Wrath or Love

On May 8, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.

As I age in the faith, I find that I am beginning to develop some intolerances. I find this interesting and comical in that some of my current positions were not previous strongholds. They have become that, however, and more.

One of the intolerances I am developing is towards those who characterize our Father as angry, judgmental and vengeful. Even people who know and quote today’s scripture sometimes confound its meaning by teaching, preaching and claiming God’s anger. Does an angry, vengeful God sacrifice His only son for miscreants? Only great love can motivate an act so profound. Can you imagine this verse reading, “For God was so angry that He gave His only Son.” Of course not.

God is love and He so loved that He created the greatest act in human history and, for that matter, in the heavens. He sacrificed His one and only for us even when we didn’t love Him. He wasn’t motivated by vengeance. He wasn’t trying to get retribution against an unruly race. He sacrificed the best He had to save the lot of us.

This position is especially enjoyed and understood by those who recognize their lives as in a fallen state. The issue becomes, at once, challenging when we become “the saved.” No longer are we “the world” and we begin to separate ourselves from those unholy heathens. That is when it is important to remind ourselves that God loves them even as He loves and forgives us.

It bothers me when I read books and hear people talk about “we and they” in such a way as to categorize sin and sinners. People have their pet sins and poster board sinners. I hear some ridiculous things and I am beginning to have less and less patience with those who pretend our beloved Father is angry so that they can cast some people into hell while ignoring the love of God, and the person in the mirror.

We can’t know what is in the heart of a person, but we can, and should, know the heart of the Father. Like Jesus, He is moved by compassion; He is motivated by love. Yes, He knows anger, as do we, but we are reminded that though we feel anger, it is no excuse to sin. It is not an excuse to act unbecomingly. Is our Father less graceful than we are instructed to be?

John 3:16 is arguably one of the best know verses in the Bible. Its theme is love, redemption and salvation. We should never use this verse as a means to judge others. To do so is, to me, sacrilege. If we learn only one lesson from the Bible, hold only one Biblical tenet in our hearts and minds, it must be this one, “God is love” (1 John 4: 8). However, that is not all the verse says. It also declares “The one who does not love does not know God.” So, describing God as angry and vengeful is a way to make God in our image. Because we don’t have love in our hearts, we turn God into a wrathful despot so that His reputation mirrors our self-image.

We must be careful in our assessment of others because that person whom we would condemn is the very one whom God loves so much that He sent Jesus to the cross. The purpose in my writing this devotional is to cause a shift in the church paradigm regarding evangelism, salvation and forgiveness. We need less focus on those whom we consider “sinners” and a great deal more attention on the Father, Son and Spirit. It is not for us to judge what is right and wrong, who is a sinner and who is a saint. Even Jesus said he didn’t come to judge (John 3: 17). Verse 17 says all I need to know because we are to walk according to Jesus’ ways. We need to receive the love of God in our own hearts and then share it with the rest of the world. For God so loved. . .

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Story Time

On January 30, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Jude 20 – 21

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

May I tell you a story today? Recently I attended an event where I met another pastor. He and I began to discuss our ministries and to my surprise I characterized my ministry by saying, “I hang out in God’s love.” I told him that is the most important topic of my ministry. Let me tell you why that is funny.

When I was young, I thought the pastors who preached on love sounded like a bunch of milk toast sissies. I was young, tough and strong. I wanted to hear about a strong God. Then I ran into my pastor for my life, Pat Markley. No one would every call Pat a sissy. In fact, he was a former navy seal. It was no accident that our Father led me to Pat. I needed that image to help me understand that true love is tough and strong. So, though I have learned much since then, I still found myself surprised identifying myself and my ministry in such a manner.

The other pastor immediately began to speak of God’s wrath. Again, a bit funny in that I had just had a conversation with someone else about God’ compassion where I said, “How can anyone know the Father and believe Him to be angry?” We have made great sport about God striking us with lightening when we say something foolish, but I always thought people knew better. Well, this pastor believes it is his job to preach on God’s wrath. This same preacher (perhaps a better moniker than pastor) had just quoted John 3: 16 to me, “For God so loved . . ..” I mean, get a revelation, “God is love,” (1 John 4: 8).

I encourage you to read the book of Jude. It is quite short. Jude does spend 19 verses recounting the history of the wicked and from that this preacher got his message. However, it isn’t until verse 20 that Jude begins to address his audience and when he does direct his words directly to his audience, his message is love. He spends the first part of his book on the historical record, but his conclusion, his actual message comes after the conjunction “but” in the twentieth verse. That is the way arguments are constructed. The prelude is the background against which the message shall be forecast. His message, then, is “keep yourselves in the love of God.”

Our God is love; He is characterized by love. He did not send his beloved son to earth to die a horrible death just so He could pour out His wrath upon us! Come on! God isn’t sending people to hell. His whole thing is saving people from hell. Some people refuse to be saved, and that is their choice. With free will comes the choice to choose heaven or hell. Back in Deuteronomy God told us the choice between life and death was ours to make but His recommendation was that we choose life (Deuteronomy 30: 19).

After that evening and discussion regarding wrath versus love, I came home and read Jude multiple times. I read it and prayed until I was certain Father had ministered His wisdom to me regarding the book. I came away with the conviction that God is love. To know the Father is to know love. My mission is to bring people into the presence of God. In His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16: 11). How can His presence be full of joy if He is an angry, vengeful God? To know God is to know unsurpassed love. The more we get to know Him, the more we will see that He is love.

Therefore, my message is simply this, God loves you! He loves you far more than you can even imagine. He loves you more than you love your own children. He wants you saved and living eternally with Him in heaven. Be blessed in the truth.

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Clearly Defined

On October 3, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ephesians 4: 31 – 32

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

In verse thirty, Paul told us to grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. His very next words seek to further instruct us in how to avoid distressing God’s Spirit. Put all of these things away from you; bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice. Don’t have them around you at all because they should not be part of the mature Christian’s walk.

Most of us know, or at least have a good idea what bitterness, wrath and anger are but I found that I was reading right over clamor without giving it much attention. Then slander stands out to me because it refers to the spoken word, reminding us again about the words of our mouth. Then there is malice, about which most have a rough idea as to its meaning.

Stopping to look up each of these words in the dictionary, I realized that there is much more meaning in this scripture than we might, at first reading, appreciate. Look at the Webster’s definition for each of these terms.

Bitterness: sharp and disagreeable; harsh; severe; piercing. 2) characterized by strong feelings of hatred, resentment, cynicism.

Wrath: intense anger; rage; fury 2) any action carried out in great anger especially for punishment or vengeance.

Anger: a feeling of displeasure resulting from injury, mistreatment, opposition, etc., and usually showing itself in a desire to fight back at the supposed cause of this feeling.

Clamor: a loud outcry; uproar 2) a vehement, continued expression of the general feeling or of public opinion; loud demand or complaint. In its verb form – to make a clamor- cry out, demand, or complain noisily.

Slander: the utterance in the presence of another person of a false statement or statements, damaging to a third person’s character or reputation.

Malice: active ill will; desire to harm another or to do mischief; spite. 2) evil intent.

One can easily see the consistency in Paul’s discourse. Here he is again encouraging us to curb our language and restrain our tempers. This verse expounds on what he wrote in the previous text. Here we go deeper into the meanings of his former instructions. We see that clamor amounts to complaining and I think the idea of loud complaining draws up an image with which we are all familiar.

We are not to be cynical and skeptical. We are not to complain about others or speak in a way that is disparaging to their character. Well, we know that from verse 29 which says to only use our words in a way which edifies others. We are not to be harsh or sharp which means we are to be gentle. Nor are we supposed to strike back from a sense of being wronged. Staying apart from wrath includes avoiding any action carried out in anger.

I encourage you to keep this list for the future so that you can look back at it from time to time. These definitions will have different meaning for you at different moments of your development. You will see different significance depending on what is going on in your life at the time. The message that I think will consistently ring out through these words is, “Get a tight rein on your words and your anger.” Those two ideas are embedded in the definition of the six words.

Lastly, the definition above for slander is the world’s definition. I would suggest that God’s instruction to us may draw us to a higher standard than the legal definition of slander. In the legal sense, one must utter false statements in the hearing of another which have the effect of damaging a third person’s reputation. I believe God would even restrain you from speaking true statements about someone else that have the effect of damaging a person’s reputation. This is especially true when your motive is to tear them down or damage their image in the eyes of someone else. Please recall that we are instructed to only say those things which are good for edification of others. Therefore, even if the statements you make are true, if you are harming another in the utterance of them or you have the intent to harm them or their reputation, then I believe you are in disobedience to God and risk grieving the Holy Spirit. Keep your words holy because Jesus is “The Word” and He is holy.

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Love and Wrath

On April 9, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 5:9

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

There is a lot of chatter about the wrath of God and it never ceases to surprise me. Why are we absorbed with talking about the wrath of God? There is no wrath for those who are in Jesus.

My first thought is this, I want you attending a church that teaches 1 John 4: 8, “God is love.” That is the revelation we all need to live in, God is love. God is not wrathful, He is loving. A church which hangs on “the wrath of God” is not going to be primed to lead people into revelation of who God is or how He wants to manifest Himself in our lives.

Today’s verse draws the paradigm for us. We have been saved from wrath by the blood of the Christ. That is the whole basis of the New Covenant. Thank God, we have been redeemed, even from our own stupidity. God didn’t want you under wrath or under condemnation so, motivated by love, He sent Jesus to take our place. Jesus bore every aspect of the curse giving us, instead, peace, joy and liberty. He redeemed us from the curse of the law where there was wrath. You can’t have all the New Testament Good News and still hang on to the penalty of the curse. Jesus set us free from all of that.

The same blood which justified us saved us from the wrath of God. We don’t deserve justification. In fact, doesn’t it blow your mind just a little to even read that we have been justified. Thank you Jesus. So, let’s hold on tightly to the good news of Jesus, our Messiah. Let us cling to the love of God. Forsake the ideas of a vengeful, wrathful God because it was He who sacrificed His only child for us. Wrath didn’t do that. Love did.

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Anger, Worry Flee from Me

On September 24, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 37: 8

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret, it leads only to evildoing.

Here is the word of the Lord on worry and anger. It is pretty clear. It says don’t do it; don’t worry, don’t give in to anger. Now what part of that is difficult? Well, sometimes the hard part is in the execution of what God has directed us to do, rather than in the understanding. There is help in that though. First, God will never tell you to do something that He has not already empowered you to do. So, take some comfort there. Secondly, if He has told you to do it, then He will also help you. He never tells you something to do without making His resources available to you. You do not have to use will power to control your anger, you use His will power. Pray for His help and then let Him help you.

And as for worry, nothing good comes of it. Put worry away and don’t let it control your life any longer. Don’t waste your time and energy. Ask for help daily if need be and determine that you are not going to be a worrier. Anytime you feel yourself slipping, call on God to rescue you.

Lastly, God tells us that abiding in worry or anger leads to evil deeds. Worry and anger are ungodly thoughts and ungodly thoughts lead to ungodly acts. It is that simple. That is not to say that you will never feel anger nor be plagued by worry. It means that you must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus. When those thoughts assail you counter them with the Word of God. You can hang them on this verse from today. You say, “Worry, I declare Psalm 37: 8 to you and command you to be gone in the name of Jesus.” The worry, anxiety, fear or anger must, and will, flee. Beware, though, for it can come back within moments. When it does, you just speak these words again. Say, “Worry, I told you to be gone. Psalm 37 tells me that I am not the prisoner of you. Now leave.” Just keep at it until the worry, fear or anger is convinced that you mean what you say. Those negative feelings and thoughts have to obey the Word of God. Be free of those chains of fear, anger and worry. Be free in Jesus’ name.

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Saved from Wrath

On May 1, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

1 Thessalonians 5: 9

For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It surprises me that there is still confusion over God’s feelings towards us. Even people who have John 3: 16 memorized still talk about God’s wrath and about how He is going to pour out His wrath upon us. Well, this verse would seem to lay aside that perspective in favor of a God who loves us and intended to save us, even to save us from Wrath.

God is love (1 John 4: 8) and everything He does is from the vantage of love. Our crimes demanded punishment but because He wanted to spare us from our just due, He sent Jesus to take all of the punishment, all of the wrath upon himself. We have been pardoned. The jail cell doors are thrown open wide. We are free. We are excused from the prison cell and invited into the throne room. God saved us from the sentence levied against us by condemning Jesus. Therefore, we are no longer destined to or for wrath but rather our destinies are salvation, love, hope and peace through the grace of our Father and the triumph of Jesus’ sacrifice.

Love is in the house. Love demands kindness, not wrath. Love demands gentleness. Let’s get a revelation of our Father. He is gentle and kind, not angry. Any anger He had, He poured out on Jesus. Sometimes I think we do “Him” a disfavor by attributing the male pronoun to Him because the Bible reveals that He is male and female. Were we able to comprehend Him in His fullness, I think it would be easier for us to attribute His nurturing nature to His every thought and gesture. He is the strong warrior who protects us from the storm but He is every bit the tender soul who cuddles us in warmth and affection. He is the most emotionally expressive person you will ever meet. In fact, He is so effusive with His declarations of love that He will embarrass you.

You were not destined to endure anger or wrath. You were and are destined for greatness in Christ Jesus through the love and salvation bought for you at the cross and in truth, at the dawn of time. You are destined to sit on your heavenly parent’s knee and receive comfort and the outpouring of incomprehensible love. Receive love and abandon fear of wrath. Receive the fullness of Salvation.

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Pardoned

On November 2, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Micah 7: 18

Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love.

I pray this revelation will fill the earth, and the church. God isn’t angry. He does not retain His anger but rather lets it go in favor of unchanging love. Yahoo! And just consider that this is a passage out of the Old Testament. Frankly, there are lots of New Testament believers who think God is angry now. Some folks are willing to concede that God is now a God of love but they think He was an angry God before. The truth is that God doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13: 8). If we take a position that God was angry, revengeful, and wrathful our hearts convict us. We cannot truly believe in a God who is love and live in that love if we believe this same “person” is the one who tortures us and is angry with us. We have to choose – is God an angry deity or is He love?

So do you want another little bite of truth? God sent Jesus to the earth in the Old Covenant, not the New. Even the New Testament begins with Jesus’ birth, yes? So, that means that when God sent him, it was still the Old Testament. Are you following along with me? That would mean that this vengeful, evil, mean, wrathful GOD sent His beloved son to die for us. That makes absolutely no sense at all. Look at today’s Old Testament verse. God chose way back in the day to pardon iniquity and to pass over our rebellious acts. What is that about? Then He chose not to be angry because His very nature is love. He chose to love us rather than to hold onto His anger. He has chosen to put His love for us above our sin.

Here is the bottom line. God chose love over sin. He chose to focus on His love for us rather than on our stinking iniquity. His love has overcome our sin. He put sin under the mercy seat and under the blood. He isn’t writing your name in a book and inscribing beside it every sin you have ever committed. No, your name only has one word written beside it, “Forgiven” and it is written in crimson. You’ve just got to get happy about that. You are forgiven.
Just one side point. I like that God takes His own advice. He has told us not to hold onto our anger. In fact, He said to let not the sun go down on our anger (Ephesians 4: 26). It’s good to see that He has let go of His anger too.

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