I am going to teach the last two lessons on the book of Job this week and next.  I am glad it will be done.  You can cover the point of the book in one day--bad things happen to everyone.  Bad people, good people, and so-so people.  God isn’t punishing you because something bad happens.  Job lost everything and he didn’t do anything wrong.

But God does use the events in our lives.  And there are consequences to the things we do.  Rob a bank?  You will spend time locked up in prison.  The punishment is the result of the action.

If you don’t believe you are in charge of certain events in your life, you are misled.  You control much of what happens to you.  Your actions make a difference--if not, why do we have the book of Proverbs to warn us. 

I call Proverbs the book of “buts.”  If you do “this,” the result is good; but if you do “that” the result is horrible.  The book of Proverbs teaches us right from wrong.  We get to choose.  God does not foreordain your choice.  It’s yours.  And it does have outcomes.  People tell me, “God knows ahead of time what you are going to do.”  He could know, but what if he chooses not to know?  He can do whatever He wants to know.  He’s God.  I can’t find any Bible verse to support the idea that we are not in charge of what we do.  We are.