The Two Sides of God - December 17th, 2020

​Luke 19:41-48  
41  Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,
42  saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
43  For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side,
44  and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
45  Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,
46  saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' "
47  And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him,
48  and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.
 
Interesting picture of the love and grace and the righteousness of God. We see here and in another scripture where Jesus wept. He wept at the grave of Lazarus when he went possibly because Lazarus was dead, however He knew Lazarus would come out of the grave so maybe He wept because of the sorrow of Mary and Martha Lazarus sisters. His love reaches out to us all. Here He wept because of the spiritual blindness and evil deeds of the people in persecuting the righteous and killing the prophets of God. He then went immediately into the Temple and with a whip drove out the unrighteous who were trying to make financial gain from the sincerity of the believers IN the Temple itself.  It has been said many times that what America needs now is a “fear of God”. Grace has been preached in most churches to the amount that many Christians think that we can serve God and do anything we want as He will overlook our evil deeds because of His grace. Yes He has grace but according to Jesus in the Bible I read, we must repent of our evil deeds to receive that grace.

“The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.”  It is time to get back to the true Christian biblical teaching that God has not changed and what we do does matter both to God and should matter to us. Yes a righteous man falls and gets back up but we also believe that God is the Judge of all and trust that God will have mercy “if we repent”. What an odd word in these days, REPENT!. But if we truly want God’s smile and favor on our life then we must repent and ask forgiveness for our sins. It was Jesus who said it not me.
 
He is always willing to receive us to Himself but in His way, not ours. So look to Him now,  ask forgiveness as I do always for my faults and failures usually about every day. He will forgive, He will heal and He will as the prodigal son’s father and welcome us with open arms of love.