God's Awesome Mercy

Romans 5:6-8

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It occurred to me once again just how much God has done for us and just how much we don't deserve it. I know these things in my head, but they often don't reach my heart as easily, and the depths of them are easily forgotten. But God just reminded me of how much he has done for me and how little I deserve it - so I thought I'd explore that a bit.

Romans 3:23 tells us that we are all sinners. Romans 5 says we are powerless and ungodly. We disobey God's law - which is the reflection of his character. God is good and holy and perfect, thus he demands us to be perfect. He is good, sin is evil - rebellion to his good standard. He is love, sin is about hate. He is just, sin is corrupt. Sin is a personal rejection of God and attack on his character.

But we can't hurt God. Our rejection of him doesn't hurt him. It doesn't make him depressed. No, God reigns over the universe. Our personal rebellion against him cannot hurt him and cannot undo his plan. He laughs at our puny attempts to defy him and he still works everything for his glory (Psalm 2). Because of our sin we deserve God's wrath. We have rejected our creator, the one who has blessed us with countless gifts: with life and everything good we have. Yet we rebel against him and try to live our own way.

Therefore God would be entirely just and right to send us all to hell. It would be good for him to do that - God isn't the bad guy. We're the bad guys, and we deserve the punishment.

Yet instead of just destroying us he decided to give us a second chance. He sent Jesus, his son, into the world. Jesus lived among us and did not sin even though he was surrounded by sin. He gave up the eternal glory that he had as part of the trinity from before time began so that he could become a man and save us. He gave up that glory and was willing even to die in our place: on the cross Jesus took God's wrath - the wrath we deserved for our sin. He was betrayed, forsaken and murdered so that he could save us. Jesus took the wrath that we would all personally suffer eternity in hell for. That was the plan from Genesis, and Jesus is the fulfilment of all those prophecies.

But that's not the end of the story. Jesus rose again. The wages of sin is death - death entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned the first time. Jesus took the punishment for sin in full, and as a result death could not hold him. He rose again, proving that he truly is God, proving that he really did and can save us, and calling us to put our faith in him. Jesus takes our sin when we repent of them and put our faith in him.

God/Jesus could have rightly just condemned us to hell. Instead the God of the universe, the one who directs everything that happens, the creator and sustainer of all life, gave up his life for us. It cost God a lot to save us.

So why did he do it?

There are two reasons intertwined:

• The one we first think of is love. God loved us, and as a result he died for us.
• The second seems more selfish, but isn't: to glorify himself.

God is glorified by loving us. God is glorified by showing us his mercy and grace (and he is glorified in justly judging all those who continue to reject him). God created the universe for his glory. Everything is about God - it's not about us, it's not about how good we are. It is all about him. It's about how awesome he is. He doesn't choose to save us because we are worth saving. We aren't worth saving. We aren't worth loving - we reject him daily, we sin and rebel against him, we are powerless. Yet he chose to save us and love us to show the depths of his grace and mercy which we did not deserve to see.

God truly is awesome, and he has done awesome things for us.

Have you given your life to him?

Soli Deo Gloria!

Nat.

What an Awesome God.

God, who is 'known by his justice' (Psalm 9:16a) allowed himself/his son to be treated unjustly so that he could forgive the sins of all who put their faith in him.

Wow.

Our Glorious, Awesome God.

Romans 11:33

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!

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Oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How wonderful He is! How unfathomable, how awesome, how powerful! How perfect and holy!

We should be thrilled at who God is. We should be entirely overawed. His wisdom, His plans and ideas, His works are deeper and richer then we could ever fathom. They bring glory to Him and they work for the good, of all those who love Him - revealing His mercy, grace, love, patience, kindness, justice, holiness, perfection and peace to us. God has done more then we could even imagine or measure!

We should simply be over-awed at who God is. We should just stand and appreciate His work, His character, His love. We should just stop and enjoy it, glorying in it and glorifying him for it.

Yet so often we are disinterested. We shrug our shoulders and go back to work or to study or to our meaningless wealth or to our friendships. I do that constantly, in fact it is the rare occasion that I just bask in God's glory - it is very rare. But it is so precious.

The wisdom of God. God's wisdom is wiser then anything we can imagine, "the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." (1 Corinthians 1:25). What did He decide to do? He sent Jesus, who was and is eternally God as a man, to suffer and die. To live among us, and to be murdered by us. Why? So He could save us, so He could forgive us for our sins, so He could reveal to us God's full character and so that He could love us. No, it isn't about us - it's about Him, but He did do it for us as well. What an awesome God!

What does this mean for us? 

• We can trust God! His wisdom and knowledge are unsearchable because we are so frail and ignorant. Therefore when things don't make sense, when we can't see how God is working, trust him! He knows infinitely more than us! We don't have to fret because He has promised to work everything for His glory and for the good of His people (Romans 8:28)
• We can "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil 4:4) because He has shown us His character and it is wonderful. Because He is infinite and unsearchable, yet has revealed himself to us, offering to save us even though we are ignorant and foolish. If we never lose sight of the awesome God we serve, then we never have reason to stop rejoicing, because we should simply be rejoicing in who He is, and that remains constant regardless of what is happening in our lives
• We need to be humble. God is infinite, His plans are so full, so deep, so rich, so perfect that they are unsearchable by us. Who are we to think we know better? Who are we to live in sin and rebellion to him? Who are we to ask why He does what He does? Who are we even to be noticed and loved by Him? Yet he cares for us (1 Peter 5:7) and in His mercy and grace He does call us to know Him and to ask questions. But we do that humbly, knowing that God is unfathomably more awesome then we can understand.
• Just enjoy God. Know His character and bask in the light of who He is. Pray for His help to do that, read His word so that you can understand it further. Just enjoy God for who He is!

God is in control and He works out everything to bring glory to Him in ways that we do not understand. His paths are more wonderful then we can understand, deeper and more glorious then we can search. We cannot comprehend all He does in the world around us, in our lives and the lives of others. But God knows what He does, and we can glorify Him that He is working through everything to bring about His good and perfect purpose. We can glorify Him for who He is, and we should do that.

Where is the Joy in your walk with God? Are you basking in who He is? Are you simply enjoying the God who created, sustains and saved us? Are you enjoying His creation, which sings his praises (Psalm 19)?

To God be the glory! Great things He has done!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Nat.

What do you worship?

I'm going to do a devotion for the school on Monday (God willing), and I thought I'd share it here. If you have any thoughts then feel free to comment below! All help will be appreciated.

Before I read the passage, I have a few questions for you to think about.

• Where do you get your approval or your meaning in life?

• What do you put most of your time, thought and effort into?

• What would you sacrifice anything for?

Have a think about that while I read this passage from Habakkuk 2:18-20.

“Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.” 

The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

We were created to worship. That’s why we find it so easy to worship things. But because of our sinfulness we so often worship created things instead of the creator. We find things to replace God in our lives. The problem with that is that created things cannot save us.

The type of idols that Habakkuk is talking about aren’t exactly the same as we see today. He is talking about statues that people worship – and in our world there are some examples of that: people worship statues of Buddha or they worship trees and animals, but usually we don’t see that as much in Australia. Habakkuk points out that those idols are just wood and stone, they aren’t actually gods and they cannot save.

Instead, we so often worship different things. Remember those questions I asked you to think about before? Your answers to them will probably point out what you worship. Instead of giving God the best of our time and running to him for our meaning in life we so often put other things first. Maybe for you it’s sport, maybe it’s family, maybe it’s having the newest gadget or being really really good at Call of Duty.

I find that for me, it’s often my friends that I put before God. I work hard to get their approval and I find that even when I’m reading the bible or praying I’d prefer to be hanging out with my friends.

Sometimes we even try to put God into a box and make him into an idol. We think about him one way and ignore other parts of his character to make ourselves feel better.

Ultimately though, whatever we worship points to one thing. Why do I want my friends approval? Because I enjoy being around them and it makes me feel good. Why do we like being really good at video games? So that people will look at us and tell us how good we are. Why do we try to shape God into someone who is more appealing to us? Because we want things to go our way, we don’t want God to be in control and we don’t want him to do what he wants – we want our own way. We replace the one true God with other things out of pride and selfishness. We put ourselves in first place when only God deserves that place.

I want to tell you three things about idols and then three ways we can work on worshipping God alone.

1. They never give what they promise. They may make us feel good for a little while, but they will always fail. Friends will stuff up and make mistakes, your PS3 will lag or break, your car will break down. We can't even trust in ourselves because we all sin and stuff up too. None of us are perfect. All of these things will slip away and if we build our lives on them then they’ll come crashing down like the house that was built on sand. Even if we base our lives on something that will last as long as we live, the truth is that we all die. God on the other hand always keeps his promises and he alone can give us eternal life.
2. They always demand more. We can always have more money, better friendships, a better car and more stuff. Satan uses these things to distract us so that we won’t look to God. Jesus doesn’t demand more from us because it isn’t about us. We couldn’t do it ourselves. He did it all, and we need to obey him out of love and thanksgiving.
3. These idols can’t help us because our problem isn’t physical, it’s spiritual. They cannot deal with our sin and our selfishness. Only God can. Only Jesus can take away our sin because he alone is perfect and he died in our place. Only God deserves our worship because he created us, he keeps us alive and he has done so much to save us. 

We worshipped our way into idolatry and we need to worship our way out. So how can we worship the one true God who satisfies completely and who alone can save?

1. The first step to worshipping God is asking yourself if you’re a Christian. If you aren’t then you are still living in sin and you are God’s enemy and under his punishment which leads to hell. So how do you turn to God? Repent and Believe – put your trust in Jesus as the only way that you can be forgiven and give up your sin and selfishness.
2. We can worship God more by understanding the gospel more. When we realise how much we don’t deserve Jesus’ sacrifice for us we will be more and more thankful for all he has done. Through Jesus there is complete forgiveness – we don’t need the approval of those around us. Through Jesus we are adopted as God’s children – we don’t need to be great and amazing in this world because it isn’t about us – it’s about God.
3. We also can be working to worship God more by changing our thinking. We do that through a lot of prayer and by reading God’s word. When you start focusing on those things that you worship instead of God then pray for God’s help to change and start thinking about him. 

So my question for you is this: if God isn’t first in your life then what is? Everything else will ultimately fail and cannot help you eternally. Only God will keep his promises and only he has the power to forgive sin. God is the one and only true God, our idols are nothing. I’m going to pray that we will worship him alone.

Sacrificing Family for Work

1 Kings 16:34

In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua son of Nun.

In this day and age we seem to be prone to do the same as Hiel. We don't do it as obviously, but we most certainly sacrifice our families for the work we do.

Parents work long hours, sending their kids to day care for someone else to look after. Mothers literally kill (abort) their babies because of the inconvenience of having to give up work. Fathers work hard all day and come home to do their own thing, not to spend time with their kids.

What impact does this have on our culture? It seems to me that it raises kids to be angry teenagers who don't know or understand their place in the world and have no one to rely on. It raises adults who don't know how best to build their own families. More importantly: it raises up people who don't know the Lord, because their parents either didn't know him themselves or never bothered to teach their kids what it means to be Christians.

But it's s easy just to point the finger. The truth is, I do it too. From the opposite side of the spectrum. This year has been crazy. As my last year of school there have been heaps of work to do, massive assessments and stressful tests. The result? I've spent much less time with my family and my friends then I should have, and the time spent with them has often been spent as a stressed and grumpy teenager.

How are we living? What are we putting first in our lives? What impact does that have on those around us?

But Hiel was doing something more than just sacrificing his family, wasn't he?
He was rejecting God. He was openly disobeying the God who had pronounced a curse on the man who rebuilds Jericho through Joshua:

At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: "Cursed before the LORD is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: "At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates." (Joshua 6:26)

What is even more important than leading and building your family? Serving God. God is the only way that we can be saved form our sins, he has provided salvation through Jesus and calls us to repent and believe in him.

We all stuff up. The first and biggest thing we need to do to get ourselves right is to turn to God, because nothing we can do can help us. We need God to change us from the inside out. Only then can we truly live how he wants.

"The Sternness of God"

Romans 11:22

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Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

As I explained in the previous post, the context of this verse is the rejection of the Jews and the acceptance of the Gentiles as God's people. The Jews as a nation had rejected Jesus, murdering him on the cross. As a result God (as he had always planned) opened up the gospel for the gentiles as well - everyone who puts their faith in Christ who will be saved, regardless of heritage or outward signs.

Though he talks about God's kindness in this passage (explored here), Paul also talks about God's "sternness". I like writing about God's mercy and grace - those things are what we like to hear. But the truth is that God is good, and that means his justice, perfection and righteousness are good as well. That means we need to praise him for those attributes just as much as we do for his kindness toward us.

The sternness of God is not Injustice.

When Paul talks about God's sternness he is talking about his pure an righteous judgement on all who reject him. We are sinners, God is pure. As a result we deserve his wrath and we can do nothing to change that. In Jesus God's kindness is displayed - we can be shown mercy because if we put our faith in him, he takes our sins and God's punishment and we take his perfection. If we reject Christ then we will get what we deserve.

What exactly is it that we deserve?

Hell. God's eternal condemnation and wrath against our sin. If we reject God and his means of saving us, then we will be rejected by him eternally. But what is hell?

• Hell is Eternal - Revelation 14:11 "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name."

• Hell is physical Torment - Luke 16:24 "And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame."

• Hell is separation from God's presence and is God's wrath against sin - 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might"

• Hell will be just and God's punishment varies - Matthew 11:22 "I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you."

It's safe to say that hell will be a terrible, horrible place. Yet that is what we deserve because of our sin. We all deserve God's eternal wrath. Yet there is salvation, full and complete forgiveness and adoption as God's children through Jesus.

How do you turn to him?

"Repent and Believe for the Kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15)

Repentance is the act of turning around. Instead of rejecting God and living sinfully, we need to say sorry for our rebellion an to fight to obey God. It isn't our obedience that saves us, but true repentance will result in obedience.

Belief, or faith is trust in God. Trust that Jesus did truly come, that he is truly God and he is fully man. That he did die and that he paid for our sins. It is also belief that he rose literally, physically rose again and that we will be with him eternally in heaven.

We deserve God's sternness, his justice, because we reject him and live sinfully. Yet he has held out the free offer of complete salvation in Jesus. Will you repent and put your faith in him?

If you want to discuss this more then feel free to email me at only.in.christ25@gmail.com.

I hope this was helpful.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Nat.


Further reading: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-hell-21-eye-opening-scriptures/#ixzz2dujQtXpA

All Roads Don't Lead to Heaven (Part 2)

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John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

In the previous post, we looked at why the general belief most people have about getting to heaven is wrong. We so often think that all people, or at least all "good" people will get to heaven. The truth is, no one is good - we all stuff up. That's why Jesus is the only way to heaven. Because he is both God and man, he is the only one who could pay for our sins and make us right with God. Jesus is the only way.

The Truth

Not only is Jesus the only way to God, he is also the truth. Our world is obsessed with relative truth: "You believe what you want to, I'll believe what I want too", "Everyone's right (well, everyone besides Christians that is...)".

The fact is, Jesus is the only truth. He is the only one who can truly save. Therefore all other methods of getting to heaven, all other teachings about different "ways" to heaven, are false. They're lies. Jesus is the true way to God.

The Life 

Jesus is the life. He is the only one who can give us life. In Romans 6 we learn that because we all sin, we are "dead in sin". We deserve death (and hell eternally), and we are dead in our relationship with God.

Through Jesus there is life. He takes our sin if we put our faith in him, and he makes us alive with him. Romans 6 continues by telling us that we, when we became christians, died with Christ and rose to life with him. We died to sin, and we rose again. We are New creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). Through Jesus we are forgiven, the wages of sin are taken away and we are granted God's grace - eternal life with Him in heaven after we die.

Jesus truly is the life.

The Only way to God

Another thought on this is that heaven is where we will be with God, enjoying his presence forever. The whole sentiment that all roads lead to heaven is based on the idea that heaven will be a great place to be. That's absolutely true, but it'll be great because we will be with God eternally. Therefore if people are living lives where they are rejecting God here, then in a sense they will get what they want (and deserve) when God judges - they will be separated from all the benefits of his character - his grace, mercy, love, and they will face his wrath, justice and purity for eternity.

The point of heaven is not to enjoy having whatever we want, it's to enjoy God and glorify him forever - and in heaven we will be transformed and made pure so that worshipping God does give us the perfect Joy. If you're living a life that rejects God, seeking only enjoyment from this life, how can you expect to enjoy him forever? You're not following Jesus who is the only way, the only truth and the only way to life.

10 things "Yahwey" means

Here's a post from the app "John Piper Daily Devotional". I only downloaded it the other day, but it's been a great encouragement to me so far. Basically it has a new devotion every day from John Piper, on a wide range of topics. The one I read today

is below.

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:15)

God’s name is almost always translated LORD (all caps) in the English Bible. But the Hebrew would be pronounced something like "Yahweh," and is built on the word for "I am."

So every time we hear the word Yahweh, or every time you see LORD in the English Bible, you should think: this is a proper name (like Peter or John) built out of the word for “I am” and reminding us each time that God absolutely is.

There are at least 10 things the name Yahweh, “I AM,” says about God:

1. He never had a beginning. Every child asks, “Who made God?” And every wise parent says, “Nobody made God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.”

2. God will never end. If he did not come into being he cannot go out of being, because he is being.

3. God is absolute reality. There is no reality before him. There is no reality outside of him unless he wills it and makes it. He is all that was eternally. No space, no universe, no emptiness. Only God.

4. God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being or support him or counsel him or make him what he is.

5. Everything that is not God depends totally on God. The entire universe is utterly secondary. It came into being by God and stays in being moment by moment on God's decision to keep it in being.

6. All the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance. As an echo to a thunderclap. All that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies, is, compared to God, as nothing.

7. God is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who he is.

8. God is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. There is no law-book to which he looks to know what is right. No almanac to establish facts. No guild to determine what is excellent or beautiful. He himself is the standard of what is right, what is true, what is beautiful.

9. God does whatever he pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and always in accord with truth. All reality that is outside of him he created and designed and governs as the absolute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints that don't originate from the counsel of his own will.

10. God is the most important and most valuable reality and person in the universe. He is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all other realities, including the entire universe.