Tag Archives: Jesus

August 6 – God’s Anger

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Nahum

Nahum begins his oracle by telling us how jealous, vengeful, and angry God is. Nothing PC about that these days when we’d rather talk about God’s love. Nahum tells us the Lord “will by no means leave the guilty go unpunished.” (1:3)

Some of us, when we hear that think, “Good! ISIS will get what they deserve. Homosexuals, atheists, Michigan fans (ok, it’s a joke. I’m from Ohio and it’s almost football season) will get what’s coming to them. I hope they suffer!”

But God is talking about you, too. He won’t let any of YOUR sins go unpunished, either. But, you say, “I’m not a terrorist, haven’t committed adultery or stolen anything big. I’m a nice guy, a good neighbor, a church goer.” That may be well and good. Except for the fact that the Bible says ALL have sinned, ALL have fallen short of God’s standard of holiness. And, dear one, you are included in ALL.

You have sinned. That makes you guilty. And God has said more than once that He will not let the guilty go unpunished. sin=guilt=punishment.

Period.

Scripture tells us that Jesus felt the extent of God’s wrath, He took on Himself God’s vengeance, and went willingly to the cross to take your punishment because YOU ARE GUILTY. God was angry at YOU for the sins you commit. But He took His anger out on His guiltless Son instead.

Oh, you don’t have to accept His forgiveness. (Not sure why you’d want to face God’s wrath on your own, though) But rest assured that your sins demand God’s wrath. Your sins.

My prayer is that you’ll accept what Jesus did for you when He felt the pain of the Father’s anger toward you. There is no reason why you need to feel that anguish or pay that price when it’s already been done for you. And all you have to do is ask God to forgive you, to repent and let God change you.

He will. And then, instead of His anger, you’ll really understand His love!

August 5 – Repentance

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2 Chronicles 32-33

In church-speak you often hear that we are told to “repent.” But what does that mean, really? Is it an admission of guilt? An apology? A feeling of regret? Those certainly are facets of repentance. True repentance goes further than that, however.

There is a picture of repentance here in 2 Chronicles. Manasseh is a good example of what it means to repent.

He was an evil king, a worshiper of false gods, a king who practiced divination and consulted mediums and spiritists. He even was brazen enough to erect idols right inside the house of God. They don’t come much worse than old Manasseh.

But Manasseh eventually humbled himself “greatly” before God. Manasseh prayed, and God forgave him.

Now here’s where the picture of repentance comes in. Manasseh changed. He removed the foreign gods from the temple, took down the altars he’d built, and set up the altar of the Lord for sacrifices to the only True God. He ordered the people of Judah to serve God, too.

Scripture tells us often to repent. Manasseh’s story demonstrates that no one is too evil for God to forgive if that heart is willing to change. A repentant person doesn’t look the same as he did before, doesn’t go to the same places, laugh at the same dirty jokes, doesn’t disrespect God’s Name, or treat others dishonestly. A repentant heart looks like Jesus.

Two things I take away from Manasseh’s example today: 1. no one is too far gone for God to forgive, and 2. people can change, and do change, when they give their lives to God.

August 3 – The Flip Side

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Isaiah 64-66

The books of prophesy contain so much hope for God’s people. Christian, there is joy ahead. There is peace. Our longings met, and our hunger and thirst satisfied. We won’t be haunted by memories of past mistakes. We’ll enjoy a new heaven and a new earth forever in God’s Presence. The reality is beyond our imagination.

But the flip side of that coin is so much worse than we can imagine. God, through Isaiah, is talking about the redeemed who “will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed Me. For their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrent to all mankind.” (66:24)

That’s hell. A fire of regret and agony caused by memories of missed opportunities. A thirst that can never be satisfied, knowing for eternity that you are the lowest of the low, abhorrent, disgusting, defeated, wrong. And the worst part of that is that you will truly be separated from God with no hope of ever seeing the light again.

Ever.

If you know Jesus as your Savior, rest assured you have a glorious future ahead of you. If you haven’t accepted Jesus, the flip side of that truth should scare you out of your mind.

July 31 – Really Good News

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Isaiah 49-53

How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace, and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (52:7)

So many people want to limit the Good News to peace or happiness. Peace and happiness are certainly contained in the Good News. But the really good Good News is salvation, and the knowledge that Our God Reigns!

I hope you read Isaiah 53 today. It’s an amazing account of what Jesus did while in a human body here on earth. And it was written by Isaiah a long… LONG time before Jesus was born.

Every time I read this chapter I am blown away by it’s accuracy. If you ever had doubt that Jesus is who He said He is, read Isaiah 53 and ask yourself who but God could fulfill every detail.

Thank You God, for telling us in advance what Jesus did. And thank You Jesus, for going to the cross, for being despised and rejected, for being lied about and spit upon, for dying like a common criminal, yet being totally innocent, for pouring Yourself out to death – for me. You bore my sins. You carried my sorrows. And because You did – I live. There can be no doubt. You are God. You are MY God. And my God reigns! That’s really good news!

July 25 – The Plumb Line of Emptiness

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Isaiah 31-34

God, through Isaiah, is describing the devastation the result of His wrath will bring. Mountains drenched with blood, the sky rolled up like a scroll, streams turned to pitch, a fire that can’t be quenched, complete desolation where the land is inhabited only by pelican, hedgehog, owl, and raven.

I picture a ghost town in a B movie western complete with rambling tumble weeds.

Then God says He will “stretch over it the line of desolation and the plumb line of emptiness.” (34:11)

Has that ever described you? Have you ever felt that life has abandoned you, that you have a longing that burns and can’t be quenched, you feel alone, and lost, and empty?

Dear one, that is not where God wants you to live. Jesus died so that, when you repent of your sin, He can fill you to overflowing with Himself! His love. His grace and mercy. His goodness and joy. When you allow God to fill you, you will have hope for the future, and strength for the day.

The plumb line of emptiness, true emptiness, is the life without God. That void in your life was placed there by God to be filled by God alone. Oh, you can try to fill it yourself. Drugs, alcohol, unhealthy relationships, other gods, self, career, family, busy-ness. But all are substitutes for the real thing – the plumb line of fullness which is God Himself.

That is the point from which your life is blessed by God. You don’t have to live in that black and white movie ghost town with rotting floorboards and banging saloon doors, in a place inhabited by rodents and scavengers.

Let God fill your emptiness like only He can. He’ll turn your mourning into joy, and your tears into gladness. He’ll turn your loneliness into fellowship, and your despair into hope.

July 24 – Going My Way?

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Isaiah 28-30

Life is a challenge. It can be confusing and hard. It can be lonely and scary. Sometimes we live on a mountaintop with everything we need. And sometimes we live in a valley, destitute.

Where is God in all of this? Isaiah says in 30:18:

Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you. And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for him.

Did you catch that? God’s longing is to be gracious to you. Full of grace. It is that grace that offers you forgiveness from sin through the blood of Jesus. It’s that grace that firmly plants the Holy Spirit in your heart, that has Jesus walking with you to guide you, that allows God to be your father, wrapping His arms around you.

God wants to rejoice with you on the mountain top, and be your strength in the valley. Isaiah goes on to tell us:

Whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a word behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” (30:21)

Our gracious God wants to lead us, to direct our path, to be a light to our way. If we listen for His voice by reading His Word and praying, we’ll hear Him ask us, “Going my way?”

My answer is yes!

July 13 – Seek God And Live

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Amos 1-5

“For three transgressions…and for four  I will not revoke its punishment.” God spoke these words to Amos eight times, referring to eight groups of people who sinned against God. In chapters 3&4 God declares that all the tribes of Israel are guilty, none worship God as He deserves and demands. And because of it, God is going to punish them.

But in chapter 5 another phrase is repeated several times. “Seek me that you may live.” Seek the Lord, seek good and not evil that you may live.

I believe God would have us apply these same principles to our individual lives. God will not revoke punishment for sin. Period. Not ever. Every sin comes with a death sentence that must be paid. That will be paid. There is no getting around it. Not for the murder of five policemen in Dallas, and not for that snide remark made about a coworker. Not for adultery, or for that little white lie. Every sin will be punished. God will not revoke its punishment.

But God tells us to seek Him – and live. Now that doesn’t mean He overlooks sin in those who seek Him. That means when we seek God, ask for His forgiveness, our sin debt is marked, “Paid In Full.” The thing is, your sin debt (death) is already paid. Jesus died once and for all.

So it’s sad when people continue to try to pay the debt of their sin on their own, refusing what is already theirs. It’s like thinking you can take care of the national debt by giving them the change in your pocket. Are you kidding me?

Someone is going to die for your sins. You can accept the fact that Jesus has been there, done that on your behalf. Or you can face God without His Son and offer Him the change in your pocket. Dear one, your payment won’t come close to covering your debt. You will be handed the death sentence. And God will not revoke that punishment just because you were a nice person.

God is inviting you to get to know Him. Read His Word. Pray. Accept Jesus as your Savior, your only hope of life. Recognize the many ways in which God is trying to get your attention. Consider His creation and bow before a Holy God who loves you, who gave Himself for you, who died so you wouldn’t have to.

I mean, He’s already paid the bill. Just accept it.

 

July 11 – Many Problems. One Answer.

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Isaiah 1-4

As I read these chapters in Isaiah my thoughts naturally went to the state of the world in 2016. What is the answer for the corruption, the hate, the unrest? Is it in President Trump or Clinton? Is it in Wall Street or the Pentagon?

Isaiah, when speaking about a day of reckoning, reminds me to “Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed.” (2:22)

Our hope is not in anyone sporting a body of flesh and bones. Oh, God will use people to refine His children, and reveal Himself to the world. But it’s not people who are in charge of this world.

I don’t want to get so caught up in world news that I neglect to examine my heart’s condition before God, or before I listen to and obey His voice. I want the focus of my life to be on Jesus, not on anyone or anything else.

When I read Isaiah I see that the world is lost without God. Then I have to ask, what am I doing about that?

July 7 – Commitment Is Personal

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2 Kings 12-13, 2 Chronicles 24

Joash’s story always makes me sad. As long as the priest Jehoiada was there, the young king honored God and encouraged the Jews to obey Him. “Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.” (2 Chronicles 24:2)

The sad part begins when the priest dies and Joash is left on his own. For the first time in his life he didn’t have that old man looking over his shoulders. Joash didn’t choose well. Read it for yourself in today’s chapters.

I am reminded that faith in God is personal. I am not a Christian because my parents were. I can’t assume my children will follow the Lord just because I am devoted to God.  It’s a decision everyone must make for themselves.

Have you chosen to follow God because you realize YOU are a sinner before a Holy God? Have you repented of your own sin, and accepted Jesus death on the cross as something He did for YOU?

No one can decide that for you but you.

 

July 2 – The Battle Is The Lord’s

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2 Chronicles 19-23

When Jehoshaphat heard there was a great multitude headed their way, and ready for battle, he was afraid. But Jehoshaphat didn’t run. 20:3 says he turned his attention to the Lord. He asked his fellow Jews to fast and pray with him.

Then the king prayed, “God, we’re in trouble. We don’t know what to do – but our eyes are on You.” (from 20:13)

I love God’s answer to that prayer. “Do not fear. The battle is the Lord’s. Stand and see the salvation of the Lord.”

So on the day of battle, Jehoshaphat told the people to trust God. He put the choir in front of the army, and instructed them to sing praises to God. I’m sure the enemy hadn’t expected that. They had swords drawn to fight Judah’s soldiers. What were they supposed to do with the praise team?

The enemy armies, stunned and confused, began fighting each other. It was a pretty incredible victory for the Jews.

I don’t know what battle you are facing in your personal life. I do know the battle before us as a nation. Let’s learn from Jehoshaphat’s example. Instead of focusing on the problem, let’s turn our attention to the Lord. Let’s fast and pray and seek Him only.

Then, instead of complaining, or worrying, or striking out, let’s praise Him. Let’s us Christians be the examples of trust in God, confidence in His ability, the willingness to obey only Him, and the joy that is ours in our redemption through Jesus’ blood.

Oh, let’s be ready for battle. But never forget that when our focus is Him, the battle is the Lord’s!