Thank You!! to all military & families who have served!!
Sunday 11 9:00 am Worship Service at KUMC
10:00 am Adult Sunday School at Pleasant Corners 10:15 am Lefse Prep at KUMC 10:30 am Sunday School at KUMC
11:00 am Worship Service at Pleasant Corners
12:00 pm Pleasant Corners - Harvest Home Dinner 1:00 pm Casting for parts - Christmas Alive! @ KUMC
5:00 pm Worship Music Team
Mon 12 8:00 am Lefse Making at KUMC
Tues 13 6:30 pm Crafting for OCC at KUMC - ALL are Welcome
Wed 14 9:00 am M & M's meet at KUMC
6:30 pmYouth Group/OCC Box Packing at KUMC 7:00 pm Choir Practice at KUMC Sat 17 9:00 am Cookie/Candy making/decorating at KUMC
Sunday 18 9:00 am Worship Service at KUMC
10:00 am Adult Sunday School at Pleasant Corners 10:15 am UMW w3ill meet after Worship 10:30 am Sunday School at KUMC
11:00 am Worship Service at Pleasant Corners
12:00 pm - 9 pm 4-H Awards Banquet at KUMC
5:00 pm Worship Music Team
Youth Gathering at the Ewing residence in Mantorville Wednesdays 6:30 - 8 pm
Come & Join in the fun!!
Faith Village Sunday School
Pastor’s History Lesson for the Week
The Story of Job
The book of Job (pronounced with a long “O”) is one of the most difficult books in scripture to read. For one, it is forty-three chapters long, which makes it one of the longest books in the Bible. Secondly, Job covers a very difficult subject, namely why bad things happen to this righteous man who the book is named after. Over the course of the entire book there are a few different phases that occur with the man Job. He loses everything in the first two chapters, and by everything I mean everything. Satan comes before the Lord, and with God’s permission he strikes down Job. Job’s possessions, his family, and his own personal health are all taken from him. Only his wife, a few friends, and eventually some brothers and sisters are left, but they are of little comfort. The majority of the rest of the book (chapters 3-37) is a back and forth between Job and his friends trying to discern why this terrible calamity would befall this righteous man. (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu are the names of his friends. Perhaps typical for their day, difficult for us to pronounce now.) Unfortunately for Job, his friends assume that Job must have some kind of fault in the matter, and they ask Job again and again to rebuke his sin and return to good standing with the Lord. Job, to his credit, does not understand what he has done wrong, and so argue with his friends that he is indeed blameless. Intermixed with his statements arguing with his friends, Job continues to relay just how much he is suffering, saying things such as “Why did I not die at birth, Come forth from the womb and expire?” (Job 3:11), and “Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer; I shout for help, but there is no justice.” (Job 19:7) In the third section of Job, chapters 38-41, Job is spoken to by the Lord. The Lord discusses wisdom, greatness, and power with Job, asserting that the Almighty Creator over all might have a greater understanding of things than a mere man could. The final section of Job, chapter 42, sees the Lord rebuke the bad advice of Job’s friends, and a return to fortune of Job.
The legacy of the book of Job is a tough nut to crack. Unlike many other books in the Bible Job is actually filled with advice from Job’s friends that is not good, so picking a random verse out of Job and deciding to apply it to one’s life is not recommended. Really Job has to be read in a full manner with context in mind to really be helpful. That being said, the book of Job does offer some pretty big insights into who the Lord is and how this world works. Below are just a couple of lessons we can take from the entire book of Job.
The Lord is in control over all. In Job 1 and 2 we see that the Lord is in control over all the affairs on the earth. He sees all and He comprehends all, and even Satan is completely bound by the Lord if the Lord wills it. At the end of Job in chapters 38-42 we see that the Lord is bigger and greater than the minute understandings that we have, as the Lord recounts to Job the many great things He has done simply through His will and speech. The book of Job teaches us that the Lord is in control.
It is not always from our own sins that we gain adversity. In our lives it makes sense for us to receive punishment for our bad deeds. (The kids these days are obsessed with the false idea of karma.) But in the book of Job, Job does not receive his adversities for something he has done. Job even recognizes this in 2:10 when he says to his wife “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” He isn’t being punished for being lazy, for refusing to offer sacrifices, or for being unrighteous. On the contrary, it seems that the Lord allows these awful things to happen to Job for being so notably righteous! Note that this isn’t a reason to be just bad enough so that the Lord leaves you alone, rather it is a call for us to remember that not all the bad things we encounter have a direct correlation back to something evil we did earlier. That isn’t how God works, and that isn’t how the world works. Rather in the midst of these adversities and trials, we are called to remember the one to whom we must cling to if we are to find peace.
The Lord can use even the worst things that can happen in this life to the benefit of those who trust in Him. While Job loses everything at the beginning of his story, at the end he receives double from the Lord of everything that he had previously lost. (Job 42:12-17) This isn’t the only thing that the Lord did with Job. The Lord also used Job’s immense suffering as a series of lessons for us as believers, to the point where even to this day Job’s story can bring comfort to those of us in need. While this world will try to tell us that our suffering has no rhyme or reason, that it can never amount to anything positive in the long run, we get the exact opposite impression from this book.
To close up this brief overview of the story of Job, I would like to remind you that nothing in scripture exists in a vacuum. If you read the book of Job and you still struggle with the things in it (I will be honest, at times I have doubts and questions too!) then remember that there is a reason that there are sixty-five other books in scripture. The beauty of the Bible is that we get to see the Lord at work in a variety of ways and in a variety of situations, so don’t be afraid to look at the book of Job in conjunction with other scriptures. With that being said, do not neglect to read the forty-three chapters of Job either, it helps us to understand the Lord to a whole new level of depth.
Blessings on your readings and studies,
-Pastor Jake
Kasson UMC
KUMC is located just
three blocks west of the Kasson Pool
at 801 5th Ave NW, Kasson MN 55944
Pleasant Corners UMC
Pleasant Corners is located about half way
between Kasson and Dodge Center.
21927 650th Street
Kasson, MN 55944
Kasson and Pleasant Corners
United Methodist Churches
507-634-7823
Congregations of faith
Community Service
Our outreach programs help us bring the gospels to life every month.
Kasson Worship 9:00 am (Nursery Available)
Pleasant Corners Worship 11:00 am
Fifth Sundays Congregations worship together
Apply the Good News to your daily life.
Teen Programs
Our youth programs help teens learn to navigate those toughest of years.
Sundays
10:30 am
Join us!!
Pastor Jake Hanson
Our Mission Statement:
To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world