Great and glorious day to you my friends in Christ! What is God up to today? Dare we even ask that question? Did you ask a question like that of your father when growing up? So, let us think about that again. Are we to become as little children in the faith? Yes, we are. Then would we not be in the right to ask our Father, "What are you doing, Daddy?" Sure! And the answer for today is: "I am pouring out love onto all My children". Take that with you today as you go to work or on that trip.
We fall into the temptation of looking upon God as the ultimate bad-boy parent. "You messed up again." Whack! "You violated the 5th commandment in your thoughts yesterday." Smack! We cower beneath the imagined big stick of God while listening to that tempting voice of the Accuser. Why? Probably because that is what we would do to straighten out this world if we found ourselves in God's place.
The Israelites of the Old Testament are a great example of that. When God smote the nation with this plague or that invading army, they cried out to Him and repented for a time. But the turn around never lasted. Always the nation followed its king into paganism, adultery, and all the other sins of the flesh. A godly king could make the repentance last for a while, but inevitably it seems another evil king was on the way. So God sent out the love in the person of Jesus the Christ.
We will not obey the Law under threat of punishment for any great length of time. And to qualify the self for Heaven we would need to obey the Law perfectly forever and somehow go back and erase all the past sins from God's memory. We cannot do that, no one born of Adam can. So God sent His Son to pay the price for our disobedience, both the past and the future sins. God's perfect sacrificial lamb satisfied God's justice and restored us to God. That is love.
To obey perfectly, we need a cleansed heart. Our just wanting to obey is not good enough; our strength as human beings is too little and corrupted by the flesh. So Jesus sent His Spirit into us to begin that process of scrubbing up those dirty little hearts of ours. We will resist that cleansing in our sinful ignorance, but through faith and grace it will be accomplished. God will not let anyone who is almost ready into His perfect home, so we can expect to spend some time here on Earth. But, could not God in His almighty power cleanse us immediately? Sure! But who better to spread the Good News of Christ than those who have 'been there'!
Jesus never sinned. As sinners we find our Lord difficult to understand in that regard. Many who are immersed in the darkness cannot even hear the words of our Lord and Savior. So we are sent in our various ways of communicating the Good News. We have sinned and been forgiven. The sinner can hear us because we still have some of the old nature within our hearts. Once the message hits the mark in that wicked heart, then the saved one can hear the voice of his Lord. We are ambassadors bearing a message of hope to the world from Jesus our King!
Have a great day in Christ!Bucky
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