I Cannot By My Own Understanding...

Reflection:  As Job continues to reflect on his plight in life, and continues to rebuke his friends for their unhelpful advice, he is troubled by the apparent prosperity of the wicked and how they go to the grave much like he does.  But his problem is why they seem so well off when they go to the grave, when he has suffered so much. It appears they go to the same place with a much difference experience in between.  Where is the justice in this?  If God is Lord of everything, than how does this make sense, and how is it fair?

And, of course, none of it makes sense without the resurrection and the promise of eternal life for those who believe.  And, of course, none of it makes sense without the power of the Holy Spirit within us who helps us to discern God’s will, intention and purpose. Paul says just like no one knows their own thoughts without the help of their spirit, no one knows God’s thoughts without the help of His Spirit.  Notice the capital “S”! The Spirit is the third “person” of the Trinity. Notice I said, “person”.  The Spirit is a personality of the Godhead, which not only sustains us and keeps us in true faith, but also reveals to us the deep mysteries of God, which can only be apprehended by God the Spirit.

Without the Spirit there is no way for Job to apprehend what is happening, and his friends who also don’t have the Spirit, are equally as useless.  And this is why those are unbelievers don’t understand spiritual matters too.  As a believer something might be crystal clear to you, such as why Jesus came to earth, why He died for you and so on.  But for the unbeliever it all sounds like foolishness!  Why?  Because without the Spirit it doesn’t make any sense!

Martin Luther reflects on the role of the Spirit in the Catechism. In reflection of the Spirit’s work and power he states, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in

Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

For more on Luther’s Small Catechism see this link: http://www.lutheran.co.uk/docs/Small%20Catechism.pdf

Thank God for the Holy Spirit’s power in your life to bring you to faith and keep you in the faith.  As God has set you apart for the work of the Gospel and sharing His great love with others, continue to rely on the Holy Spirit to understand the deep mysteries of the faith as you read the bible and pray.  When we die it is this same Holy Spirit that will raise us from the dead, just as He did our Lord!  Thanks Be To God!

Psalm 50:7-15

7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak;

    I will testify against you, Israel:

    I am God, your God.

8 I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices

    or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

9 I have no need of a bull from your stall

    or of goats from your pens,

10 for every animal of the forest is mine,

    and the cattle on a thousand hills.

11 I know every bird in the mountains,

    and the insects in the fields are mine.

12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,

    for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls

    or drink the blood of goats?

14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God,

    fulfill your vows to the Most High,

15 and call on me in the day of trouble;

    I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

Job 21

21 Then Job replied:

2 “Listen carefully to my words;

    let this be the consolation you give me.

3 Bear with me while I speak,

    and after I have spoken, mock on.

4 “Is my complaint directed to a human being?

    Why should I not be impatient?

5 Look at me and be appalled;

    clap your hand over your mouth.

6 When I think about this, I am terrified;

    trembling seizes my body.

7 Why do the wicked live on,

    growing old and increasing in power?

8 They see their children established around them,

    their offspring before their eyes.

9 Their homes are safe and free from fear;

    the rod of God is not on them.

10 Their bulls never fail to breed;

    their cows calve and do not miscarry.

11 They send forth their children as a flock;

    their little ones dance about.

12 They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre;

    they make merry to the sound of the pipe.

13 They spend their years in prosperity

    and go down to the grave in peace.

14 Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!

    We have no desire to know your ways.

15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

    What would we gain by praying to him?’

16 But their prosperity is not in their own hands,

    so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.

17 “Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?

    How often does calamity come upon them,

    the fate God allots in his anger?

18 How often are they like straw before the wind,

    like chaff swept away by a gale?

19 It is said, ‘God stores up the punishment of the wicked for their children.’

    Let him repay the wicked, so that they themselves will experience it!

20 Let their own eyes see their destruction;

    let them drink the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.

21 For what do they care about the families they leave behind

    when their allotted months come to an end?

22 “Can anyone teach knowledge to God,

    since he judges even the highest?

23 One person dies in full vigor,

    completely secure and at ease,

24 well nourished in body,

    bones rich with marrow.

25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,

    never having enjoyed anything good.

26 Side by side they lie in the dust,

    and worms cover them both.

27 “I know full well what you are thinking,

    the schemes by which you would wrong me.

28 You say, ‘Where now is the house of the great,

    the tents where the wicked lived?’

29 Have you never questioned those who travel?

    Have you paid no regard to their accounts—

30 that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,

    that they are delivered from the day of wrath?

31 Who denounces their conduct to their face?

    Who repays them for what they have done?

32 They are carried to the grave,

    and watch is kept over their tombs.

33 The soil in the valley is sweet to them;

    everyone follows after them,

    and a countless throng goes before them.

34 “So how can you console me with your nonsense?

    Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”

1 Corinthians 2:3-16

3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,

    what no ear has heard,

and what no human mind has conceived”[a]—

    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord

    so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul. Psalm 138:3

The same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. Romans 10:12

O God without border or boundary, help us to accept all nationalities of our neighbors because you taught us there is no difference in your sight. May people of every race and language know they can call on you – and on your people! – when they are in need. Amen.