So North Korea fired on South Korea...
So they found what they believe to be a fragment of bone from Natalie Holloway...
So this whole world is hurting, poor, dying, searching...there are wars and rumors of wars...children are affected and suffering and innocence is destroyed...crimes are escalating and injustice is rampant.
So the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things against the LORD of Hosts....the wicked are prospering and Sovereign God is sitting on His throne laughing at those who raise their fists in His face.
Sin is taking over it seems sometimes. God removes is hand...and the evil and savagery that makes us humans takes over and people like to blame Him for the suffering...the cause and effect of our own sin nature.
This Bible study I am involved in is hitting me close and hitting me hard. I love the book of Isaiah, but I never realized how much was in it that I did not understand. Chapters 13-23 are full of warnings of God's coming Judgment against certain cities and countries - Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Edom, Tyre, and even God's own people, Israel and Judah. Some of the prophecies have taken place already - as many of those cities are gone and forgotten; their might and splendor swept away in the tide of history. But there is a part of Isaiah's prophecies that have not come to pass - Judgement, in that great, and final "day of the Lord."
We don't like that. Christians don't like to talk about God's Judgement - we stop our ears and tell ourselves that God is LOVE, and forget to see things from His perspective. For if God is love, then He must be a Judge. If God is love then He must HATE sin...hate it's cause and effect; hate the suffering and death and destruction it has inflicted on His perfect creation. And He must purge it. So, He sent His Son - His SON - to die in the place of all mankind; to become the ugly, sick, perverted sinners that have walked this earth. And those who refuse to turn to Him - who refuse His salvation and stand in their pride - receive Judgement and a horrible, horrible eternal existence separated from their Maker.
We don't like that part of God's nature. We don't like the fierce and Holy Judge, who demands the same of His children - holiness and a set apart lifestyle from the world. But to understand God - we must understand all of His nature and that is what I am learning.
Because though God laughs, He takes no pleasure in judgement. Because the whole theme of the Bible is God's Love - and that is revealed even in His judgement. His heart for these peoples is revealed in Isaiah - who lifted up his voice and wept for those he was warning. I have wept for sinners...but so easily forget to carry the pity with me in my heart. It is far, far too easy to stand apart, like the Pharisee in the Temple, with judgement in my heart and pray, "Thank you God, that I am not like him or her."
God never asked us to carry a grudge for Him. He does not need our righteous indignation against sinners. He does not need our anger on His behalf, or our suggestions.
We are called to love. LOVE. To speak the truth in Love. To spread the gospel of peace and to not be weary in well-doing. To faint not, but to run with patience. To be troubled, but not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair. To be of good cheer in the face of expected tribulation and persecution, because He has already overcome the world. We are called to go forth weeping and come back rejoicing. To fulfill the greatest commandment - and be the hands and feet of Christ in this sin-sick, sin-weary world.
And to do that requires walking very, very close to His heart. Everyone, saved and un-saved alike, have an inborn sense of justice; of right and wrong.
So it's easy to weep and feel sorry for the poor, sick, starving children...
But what about the child-molester rotting in prison, a captive to his own sick mind. Is our attitude as God's children, "He's not even getting what he deserves!"
"Were not My hands pierced for him as well?"
Well, Lord, I'll love the innocent babies born with HIV, but to love the sick, selfish men and women who propagate such a tragedy with their immorality...
"Wasn't my back torn, lash by lash, for them as well?"
God, it's horrible when people are murdered, and the innocent affected, but to feel pity for the demon-filled man who savagely murders his own wife and children!
"Didn't I walk that dusty road, filled with mocking faces, a cracking whip and a heavy burden - for his sins too?"
Yes, Lord. Teach me THY way.
God was not judging those ancient cities for their specific sins - He was judging them for their PRIDE. For their resistance of Him. He was there, waiting to accept them with open arms, if they would only turn from their filth and see their need. Oh, such tragedy! Does it not break your heart, as it does God's?
On the flip side, we so often forget to love in the little things. It is a painful, embarrassing lesson to be learned over and over again.
"I know you love her God and died for him - but the way she talks annoys me; his attitude is so hard to be around; she is such a know-it-all; he is rude and thoughtless..."
Amy Carmichael is one of my greatest heroes of faith. Her life revolved around the commitment to love, as Christ loves. On her first missionary trip to Japan, she was shocked when a veteran missionary told her, "Of course we missionaries don't get along all the time!"
Her naivete was the greatest wisdom. Aren't we, as God's people, or God's heralds called to walk that highest path. To not let the little things, little frustrations deter us from the call to Love? It was the turning point in her life and ministry and she modeled her life after that lesson.
So in the face of life's daily battles and frustrations, made worse when we see the news of the world and the tribulation, suffering, filth...is the love of Christ ever made null?
No.
We, the saints of God are called to be Love. Love God, Love each other, Love sinners. And know when you fulfill this command, you are loving and serving Christ. In the face of sin and rejection. In the face of misunderstandings and frustrations, even in the house of God. In war and peace, wealth and poverty, good times and bad...
See how our commitment to love Christ sounds like a marriage vow?
"As you have received Christ - so WALK YE IN HIM!"
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