek in scorn

    and unite together against me.

11 God has turned me over to the ungodly

    and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

12 All was well with me, but he shattered me;

    he seized me by the neck and crushed me.

He has made me his target;

13     his archers surround me.

Without pity, he pierces my kidneys

    and spills my gall on the ground.

14 Again and again he bursts upon me;

    he rushes at me like a warrior.

15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin

    and buried my brow in the dust.

16 My face is red with weeping,

    dark shadows ring my eyes;

17 yet my hands have been free of violence

    and my prayer is pure.

18 “Earth, do not cover my blood;

    may my cry never be laid to rest!

19 Even now my witness is in heaven;

    my advocate is on high.

20 My intercessor is my friend

    as my eyes pour out tears to God;

21 on behalf of a man he pleads with God

    as one pleads for a friend.

22 “Only a few years will pass

    before I take the path of no return.

Romans 16:8-20

8 Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.

9 Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.

10 Greet Apelles, whose fidelity to Christ has stood the test.

Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.

11 Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew.

Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.

12 Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord.

Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord.

13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the other brothers and sisters with them.

15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the Lord’s people who are with them.

16 Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the churches of Christ send greetings.

17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

I will send survivors to the nations, that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations. Isaiah 66:19

Christ says, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.” Mark 16:15

Jesus from Nazareth, a place where “nothing good can come,” you lived and ministered in the places we avoid. May your incarnation lead us to the abandoned places where your good news is most needed – not just to the ends of the earth, but to the forgotten corners of our own communities. Amen