A lot of christians today just know a few verses about gods love or blessings,even churches are like this!Well,im sorry folks,But one time god drowned the entire human race,except for noah and his family,time and time again god judged peopl with terrible tribulation,read it,its in there,you cant take part of the bible,gotta take it all!!!God describes himself as a consuming fire,so holy we would be burned instantly in his presence,without the saving grace of JESUS,who by the way,had to be savagely tortured and murdered by his own creation to quell gods wrath!We are extremely lucky that the omnipotent creator made a small number of us vessels of mercy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We are just little dust formed,creations,who an all powerful,forever existing GOD decided to breathe life into!Remember that when you start demanding god to give you money,success,health,.....God does what he wants...he is soverign over everything!Store up treasure in heaven.....We only exist to serve and glorify god....peiriod...self seeking,self fullfillment,all of that leads to unhappiness,and unfullfillment...
In Christ
steven
P.s.I dont mean to say you cant enjoy the good things god has made,spouses,family,laughter,music....ect...only do it gods way,and for his glory not your own!and remember,we are all still under a death sentence,(from adam and eve)
yes even saved people age,get sick and die,and unfortunatly,have to watch loved ones suffer and die!
Amen, Steven. People in this age including myself when I was an unsaved professing Christian used to just talk about God's love and how forgiving He was. All this is true, but when we just take the one-sided story, we lose the whole majesty of God's character.
I'll say what I say to others... In this age when people use the term "love" attributed to God, what they really mean is that God is tolerant. This doesn't apply to everyone, but I don't think people know what God's love really is... God loved us SO much that He sent His ONLY begotten Son to save us... Why? Because in God's sight we are evil and wicked in His eyes, and there was no other way to forgive us. Would any of us, if we had a son, give him up for the salvation of a murderer?
I think people have forgotten that God is a holy God, and a God of wrath and justice. Oh yeah, you know those cliches that people say? "God hates the sin and not the sinner." Where is that in the Bible? In fact, in all the places where it talks about God hating both the sin and the sinner, and there's about 30 verses, it talks about God hating the sinner 20 times more...
Some of these people like to say that we're not under Old Testament law anymore which is true, but God's attributes never change. You know how the puritans used to pray? For like 99% of the prayer it was how vile and wicked they were, and how glorious God is, and at the end they would mention God's mercy once and leap for joy... People especially in my generation seem to think that salvation is a flu shot, and you can go on and live like the devil which isn't the case, but that's a whole other subject...
I know I'll probably be disliked for this, and appear self-righteous, but really I'm far from it... When I preach to other about these things I'm really preaching to myself because I know I need it... Whom the Lord loveth He also chasteneth.
Really, is it a crime to glorify God not only for His love but justice?
"For our God is a consuming fire." - Hebrews 12:29 (KJV)
You know, back in the older days I think there was a Biblical imbalance on preaching about God's wrath alone, but it seems in this age it's the opposite extreme. There should be a Biblical balance, and I think so many people have forgotten how wicked they really are apart from Christ.
You see, I often have been lately digging into the deepest darkest secrets of my mind and find ways that I often deceive myself, and it's really scary. Without Christ, we are completely doomed...
Yes, the cross demonstrated God's love, but also God's JUSTICE. Someone HAD to interpose to save a people for God, or we would all have been damned for an eternity, and the glory of God would not have been diminished. You see, we deserve nothing...
Have we forgotten the doctrine of justification? Our sins were laid on Christ, and not only did Christ die a bloody death, but He suffered the wrath of God! Remember when He said on the cross, "Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani"? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was because God's cup of wrath was poured out onto Jesus... Also, we must have righteousness to enter Heaven. Just merely bearing our sin wouldn't be enough to get into Heaven. We would be innocent, but not righteous. This is where imputation comes in. At the same time when our sins were imputed to Christ, His righteousness was imputed to us, and we are clothed with it, and seen as justified...
Simply put, if you omit the wrath of God, you lower God's attribute of love, and ruin His full character...
I really have been praying for revival, because I think it's our last hope for the church besides persecution... And no, I don't mean all these fake revivals that happen. I have seen true revivals wherein people weep over their sin and ask if there's forgiveness for them... THAT is the manifestation of God's Spirit upon a people...
I want to reveal to you all a secret of mine... When I pray, I always ask for what's not comfortable, but what I need... I encourage you all to maybe think about how you're praying to God and ask yourselves if it's for self gain or for God? And don't come to Him because you want to escape Hell, but because He deserves it! Praise God...
ahh I used to do that *bible in a year thing* for years and years. I went to a christian HS and we had to read it from beginning to end every year, it kinda stuck with me
Now, I kind of pick a book, tear it apart, learn everything I can from the greek/hebrew (I use interlinear bibles with the greek and hebrew in them and the english underneath.) the syntax is wacked out, at times, but I make it through it.
yeh it's important to know the full word of God because the best way to interpret scripture is to let scripture interpret scripture. If you don't see thw whole picture, you can end up with a mutlitude of fallicies.
