"The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind" Job 38:1
There is no greater calamity which can befall any of us, than that of not recognising the answer which God sends in responce to the prayer of our hearts.....because of the form in which He sends it.
I think, for instance, of the man who despite of his Christian profession, plays with sin, who jests with conscience, who lives deliberately below the level of his own best moral intelligence, and in defience of the precepts of God's word.
Because God is God and because God loves that man, He may send the whirlwind upon his life and time, a disturbance which breaks up his false serenity and self complacency.
Now the calamity in that mans life is not that God sends a whirlwind, but that he does not recognise the whirlwind as Gods chariot, as Gods agent: that he becomes hard and unbelieving, and nurses cold anger against God, for his circumstance. What God means for good he misreads and perverts for evil. Under the searching edge of the whirlwind he becomes sullen and misses the miracle. The light of faith then dies in his soul, and he becomes incapable of spiritual sensability
God's greatness and His goodness are never in opposition to each other. Rather God's goodness is the voice of His greatness. His mercy is the expression of His majesty. His pity declares His power.
And these are all on the side of the one who confides life to His control and care. The whilwind only blows upon us when, like the spice laden breezes from a southern sea, or the bracing winds from the north, it brings some heartening, redeeming, cleansing, controlling, inspiring message........and gift of His love.
There is no greater calamity which can befall any of us, than that of not recognising the answer which God sends in responce to the prayer of our hearts.....because of the form in which He sends it.
I think, for instance, of the man who despite of his Christian profession, plays with sin, who jests with conscience, who lives deliberately below the level of his own best moral intelligence, and in defience of the precepts of God's word.
Because God is God and because God loves that man, He may send the whirlwind upon his life and time, a disturbance which breaks up his false serenity and self complacency.
Now the calamity in that mans life is not that God sends a whirlwind, but that he does not recognise the whirlwind as Gods chariot, as Gods agent: that he becomes hard and unbelieving, and nurses cold anger against God, for his circumstance. What God means for good he misreads and perverts for evil. Under the searching edge of the whirlwind he becomes sullen and misses the miracle. The light of faith then dies in his soul, and he becomes incapable of spiritual sensability
God's greatness and His goodness are never in opposition to each other. Rather God's goodness is the voice of His greatness. His mercy is the expression of His majesty. His pity declares His power.
And these are all on the side of the one who confides life to His control and care. The whilwind only blows upon us when, like the spice laden breezes from a southern sea, or the bracing winds from the north, it brings some heartening, redeeming, cleansing, controlling, inspiring message........and gift of His love.
