Isaiah sees a time of gloom, darkness, famine and devastation
and yet those who live in this time will blame the Lord for the problems they
face. Sound familiar? We live in a day when God is continually put
in the dock and asked, "How can a good God allow such things?" How is it that we don't look to our own
sinfulness and see that the problems on the earth relate to our own sin, not
some defect in God. If we loved our
neighbors, whether they be next door to us or in some far-flung country in
Africa, we would sacrifice on their behalf, do more than pray for them. It seems ludicrous to miss that God's
judgment is on the land but that is exactly what Isaiah says will happen. Judgment is not the reason we suffer but it
is real and it is just. In the book of
the Revelation we see God's judgments being poured out and all are accompanied
by praise and worship from the angelic host, and the praise is that these
things are just. It is a hard concept
but we have made sin too small to understand such truths.
We are about to witness the most unjust thing that ever
happened in the universe. It is far
worse than Job's story. A truly innocent
man, who never got angry at God the Father, never shook His fist at the heavens
and demanded an explanation and fairness, who never sinned, is arrested, tried
and found guilty, beaten and finally crucified.
Jesus is still being rejected today, accepted as a teacher but rejected
in essence, the essence being that He is truly God, sent to do exactly this in
order that justice might be triumphed by mercy and love. Does the sacrifice of His rights and His
willingness to cooperate with the divine will, no matter what the cost, define
your relationship with the Father? Do you
trust Him at the same level? We are to
be representatives, ambassadors, of the Father.
Are we attached to justice or to mercy and love.
Peter writes to encourage the people, and us, to transformation
by the power of the Holy Spirit, the partaking of the divine nature. He sees a progressive transformation that
looks like, It is a move from faith, the beginning point of our walk with
Christ to virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly
affection and finally, love. Changed lives,
changed desires, changed priorities are to be the result of having changed
destinies in faith. Faith is only the
start, and along the way, faith grows to the point where we come to a desire
only to see His kingdom come and His will be done, beginning in our own
lives. We come to the place where we
hate sin and seek only to have communion, perfect and eternal communion with
HIM and then our life no longer matters to us.
I have a long way to go. Thank
God I have a savior, a redeemer.
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