Faith As Small As a Mustard Seed

It was the most beautiful show of faith that I had ever seen.

The Story of Job

The book of Job tells the story of a bet between God and Satan. Satan bet that he could make Job curse God for the bad things happening to him, and God let it happen. In the end, Job does not curse God, despite losing his family, his wealth, and all social reputation. In return for his faithfulness, God blessed Job two-fold. It is a story often used to either to encourage us with, “hey, at least your life isn’t as bad as Job’s. And in the end, he is rewarded! So, chin up, buttercup!” or it is used to show how God uses all things to work out for His glory, and for our gain. At a Bible study with my friends a couple weeks back, we remembered this story and used it to show how much God trusts us. Even in the face of pure evil, God’s overwhelming love covers us, and trusts us to keep the faith – and this was even before Jesus! However, upon finishing yet another of Ted Dekker’s novels, Heaven’s Wager, I’ve begun to think about the story in a different way.

After all, what was so great about Job?

Crossroads of the Future

Have you ever stopped and pondered on a decision? Even one as mundane as whether you would get up immediately with your alarm or hit the snooze? If you got up, would you go get breakfast immediately or take a shower? If you stayed in bed, would you hit the snooze yet again or finally haul your sore limbs up from under the warm covers? I used to think that way, once upon a time, and then a book my mother got for me, Blink of an Eye by Ted Dekker, brought up the thought process again. In fact, it brought up several thought processes, one of the most prominent being my future.

Finding Love

A conversation with a friend of mine got me thinking, and I’ve decided that there’s truth in the saying “follow your heart.”

Not the stereotypical “follow your heart” that you hear ’bout in the movies, as it’s most often interpreted to mean “follow your emotions at that one point in time.” Because love is not an emotion. It’s a connection, a dedication to keep someone close, to help them, to do anything for them. That is the kind of love that marriages that last are based on. The kind of unchanging love that goes through storms and hell-fire because of that dedication.