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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center">"<font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>TWO
ARE BETTER THAN ONE" MINISTRIES</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>Jim
& Marie Watt</b></font></p>
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Box 25116 – Federal Way WA 98093-2116</b></font></p>
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253.874.4265 – Email: </b></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="mailto:jmbetter@gmail.com"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>jmbetter@gmail.com</b></font></a></u></font></p>
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</b></font><font color="#0000ff"><u><a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/"><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b>www.2rbetter.org</b></font></a></u></font><font style="font-size: 11pt;" size="2"><b> </b></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center">
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</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><u><b>2008.07.10 - "LOCKS
VERSUS KEYS" - Job 42:1-6</b></u></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;" align="center"><b>(From:
"Baffled to Fight Better" - Oswald Chambers)</b></p>
<p></p><div>
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
Everything a man takes to be the key to a problem is apt to turn out
another lock. For instance, the theory of evolution was supposed to
be the key to the problem of the universe, but instead it has turned
out a lock. Again, the atomic theory was thought to be the key; then
it was discovered that the atom itself was composed of electrons, and
each electron was found to be a universe of its own, and that theory
too becomes a lock and not a key. Everything that man attempts as a
simplification of life, other than a personal relationship to God,
turns out to be a lock, and we should be alert to recognize when a
thing turns from a key to a lock. The creed Job held, which pretended
to be a key to the character of God, turned out to be a lock, and Job
is realizing that the only key to life is not a statement of faith in
God, nor an intellectual conception of God, but a personal
relationship to Him. God Himself is the key to the riddle of the
universe, and the basis of things is to be found only in Him. If a
man leaves out God and takes any scientific explanation as the key,
he only succeeds in finding another lock.
</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;"><b>(1)
THE REHABILITATION OF FAITH IN GOD --</b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;"><b> <i>As
the Source and Support of all Existence.</i></b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
"<b>Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that You can do
everything, and that no thought can be withheld from You." (Job
42:1-2)</b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
To rehabilitate means to reinstate, to restore to former rank. The
problem all through the Book of Job is that the teaching of the creed
and Job's implicit faith in God do not agree, and it looks as if he
is a fool to hang in to his belief in God. That is what will happen
as the result of this war (World War I) -- many a man's faith in God
will be rehabilitated. The basis of things must always be found in a
personal relationship to a personal God, never in thinking or
feeling.</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
Job says, 'I cannot find any rest in your reasonings or in my own,
and I refuse to blink the facts in order to make a rational
statement'. Job had perfect confidence in the character of God though
he did not understand the way He was taking. "<b>Though He slay me,
yet will I trust in Him." </b>We sometimes wrongly illustrate faith
in God by the faith of a business man in a cheque. Faith commercially
is based on calculation, but religious faith cannot be illustrated by
the kind of faith we exhibit in life. Faith in God is a terrific
venture in the dark; I have to believe that God is good in spite of
all that contradicts it in my experience. It is not easy to say that
God is love when everything that happens actually gives the lie to
it. Everyone's soul represents some kind of battlefield. The point
for each one is whether we will hang in, as Job did, and say 'Though
things look black, I will trust in God'.</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
"Then Job <i>answered</i> the Lord...." This does not mean that
Job saw the Lord standing before him as a man; but that he had a
trained ear as the result of his faith in God. The basis of a man's
faith in God is that God is the Source and Support of all existence,
not that He <i>is</i> all existence. Job recognizes this, and
maintains that in the end everything will be explained and made
clear. Have I this kind of faith -- not faith in principle, but faith
<i>in God,</i> that He is just and true and right? Many of us have no
faith in God at all, but only faith in what He has done for us, and
when these things are not apparent we lose our faith and say, 'Why
should this happen to me? Why should there be a war? Why should I be
wounded and sick? Why should my "cobber" be killed? I am going to
chuck up my faith in God'.</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
<b>(2) THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF TRUTH IN LIFE AND PERSONALITY --</b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
<b> <i>As the source and Support of all Real Experience.</i></b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
"<b>Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge? therefore have
I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me which I
knew not." (Job 42:3)</b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
<b> </b><span style="">There is a great difference
between Christian experience and Christian faith. The danger of
experience is that our faith is made to rest in it, instead of seeing
that our experience is simply a doorway to God Himself. The reason
many of us refuse to think and discover the basis of true religion is
because evangelical Christianity has been stated in such a flimsy
way. We get the Truth through life and personality, not by logic or
scientific statements. </span><b>"Therefore have I uttered that I
understood not; things too wonderful for me which I knew not." </b><span style="">In
refusing to stand by what was not true, Job uttered bigger things
than he understood at the time. That is the way God uses men when
they are rightly related to Him; He conveys His real presence as a
sacrament through their commonplace lives. Our Lord Himself becomes
real in the same way that life and personality are real. Intellect
asks, 'What is truth?', as if truth were something that could be
stated in words. </span><b>"I am the Truth", </b><span style="">said
Jesus. The only way we get at Truth is by life and personality. When
a man is up against things it is no use for him to try and work it
out logically, but let him obey, and instantly he will see his way
through. Truth is moral, not intellectual. We perceive Truth by doing
the right thing, not by thinking it out. </span><b>'If any man will
do His will, he shall know of the doctrine ...'</b><span style="">
Men have tried to get at the truth of Christianity head-first, which
is like saying you must think how you will live before you are born.
We instantly see the absurdity of that, and yet we expect to reason
out the Christian life before we have been born into the realm of
Jesus Christ. </span><b>"Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God." </b><span style=""> If ever
we are to see the domain where Jesus lives and enter into it, we must
be born again, become regenerated by receiving the Holy Spirit; then
we shall find that Truth is not in a creed or a logical statement,
but in Life and Personality. This is what Job is realizing.</span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
<b>(3) THE RELIGIOUS BASIS OF SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY --</b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; text-align: left;">
<i>As the Source and Support of all Abiding Exposition.</i></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">"<b>Hear, I beseech You, and I will
speak: I will demand of You, and You declare unto me." (Job 42:4)</b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"> We have not to
bring God into our system of philosophy but to found our philosophy
on God. The source and support of all abiding exposition is a man's
personal relationship to God. If we base our philosophy on reason, we
shall produce a false philosophy; but if we base it on faith in God,
we can begin to expound life rightly. Actual conditions come into
account, but underneath lies the Redemption.</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">Sin is not man's
problem, but God's. God has taken the problem of sin into His own
hands and solved it, and the proof that He has is the Cross of
Calvary. The Cross is the Cross of God. On the ground of the
Redemption I can <b>'wash my robes, and make them white in the blood
of the Lamb'. </b>Pseudo-evangelism has twisted the revelation and
made it mean -- 'Now that God has saved me, I do not need to do
anything'. The New Testament revelation is that now I am saved by
God's grace, I must work on that basis and keep myself clean. It does
not matter what a man's heredity is, or what tendencies there are in
him, on the basis of the Redemption he can become all that God's Book
indicates he should be. The essential truth of Christianity in
thinking is that I can <b>'wash my robes, and make them clean in the
blood of the Lamb'. </b>That is the exposition of the Redemption in
actual experience. Are we thinking along this line, or on the pagan
line which makes out that the basis of things is rational, and leaves
out God, and Jesus Christ, and the Redemption altogether?</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b>(4) REPENTANCE AND THE DAWN OF
GOD'S HUMANITY --</b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b> <i>As the Source and Support of a
'Second Chance'.</i></b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">"<b><span style="font-style: normal;">I
have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job
42:5-6)</span></b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></b><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="">Because
a man has altered his life it does not necessarily mean that he has
repented. A man may have lived a bad life and suddenly stop being
bad, not because he has repented, but because he is like an
exhausted volcano. The fact that he has become good is no sign of his
having become a Christian. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance.
The apostle Paul never forgot what he had been; when he speaks of
</span></span><b><span style="font-style: normal;">'forgetting those
things which are behind',</span></b><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="">
he is referring to what he has attained to; the Holy Spirit never
allowed him to forget what he had been (</span></span><i><span style="">see</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="">
1 Corinthians 15:9, Ephesians 3:8, 1 Timothy 1:13-15). Repentance
means that I estimate exactly what I am in God's sight and I am sorry
for it, and on the basis of the Redemption I become the opposite. The
only repentant man is the holy man, i.e., the one who becomes the
opposite of what he was because something has entered into him. Any
man who knows himself knows that he cannot be holy, therefore if he
does become holy, it is because God has 'shipped' something into him;
he is now 'presented with Divinity', and can begin to bring forth
</span></span><b><span style="font-style: normal;">'fruits meet for
repentance'.</span></b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;">A
man may know the plan of salvation, and preach like an archangel, and
yet not be a Christian (cf. Matthew 7:21-22) The test of Christianity
is that a man lives better than he preaches. The reality of the
heredity of Jesus Christ comes into us through regeneration, and if
ever we are to exhibit a family likeness to Him it must be because we
have entered into repentance and have received something from God. If
the disposition of meanness and lust and spite shows itself through
my bodily life, when the disposition of Jesus Christ is there, it
will show through my bodily life too, and no one need ever be afraid
that he will be credited with the holiness he exhibits. </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>"Now
my eye sees You," said Job</b></span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
</span><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>"wherefore I abhor
myself" </b></span><span style="font-style: normal;">("I loathe my
words", R.V. marg.) </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>"and
repent in dust and ashes." </b></span><span style="font-style: normal;">When
I enthrone Jesus Christ I say the thing that is violently opposed to
the old rule. I deny my old ways as entirely as Peter denied his
Lord.</span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Jesus
Christ's claim is that He can put a new disposition, His own
disposition, Holy Spirit, into any man, and it will be manifested in
all that he does. But the disposition of the Son of God can only
enter my life by the way of repentance.</span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br>
</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><u><b><span style="font-style: normal;">NOTE;</span></b></u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">
This is perhaps one of the clearest expositions and explanations of
the true nature of Regeneration, the New Birth, and their basis in
repentance -- that I have come across.</span></span></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">Oswald
Chamber's notes on the Book of Job were prepared for British Armed
Forces especially from Australia and New Zealand stationed in
Zei</span></span></span><u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="">toun</span></span></u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">,
Egypt, just before going into battle in Gal</span></span></span><u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="">li</span></span></u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">poli.
These boys </span></span></span><u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="">knew</span></span></u><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">
that perhaps only 40% or less would return. It was a trying time, and
Chambers as their YMCA Chaplain wanted to leave them with words that
would help them prepare most likely for death.</span></span></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">In
the face of death -- nice words and pretty sermons would have been
completely out of order. So from the depths of his own vital
relationship with God, Jesus Christ and the Redemption -- he spoke
and wrote words appropriate to the desperate needs of these young
soldiers.</span></span></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">These
notes are from the last chapter from his book on Job, "Baffled to
Fight Better!" What an appropriate title! It exactly describes what
Job went through in the preceding 41 chapters.</span></span></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">Does
this apply to you and me also -- though we are not facing almost
certain death such as these soldiers? I read the above words perhaps
3 decades ago, and applied them to my own life. I trust that many of
you will reread the Book of Job as I have just done -- and then take
very special note of the Chaplain's words to desperate soldiers, and
apply them to your life also. What Chambers thought of the church in
his day and the wishy-washy Gospel that came forth from it, might
well apply to our 21</span></span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">st</span></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">
Century Church also.</span></span></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">Don't
settle for a watered-down, pablum-oriented Gospel. Settle for a
manly, Truth-oriented, Realistic Gospel that can take you out of the
doldrums of mediocrity, and catapult you into the Glorious
Possibility of a life hid with God in Christ!</span></span></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;">
</div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="">Your
friend -- Jim Watt</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style=""></span></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;">
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