Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 22, Hos. 2:1–12, Job

1:6–2:10, 2 Cor. 11:23–29, Isa. 43:1–7.

Memory Text: “Yet it pleased the L ord to bruise Him; He has put

Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall

see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the L ord

shall prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10, NKJV).

As the wife of the famous Christian writer C. S. Lewis was dying,

Lewis wrote, “Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing

to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such

dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not ‘So there’s

no God after all,’ but ‘So this is what God’s really like.’ ”—A Grief

Observed (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1961), pp. 6, 7.

When things become really painful, some of us reject God com-

pletely. For others, like Lewis, there is the temptation to change our

view of God and imagine all sorts of bad things about Him. The ques-

tion is, Just how hot can it get? How much heat is God willing to risk

putting His people through in order to bring about His ultimate purpose

of shaping us into the “image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29, NIV)?

The Week at a Glance: Why do you think God is willing to

risk being misunderstood by those He wants to know Him and love

Him? How much do you think God is willing to be misunderstood

in order to mold you into the “image of his Son”?