Just thinking...

Ok so I haven't fully thought this out and collected my thoughts or anything so be patient with me!

My family and I are on vacation and this morning we took the kids to see the Under the Sea IMAX movie. They loved it and it was beautiful... amazing beauty in the Great Barrier Reef and the many different species and types of fish that live there and the way that each is somewhat dependent on the other.. all in all it was great (other than 1 reference to global warming and one to evolution... other than those two things though, it was a well put together movie)

Anyway, they were exploring some of the underwater caves and geysers... I sat there watching it and thinking to myself that much of that sea floor that we know today was laid down by rapid volcanic activity that occurred during the Great Flood when God caused the fountains of the deep to burst forth...

And I got to thinking about the flood. That was what? A judgment of God on the sin of mankind.

Yet even in the fact that He MUST punish sin and must be sure that justice is served, we (Christians) find beauty in His judgment. Just look at the ocean's beauty. Though once ravaged by the different things that had to happen during the flood... it is still beautiful... it stuck me as odd that a believer could find beauty from such a judgment as the flood... other than the obvious beauty found on the Ark and in the rainbow...

Then I thought about the cross... God's judgment upon the sin of ALL mankind, delivered onto innocent Jesus Christ (the Ark of Salvation). Such beauty can be found in the cross when we look at the loving attribute of God whose righteous hatred for sin demanded justice yet His love for His creation caused Him to give up Himself, essentially, on the cross.

And in that sacrifice we see what true love really is do we not?

And then as we were just going from place to place today I thought about the return of Jesus Christ. When He comes to judge the world in righteousness...

The Bible says that we will marvel at His coming, those of us who are saved. We will marvel and we will glorify Him. And the beauty in that judgment? The glorification of Jesus Christ by the eternal punishment of those who rejected His offer of Salvation and are being condemned...

Friends, we will all Glorify God one day in one of two ways. Either by shouts of praise as you sing HOLY HOLY HOLY IS THE LORD ALMIGHTY! WORTHY IS THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN!

OR

As the smoke of your torment rises up before Him as a pleasant aroma, His righteous judgment satisfied on you as eternal reality sets in for you...