This chapter begins with an extreme word of contrast “But...”. There is a massive shift that occurs here
Read moreColumn: Count Your Blessings, Starting Now (11/12/21)
Consider the time you looked at the moon and actually considered the profound miracle of existence, of the perfect symmetry and balance of the Universe that things float and remain in the space-time continuum so consistently and how one-in-a-million it all is.
Read moreJob 32, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Elihu comes to the conclusion of the debate between Job and his friends where at the end there is a stalemate since human wisdom cannot determine what is occurring in this specific situation.
Read moreJob 31, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job has presumed that if he does this then God should do that. As if the only reason that God could cause calamity is judgment. Job doesn’t have this information but that is fundamentally wrong, think about James 1, it says count it all joy because it refines you.
Read moreJob 30, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
For Job to think of himself so high and that it’s wrong for God to put him so low Job is still reasoning in the divine retribution principle.
Read moreColumn: The Ministry of Finance (10/29/21)
That’s when it becomes my challenge to hold up a mirror, as kindly as possible, and help them see what they can’t see, to give them freedom (not just financially).
Read moreColumn: To Those in Pain (10/22/21)
There will always be problems, always be tweaks to make or lessons to learn or habits to create.
But there will only be one today, one present moment like this one.
Read moreJob 29, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job is saying that he is the mediator, savior, and ultimate head. This is close but not quite right.
Read moreColumn: Cultivating Communities, not Cults (10/15/21)
Communities are people bonded together not so much over who they are as much as who they are trying to become.
Read moreJob 28, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
According to the Bible, your starting point has to be divine revelation; if you don’t start there you can’t know anything truly outside of that.
Read moreJob 27, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job uses this chapter to point out that his friends are faulty.
Read moreColumn: Make a Beautiful Life (10/8/21)
What if your darkness, brokenness, frustration, and difficulty were meant to be dark fibers woven into the beautiful tapestry of your life?
Read moreColumn: Let's Stay in the Sunlight (10/1/21)
But what I learn, with every passing cloud that floats overhead, is that when our eyes are on Him, through it all, it is well with us.
Read moreJob 26, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job’s point is if you really understood creation, it would lead you to know that you don’t know anything. You can’t explain anything and that is why God is so much greater than you.
Read moreColumn: Do it All for Joy (9/26/21)
In Christianity, Jesus came to die, not so you and I could bore ourselves to tears every week, but so we could live in the overflow of His glory and experience joy unspeakable—in the good times and bad.
Read moreJob 25, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job’s point is it would have been better if Bildad and Eliphaz had stayed silent. They don’t know how things work because they are missing the key ingredient, divine revelation.
Read moreColumn: Beyond Faith Over Fear (9/18/21)
But faith isn’t the safety net underneath our brains, to catch us when we fall; it’s the window through which we look when we think about anything at all.
Read moreColumn: An Ode to Being a Rubber Ducky (9/10/21)
We are afloat in this sea of knowledge, but we take it for granted. We have access to all of it, so we don’t feel the need to enjoy or experience it.
Read moreJob 24, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job’s two questions were “Does God balance care, just, and power?” and “Does God even know what is going on with the planet, and if so, what is up with His timing?”
Read moreColumn: A Love Letter to Commerce (09/03/21)
My point is this: commerce is a means of grace and a means of flourishing and making life more livable.
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