“When it Pours He Reigns” is the title of Holly Wagner’s book where she writes about overcoming life’s storms.

Job had the following response during his storm, relating to the sovereignty of God.

He would crush me with a storm and multiply my wounds for no reason.
Job 9:17

As I read the words “he would …. multiply my wounds for no reason”, I immediately thought of Irene’s diagnosis and the rarity of Primary Amyloidosis because no one knows or understands why it strikes some people and not others.  But, of course, there are many things about this world that we won’t ever understand.  We also have many questions for God that won’t be answered this side of eternity.

Irene drove herself to and from dialysis treatment today with her fatigue and nausea wearing on.  She rested and slowly plodded through the day.  She did, however, make a delicious salmon dinner that we enjoyed overlooking the Monterey Bay!!

According to Wikipedia ….

After several rounds of debate between Job and his friends, in a divine voice, described as coming from a “cloud” or “whirlwind”, YHVH describes, in evocative and lyrical language, what the experience of being responsible for the world is like, and asks if Job has ever had the experiences that YHVH has had.

YHVH’s answer underscores that Job shares the world with numerous powerful and remarkable creatures, creatures with lives and needs of their own, whom God must provide for, and the young of some hunger in a way that can only be satisfied by taking the lives of others. Does Job even have any experience of the world he lives in? Does he understand what it means to be responsible for such a world? Job admits that he does not.

YHVH’s speech also emphasizes his sovereignty in creating and maintaining the world. The thrust is not merely that God has experiences that Job does not, but also that God is King over the world and is not necessarily subject to questions from his creatures, including men. He declines to answer any of Job’s questions or challenges with anything except “I am the Lord.”

In the epilogue, YHVH

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The Valley of Vision
From Puritan Prayers & Devotions

GOD ALL SUFFICIENT

O Lord of Grace,

The world is before me this day,
And I am weak and fearful,
But I look to thee for strength;
If I venture forth alone I stumble and fall,
But on the Beloved’s arms I am firm
As the eternal hills;
If left to the treachery of my heart
I shall shame thy Name,
But if enlightened, guided, upheld by thy Spirit,
I shall bring thee glory.
Be thou my arm to support,
My strength to stand,
My light to see,
My fee to run,
My shield to protect,
My sword to repel,
My sun to warm.
The enrich me will no diminish my fullness;
All thy lovingkindness is in thy Son,
I bring him to thee in the arms of faith,
I urge his blood to pay my debts of wrong.
Accept his worthiness for my unworthiness,
His sinlessness for my transgressions,
His purity for my uncleanness,
His sincerity for my guile,
His truth for my deceits,
His meekness for my pride,
His constancy for my backslidings,
His love for my enmity,
His fullness for my emptiness,
His faithfulness for my treachery,
His obedience for my lawlessness,
His glory for my shame,
His devotedness for my waywardness,
His holy life for my unchaste ways,
His righteousness for my dead works,
His death for my life.

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John Newton (1725-1807) wrote the words to the hymn, By faith in Christ I walk with God. The music was arranged by Ro­bert H. Earn­shaw (1856-1929)

John Newton’s mo­ther died when he was sev­en years old. At age 11, with but two years school­ing and on­ly a rud­i­men­tary know­ledge of Latin, John went to sea with his fa­ther. His life at sea was filled with won­der­ful es­capes, viv­id dreams, and a sail­or’s reck­less­ness. He grew into a god­less and aban­doned man. He was once flogged as a de­sert­er from the na­vy, and for 15 months lived, half starved and ill treated, as a slave in Africa.

A chance read­ing of Thom­as à Kemp­is sowed the seed of his con­ver­sion. It was ac­cel­er­at­ed by a night spent steer­ing a wa­ter­logged ship in the face of ap­par­ent death. He was then 23 years old. Over the next six years, dur­ing which he com­mand­ed a slave ship, his faith ma­tured. He spent the next nine years most­ly in Li­ver­pool, stu­dy­ing He­brew and Greek and ming­ling with White­field, Wes­ley, and the Non­con­form­ists. He was even­tu­al­ly or­dained, and be­came cur­ate at Ol­ney, Buck­ing­ham­shire, in 1764. It was at Ol­ney that he formed a life long friend­ship with Wil­liam Cow­per, and pro­duced the Ol­ney Hymns.

A mar­ble plaque at St. Mary Wool­noth car­ried the epi­taph which New­ton him­self wrote:

JOHN NEWTON, Clerk
Once an infidel and libertine
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour
JESUS CHRIST,
restored, pardoned, and ap­point­ed to preach
the Gospel which he had long laboured to destroy.
He min­is­tered,
Near sixteen years in Ol­ney, in Bucks,
And twenty-eight years in this Church.

By faith in Christ I walk with God

By faith in Christ I walk with God,
With Heav’n, my journey’s end, in view;
Supported by His staff and rod,
My road is safe and pleasant too.

I travel through a desert wide
Where many round me blindly stray;
But He vouchsafes to be my Guide,
And will not let me miss my way.

Though snares and dangers throng my path,
And earth and hell my course withstand;
I triumph over all by faith,
Guarded by His almighty hand.

The wilderness affords no food,
But God for my support prepares;
Provides

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