Job

Nature’s Lessons on Faith: A Guide for the Despondent

In a previous post, I wrote about how a person would draw lessons on faith from nature, as shown in Prince Andrew’s encounter with the Oak Tree in Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Similar encounters are scattered throughout the novel. Tolstoy believes that communion with nature is necessary if man is to live with integrity, not just to survive. He could not have written about such communion so vividly, if he […]

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Suffering and Christian Hope: IV. Confronted with Frailty and Mortality

Your hands have made me and fashioned me, An intricate unity; Yet You would destroy me. Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again? —Job 10:8-9 (NKJV) When I received news yesterday of an acquaintance’s being diagnosed with and treated for cancer, that verse in Job 10 came to me. When Job received news that all his children had died […]

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Suffering and Christian Hope: III. Where is My Hope?

Where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust? –Job 17:15-16 Job is my favourite character in the Bible, because he has something that I admire but lack, namely, perfect moral integrity. He is someone who can stand before the judgment seat and challenge the justice of God, for though he is blameless, he has endured […]

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