{"id":2877,"date":"2021-06-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/?p=2877"},"modified":"2021-07-26T11:55:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T10:55:20","slug":"a-reflection-by-rev-alistair-mcleod-for-sunday-20th-june-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/?p=2877","title":{"rendered":"A Reflection by Rev Alistair McLeod for Sunday 20th June 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>A Reflection on the Scripture reading Job Chapter 1<\/strong>.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Job was a good man; he was wealthy and had many farms and animals at that time, riches beyond compare.&nbsp; He also had a large family of ten children. In short Job had everything going for him because he was also at one with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The book of Job is the first book in the Bible to raise the subject and asks the question of why a just God could allow the suffering of innocents<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The story of Job which occupies 42 chapters of the Bible. The story begins in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Satan tells God that Job is only righteous because he is wealthy and comfortable.&nbsp; Satan then asks God\u2019s permission to put him to the test. God agrees but insists that Satan mustn\u2019t lay a finger on Job. Satan starts by getting rid of Job\u2019s children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Job was mourning the loss of his children when their so-called friends tell him that he must have done something so terrible for God to do such a thing.&nbsp; Job questions God regarding his suffering; tells Him that he is an unjust God but that he still trusted God. A fourth friend turns up and he makes the point that we can\u2019t always understand why God does what he does, but nevertheless we can always trust Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Job didn\u2019t enjoy the happiest of lives.&nbsp; His wife berated him for his piety and who could blame her, after all she had lost all ten of her children? A serious domestic dispute arises; however, reconciliation must have taken place because they got back together and had another ten children together and lived for another<br \/>140 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The story of Job is a recipe of how God wants us to live and how we should respond to Him and trust Him.&nbsp; It also tells us how friends should <strong>Not <\/strong>act when someone is in the depth of disaster.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A Prayer for you: <\/em><br \/><em>Almighty God, give me the patience of Job.&nbsp; When met with disaster help me to put my trust in you, knowing that you will always be there standing by my side. <\/em><br \/><em>Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Reflection on the Scripture reading Job Chapter 1. Job was a good man; he was wealthy and had many farms and animals at that &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wider-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2877"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2880,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions\/2880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}