If you had to think about life in
general, how would you sum it up? Would you choose an adjective like: ‘marvellous’,
or would it be ‘exhausting’? One thing is obvious when we isolate all the
“periphery noise”, we are self-seekers and it’s all about us. In fact we take
it so far that many believe God is obliged to save us on our own merits. Life
in general rewards the hard worker and we believe that if we just do enough we
will make it into heaven, which is no more than a deception from the one who
has blinded the world, the devil, which after salvation we understand that in
fact the opposite is true. Grace is unmerited favour; it couldn’t be
plainer to understand than that! However many still wrestle with the idea that
they had something to do with their conversion, really?! One thing I have
understood about myself is that there is no good thing in me, no matter how
scrupulous I search for some hidden treasure that could ever warrant finding
favour from God. I am rotten to the core and it’s as simple as that! BUT GOD
who is gracious has extended to me a lifeline in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ my beloved Saviour. God became a man and took my punishment by
overcoming sin (all the times I was unable to act righteously) in His own body,
and yet He became sin to set me free, if that isn’t unmerited favour
personified then I rest my case. Individuals claiming to be “good” prove only
one thing, that they do not understand their predicament.
But if I strip this thought down even
a little deeper I realise that it is so deep rooted that even when realised, it
still lives on. It is like a cancer, even after chemotherapy when the disease
has been obliterated it somehow still managers to thrive. Self-worth is a virus
so full of ego that a miracle is needed to purge it and that is why salvation
can have nothing to do with us. It’s all of God! “It’s the goodness of God that
leads a man to repentance”, His goodness and not ours.
The prophet Isaiah had this to say; “"I, I am he who blots
out your transgressions for
my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25) – pay careful attention to
this one fact; He did it for His own sake and not because of who we are but
because of who He is. When this penny drops into place we will then be able to
truly understand our state before God and even after our rehabilitation we must
hang onto this truth as our lives do depend upon it.
When
Moses was on the mountain top with God and the children of Israel lost their
way and began to go back to a life of debauchery filled with idolatry, God
considered blotting them out and starting again. Amazingly it was Moses who
reminded him of this one fact that if He killed all the people that He had
saved from slavery that God’s enemies would mock His rescue; “And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen
this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me
alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order
that I may make a great nation of you." But Moses implored the LORD his
God and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people,
whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a
mighty hand? Why should the
Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the
mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your burning anger and
relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to
them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land
that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’“
And the LORD relented from
the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
” (Exodus 32:9-14)
Amazingly God is not enslaved to any laws of
nature, He is the creator of all things and therefore nature is subjugated to
Him. Time dominates our lives because our human bodies have a beginning and an
end, but God had no beginning nor will He ever end; a mind blowing thought! I
believe this is one of the points the Apostle Peter drives home when he makes
this statement; “But do not overlook this
one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day.” (2Peter 3:8) – It proves that He is not governed by time
and that He is an eternal body. And yet although He knows the beginning from
the end, we see that in His conversation with Moses He feels the moment almost
to the exclusion of His overarching plan. I will tread carefully, like I said, “almost”.
God never makes mistakes, He is perfect! What can we learn from this encounter?
If God is Sovereign, which He is and nothing comes into fruition without His
permission, which it true! Why would such a seemingly brash consideration enter
His mind with His anger giving thought to obliterating the children of Israel
because of their disobedience and starting over again with Moses? It is in the
text, read it.
What I learn from this
is that God has a character full of varying facets, for which I am truly thankful,
He is God and as Sovereign ruler of the universe, He answers to no one. However
I learn that He has a heart so big that it has melted my heart, bless the name
of Jesus. I love Him because He first loved me. Have you been arrested by the
love of God? God continually showing compassion to mankind when they didn’t deserve
it, Wow! But like all things under the rule of time which will ultimately run
their course. A child is born and then that person eventually dies with
judgement looming and it will arrive for all! These are the facts according to scripture;
the period of God’s grace would have run its course, and for the unbeliever the
unbearable consequence of Hell looming as their final destination for all
eternity. This is not a fairly tale friends, reject Christ and suffer the consequences.
But for the faithful believer a time of rest and a co-existence with the only
true and living God! How I long for that day to arrive!
Today is a world wide
celebration, Christmas is a day celebrated across the globe and although
historically it is a day that has been high jacked by Satan with all the frills
thrown into it, father Christmas and the like, I would remind you that if you
chose to celebrate today as the birth of Christ and as a Christian please
remember to share Christ’s birthday celebration with no other idols, for God is
a Jealous God. And He will not share His glory with another, make a stand for
Him and who knows it may just play its part in a person’s conversion.
I will leave you with this thought; “for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD,
whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of
the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and
you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice…” (Exodus 34:14-15)
Signing
off
Tyrone
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