A Close Encounter with the Living God

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.Job 1:1Job was the most righteous man of his time. Yet he suffered a terrorist attack and a natural disaster on the same day. The Sabeans came and murdered his servants and animals, and then a hurricane came and flattened the house where all of his children were throwing a party.The Bible never suggests that if you keep God happy nothing bad will happen to you. We live in a fallen world of disease, danger, and death, and these things will shape our experience.You see this in the life of Jesus. Nobody ever lived a life more pleasing to God. Yet He experienced terror unleashed, as He was stretched out on a cross, the sun stopped shining, and an earthquake split the ground beneath Him.Paganism would say, “Well, the gods must not be happy with him.” But the Bible says that it was through Him that God fulfilled His purpose.We desperately need to be delivered from a superstitious Christianity, in which we see our religion as a way of keeping God happy so that there won’t be any trouble in our lives. And we need to rediscover a biblical Christianity in which we put our trust in God, knowing that there will be trouble in our lives, but that He will bring us through it and fulfil His purpose.The God of the Bible is able to bring you through the worst experiences of your life. He is able to do more for you and in you than you could ever ask or imagine.Are you ready to experience a close encounter with the living God?