Showing posts with label Forgiveness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forgiveness. Show all posts

Jesus Drinks the Cup of God's Fury for Us

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Monday, September 29, 2014 11:53 AM

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Here’s what I didn’t get to Sunday. A little background first…
Habakkuk is basically having a very difficult conversation with God. It begins by Habakkuk complaining to God that His people were not doing right and wondering if God was going to do something about it:
“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2)
God informs Habakkuk that indeed Judah will not get a free pass without His disciplining hand coming down on them:
“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.” (Habakkuk 1:6)
Habakkuk’s like, “Say what? Now wait a minute.” This bothers Habakkuk’s sensitivities of justice. Why would God use a more-wicked nation to discipline a less-wicked nation? That just doesn’t make sense. But God’s ways are inscrutable and He plans, knows, sees and understands events from the perspective of eternity, we don’t.
The centerpiece of Habakkuk is the principle of how people live: “the righteous live by his faith” while the wicked live by greed, covetousness, violence, perversion and idolatry. When righteous people go astray God disciplines, but what about the way of the wicked? Those who refuse to live by trusting in God will face God’s wrath:
“The cup in the LORD’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!” (Habakkuk 2:16)
But how and why do the righteous escape the cup of God’s wrath? Think about it, we were greedy and covetous and violent and perverse and idolatrous, we deserve God’s wrath, but through grace and the gospel forgiveness is possible and that changes everything.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
The cup of God’s wrath is a very common image in the Bible. It creates a mental image of God’s condemnation on sin and rebellion against His authority. God’s wrath must be poured out on the judgment and condemnation of sin, and this leaves the world in a particularly bad place. But there is good news – it’s call the gospel…
Jesus drinks the cup of God’s wrath for us. God poured out His wrath of judgment for sin on His own son at the cross (cf. Matthew 20:22; 26:42). Jesus knowingly and willingly drank this cup as our substitute. He stepped in to save the day; He drank it down to the very dregs so we wouldn’t have to even have a taste. That’s simply awesome.
But, for those who refuse Jesus the Bible is very clear:
“…If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angles and in the presence of the Lamb.” (Revelation 14:9-10)
Grace & Peace,
Scott

When God Says, "Your mine!"

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Sunday, January 26, 2014 4:03 PM

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Can you remember a time when you got something and you were finally able to say, “That’s mine”? Maybe it was a car or paying off the mortgage on a house or a new bike. This happens all the time after the Christmas or birthday gifts are opened. You can finally say, “That’s mine.” Hopefully you don’t say that in a selfish way, but I think you know what I mean. You finally have what you’ve long awaited for. The beauty is that nothing changes the fact that the new bike is now yours; nobody can take it back; you get to enjoy it everyday.
I was thinking about this in terms of our relationship with God after salvation. God claims us as His own. This is what the LORD said in Isaiah 43:1,
“But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’”
Once we belong to God nothing changes that fact. Is anybody greater than God? Can anyone take us from God? Does God lose anything that is His? Here are a couple of other verses that come to mind.
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30)
“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:39-40)
Are we secure? Absolutely! Nothing, and nobody, has either the right or the power to take us away from God. So why do we feel so distant from God?
First, we let circumstances dictate security. We let events change the way we feel about how God feels about us. But honestly, has God changed His mind and decided He didn’t want us anymore. You know that’s not going to happen. We just can’t allow bad news to negatively affect how we view our relationship with God.
Second, we let sin disrupt fellowship. Sin devastates us and it throws a money wrench into our relationship with God. It definitely isn’t God’s fault; we have to own our own disobedience. God hasn’t gone anywhere. We are the ones hiding in the jungle trying to cover our own nakedness, and God is the One seeking us wanting to cover it for us (cf. Genesis 3:7-13, 21).
In either case we need to repent, soak our minds and hearts in God’s promises, and soar above and beyond both our sin and circumstances.
Grace & Peace,

Scott

Resolve Conflict Quickly

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Tuesday, August 04, 2009 1:53 PM

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Have you ever lost it with your words? We all have. We’ve all had those moments when we wish we could take back what we said, and it usually happens with the people we love the most. I’m not absolutely sure why this is, but I suspect that it has something to do with the comfort we experience with those closest to us.

Something happened the other day that caused me great anguish and illustrates the point I want to make. We had just returned from a wonderful vacation and it was Friday. Now every Friday I do the yard work, wash a vehicle, and then run. Usually by the time I am finishing up washing the vehicle I am pretty exhausted. I was just about to dry the Expedition when Abby and Barb came out to go to the orthodontist. This is where it gets dicey…Abby was maneuvering her car out of the driveway and I was in the way. After about her 6th attempt to back around me I blew up and finally moved the car I was washing, but I let both my daughter and wife know it was an inconvenience to me because it was an interruption to my work. I was telling myself as they backed out of the driveway: “Hey, it’s my driveway.” “I’ve been out in the hot sun all day working.” “Why couldn’t the appointment been five minutes later?” “I do all this for them.” They could tell I was angry by my words and actions. They left and I fumed. Immediately after they were gone I began to debate with myself. I justified my angry words and actions, but then I felt foolish and embarrassed. At the end of the self-debate I emerged victorious (I always win the debates I have with myself)!

After the cleaning of the vehicle ritual was done I got myself ready to run. As I walked outside Barb and Abby came home. All three of us were making apologies, but I was the one who needed forgiveness. I asked them to forgive me for my anger and selfishness. I was living in the flesh and my selfishness dictated my response to them. I hate to live with unresolved conflict.

This is what Paul was getting at when he wrote that we are to “speak kind words to one another” (Ephesians 4:29, 32). If that fails he said, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger” (Ephesians 4:26). I think Keith got it right when he said that if we don’t take care of the sin by the end of the day then it will be the first thing we think of in the morning. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wake up every morning with anger on my mind. I want to wake up with a fresh view of God’s grace!

Grace & Peace, Scott

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