Love-Loosed Wrath

ALL – Psalm 134:1-3
ALL – Proverbs 30:1-4
OT – Micah 1:1-4:13
NT – Revelation 6:1-17

Interesting passage for the day: And when the fourth seal was broken, I heard the fourth Living Being say, “Come!” And now I saw a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death. And there followed after him another horse whose rider’s name was Hell. They were given control of one-fourth of the earth, to kill with war and famine and disease and wild animals. – Revelation 6:7-8, The Living Bible

Thought: I’m sorry, but this is simply not a pretty picture. Who wants to face the horrors that Jesus Christ revealed in this verse? And not just in this verse. All of chapter six is filled with clip after clip of doom.

And you know what’s really ironic? Look back at yesterday’s passage and thoughts. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Yesterday, we saw Jesus Christ, the Lamb who has eclipsed all other beings by dying and shedding His blood as a payment to buy people from around the world for God, and that He was the only one worthy to take and open the scroll in God’s hand. Today we see what it is that only Jesus the spotless Lamb was worthy to open: a scroll of war, anarchy, killing, famine, disease, wild animals, vengeance, natural disaster—a scroll filled with the wrath of God.

Only Jesus is worthy to unleash God’s wrath. And He is worthy precisely because He shed His own blood for us—in other words, Jesus’ infinite love makes Him worthy to unleash overwhelming wrath.

You might think that these two realities wouldn’t meet up in Jesus Christ, but you would be wrong. This is how the perfect God planned the course of creation all along. He knew that His creatures would rebel against Him and deserve to die, but He withheld His wrath. He locked it up in a secure chest that could only be opened with the key of love. Only when so much love had been poured out on mankind that humanity had absolutely no excuse for their rebellion would God’s wrath be unleashed. And no one in all of creation was ever worthy to unlock that chest. Humanity (which really had no excuse already) could still hold up one piece of evidence against God: “You knew how painful life would be and how sin would take us captive, but You did not prevent it and you have not done enough to save us from our sins and their curse! YOU DON’T LOVE US.”

People still charge God with not loving us enough. And I just don’t get it. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” When God sent Jesus to earth that first Christmas, God sent Him to demonstrate the fullest possible extent of love—a love that would nullify every accusation against Him. Jesus’ death on the cross was a shout of divine love, a shout that declared, “I see your slavery to sin. I see your suffering. I see your pain. I see your fears and sorrows. And I will not let them last. They’re done. I’m willing to lay my life on the line for you, to die for you to live.”

And the love expressed through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, finally provided the key to the chest of God’s wrath. No one ever has to experience God’s wrath, because everyone can be saved from it through God’s loving Lamb. God, in His love, chained up His wrath until all could be saved from it through Jesus Christ.

So the worthy and loving Lamb of God unleashed the wrath of God. But He did it only after providing for the safety of all who trust in Him.

Question: Which do you see more clearly, God’s love or God’s wrath? God’s wrath fell on Jesus so that God’s love could fall on you. But rejecting God’s love will still get you God’s wrath. What’s your take on it? Will you receive His love?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Sorrow-Motivated Life

ALL – Psalm 48:1-14
ALL – Proverbs 22:17-19
OT – Ecclesiastes 7:1-9:18
NT – 2 Corinthians 7:8-16

Interesting passage for the day: For God sometimes uses sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek eternal life. We should never regret his sending it. But the sorrow of the man who is not a Christian is not the sorrow of true repentance and does not prevent eternal death. – 2 Corinthians 7:10, The Living Bible

Thought: We just looked at our motivation for doing right, and found that the promises of God give us a desire and a drive to obey Him. But what about our motivation for turning away from what’s wrong? I mean, let’s be honest. Sin is often pleasurable. Temporarily pleasurable, but still. We often have plenty of desire to do what is wrong. Finding the motivation to turn away from it—a motivation above and beyond the bare truth, “I know I shouldn’t be doing this”—can be pretty difficult.

And so we find that while God’s promises are one form of godly motivation, sorrow is another. Yes, that’s right. Sorrow can motivate us to turn away from wrong. Sorrow can motivate repentance. Sorrow sparks in us a deep desire to set things straight, to reconcile broken relationships, to mend what we’ve destroyed. In sorrow we can finally set aside our pride enough to admit what we most hate to admit: “I was wrong.”

When you sin, do you care that you’ve sinned? When you hurt someone, do you squelch that feeling of regret that begins to rise up in your gut? Do you perhaps even add literal insults to injury, talking yourself and everyone else into the twisted belief that your hateful words and behaviors are justified?

May God give us hearts that can still feel deep, genuine, true sorrow. Not the kind of sorrow that people sometimes wallow in—more a mire of despair, really. But the kind of sorrow that motivates us to make a move, to change course, to commit our lives into Jesus Christ’s hands, to seek forgiveness, to deal with our sins. May our sorrows move us to gladly walk by the Spirit, praising God for freeing us from the lives that apart from sorrow we would still live.

Question: Which sins and pains especially lead your heart into change-motivating sorrow? And once you’ve answered that question, consider this one: Which of your own personal sins leads you into repentance-motivating sorrow? Some of us may not sorrow over that kind of sin in our lives as we should. Help us to understand how destructive your particular sin can be. Please. Lead us into godly sorrow.

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Happiness and Sorrow

ALL – Psalm 67:1-7
ALL – Proverbs 11:27
OT – Deuteronomy 2:1-3:29
NT – Luke 6:12-38

What makes you sad? Pain? Being excluded? Insults? Being treated unfairly or unkindly? These wrongs and difficulties are the basis for many of the sad days I’ve experienced.

What makes you happy? Comfort? Wealth? Laughter and jokes? Being included? Receiving praises? Being super-respected? These certainly make me feel good.

At least, they did. But ever since Jesus expressed His perspective on these things, I’ve had to wrestle with my feelings. Apparently I am getting things backwards. I find happiness in the wrong things—in shallow things that won’t last. And I become sad for shallow reasons, too, when deep and wonderful gifts have been given to me and should give me joy!

What happiness it is when others hate you and exclude you and insult you and smear your name because you are mine! When that happens, rejoice! Yes, leap for joy! For you will have a great reward awaiting you in heaven. And you will be in good company—the ancient prophets were treated that way, too! But, oh, the sorrows that await the rich. For they have their only happiness down here. They are fat and prosperous now, but a time of awful hunger is before them. Their careless laughter now means sorrow then. And what sadness is ahead for those praised by the crowds—for false prophets have always been praised. – Luke 6:22-26, The Living Bible

So what should make us happy? Being included with Jesus and His family seems like the right answer. And what should make us sad? Having our best life now without any relationship with Jesus and His family—a tragedy in the making!

Are you happy? Or sad? And why? It’s so easy for our perspectives to get misguided by our feelings. Let’s look to Jesus and learn to let our perspectives shape our feelings, walking by faith and finding His happiness and joy.

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.