Bible – One Focus Ministries

Have you ever felt a bit like Job? Current trials may make you wonder if God listens or understands. The worst part is His silence. Do you have to go through trials alone or is there some way you can get through to Him? Job must have felt that way.

God is not a mortal like me….If only there was a mediator who could bring us together, but there is none…. Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength…. I cry to you, O God, but you don’t answer me. I stand before you, and you don’t bother to look….If only I had someone to see my side!… – Job 9:33-35, 30:20, 31:35 NLT

Job was longing for a mediator. He wanted what we want – to be able to see God and know He understands. God fulfilled that desire by sending us His Son who does “see [our] side” because He walked the path of humanity, endured temptation, and was victorious over it.

“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me…. From now on you know him and have seen him!”….Christ is the visible image of the invisible God….For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and people. He is the man Christ Jesus….Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus to be in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. He then could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and temptation, he is able to help us when we are being tempted….He lives to intercede with God on their behalf….if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate who pleads our case before the Father…

John 14:6,7, Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:17-18, 7:25, 1 John 2:1

The mediator Job so desperately wanted was not found in his “friends” who made lengthy speeches about his situation. Job’s request was answered in Jesus. The agony Job felt when he thought God had abandoned him was felt by Jesus – magnified because His Father had to turn away from the sin He bore on the cross – my sin and your sin. The relief Job felt when God finally spoke to him from the whirlwind reminded Job that God had always been there – he just hadn’t SEEN him yet (now I have seen you with my own eyes -Job 42:5).

On Christmas morning, God’s Son became like us. We could SEE Him. We can speak to God without fear because of Jesus. We do not have to do anything in our own strength because He has given us His. Jesus sees our side because He does understand.

Jesus is the answer to Job’s longing – and ours.

Is the land of literature changing as rapidly as some say or are there just more avenues to travel down it?

Certainly, there have been many changes. No longer are we limited to books printed on paper that can be placed on a library shelf (although that is still my preference). All sorts of digital resources are also now available and as I travel frequently, I am a big fan of my e-reader.

The possibility that literature would totally disappear never occurred to me so on 9/13/2014, I was interested to read “2114: A Library Project” in the International New York Times.

This is an excerpt of the article:

The hope that creative work survives its creator is usually empty. Shakespeare boasted that his sonnets would outlast monuments and the memory of princes, and they have. But it’s rare for an artist to keep audiences interested over generations. … Even the list of Nobel laureates in literature is filled with now-unfamiliar names.

Yet a Scottish artist, Katie Paterson, has found a clever way around this humbling problem. “A forest has been planted in Norway,” Ms. Paterson explains on the Future Library site, “which will supply paper for a special anthology of books to be printed in one hundred years’ time. Between now and then, one writer every year will contribute a text, with the writings held in trust, unpublished, until 2114.”

…Ms. Paterson has already chosen a time capsule for this unusual experiment: The Deichmanske public library in Oslo. And she already has her first contributor: the Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who is known for her speculative fiction.

… The project coordinators seem to have thought of everything, going so far as to equip the Deichmanske library with a printing press. If humanity loses the ability to print books, that’s covered. Of course, if humanity should lose the ability to read, that’s another story.

The author of this article poses the possibility that humanity could lose the ability to print books or even to read at all.

Reproduction of Gutenberg-era Press on display at Printing History Museum in Lyon, France.

The Gutenberg Bible was the first mass produced printed work.

I believe there is no such possibility. Although many have tried unsuccessfully to destroy it, one book will last forever.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever (Isaiah 40:8). Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away (Matthew 24:35).

Tag: Bible

Longing for Jesus – Centuries before His birth

Books That Will Outlive Us