For noen år siden leste jeg en bok som gjorde et sterkt inntrykk på meg, og som nok har formet min teologi på mange områder av livet mitt. Jeg snakker om Merlin R. Carothers bok: "Guds makt ved lovsang". Den norske boken, som ble utgitt av Filadelfiaforlaget var egentlig et sammendrag av Carothers to bøker: "Prison to Praise" og "Power to Praise." Den norske utgaven ble utgitt med en sterk anbefaling av evangelist Emanuel Minos. Jeg har hentet frem igjen denne boken, det vil si, de to engelske bøkene for å lese dem igjen i sin helhet. I den utfordrende situasjonen jeg lever i nå helsemessig, så tror jeg Gud har minnet meg på to ting. Det ene er noe apostelen Paulus skriver om til forsamlingen i Efesos: "og alltid takker Gud vår Far for alle ting i vår Herre Jesu Kristi navn." (Ef 5,20) Det er jo dette Carothers bøker handler om. Å takke Gud for alt, og under alle forhold. Det er som om Gud minner meg om dette disse dagene. Merlin Carothers, som har bakgrunn som metodistpastor, "oppdaget" den hemmligheten som ligger i takksigelsen. Vi har så lett for å tenke på bønn, som bare bønnebegjæret. Men apostelen Paulus underviser oss om mange ulike bønneformer, og blant disse hører også takksigelsen med. "Derfor formaner jeg først av alt til at det blir gjort påkallelser, bønner, forbønner og takksigelser for alle mennesker." (1.Tim 2,1) Her fremkommer det ikke mindre enn fire ulike bønneformer, og som sagt, en av dem er takksigelsen. Det vanskelige er selvsagt utfordringen som ligger i apostelens ord: "alltid takker Gud vår Far for alle ting." Jeg kan lettere forstå det Paulus skriver i 1.Tess 5,18: "takk under alle forhold. For dette er Guds vilje for dere i Kristus Jesus." Men å takke Gud for absolutt alt?! Det overgår det meste. Her har jeg et stykke vei å gå, men jeg opplever at Gud holder på å vise meg noe på dette området, og jeg ber om visdom til å forstå. Det andre, som jeg bare skal jevne denne gangen, har med proklamasjonen av Guds løfter å gjøre. Derek Prince Minstries i Norge har laget noen proklamasjonskort som vi har begynt å bruke. Et av dem handler om Jesu blod, og det har jeg tatt ibruk. Jeg kommer tilbake med mer om både mine erfaringer med takksigelsen og gjensynet med Carothers bøker og bruken av proklamasjonskortene.
Jeg synes disse ordene er veldig utfordrende. Mener du å si at man skal takke Gud for en alvorlig sykdomsdiagnose?
SvarSlettLeste den boken da jeg var ung. Men det er tungt å takke for sykdom. Jeg kan takke for de goder Gud gir, men ikke for sykdom. Noen mener sykdom kommer fra den onde, syns det er forvirrende, for det forkynnes forskjellig om det. Men Gud må jo tillate at sykdom rammer oss som er hans Barn...?
SvarSlettMan skal ikke takke Gud for alt det "den onde" klarer å utføre.
SvarSlettKrig, stridigheter, splittelse i Kristi kropp, hat, sykdom og mm.
Alt som går imot Guds lover, enten det er naturlovene eller de moralske. De skal vi ikke takke Gud for.
Men vi kan takke Gud for alle ting Han gjør!
Når vi takker Gud for alle ting, så takker vi Gud for at han skal la sin ånd komme over oss, så det blir vekkesle, enhet, for helse , for at vi lever, for at han tar vare på oss. Da utløser det gode krefter.
Man kan takke for at Gud gir en styrke ut dagen, for at Gud skal gi en styrke i morgen, og at Gud har alt i sin hånd.
Det er mye vi kan takke Gud for alltid.
Har lest boka "Guds makt ved lovsang". Forfatteren virker som han er noe utenom det vanlige. Jobbet om dagen, gikk på skole om kvelden, leste om natten og sov nesten aldri.
SvarSlettJeg tror ikke vi finner noe grunnlag for å takke Gud for sykdom, men vi kan takke Gud for den situasjonen som sykdommen skaper. Sykdom kan drive oss til Gud, og sykdom kan gjøre oss veldig avhengige av Gud.
SvarSlettDet er tydelig at apostelen Psulus var syk da han skriver til forsamlingene i Galatia-området.
Han skriver: "Dere vet at det var på grunn av legemlig svakhet jeg forkynte evangeliet for dere den første gangen." (Gal 4,13)
Mulighetene er åpen for atPaulus led av en kronisk sykdom. Men det er ingen tvil om at Gud brukte ham sterkt likevel.
Ja, det er godt å vite at Gud bruker oss i sin tjeneste enten vi er syk eller frisk. Og jeg er enig at vi kan takke Gud under alle forhold, men klarer ikke takke for sykdom.
SvarSlettMen takker for den hjelpen han gir, til og med glede over at Han er med.
God helg alle som leser bloggen.
Hilsen Karin.
Book of Job
SvarSlettFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Book of Job (איוב) is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. Job is a didactic poem set in a prose framing device.
According to the Testament of Job, another name for Job is Jobab. Genesis 36:33 identifies a Jobab, as a descendant of Esau, a king of Edom.
The Book of Job has been called the most difficult book of the Bible. The numerous exegeses of the Book of Job are classic attempts to reconcile the co-existence of evil and God and address the problem of evil. Scholars are divided as to the origin, intent, and meaning of the book.
In chapter one, Job, living in The Land of Uz, is described as a man of great probity, virtue, and piety. He possesses much livestock and many servants. He has seven sons and three daughters and is respected by all people on both sides of the Euphrates. After his sons have a feast, Job purifies them and offers burnt sacrifices so that God may pardon any faults the boys may have committed during the festivities. This attests to Job's righteousness.
God permits "the Satan" to put the virtue of Job to the test, at first by giving him power over his property, but forbidding him to touch his person. Satan began by taking away all of Job's riches, his livestock, his house, his servants, and his children; a series of four messengers informs him that they have perished in various disasters.
Job rends his clothes, shaves his head, and falls down upon the ground saying, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord."[1]
As Job endures these calamities without reproaching Divine Providence, Satan solicits permission to afflict his person as well, and YHVH says, "Behold he is in your hand, but don’t touch his life." Satan, therefore, smites him with dreadful boils, and Job, seated in ashes, scrapes off the corruption with a pot shard. His wife wants him to "curse God, and die" but Job answers, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"
In the meantime, only three of Job's friends come to visit him in his misfortune — Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. A fourth, Elihu the Buzite, first begins talking in chapter 32 and bears a distinguished part in the dialogue; his arrival is not noted. The friends spend a week sitting on the ground with Job, without speaking, until Job at last breaks his silence and complains of his misery.
Speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar
Job's friends do not waver from their belief that God is right, and that anyone who has such poor fortune as Job is necessarily being punished for disobeying God's law. As the poem progresses Job's friends increasingly berate him for refusing to confess his sins, although they themselves are at a loss as to what sort of sins he has committed. The three friends continue to assume that Job was a sinner and therefore deserves all punishments. They also assume, in their view of theology, that God always rewards good and punishes evil, with no apparent exceptions allowed. There seems to be no room in their understanding of God for divine discretion and mystery in allowing and arranging suffering for purposes other than retribution. Jobs friends never use the name YHVH in the story, they refer God as El, Eloahh and Elohiym.
Speeches of Job
Job, convinced of his own innocence, maintains that his suffering cannot be accounted for by his few sins, and that there is no reason for God to punish him thus. However, he refuses to curse God's name.
Speech of Elihu
Elihu, whose name means 'My God is He', takes a mediator's path, maintaining the sovereignty and righteousness and gracious mercy of God. Elihu strongly condemns the approach taken by the three friends, and argues that Job is misrepresenting God's righteousness and discrediting His loving character. Elihu says he spoke last because he is much younger than the other three friends, but says that age makes no difference when it comes to insights and wisdom. In his speech, Elihu argues for God's power, redemptive salvation and absolute rightness in all His conduct. God is mighty, yet just, and quick to warn and to forgive. Elihu takes a distinct view of the kind of repentance required by Job. Job's three friends claim that repentance requires Job to identify and renounce the sins that gave rise to his suffering. By contrast, Elihu stresses that repentance inextricably entails renouncing any moral authority or cosmological perspective, which is God's alone. Elihu therefore underscores the inherent arrogance in Job's desire to 'make his case' before God, which presupposes that Job possesses a superior moral standard that can be prevailed upon God. Apparently, Elihu acts in a prophetic role preparatory to the appearance of God. Elihu never mentions YHVH and after Elihu's speech ends with the last verse of Chapter 37, YHVH appears and in the second verse of Chapter 38, YHVH says, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?“ YHVH also rebukes Job's three friends. Job never replies to Elihu's indictments and revelations of God's dealings with him through the ordeal.
God's response
After several rounds of debate between Job and his friends, in a divine voice, described as coming from a "cloud" or "whirlwind", YHVH describes, in evocative and lyrical language, what the experience of being responsible for the world is like, and asks if Job has ever had the experiences that YHVH has had.
YHVH's answer underscores that Job shares the world with numerous powerful and remarkable creatures, creatures with lives and needs of their own, whom God must provide for, and the young of some hunger in a way that can only be satisfied by taking the lives of others. Does Job even have any experience of the world he lives in? Does he understand what it means to be responsible for such a world? Job admits that he does not.
YHVH's speech also emphasizes his sovereignty in creating and maintaining the world. The thrust is not merely that God has experiences that Job does not, but also that God is King over the world and is not necessarily subject to questions from his creatures, including men. He declines to answer any of Job's questions or challenges with anything except "I am the Lord." Job asks God for forgiveness.
In the epilogue, YHVH condemns Job's friends for their insistence on speaking wrongly of the Lord's motives and methods, commands them to make extensive animal sacrifices and instructs Job to pray for their forgiveness. Immediately thereafter YHVH restores Job to health, giving him double the riches he before possessed (including ten new children added to the ten who predeceased him). His new daughters are the most beautiful in the land, and are given inheritance while Job is still alive. Job is crowned with a holy life and with a happy death.
Satan in the Book of Job
The term "the Satan" appears in the prose prologue of Job, with his usual connotation of "the adversary," as a distinct being. He is shown as one of the celestial beings before the Deity, replying to the inquiry of YHVH as to whence he had come, with the words: "from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it" (Job 1:7). Both the question and the answer, as well as the dialogue that ensues, characterize Satan as that member of the divine council who watches over human activity, but with the evil purpose of searching out men's sins and appearing as their accuser. He is, as it were, a celestial "prosecutor," who sees only iniquity; for he persists in his evil opinion of Job even after the man of Uz has passed successfully through his first trial by surrendering to the will of YHVH, whereupon Satan demands another test through physical suffering (Job 2:3-5). Satan challenges YHVH by saying that Job's belief is only built upon what material goods he is given, and that his faith will disappear as soon as they are taken from him. And YHVH accepts the challenge.
The introduction of "the adversary" occurs in the (very short) framing story alone: he is never alluded to in the (very long) central poem at all, although hades is mentioned in the central poem.
While many, from a Christian perspective, believe Satan to be the Devil, in the Book of Job he is presented as a worker for YHVH known as the "the satan" (ha-satan, 'the adversary'), not Satan as a personal name. He is the ultimate prosecutor for God. [2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Job
Ignatian Spirituality
SvarSlettThe First Principle and Foundation
The human person is created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord, and by doing so, to save his or her soul.
All other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings in order to help them pursue the end for which they are created.
It follows from this that one must use other created things, in so far as they help towards one's end, and free oneself from them, in so far as they are obstacles to one's end.
To do this, we need to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, provided the matter is subject to our free choice and there is no other prohibition.
Thus, as far as we are concerned, we should not want health more than illness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short one, and similarly for all the rest, but we should desire and choose only what helps us more towards the end for which we are created.
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/prs/stign/ignatian_spirit.html