Guest Blog written by: Charley Goode

For me, today was a really interesting day of reading. With so much to choose from, I decided I wanted to talk about Job 25 today.  When I read, I listen to the Message and in the Message, the chapter is listed as ‘Even the stars are not perfect in God’s eyes’.  What a reassurance that was for me and it must be for you too.  Chapter 25 starts of by saying “God is sovereign, God is fearsome—everything in the cosmos fits and works in his plan. What a relief that is!  Everything that can fit into our world, is part of his plan. His plans are perfect.  Then, it goes on to say, “Can anyone count his angel armies? Is there a place where his light doesn’t shine?”  No.  His armies are endless in power and size.  His power cannot even be fathomed.  There is no place where the light of Jesus cannot shine.  What really stuck out to me though, was the end of this chapter where I read, “How can an ordinary person pretend to be guiltless? Why, even the moon has its flaws. Even the stars aren’t perfect in God’s eyes.”  So often, I look at myself and I look at God and I wonder, “Why do you love me?”  After all that I’ve done, why?  Why would such a perfect God be interested in me and my life? Then, he tells me that I’m not supposed to be perfect. Even the stars are not perfect.  A God who has an unfathomed amount of angel armies, a God that has his light everywhere wants YOU and he wants ME and he tells us he wants all of our flaws with it.  In this day and age you see people with the coolest shoes, the coolest boyfriend, and the coolest _____ (you fill in the blank).  But, do you know what you have?  You have the Lord of all creation.  You have a God who takes your imperfectness and embraces you for who you are.  I guarantee you will never find another person to love you as much as He does.  Even the stars are not perfect.  I just graduated from high school and being a teenage girl is tough.  Sometimes, I look at others girls and I just think, “Do they have any flaws?” Sometimes you feel like your list of flaws are just double their list.  But, God tells us in Chapter 25  of Job that even the moon has its flaws.  So, if you struggle with this like I do, I encourage you to take this in.  God is a comforter and He is the best friend you can ever have. He tells you to come as you are, all of your burdens, all of your shame.  You have a God who is absolutely crazy about you, He loves you for who you are, where you are, and however you are.

Guest Blog written by: Colin Raynor

Put yourself in Job’s position.  How often are our actions swayed because of other people?  (Guys, I know we’ve all done dumb stuff to try and impress a girl.)  In this situation though Job’s three “friends” Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came to comfort him (Job 2:11).  They don’t quite do that though.  They call him a liar Chapter 15, they call him wicked Ch19, and even tell him he deserves worse Ch 11!  We all would say, “my friends would never do that”, or “I would never be like his friends”.  But in reality, being like that can be human nature and you not even know it.  So, the question is, if we know friends who we hang out with can effect our decisions will we stay strong like Job or be like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar?