Two Mysteries in Job

It has been a while since we have met back here. But, the time has come to do another topic. If you are in our Sunday School class, you will know that we have been studying the book of Job, verse by verse, since January. Now, we are nearing the end. We have two more lessons to go. And, for the next one, I need you help.

In the book of Job, chapter 40, verses 15-24, the author mentions a creature called the "behemoth". Many scholars say that this is a reference to either an elephant or a hippo. However, several verses do not align with this theory. For instance, Job 40: 17 says "He moves his tail like a cedar," which would not fit the description of a hippo or elephant.

Then, in Job 41: 1-34 (the entire chapter), there is a passage about another creature called the "Leviathan". Scholars say this is a reference to something like a crocodile. But, again, some of the verses do not fit the description. For instance, Job 41: 19-20 state references to fire shooting out of the mouth and smoke coming out of the nostrils.

For this week's blog, let's investigate these passages. Then, I'd like for you to post your best guess as to what these creatures are. If you have time, post any evidence that you may have found or read. I would greatly appreciate it!

So, have fun. Let's crack these two mysteries here in Job! If you are in Newnan, GA this Sunday, October 3, feel free to come to by Unity Baptist Church at 311 Smokey Road to join our class and discuss this topic. We meet from 9:30am-10:45am. Just ask anyone where the "Generations Rising" class with Brent Mayes is.

Hope you post something, and I really hope to see you in class next Sunday!!

-- Brent

Ever had such a day... (car + pruners = fun)

Ok everyone. I send my apologies. After posting 3 blogs in July, I have gone a month without posting. I will do my best to get more consistent.

So, let's go back to the subject of this blog. Have you "ever had such a day that you began fixing your automobile with a pair of tree pruners?"

Now that I have your attention, let me tell you what happened. About three months ago, my wife borrowed my car to drive to church for a woman's bible study. She never drives my car because it does not have a car seat. But, since I was keeping our son for her to go to church, she drove my car in case I need to drive hers (with the car seat).

As she pulled out of the driveway, I noticed something hanging down from the front bumper. I did not know what it was, but it looked like some weather stripping that had been pulled loose. I attempted to reattach it, but failed. To quickly resolve the situation, I put a bungee cord around it, so she could go ahead and drive it until I could fix it. (And, the "yellow" bungee cord looked great against the "dark blue" color of the car!)

I thought about fixing it several times, but I did not really know how to fix it. A day turned into a week and three months eventually passed, until today.

Today, I came home from work in a mood to "get things done". I was just determined to catch up some things and mark them off my list. When my eyes spotted my car's bumper, I decided to fix it then and there. I bent down under the car to see how the strip was attached. I tried to reattach it, remove it, and even tuck it under the bumper (don't ask). When these options failed, something snapped in me. I was not going to lose the battle. So, I went to my "wall of lawn tools", grabbed my tree pruners, and began clipping away. 14 seconds later, my problem was fixed. I picked up the shred of weather stripping, dumped it in the trash, and retreated back into my home, with a job well done!

In thinking about my day, my week, and my vengeance on my car, I was reminded about some of God's promises. When life stresses you out, God says to be still. When Jesus was with his disciples on the raging sea, he simply said "Peace, be still" and the waves rolled back into calm seas.

In the Old Testament, God gives us numerous promises around this same need for calmness in our seas of stress. Here are a few verses from the book of Psalm to remind you of His faithfulness to us:

Psalm 18:35

You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.

Psalm 89:21

My hand will sustain him; surely my arm will strengthen him.

Psalm 119:116

Sustain me according to your purpose, and I will live; do not let me hopes be dashed.

Psalm 119: 175

Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me.

And my favorite one...

Psalm 55:22

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.

I hope this blog encourages you. It seems that everyone I know is battling stress. This is not a battle that we should fight.

Our battle with stress is an indication of our reliance on God.

If we stress to the point of exhaustion, we are not relying on God and His perfect peace and power.

Share some thoughts here about a time when life overtook you. Share how God pulled you from the stress and restored your peace.

A Prayer Coming to Life

All last week, I prayed one prayer every night. It was a unique prayer. I had never prayed it before that week. And, to my knowledge, I had not heard it anywhere. It was just something that came to me one night when I went to bed. It is simple.

"God, first, please protect my family from temptation, sin, and evil of any kind. Lead us in all things. And, with evil out of our lives, lead us to seek you and do your work."

As I said, the prayer was simple.

I began the prayer on Monday night. I said it every night. Then, on Friday, I had to take my car into the shop for some minor work. On my way home, I took a short cut, which led me down this 1/2 mile stretch of residential highway.

As I started down this road, my phone drew my attention. I look down to see if I had missed a call or text message. When I looked back up, a car was in my lane. Basically, a car had backed our of a driveway. But, instead of straightening up quickly and getting in their lane, the car was just sitting in my lane. I don't know if it was just waiting for me to drive around it, stop, get off the road completely...I don't know.

Anyway, I looked up just in time to slam on my brakes and stop, nose to nose to this car. For whatever reason, this must have scared the other car because the car turned and pulled back into the driveway it had just came out of a second earlier.

My heart was beating fairly well by now. So, I put my phone in the seat beside me and decided I could wait 10 more minutes until I got home to check the phone any more.

So, I started back down the road. As I sped back up, I entered a curve. Sitting in my lane was another car! It had just backed out of its driveway. Once again, I slammed on the brakes and came to a safe stop quickly, as I had only accelerated to about 20 mph. The car got in its lane and drove on by me.

By now, I am thinking something weird is happening. Two cars in less a tenth of a mile had pulled out into my lane.

Not 1/4 mile down the road, I saw yet another car back out of a driveway and stop in my lane. Three times in less than four minutes! My approach must have paralyzed this driver as she decided to just sit in my lane and not move. I coasted around her and kept going only to have to stop a FOURTH time for a FOURTH car sitting in my LANE. Again, I pulled over and coasted past this car as well.

4 cars in less than a 1/2 mile stretch of road had pulled out in front of me and stopped in my lane.

Now, I my thoughts had quit; I was now in full, straight prayer. "God, just get me home safely."

I did home safely, and as I pulled into my garage, I remembered my prayer that I had prayed every night that week.

"God, first, please protect my family from temptation, sin, and evil of any kind. Lead us in all things. And, with evil out of our lives, lead us to seek you and do your work."

I did not see temptation, sin, or evil in those 4 cars, but I certainly see the first part of the prayer..."God, first, please protect...".

God protected me four times in a row. And, at either one of the incidents, I could have easily collided with someone head on into them. But, God protected.

I am compelled now to share that account because sharing it does two things. First, it gives praise to God. He protected me, and I give all credit of my safety to Him.

Second, it taught me on the obedience to pray. It does not matter if every word comes out right. You don't have to rehearse the prayer ahead of time. God simply wants to hear from you. You are His child. He longs to communicate with you. And, in that, He longs to watch over and protect you, which He did to me this past Friday.

Question: Have you ever had an experience like this one where a prayer came to life and you got to see God answer it? Share if you would.

Brent

Can we only give Him some of us?

It is Sunday afternoon, and I am once again perplexed by Sunday School this morning. If you have been following these blogs, you know that our class, the 18-30 year old class, is walking through the book of Job. Last week, Job 29: 1-6 shook me to the core by making me look at my intimacy with God and showing me what I was lacking.

Today, we entered Job 30. We kindly broke it down loosely into two sections. Verses 1-15 detail how Job's role/place in society has diminished since these tragedies have faced him. Within this, we discussed how his pride was really blurring the lines of being arrogant and prideful.

Then, we discussed verses 16-31, which displays Job's feelings of abandonment from God. Job's perspective of his separation from God is riveted through such verses as these:

Job 30
20 "I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer;
I stand up, but you merely look at me.
21 You turn on me ruthlessly;
with the might of your hand you attack me.
22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;
you toss me about in the storm.
23 I know you will bring me down to death,
to the place appointed for all the living."

This is where the confusion began to rise. Someone asked if Job was justified in his feelings of pridefulness and if he should feel that God had truly abandoned him. Obviously, we know that God never left nor foresake him, just as He has never left or foresaken any of us. However, we feel that it was not Job's fault that he was in the tragic position that he was. Ultimately, it was God and God's allowance for Satan to work in Job's life that brought upon Job's tragedy.

We discussed how we know as Christians that God can and will allow trials to come upon us to strengthen our faith.

James 1
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

So, even it Job did not bring it upon himself, the fact that he was a Christian made him vulnerable to God's testing, which is appropriate.

Then, it happened. A statement came out that perplexed everyone.

"That is why I don't give God everything. I let him oversee the spiritual side, but I take care of the rest, like the physical side. If God does it all, there is more room for Satan to come in, and I don't need Satan around now."

Someone had just stated a serious statement open for debate, controversy, and investigation. Basically, to pose this statement into a question, it would read:

"Can a Christian only allow God in certain parts of their life? If so, how does that match God's design for your life?"

With everything that I believe, feel, and think, I have to go against this thought. To me, if you are a Christian, then you became one through the blood of Jesus Christ and his gift of salvation. He did not just save part of you; He saved it all. And, he did not just save you from the damnation of Hell, he bought you at a price, His own life. Therefore, my conclusion is that you don't have a choice. You are His. He owns all of you. So, He can do anything He likes with you. I find my reasoning for this in the following two verses:

1 Corinthians 6
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

If I am to honor God with your body, I take that as physical. It could also be mental as well. But, even if you choose not to honor Him, the other part of this verse still states that you were "bought at a price", which means that you (and all of you) are His.

Now, you belong to Him. And, James 1 says that you will face trials, but they are for our benefit. And, that is the point I am trying to get to in this blog. Here's what I am saying.

1. God does own us. We are His. He bought us at a price. We are to honor Him with our body, so we are not to give Him just part of us. He owns and deserves us all.

2. We will go through trials, but they are for our benefit.

3. Finally, the main point, is that God loves us and longs for us to be His. He wants all of us. But, it is not just to put us through trials. He created us, loves us, sent His Son to die for us, and has a divine purpose for us. He has a reason for us and a passion for us.

So, it is the least that we can do to honor Him with our life, the entire, complete, total life. He gave us His life; now, we can and should give ours to Him. It is one of our greatest opportunities to rise as His generation.

Feel free to respond to this. I'd love to see your opinions and thoughts.

Brent

Blog, Podcast, Study Guide or What?!?

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." -- 2 Corinthians 9:8

Ok everyone, I have a question that needs an answer from you!

I really want to extend the Generations Rising movement. Right now, we have this Blog, which I have just really started up good this month and a Facebook site, which does little right now. Plus, we do the Sunday School class at church and host events every week on Sunday nights. This works great for the summer.

However, we school starts back, our class will be split. Some go back to college. Some stay in town. And, some come most weeks, but have a week here and there that they are out because of work.

To keep the community thriving and on the same page, I want to base the blog, the Sunday morning class, and our events around something that is uniform to everyone. I am thinking about a podcast.

A podcast is simple to understand. Basically, it is just an audio track that I will record a voice message on you and you can listen to it.

With an I-Pod

If you have an I-pod, you go into I-tune, search "Generations Rising", and subscribe to the podcast. The podcasts download to your I-pod everytime you plug the I-pod into your computer for charging or sync-ing. And, it is totally free.

Without an I-Pod

If you DO NOT have an i-pod, you would just go to a certain website, and click on the link for the podcast. It will open on your computer and you can listen to it there.

Without a Computer

If you DO NOT have a computer with internet, I can record the podcast to a CD and give it to you as well.

So, if we did a podcast, I would prepare our weekly lesson ahead of time. I would record it in a podcast and post it online, in I-tunes, and have a cd ready if someone needed it. Then, we would discuss it in class on Sunday morning or those away could email/blog about it. Everyone would be on the same page. We could even do announcements, prayer requests, etc on these too.

But, I don't know if the podcast idea is the way to go or not. I could develop a written study guide that would cover a month of lessons. That way, everyone could get a written copy from me or I could email it to you at college. And then, you would have my lesson and study notes.

There may be something totally better than all this too. I don't know. I need your help. You know what will work for you. Tell me what you prefer. I am open to any and all ideas.

Just respond to this post or tell me in person.

Remember:

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." -- 2 Corinthians 9:8

Thanks!

Brent

Passion City Church

Hello fellow blog readers!

You may be shocked and surprised to see that I am writing another blog only one day after my last blog. It may seem unusual for me, and it is. For me to desire to blog this often, something has to happen to me to drive me to post again one day after my last one.

And, something did happen. In three simple words, my reason for blogging is "Passion City Church". Last night, July 27, I attended my first worship service at the Passion City Church in Atlanta, GA. The name may sound familiar to you...Passion. It is synonymous with the Passion Conferences that you may have attended. Led by Louie Giglio and his team of worship leaders, including Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Kristian Stanfill, Christy Nockels, and some other cool folks, the Passion City Church is led by those same people of the conferences.

So, I will admit that I did not attend 100% for church. With a roster like this, I did have interest in going to hear Louie speak and these awesome musicians lead worship. My wife went with me, along with some members from the 18-30 year old Sunday school class that I lead. We made it into a college event for the Sunday School class.

In the back of my mind, I did want to visit for the sake of visiting the church too though. I wanted to see how a service would be led by these folks that I last saw perform in front of several thousand people in an arena in Atlanta.

Well, let's just stop there.

We arrived at 5:20, got seated fairly quickly, and waited for the service to begin. Upon minutes of getting seated, one of the church's volunteers approached and welcomed my wife and I. For sake of his privacy, we'll just call him "J". He was a college student at Kennesaw State, and he was talking about why he attended the church, what he got out of it, and just welcomed us to the church. We began talking and he shared his passion for sharing the gospel around the world. He told us that he was preparing to leave for a mission trip to South Africa in the next few days. His spirit was contagious. His love for God and his compassion for sharing the message of Christ was evident and overwhelming. Before the service began, we received an unexpected, but very welcome blessing from this young man. (By the way, please pray for "J" as he begins his trip to South Africa.)

Well, the service began right at 6:00 with Louie coming out to welcome everyone and discuss some of the amazing results from the recently ended, first leg of the Passion World Tour. From Louie, we went into a time of worship with the musicians that went over an hour. Louie spoke for well over an hour, some folks on staff shared some memories from the world tour, and we prayed, watched some video from the tour, and just took the night in, minute by minute. When the service concluded, it was around 8:45pm. We had been in worship for nearly 3 hours. But, it did not seem like it.

I walked away feeling different than I had felt in weeks, maybe even months. I had not been to a concert. I had not listened to a good speaker. I had not shared in just some items from a world tour. I had not been to an event. I HAD JUST EXPERIENCED GOD. Through each and every aspect of the worship service, my heart, mind, soul, and spirit was renewed and revived. The Holy Spirit used the opportunity to move through me.

I have been a minister now for over 12 years. I have worked with youth and college students for most of this time. I have been to thousands of worship services in church, at schools, at camps, at conferences, at crusades, etc, etc, etc.

But, at the end of the night, I understood why the church was named "Passion City Church". The people that led the service were passionate about Christ. They poured their talents into His glory. And, it flowed out to us. In a three hour time period, I feel that we truly brought fame and glory to name of Christ, which is what Passion is all about anyway.

I have been moved by the Spirit in a powerful way. I was blessed in a tremendous way at last night's service.

And, if you read my blog from yesterday, you'll know about our Sunday School lesson on Job 29 that happened the morning of the same day that I attended Passion City Church in the evening. With no doubt, I have been awakened to God's message that he started in Sunday School and continued through Passion Church last night:

* God is worthy of all praise and glory forever, and I long to give Him the glory in everything.

* We are not just designed or called, but we actually have the opportunity to develop and maintain an intimate relationship with our Lord. He desires our fellowship, and our souls crave His presence. And, He has made a way for this to happen!

* I am blessed more than most of the people on this Earth: I have freedom to worship freely; I have endless opportunities to serve God; I have an unimaginable wealth of resources at my fingertips from Bibles, to electronic Bibles, to podcasts, to resource and study materials, to the Internet, and so forth. If I don't use this to serve my Lord, I don't have an excuse. We are too blessed to be idle and stagnant.

Ok, I will end here. I just wanted to share this pure, contagious experience from yesterday with you all. Take care, and live everyday intentionally to serve our God.

Rise up generations. Claim your purpose and implement it daily for our Lord.

Brent

On the Journey...

It has been about a month since I have posted here. A lot has happened. My wife, son, and I made a trip back to my parents' home in North Carolina. We spent a few nice days there. While in NC, I got to preach the 11am sermon at my home church, which is always an honor.

Then, we came back to GA, I worked a week, and then we took off on the first 7 day vacation we have had in 7 years! My wife, son, and I went with another couple from our church and their kids to the beach. We had an awesome time. Regardless of the oil concerns, we stayed in a condo on the gulf at Panama City Beach. We ate, played, hung out, and had a great time!!!

On vacation, I really achieved one immense goal...I cleared my head. I left the concerns of work, church, life, finances, and anything else that has been on my mind back in Georgia. I was truly able to give it up, clear my head, enjoy my time with family and friends, and truly relax, which I struggle with doing most of the time.

Today, I was back at my current church for the first time in three weeks. It was a good day, but Sunday School shook me hard. I teach the 18-30 year old class called, just as blog, "Generations Rising". At the beginning of the year, we began a study of the book of the Job where we just take it verse by verse, chapter by chapter, each week. Today, we covered Chapter 29.

If you have studied Job like this, you will understand Chapter 29. But like me and most people, I had never really studied the entire book of Job. I had done the traditional read Chapter 1 and 2, and then jump to chapter 38-42 and finish it out. So, I was not ready for Chapter 29.

The first six verses really act as a mirror to a Christian to see if you are reflecting who you should be in Christ. The very name "Christian" signifies that someone is "of" or "like" Christ. In Chapter 29, Job discusses how his walk with God used to be. Here it is in the NIV translation:

¹ Job continued his discourse:

² "How I long for the months gone by,
for the days when God watched over me,

³ when his lamp shone upon my head
and by his light I walked through darkness!

⁴ Oh, for the days when I was in my prime,
when God's intimate friendship blessed my house,

⁵ when the Almighty was still with me
and my children were around me,

⁶ when my path was drenched with cream
and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.

After reading these verses, I wonder how many of us "Christians" can say that we feel this way about God, or can even remember these times in our life?

• Do we know that God is watching over us?
• Do we know that his lamp shines upon on head and lights our path, so we can make it through any trial that comes our way?
• Do we have the type of relationship with God that we can say "God's intimate friendship blessed my house"?
• Do we feel his blessings like Job describes in verse 6? (By the way, I may blog about these items in detail soon.)

For me, I could not say yes to these things. I know these things. I believe these things. But, I am missing that deep intimacy with God that brings these things to life, like Job describes. I am reminded that a relationship with God is like a relationship with anyone. It takes dedication, consistency, and time to grow and develop. Without continuous, true efforts, one will not grow in depth with God.

My challenge for you and I is that we take an active, intentional approach to developing our relationship with God. Prioritize it. Be disciplined and committed to it. Let's be a generation that rises to love, serve, and walk with our Lord, Jesus Christ, so we too can be "Christians" -- someone who is "of" and "like" Christ. Let's be disciples, so we can disciple others.

-- Brent