We all have a choice, every single one of us.
John {5:24} Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. {5:25} Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. {5:26} For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; {5:27} And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. {5:28} Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, {5:29} And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. {5:30} I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
If we hear Jesus' words and if we believe in God who sent Him, we will have everlasting life. We won't be condemned. We will pass from death to life. There will come a time and in fact even now when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
Think about it, we are all dead in our sins. Death is promised to all of us if we do absolutely nothing it is ours. Only when we accept Christ are we given the chance to live without death's promise hanging over us.
Eph. {2:5} Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
We are brought to life, true life only in Christ through His grace and mercy.
John {5:28} Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, {5:29} And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation
Picture it.
There have been enough zombie movies to picture it with a bit of detail, of course our idea of things isn't God's idea of things. Still we've seen people coming up out of graves. Just imagine this scene- ALL that are in the graves -- ALL will hear the voice of Jesus. When all hear they come forth from those graves. Everyone who has ever lived and everyone who has ever died will come forth from their graves and some of them will come forth to life and others to damnation. Those who have done good to life, those who have done evil to damnation.
We've heard this tale over and over, the good go to heaven the bad suffer. We see try to emulate that in our own lives. We want the bad to be punished and the good to be rewarded. All too often the bad are rewarded while the good suffer and it seems so wrong to us that it should be that way. Our societies are founded with the hope of good prevailing but more often than not those governing our societies turn out to be corrupted. When we are told that those who have done good will live and yet we find ourselves filled with evil ways we despair of ever living eternally, we have to realize that the only good thing we can do is accept Christ and His righteousness.
All that are in the graves will hear and that day is soon arriving.
1 Thess. {4:16} For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: {4:17} Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. {4:18} Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
When Christ Himself comes down from heaven with a shout... the dead in Christ shall rise first.
The day is coming. Not all of us will be dead but when Christ comes our fate will have been decided. Only those IN CHRIST will live. The dead in Christ will live. Those alive in Christ will live. No one who doesn't have Christ in their lives, no one who is not IN Christ will live because it's only in Him we can live. Life is in Christ and only in Christ and while many will tell you differently and try to convince you of many, many things we can't believe them, we can't turn to man for the answers but only Christ. Mankind will fill our heads with all sorts of amazing and believable things to convince us of why we shouldn't live our lives in Christ. When Christ returns and calls His people to Him there will be many who won't be In Him, many who will have chosen to live for themselves and not Christ.
We all have a choice, every single one of us.
John {5:30} I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Jesus of Himself does nothing. His judgment is just. He doesn't seek His ownself. Jesus seeks the will of His Father who sent Him.
If Jesus does nothing of Himself and He is our example, we can do nothing for ourselves, nothing of ourselves all we do is to be one through Him, by Him. Our Heavenly Father we live for Him to do His will. We must give ourselves to Him, now and forever.
By the Grace and Mercy of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.
7/29/10
Jer 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Stand ye in the ways
See and ask for the OLD paths - where is the good way
Walk therein
Find rest for your souls
This is very applicable to us today. We're like a bunch of chickens running around with our heads cut off. We are going in all directions at once. We are trying to find our way in a world piled thick and deep in sin so vile it's been called good and acceptable. We are fighting against raging rapids. We are in the midst of the worst part of a hurricane, caught up in a tornado, drowning in a flood, facing searing flames…we really are and the sad part about it is while we are immersed in these many spiritual tempests we think we are safe and secure and have peace. We've become so conditioned to live in the worst of the worst of sin-filled ways that we think it's normal. We've stopped crying at tragedies. We've laid down in the bed of false solace covering ourselves with a thick, soft down comforter of ignorance, our heads resting on the most relaxing pillow of peace in existence and shut out the horrors of our lives because to dwell on our wretched state only upsets us.
Harsh words.
Harsh reality.
We want soothing words, a gentle reality.
The fact is we are living in a battlefield. When we are living in a battlefield we should be aware of our surroundings. A soldier living in a battlefield who goes about in a daze, in a pretend state of contentment will eventually find himself dead. When we stop crying over the horrors of sin we risk cloaking the truth and that is something that should NEVER be cloaked.
We are to stand in the ways.
We are to see and ASK for the old paths- where is the good way and walk therein if we are to find rest for our souls. If we don't look for God's ways of old, if we don't trust and follow our Lord as He's wanted us to do from the beginning, any supposed rest we have will be a false one. Are we following the Lord as we should be? Are we following the Lord as He commands? Are there things in our lives troubling us terribly that threaten to pull us from the path altogether?
We need rest for our souls but ONLY if we are on the right path, only if we are in the good way. We should never seek rest outside of our Lord and Savior, He is the way even the way of old. Let us cry bitter tears for the state of our world, let us grieve for the world overflowing in sin and degradation, and pray to be shown the right way-- always, daily, hourly, minutely. Let us be shown the right way and by the grace and mercy of our Lord let us live in that way.
'But they say we will not walk therein'. People don't want to walk in the old way, people don't want to walk in God's way. People don't want to see and ask for the old path- people want to walk in their own way- an easier way- down a WIDE path that offers much comfort, much temporary soothing, much… death.
We know this…
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.
That old path is very narrow, but a few WILL find it.
Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Praise God we will be among the few, by His righteousness, through His grace and mercy, all stemming from His LOVE.
Amen.
7/29/11
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Longsuffering.
Do you know what
it means to be longsuffering?
–adjective
1.
enduring
injury, trouble, or provocation long and patiently
Pasted
from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/longsuffering>
To endure - long
and patiently. As children
we believe we are longsuffering when we have to endure the hardship of going to
school. You remember that don't you? The hour after hour of sitting in a
classroom, watching the clock tick down the long hours until that bell of
freedom would ring and we'd be allowed to leave the school and go home. Then of course we had to suffer through
homework and sometimes we'd definitely classify that as being longsuffering. We
suffered long, enduring seemingly unjust punishments for what seemed to us to
be miniscule disobediences on our part.
Remember being grounded? Boy, did we suffer. As we grew up and joined the
work force there came a whole new meaning to longsuffering, yes? Long, hard days
spent toiling away - again spent watching a clock just waiting for the work day
to be over.
Of course we all
know what it's like to suffer to some to degree, right? We also know that
plenty of people suffer a lot more than we do.
Now, do we know
what it's like to be longsuffering towards another person? A lot of us can
relate to this on a family level, right? We endure the nonsense of our family
and never disown them because they are family. Unlike perhaps friendships that we've
let slip away because who needs to suffer long in a bad friendship, right? Of
course some friendships are worth being longsuffering for, but there may come a
time when an abusive friendship just isn't worth the suffering and it's better
to give up on it rather than let it destroy you, yes?
Ultimately most
of us know what it is like to be longsuffering towards others, but can we really
compare any longsuffering we've endured to what God has endured with us?
Some might
believe that because God has the power to destroy us and not put up with us that
He isn't really longsuffering. Some believe that God allowed us to be this way
and shouldn't have, it's all His fault that we are the sinful creatures we are
so He must not be enduring anything long and patiently. There are a lot of
people who don't even care about God suffering- long or otherwise, because He's
God and God doesn't have to suffer. In fact if *they* were God, if they had the
power of God they wouldn't spend that time enduring the nonsense of others for
anyone or anything- they'd just fix things.
We in our finite
thinking cannot truly fathom the depths of God's reasoning. We are the
CREATURES! For creatures to question their Creator, why it's really
unthinkable. We get the idea that because we can reproduce we are sort of
creators. We recreate over and over again, I personally recreated another human
being twice. But I had NO hand in anything other than being a vessel for that
creation inside me. I didn't form the tiny heart, the teeny tiny brain, those
precious little fingers and toes, I had no part in it other than allowing it to
take place inside of my body. I couldn't control one bit how that baby grew
within me. So while we may allow
creation to form within us we did not and do not have any claim whatsoever to
the design of the human being. As
parents however we want what's best for our children. We want our children to
respect us, to be obedient to us. We want our children to be happy, to learn to
become productive adults and start families of their own to carry on this grand
design of human beings. As parents we are allowed to enter into a fraction of
understanding of how God feels towards us, His human creation- truly the One
who brought us into existence. We
have an analogy for this from Jesus--
Mat 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in
heaven give good things to them that ask him?
And this from
Paul--
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our
flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather
be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
We know what it's
like to give good gifts to our children, we want to do this! We want to be able
to give our children good things. If we who are sinfilled want to do this- how
much more GOD wants to do that for us- HIS children. We are His creation, much
more than that though, He has made us His children! The animals are His
creations but He is not their Heavenly Father, the angels are His creations but
they are not His children! We
have such a SPECIAL, such a UNIQUE role as human beings.
That second verse
there- we have had fathers which have corrected us- we have, haven't we? I know
I had a father who corrected me and I learned to respect Him. He was a person
just like me with many faults, a sin-filled human being just like me, and I
still respected Him. How much more, seriously, how much more should we long to
be in subjection to our Heavenly Father! A heavenly Father who abhors sin and a
heavenly Father who loves us so much He made a WAY for us to abhor sin just as
He does and to cling to the Sinless One, obtaining forgiveness through the
Sinless One.
God promised a
way of Salvation and before Christ was born, lived, and died to confirm that
promise, people could live in hope of that Promised One. After Christ was born,
lived, and died people could live in hope of the confirmation of that Promised
One. Before and after we had to
and must live by faith in God and God's promises.
However many- millions and millions since the first man was created-have
chosen to disobey God, to disobey their heavenly Father. If our Heavenly Father,
if our Creator weren't the full embodiment of love itself then we as a human
race would have been wiped out long ago, just as man has time and time again
fought against each other wiping each other out because one man gets it in their
head that they are superior to another. It is only sinfilled man that can begin
to believe they have the right to take another's life.
God wills that ALL would come to repentance. But will all do so? No. Have
all done so? No. Time and again since that first sin man has rebelled against
God, they've rebelled against the only One who truly loves them. Because of that
rebellion many have chosen death over life, many have chosen self over God. And though many have done this- right
up to a very few not doing this, God still did NOT wipe out all of mankind as
being hopeless, unworthy of being saved.
People don't
realize that God suffers when we disobey Him, when we choose not to obey Him,
not to love Him. As I said before,
they don't even believe God can suffer. God is very longsuffering. God endures
long with our disobedience, God endures our provocation.
God keeps enduring because He's not willing that ANY will perish. Those who will be His are those He is
enduring for. There have been and
there still are those who long to be God's children. Though they are few and far
between they exist and NOT one will perish, all who choose to obey their God,
all who choose to accept their Savior will be saved eternally and it is ONLY
for these children of God- of which I pray I'm one- that our God endures the
disobedience of so many.
Read the
following verses-- Our God is very longsuffering.
1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and
to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
2Pe 3:15 And account that the longsuffering of
our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the
wisdom given unto him hath written unto you
Psa 86:15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of
compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Isa 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that
he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have
mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that
wait for him.
1Ti 1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a
pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Luk 18:6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust
judge saith.
Luk 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect,
which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Luk 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them
speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the
earth?
Heb 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that
shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Amazing verses!
Amazing!
This is a
daunting question though- 'Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh shall he find
faith on the earth?'
I pray to God He
does find faith on the earth! By His grace! By His love! By His
righteousness!
All in Him!
Amen.
If we hear Jesus' words and if we believe in God who sent Him, we will have everlasting life. We won't be condemned. We will pass from death to life. There will come a time and in fact even now when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
Think about it, we are all dead in our sins. Death is promised to all of us if we do absolutely nothing it is ours. Only when we accept Christ are we given the chance to live without death's promise hanging over us.
Eph. {2:5} Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
We are brought to life, true life only in Christ through His grace and mercy.
John {5:28} Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, {5:29} And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation
Picture it.
There have been enough zombie movies to picture it with a bit of detail, of course our idea of things isn't God's idea of things. Still we've seen people coming up out of graves. Just imagine this scene- ALL that are in the graves -- ALL will hear the voice of Jesus. When all hear they come forth from those graves. Everyone who has ever lived and everyone who has ever died will come forth from their graves and some of them will come forth to life and others to damnation. Those who have done good to life, those who have done evil to damnation.
We've heard this tale over and over, the good go to heaven the bad suffer. We see try to emulate that in our own lives. We want the bad to be punished and the good to be rewarded. All too often the bad are rewarded while the good suffer and it seems so wrong to us that it should be that way. Our societies are founded with the hope of good prevailing but more often than not those governing our societies turn out to be corrupted. When we are told that those who have done good will live and yet we find ourselves filled with evil ways we despair of ever living eternally, we have to realize that the only good thing we can do is accept Christ and His righteousness.
All that are in the graves will hear and that day is soon arriving.
1 Thess. {4:16} For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: {4:17} Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. {4:18} Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
When Christ Himself comes down from heaven with a shout... the dead in Christ shall rise first.
The day is coming. Not all of us will be dead but when Christ comes our fate will have been decided. Only those IN CHRIST will live. The dead in Christ will live. Those alive in Christ will live. No one who doesn't have Christ in their lives, no one who is not IN Christ will live because it's only in Him we can live. Life is in Christ and only in Christ and while many will tell you differently and try to convince you of many, many things we can't believe them, we can't turn to man for the answers but only Christ. Mankind will fill our heads with all sorts of amazing and believable things to convince us of why we shouldn't live our lives in Christ. When Christ returns and calls His people to Him there will be many who won't be In Him, many who will have chosen to live for themselves and not Christ.
We all have a choice, every single one of us.
John {5:30} I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Jesus of Himself does nothing. His judgment is just. He doesn't seek His ownself. Jesus seeks the will of His Father who sent Him.
If Jesus does nothing of Himself and He is our example, we can do nothing for ourselves, nothing of ourselves all we do is to be one through Him, by Him. Our Heavenly Father we live for Him to do His will. We must give ourselves to Him, now and forever.
By the Grace and Mercy of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.
7/29/10
Jer 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Stand ye in the ways
See and ask for the OLD paths - where is the good way
Walk therein
Find rest for your souls
This is very applicable to us today. We're like a bunch of chickens running around with our heads cut off. We are going in all directions at once. We are trying to find our way in a world piled thick and deep in sin so vile it's been called good and acceptable. We are fighting against raging rapids. We are in the midst of the worst part of a hurricane, caught up in a tornado, drowning in a flood, facing searing flames…we really are and the sad part about it is while we are immersed in these many spiritual tempests we think we are safe and secure and have peace. We've become so conditioned to live in the worst of the worst of sin-filled ways that we think it's normal. We've stopped crying at tragedies. We've laid down in the bed of false solace covering ourselves with a thick, soft down comforter of ignorance, our heads resting on the most relaxing pillow of peace in existence and shut out the horrors of our lives because to dwell on our wretched state only upsets us.
Harsh words.
Harsh reality.
We want soothing words, a gentle reality.
The fact is we are living in a battlefield. When we are living in a battlefield we should be aware of our surroundings. A soldier living in a battlefield who goes about in a daze, in a pretend state of contentment will eventually find himself dead. When we stop crying over the horrors of sin we risk cloaking the truth and that is something that should NEVER be cloaked.
We are to stand in the ways.
We are to see and ASK for the old paths- where is the good way and walk therein if we are to find rest for our souls. If we don't look for God's ways of old, if we don't trust and follow our Lord as He's wanted us to do from the beginning, any supposed rest we have will be a false one. Are we following the Lord as we should be? Are we following the Lord as He commands? Are there things in our lives troubling us terribly that threaten to pull us from the path altogether?
We need rest for our souls but ONLY if we are on the right path, only if we are in the good way. We should never seek rest outside of our Lord and Savior, He is the way even the way of old. Let us cry bitter tears for the state of our world, let us grieve for the world overflowing in sin and degradation, and pray to be shown the right way-- always, daily, hourly, minutely. Let us be shown the right way and by the grace and mercy of our Lord let us live in that way.
'But they say we will not walk therein'. People don't want to walk in the old way, people don't want to walk in God's way. People don't want to see and ask for the old path- people want to walk in their own way- an easier way- down a WIDE path that offers much comfort, much temporary soothing, much… death.
We know this…
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.
That old path is very narrow, but a few WILL find it.
Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Praise God we will be among the few, by His righteousness, through His grace and mercy, all stemming from His LOVE.
Amen.
7/29/11
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Longsuffering.
Do you know what
it means to be longsuffering?
–adjective
1.
enduring
injury, trouble, or provocation long and patiently
Pasted
from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/longsuffering>
To endure - long
and patiently. As children
we believe we are longsuffering when we have to endure the hardship of going to
school. You remember that don't you? The hour after hour of sitting in a
classroom, watching the clock tick down the long hours until that bell of
freedom would ring and we'd be allowed to leave the school and go home. Then of course we had to suffer through
homework and sometimes we'd definitely classify that as being longsuffering. We
suffered long, enduring seemingly unjust punishments for what seemed to us to
be miniscule disobediences on our part.
Remember being grounded? Boy, did we suffer. As we grew up and joined the
work force there came a whole new meaning to longsuffering, yes? Long, hard days
spent toiling away - again spent watching a clock just waiting for the work day
to be over.
Of course we all
know what it's like to suffer to some to degree, right? We also know that
plenty of people suffer a lot more than we do.
Now, do we know
what it's like to be longsuffering towards another person? A lot of us can
relate to this on a family level, right? We endure the nonsense of our family
and never disown them because they are family. Unlike perhaps friendships that we've
let slip away because who needs to suffer long in a bad friendship, right? Of
course some friendships are worth being longsuffering for, but there may come a
time when an abusive friendship just isn't worth the suffering and it's better
to give up on it rather than let it destroy you, yes?
Ultimately most
of us know what it is like to be longsuffering towards others, but can we really
compare any longsuffering we've endured to what God has endured with us?
Some might
believe that because God has the power to destroy us and not put up with us that
He isn't really longsuffering. Some believe that God allowed us to be this way
and shouldn't have, it's all His fault that we are the sinful creatures we are
so He must not be enduring anything long and patiently. There are a lot of
people who don't even care about God suffering- long or otherwise, because He's
God and God doesn't have to suffer. In fact if *they* were God, if they had the
power of God they wouldn't spend that time enduring the nonsense of others for
anyone or anything- they'd just fix things.
We in our finite
thinking cannot truly fathom the depths of God's reasoning. We are the
CREATURES! For creatures to question their Creator, why it's really
unthinkable. We get the idea that because we can reproduce we are sort of
creators. We recreate over and over again, I personally recreated another human
being twice. But I had NO hand in anything other than being a vessel for that
creation inside me. I didn't form the tiny heart, the teeny tiny brain, those
precious little fingers and toes, I had no part in it other than allowing it to
take place inside of my body. I couldn't control one bit how that baby grew
within me. So while we may allow
creation to form within us we did not and do not have any claim whatsoever to
the design of the human being. As
parents however we want what's best for our children. We want our children to
respect us, to be obedient to us. We want our children to be happy, to learn to
become productive adults and start families of their own to carry on this grand
design of human beings. As parents we are allowed to enter into a fraction of
understanding of how God feels towards us, His human creation- truly the One
who brought us into existence. We
have an analogy for this from Jesus--
Mat 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in
heaven give good things to them that ask him?
And this from
Paul--
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our
flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather
be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
We know what it's
like to give good gifts to our children, we want to do this! We want to be able
to give our children good things. If we who are sinfilled want to do this- how
much more GOD wants to do that for us- HIS children. We are His creation, much
more than that though, He has made us His children! The animals are His
creations but He is not their Heavenly Father, the angels are His creations but
they are not His children! We
have such a SPECIAL, such a UNIQUE role as human beings.
That second verse
there- we have had fathers which have corrected us- we have, haven't we? I know
I had a father who corrected me and I learned to respect Him. He was a person
just like me with many faults, a sin-filled human being just like me, and I
still respected Him. How much more, seriously, how much more should we long to
be in subjection to our Heavenly Father! A heavenly Father who abhors sin and a
heavenly Father who loves us so much He made a WAY for us to abhor sin just as
He does and to cling to the Sinless One, obtaining forgiveness through the
Sinless One.
God promised a
way of Salvation and before Christ was born, lived, and died to confirm that
promise, people could live in hope of that Promised One. After Christ was born,
lived, and died people could live in hope of the confirmation of that Promised
One. Before and after we had to
and must live by faith in God and God's promises.
However many- millions and millions since the first man was created-have
chosen to disobey God, to disobey their heavenly Father. If our Heavenly Father,
if our Creator weren't the full embodiment of love itself then we as a human
race would have been wiped out long ago, just as man has time and time again
fought against each other wiping each other out because one man gets it in their
head that they are superior to another. It is only sinfilled man that can begin
to believe they have the right to take another's life.
God wills that ALL would come to repentance. But will all do so? No. Have
all done so? No. Time and again since that first sin man has rebelled against
God, they've rebelled against the only One who truly loves them. Because of that
rebellion many have chosen death over life, many have chosen self over God. And though many have done this- right
up to a very few not doing this, God still did NOT wipe out all of mankind as
being hopeless, unworthy of being saved.
People don't
realize that God suffers when we disobey Him, when we choose not to obey Him,
not to love Him. As I said before,
they don't even believe God can suffer. God is very longsuffering. God endures
long with our disobedience, God endures our provocation.
God keeps enduring because He's not willing that ANY will perish. Those who will be His are those He is
enduring for. There have been and
there still are those who long to be God's children. Though they are few and far
between they exist and NOT one will perish, all who choose to obey their God,
all who choose to accept their Savior will be saved eternally and it is ONLY
for these children of God- of which I pray I'm one- that our God endures the
disobedience of so many.
Read the
following verses-- Our God is very longsuffering.
1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and
to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
2Pe 3:15 And account that the longsuffering of
our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the
wisdom given unto him hath written unto you
Psa 86:15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of
compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Isa 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that
he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have
mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that
wait for him.
1Ti 1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a
pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Luk 18:6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust
judge saith.
Luk 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect,
which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Luk 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them
speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the
earth?
Heb 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that
shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Amazing verses!
Amazing!
This is a
daunting question though- 'Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh shall he find
faith on the earth?'
I pray to God He
does find faith on the earth! By His grace! By His love! By His
righteousness!
All in Him!
Amen.