I am so amazed at how, in nearly EVERY realm of life, people mistake mercy and justice. Justice is what is deserved for a particular act. That can be positive and negative obviously... Mercy is what is not required to be shown in any given situation. God is required to show justice. His own inherent Holiness requires it. He is never ever obligated to show mercy. Even in our own human legal system. We demand that courts bring justice, and we know that they are not obligated to show mercy. Yet when it is on us that justice is being served, we cry out "That's not fair!" and demand mercy. But mercy is never ours to demand in any situation. Justice is what is due for a particular act.
I am thankful that God showed me mercy for my infinite transgressions against Him, rather than showing me the justice that I so rightly deserved.
Showing posts with label God's mercy and love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's mercy and love. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Friday, July 30, 2010
A Biblical Understanding of Suffering - Part 3 of 5
Recapping, Part one is Constructive Suffering, Part two is Corrective Suffering... Part three then would be Suffering as a part of heavenly warfare. Perhaps Heavenly warfare is not the best way to describe it. Rather it is suffering that comes in a similar fashion to Job.
For an example of this we have to look to Job. As the story opens, we see Job is happy and healthy. He’s a favored man with many possessions.
Job 1:1-3 - There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. 2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Enter into the scene… Satan. Job 1:6-8 - Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” 8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Did you catch that? Did you see that? Satan appears before God. The picture we get is that the presence of God is with Job’s family. God has approved of the worship Job’s family is engaged in and He has accepted Job’s burnt offerings. And Satan came and appeared before the Lord. It doesn’t say why he came, although we can assume it was to accuse Job’s family before God just like he is the accuser of us all, all the time. And God initiates a conversation with Satan. “Have you considered my servant Job.”
Job 1:9-11 - Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 “But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”
Satan says, you can’t use Job as an example of a person who hopes in You God because You protect Job and his family and bless him with gifts and possessions. Satan is saying that true believers are only faithful while life is good and when good times go… so does their faith.
Job 1:12 - Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. From this point in verse 12 and all the way through Job 2:8, God allows Satan to take away Job’s servants, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his camels, his sons and his daughters, and finally culminating in the striking of Job’s health.
How did Satan do it? With the permission of god. God has Satan on a leash essentially and God allowed Satan enough leash to do what was needed to prove to Satan that the faith of true believers is not in the good only that God gives, rather our hope is just in God. Period.
How does God use Job to prove it? Job 1:20-22 - Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.
Job 2:3 - The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”
Job 2:9-10 - Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Shall we accept good from God and not adversity? That sounds crazy! Job is not cold hearted, he’s clearly mourning his losses, but he stands up through it because of his hope in God. Listen, someone who is not a Christian… what hope for anything do they have to hold on to? Nothing but this world which is perishing day by day.
For an example of this we have to look to Job. As the story opens, we see Job is happy and healthy. He’s a favored man with many possessions.
Job 1:1-3 - There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. 2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Job 1:9-11 - Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 “But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”
Satan says, you can’t use Job as an example of a person who hopes in You God because You protect Job and his family and bless him with gifts and possessions. Satan is saying that true believers are only faithful while life is good and when good times go… so does their faith.
Job 1:12 - Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. From this point in verse 12 and all the way through Job 2:8, God allows Satan to take away Job’s servants, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his camels, his sons and his daughters, and finally culminating in the striking of Job’s health.
How did Satan do it? With the permission of god. God has Satan on a leash essentially and God allowed Satan enough leash to do what was needed to prove to Satan that the faith of true believers is not in the good only that God gives, rather our hope is just in God. Period.
How does God use Job to prove it? Job 1:20-22 - Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.
Job 2:3 - The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”
Job 2:9-10 - Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Shall we accept good from God and not adversity? That sounds crazy! Job is not cold hearted, he’s clearly mourning his losses, but he stands up through it because of his hope in God. Listen, someone who is not a Christian… what hope for anything do they have to hold on to? Nothing but this world which is perishing day by day.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The Kindness of God
You need to understand from the start that it is because of God’s relationship to the Christian through the atoning work of Jesus Christ that you are even able to obey God or express any type of love and worship to Him.
God is not an impersonal being that is incapable of entering into a relationship with others. God created man so that He might know him and be a recipient of the riches of His goodness.
When man’s relationship with God was broken through sin God sent His own Son in order that the relationship might be restored.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible portrays God as the One who desires a relationship with man. He does not need this relationship to sustain Him in anyway, but He wants it so that He might show His love to us and demonstrate His kindness and goodness for His Glory.
Sin affected Adam’s attitude toward God.
Genesis 3:8-10 (NASB) - They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Once he had been excited for God to come and walk in fellowship with Him in the cool of the day. But now He hides himself and tries to cover his sin and shame with leaves. But not even his covering gave him boldness to stand before the Lord.
It was the approach of the Just Judge and it put them into a fearful mode. But notice how God was coming to them. He came, just walking. Not bearing down on them with anger or military might. He’s walking to them. It let’s us know something about God’s patience and kindness towards man. He was already fully aware of what they had done. He knew they would do it before they did it… before He even created them….
Even though he would have been completely justified in coming with wrath, He didn’t. He came to them in fellowship to humble and restore them. Demonstrating that He is slow to anger.
What had been an intimate relationship though is now a fear-filled one. Not a true Holy fear like Abraham possessed, but a literal terrified fear.
But because God desires a relationship He does not destroy them. We need to be more mindful of His mercy daily because it clearly reaches far beyond what we can possibly imagine. How did this terror of God affect their relationship from that point forward?
Genesis 3:23-24 (NASB) - therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
The communication of God’s upholding Grace and His sustaining Grace has now been removed and Adam became weak. His relationship with God was lost in closeness and Adam would one day die.
Isaiah 59:1-2 – explains the change in God’s relationship with Adam, from that we can see how that affects and teaches us about our own sin. - Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
According to Genesis 3:8-9, who sought restoration of this broken relationship after the fall? It was God. That speaks volumes about His character and Sovereignty. We don’t even seek out God in our unregenerate, unsaved state, He seeks us…
Romans 3:10-18 (NASB) - as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16 Destruction and misery are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
No one does any good at all! And yet God seeks to redeem us! He initiates every part of it and He has been doing that ever since the Garden of Eden.
Acts 17:26-27 (NASB) - and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Why does God sovereignly determine the times and places in which all men are born and live? [So] that they would seek God. He initiates it, salvation, and we respond because His grace is irresistible.
He requests the relationship and no one that He calls, who responds, will be turned away. I would just leave you with this thought. Please consider yourself in light of God’s Law (see Exodus 20). Consider that you have broken His Law, God must punish all Law breakers. Yet in His abounding love God has sent Jesus to die on the cross, paying once for all the price for sin so that you can be forgiven.
If you find yourself wondering how you can be saved, Mark 1:15 Jesus says, the time has come… REPENT (Turn from your sin) and BELIEVE the Gospel. Trust in Christ today and be saved!
God is not an impersonal being that is incapable of entering into a relationship with others. God created man so that He might know him and be a recipient of the riches of His goodness.
When man’s relationship with God was broken through sin God sent His own Son in order that the relationship might be restored.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible portrays God as the One who desires a relationship with man. He does not need this relationship to sustain Him in anyway, but He wants it so that He might show His love to us and demonstrate His kindness and goodness for His Glory.
Sin affected Adam’s attitude toward God.
Genesis 3:8-10 (NASB) - They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Once he had been excited for God to come and walk in fellowship with Him in the cool of the day. But now He hides himself and tries to cover his sin and shame with leaves. But not even his covering gave him boldness to stand before the Lord.
It was the approach of the Just Judge and it put them into a fearful mode. But notice how God was coming to them. He came, just walking. Not bearing down on them with anger or military might. He’s walking to them. It let’s us know something about God’s patience and kindness towards man. He was already fully aware of what they had done. He knew they would do it before they did it… before He even created them….
Even though he would have been completely justified in coming with wrath, He didn’t. He came to them in fellowship to humble and restore them. Demonstrating that He is slow to anger.
What had been an intimate relationship though is now a fear-filled one. Not a true Holy fear like Abraham possessed, but a literal terrified fear.
But because God desires a relationship He does not destroy them. We need to be more mindful of His mercy daily because it clearly reaches far beyond what we can possibly imagine. How did this terror of God affect their relationship from that point forward?
Genesis 3:23-24 (NASB) - therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
The communication of God’s upholding Grace and His sustaining Grace has now been removed and Adam became weak. His relationship with God was lost in closeness and Adam would one day die.
Isaiah 59:1-2 – explains the change in God’s relationship with Adam, from that we can see how that affects and teaches us about our own sin. - Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
According to Genesis 3:8-9, who sought restoration of this broken relationship after the fall? It was God. That speaks volumes about His character and Sovereignty. We don’t even seek out God in our unregenerate, unsaved state, He seeks us…
Romans 3:10-18 (NASB) - as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood, 16 Destruction and misery are in their paths, 17 And the path of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
No one does any good at all! And yet God seeks to redeem us! He initiates every part of it and He has been doing that ever since the Garden of Eden.
Acts 17:26-27 (NASB) - and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Why does God sovereignly determine the times and places in which all men are born and live? [So] that they would seek God. He initiates it, salvation, and we respond because His grace is irresistible.
He requests the relationship and no one that He calls, who responds, will be turned away. I would just leave you with this thought. Please consider yourself in light of God’s Law (see Exodus 20). Consider that you have broken His Law, God must punish all Law breakers. Yet in His abounding love God has sent Jesus to die on the cross, paying once for all the price for sin so that you can be forgiven.
If you find yourself wondering how you can be saved, Mark 1:15 Jesus says, the time has come… REPENT (Turn from your sin) and BELIEVE the Gospel. Trust in Christ today and be saved!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
In anyone strays...thoughts on James 5:19-20
James 5:19 - My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back,
If someone strays from the truth. Either from Christ, who is the Truth, by deserting Him, forsaking His ways, or embracing things that contradict God’s Word and clear Biblical teaching.
He opens is by presenting a scenario. If anyone strays… So, if this happens… and then he says and one turns him back. There are implications between those two phrases. Let me give you an illustration to try and get your on the same page with me here if you already aren’t. If you are in a busy hectic place…shopping, six flags, sea world… something like that. If you are in one of those places with small children you keep up with them do you not? You watch them intently. And if you look up and one of them has wandered off. They’ve gotten out of your sight or they haven’t come back from where you sent them and something happens to get you worried about them. Do you sit calmly and wait for them to find their way back to you?
No, that would be absolutely ridiculous. You go search for that child. You are concerned for their well-being. You don’t want them to get injured or abducted or assaulted. You search for them and if you’ve been in that situation where you don’t know, if even for a split second, where your child is you don’t just wander around looking for them. You scream and run and search and do everything you have to do to get that child back to you. True?
‘If anyone among you strays’ and he has in mind here a straying or wandering away from a very specific thing. That being… ‘the truth’. If anyone strays from the truth, ‘and one turns him back’. The implication is that there is a call to action. To turn one back we have to pursue them. He doesn’t make a case for waiting for them to wander back or hoping they do or anything else. For us to turn them back means we go get them.
This is a call for Christians to pursue those who are straying right now. We know who they are, each of us has folks in mind I’m sure. We can think back to over the years and come up with folks who may fall into this category. We are to go get those straying and not just invite them in and wait. We don’t only invite them and wait. We go to them with the message of the Gospel and reason with them to be reconciled to the God who gave them life. And if they don’t come then we continue to pray and plead with God to break their sin-hardened hearts.
We labor towards bringing them back. This is very evangelistic in nature. Going after the ones who are professors of the faith but are giving less and less evidence of bring possessors of the faith. Saving faith, that only comes from Jesus Christ, produces fruits.
Do you know those people? I want you to be mentally making a list of those folks now and keep them on your heart for a minute here. Do you know folks like that? They used to talk about Honoring Christ but now they live in an overt sin giving little to no thought to God? Those who, from all outward indications, have failed the test of whether they are in the faith? I say outward signs because ultimately we can’t judge their heart.
We need to be concerned for those folks… why? Above the fact that we are commanded to do it, we do it because it is the loving and merciful thing to do.
2 Peter 2:20 - For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
For those who know the truth and reject it, their judgment will be more harsh because they didn’t just die dead in their sins, they died having heard of the Redeemer who could spare them and they spit on Him rather than embracing Him as Lord.
You need to have compassion for the lost and straying. If you don’t, then my friend you have never taken a long enough look at the cross of Christ. You’ve never considered the depth of the interceding work done on your behalf by the Holy Spirit DAILY.
Have you not given thought to the mercy shown to you? Don’t you desperately desire to see God pour out that same mercy on others around you?
There is an urgency folks. An urgency to evangelize the lost and dying world. We must! How cold must a heart have grown to not care!?! How ashamed of Christ must you be to not speak of Him? It is the ultimate purpose of God! To save souls and in doing so Glorify Himself! Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.
I want to ask you, have you ever marveled at your salvation? Looked at sin and seen it for what it is. Seen it as the creature, us, rebelling against the Creator God! Coming from our desire to be independent of God and become like God. Coming from our desire to steal the glory from the only One to whom it is due.
Have you marveled at His amazing Mercy and Grace? Nothing can compare to His mercy. Nothing can compare to His Grace, Nothing can compare to His Love! Have you thought on those things?
James 5:20 - let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
If someone strays from the truth. Either from Christ, who is the Truth, by deserting Him, forsaking His ways, or embracing things that contradict God’s Word and clear Biblical teaching.
He opens is by presenting a scenario. If anyone strays… So, if this happens… and then he says and one turns him back. There are implications between those two phrases. Let me give you an illustration to try and get your on the same page with me here if you already aren’t. If you are in a busy hectic place…shopping, six flags, sea world… something like that. If you are in one of those places with small children you keep up with them do you not? You watch them intently. And if you look up and one of them has wandered off. They’ve gotten out of your sight or they haven’t come back from where you sent them and something happens to get you worried about them. Do you sit calmly and wait for them to find their way back to you?
No, that would be absolutely ridiculous. You go search for that child. You are concerned for their well-being. You don’t want them to get injured or abducted or assaulted. You search for them and if you’ve been in that situation where you don’t know, if even for a split second, where your child is you don’t just wander around looking for them. You scream and run and search and do everything you have to do to get that child back to you. True?
‘If anyone among you strays’ and he has in mind here a straying or wandering away from a very specific thing. That being… ‘the truth’. If anyone strays from the truth, ‘and one turns him back’. The implication is that there is a call to action. To turn one back we have to pursue them. He doesn’t make a case for waiting for them to wander back or hoping they do or anything else. For us to turn them back means we go get them.
This is a call for Christians to pursue those who are straying right now. We know who they are, each of us has folks in mind I’m sure. We can think back to over the years and come up with folks who may fall into this category. We are to go get those straying and not just invite them in and wait. We don’t only invite them and wait. We go to them with the message of the Gospel and reason with them to be reconciled to the God who gave them life. And if they don’t come then we continue to pray and plead with God to break their sin-hardened hearts.
We labor towards bringing them back. This is very evangelistic in nature. Going after the ones who are professors of the faith but are giving less and less evidence of bring possessors of the faith. Saving faith, that only comes from Jesus Christ, produces fruits.
Do you know those people? I want you to be mentally making a list of those folks now and keep them on your heart for a minute here. Do you know folks like that? They used to talk about Honoring Christ but now they live in an overt sin giving little to no thought to God? Those who, from all outward indications, have failed the test of whether they are in the faith? I say outward signs because ultimately we can’t judge their heart.
We need to be concerned for those folks… why? Above the fact that we are commanded to do it, we do it because it is the loving and merciful thing to do.
2 Peter 2:20 - For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.
For those who know the truth and reject it, their judgment will be more harsh because they didn’t just die dead in their sins, they died having heard of the Redeemer who could spare them and they spit on Him rather than embracing Him as Lord.
You need to have compassion for the lost and straying. If you don’t, then my friend you have never taken a long enough look at the cross of Christ. You’ve never considered the depth of the interceding work done on your behalf by the Holy Spirit DAILY.
Have you not given thought to the mercy shown to you? Don’t you desperately desire to see God pour out that same mercy on others around you?
There is an urgency folks. An urgency to evangelize the lost and dying world. We must! How cold must a heart have grown to not care!?! How ashamed of Christ must you be to not speak of Him? It is the ultimate purpose of God! To save souls and in doing so Glorify Himself! Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.
I want to ask you, have you ever marveled at your salvation? Looked at sin and seen it for what it is. Seen it as the creature, us, rebelling against the Creator God! Coming from our desire to be independent of God and become like God. Coming from our desire to steal the glory from the only One to whom it is due.
Have you marveled at His amazing Mercy and Grace? Nothing can compare to His mercy. Nothing can compare to His Grace, Nothing can compare to His Love! Have you thought on those things?
James 5:20 - let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
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