365 Reflections

God is the final and righteous Judge of all.  There's an assumption that God is only interested in making peace for us. He's the problem solver that we turn to when we are in a mess. Or He's the answer-giver when we do not know what to do. But that is not the whole picture scriptures presents of the Lord. He is for peace. He is our peace. He has the answer. He is the answer.  But He is the God of judgment against sin. We see this most clearly at the end of Judah's kingdom as they are judged for years of sin and rebellion against the Lord.  2 Kings 24:2–4 (ESV) And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. 3 Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4 and also ...

The news for Judah seems dismal. The threats of Sennacherib loom over the land. Will Judah fall to Assyria as the Northern tribes of Israel did? The propaganda from Assyria seems certain and pulls no punches letting the people know it. Hezekiah sends messengers to Isaiah and Isaiah responds with words of assurance that the Lord will frustrate the king of Assyria yet Hezekiah sees very little in the way of victory even after the words. Instead, Rabshakeh, the minister of propaganda keeps taunting the defenders on the wall and pronouncing inevitable defeat. After all, there were many nations before Judah who called out to their “gods” and they were vanquished. What made Judah different?  The answer is found in the theme of Hezekiah’s prayer offered in 2 Kings 19.  2 Kings 19:14 (ESV) Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. Hezekiah takes the taunts of the enemy and “spr...

John 16:12–13 (ESV) “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. During the long discourse in the upper room, Jesus starts to realize He is startling his disciples. He is speaking of their future, the persecution sure to come, the hatred of others they will bear, and to top it all off, His leaving them to do the work. But in the middle of this discourse, he lets them in one a teaching secret of our Great Shepherd. He doesn't try to overwhelm us. He says what we are able to bear. He is a caring preacher and leader of His flock.  What does this say about us? There are things God wants to say that we aren't ready for. There are life changing truths that God is not yet revealing. We should be longing for them. We should be desirin...

Matthew 13:28–29 (ESV) He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. We live in a world gone bad.  And we want justice. Usually we want God to do something with the injustice we see, right now... in others. Be careful.  If God instantly took care of all the wickedness in the world it would include the wickedness in you and me... and I fear for many of us what would be left?  Would we be at all?  And if not, is God subject then to our whims and fancy as to when He should step in to stop evil and when He should back off?  Like maybe you are one of the disillusioned people who actually believes they've got nothing but good left in them.  Chances are you're related to someone who could really use a lot of wickedness-removal.  So let us adopt your delusion an...