Worship the Lord for His Justice

Before you continue please stop and read Psalm 96 as that will be the passage for today.

A wonderful reminder to worship God, to celebrate Him with a healthy fear. Not because we are to run away scared, but because we are to be in awe of His greatness. We are to acknowledge His all powerful ability as creator, and also as the judge. As the one who judges, we celebrate because God always judges with full equity and a wisdom that goes beyond our understanding. We worship Him and praise Him because of this justice that He enacts in His judgement.

Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Psalm 96:13 (NIV)

We worship and celebrate because we can trust Him fully in His judgement. He will never condemn the righteous. He is faithful and always judges properly and will not be swayed by the opinions of mankind. The problem is that no one is righteous (read Romans Chapter 3) and so humanity will be receiving condemnation from the righteous judge. We all know that we have sin, we are not perfect, we do things we should not do. Even the smallest point of selfishness and pride is grounds for our condemnation. We are all doomed. We are, as Jonathan Edwards put it, "sinners in that hands of an angry God". This does not sound like a reason to rejoice or worship?

But there is a reason to celebrate and worship. Jesus came, and took on the condemnation pronounced by the judge so that you do not have to. All you have to do is recognize your plight and repent of your sinful, selfish ways. Then you need to make Jesus your Lord, give Him control of your life, He paid the price for you and you owe Him everything. Now we celebrate because we will be judged based on the righteousness of Jesus, and He being God was 100% righteous and without sin. So we can celebrate because of this but also because all of those who refuse Jesus and His work, they will be condemned. Those who choose their own selfishness and sinful ways will be judged accordingly. This may sound horrible but when you really think about it, we should celebrate justice. God's justice is always appropriate and correct. When God acts on His justice, we do not celebrate others "doom" but rather God's continued revealing of His power and majesty. Remember it is not as if there is no opportunity for the people around us to receive Jesus. We are all actively sharing our faith right?

hmmm ... maybe there needs to be some prayer of repentance as well? If we are concerned about people having to receive condemnation from God, then we should be motivated to share with them about Jesus.

So let us share the Gospel, and worship the God of all justice.

Preacherman

Home in Heaven

Let us reflect on the great gift of eternity and the home in heaven. This world, our bodies, all of it is temporary. Our eternal residence is prepared for us and guaranteed in Jesus Christ. Let us take joy in knowing that by the grace of God through faith in Jesus we can repent of our sins and enjoy a reconciled life with our heavenly father.

2 Corinthians, Chapter 5:1-9 (ESV)
1: For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2: For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3: if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
4: For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5: He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6: So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7: for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8: Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9: So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

We may suffer, we may hurt and this body we are stuck in may be dead weight, but we are to set our focus on the heavenly, on the work of Jesus and the instruction He has given us.

Let us rest today recognizing His wonderful work and the eternal home we have to look forward to.

Amen

Preacherman

Contemplate Grace

I was reminded tonight that it is important for us to contemplate grace. The Grace that God has shown to us because of the work of Jesus.  This Grace that for us is a free gift, a pardon for sin and a security of a home in heaven.  Such great blessings for free!  Yet we are to remember the price that was paid for this Grace.  Jesus paid an extremely high price for this grace.

Jesus was in heaven as God with power and authority and yet He lowered himself to take on the form of a human.  Not just any human but a baby, born in a barn to a poor family in difficult circumstances.  He did not seek to achieve great wealth or power while He was on earth.  He lived a perfect life and was persecuted and caused to suffer and die a horrible death on a cross because He wanted to pay the price for our sin.

And Jesus did not do all that just so that you and I can get a "i get to go to heaven" card.  Jesus did that so that we can experience the work of His Grace in our lives by the Holy Spirit.  This Grace was given to transform us.  Transformation into who God has for us to be, not our agenda but His.  It will be uncomfortable at times, maybe even painful and hard a lot of the time.

As a Christian your price is paid, now you are His and His Grace will cause a transformation in you to be obedient to His Word.  Live the surrendered life, submitting daily to Jesus and He will take care of the rest.  Then respond and do what you are supposed to, because your Lord has asked you to.

We owe Him everything and a lot more.

Preacherman