Greetings,
Today I am in Wales, where I have been staying with good friends and spending time with my covenant brother John Marsden. Yesterday we had a great time at Rock Church in Prestatyn and then life together to cap off a great day. Relationships are surly the substance of life. This includes our relationship with God and with one another in life.
All people have an internal need to worship God. I believe that internal need is given to each one by God, because of God’s desire to give life to all people. He is the one who gives life, breath, and all things. When we worship Him it does not change who He is, it changes who we are. When we worship Him, we open our hearts to receive the life that He gives. When we receive His life, we become changed by His life. We receive whatever or whoever we bow to. When the earth bows towards the sun it receives the benefit of a sunrise and night becomes day. When we bow in the direction of someone or something we experience what that someone or something has the ability to give to us. God’s wants to love us. He wants to give life to all men, but when we bow to other things we experience the consequence of something that God is not in.
Isaiah 2:9 People bow down, and each man humbles himself; therefore do not forgive them. 10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty.
The blood of Jesus Christ offers forgiveness to all men for all things, but when men embrace things that cannot give life to them the forgiveness of God cannot be found. Forgiveness is easily found in Christ, but it is found in Christ. When men seek other things, they submit themselves to realities that cannot offer the forgiveness of God. God’s love is for all men, but men can choose to embrace things that cannot offer the love or life of God. When men embrace other things, they suffer the consequence of what those other things offer.
Isaiah 2:11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up—and it shall be brought low—13 Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; 14 upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up; 15 upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall; 16 upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the beautiful sloops. 17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, 18 but the idols He shall utterly abolish. 19 They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily. 20 In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made, each for himself to worship, to the moles and bats, 21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crags of the rugged rocks, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily. 22 Sever yourselves from such a man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?
God does not desire to destroy men. Pride destroys men. God’s presence destroys the lofty things that destroy men. When we embrace other things, other ways, or other realities than God, we find ourselves under the force of a crashing wave that comes by the presence of God. God’s presence destroys the false treasures of men, when men embrace false treasures they embrace what those false treasures have to offer. Man can suffer consequence of the destruction of those false things if they continue to embrace the things that are destroyed by God’s presence. All they have to do is look to Him, and His presence is a rescue and a force of transformation in their lives. The judgment of God is upon those things that do not bring life to man or to the earth. God is not looking to judge men, He desires to love them. However, there are consequences to embracing false treasures. Loving the things that are destroyed by God’s presence can only offer shaking and destruction in our lives. God is love and we cannot accuse Him of being unloving when we embrace the things that are destroyed by the power of His love. If we think His love means that all things are blessed, we are deceived concerning what true love is. His love destroys the things that destroy life and love. True life empowers us to produce life in a multigenerational way. True love empowers us to be love for others in a multigenerational way. Life is not something we merely get, it is found in our ability to produce life for the sake of others in all things. True love is not something we live to receive, it is the substance of what we can become for the sake of God and men in the life that has been given to us to live.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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