Monday, October 20, 2008

The Grace of Wrath


I receive regular news letter emails from a brother who freely shares how Christ is continuing making himself real in his life. This last email he had a link to a short article that significantly tied in with things Father had put upon his heart, it’s this article I want to share here, The Grace of Wrath.

If the bottom line is that God IS Love, then we are going to have to line everything up that touches our lives as well as the lives of all those around us, with the truth of that unshakable, undeniable reality, but guaranteed this is going to be a white water shooting over the rapids ride, so buckle your seat belt, this is not intended for the faint of heart.

My beloved friends let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.”

For way too long the suffering have had to settle for such empty religious platitudes regarding the injustice, heartaches, and compounded hurts they have endured with pointed and heartless jabs such as this: “God’s ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are not His thoughts,” so stop your moaning and groaning and get on with life no matter how cruel and unfair it keeps getting!

The eternal purpose and plan of God the Father was to have a house, his house filled with sons and daughters. Our spiritual birth right is that we were and are created to be filled to over flowing with the true experiential knowing (day in day out) of his unconditional loving acceptance of us.
It says in Romans 8:28 a most often misquoted verse only because it is unfortunately separated from the rest of the good news that flows with this one isolated verse. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” And that unfortunately is where it ends for way to many sadly.
It goes on to say and define how this working together of all things is going to be accomplished: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predetermine to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.”

I like this from the Message Bible: “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.”

Apart from an initial and continued revelation of this God and Father of love, this so called life most of us live is nothing more than a sadistic cruel joke muffling out any laughter. There is no way to even approach this God with out faith it says, but guess what, He is wanting to do just that, offer the intangible to us, His abounding love from deep within to ask Him directly what the truth really is about your pain filled and broken lives!

I’m going to end here with a most powerful word from the Scriptures, I hope any reading this will go directly to God by simply asking Him, I want to know the truth for myself.
There is so much more to His grace than what we have settled for, allow Him to set you free from all and any lies, He LOVES you!

Rich

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rich,
This post is beautiful!! I simply don't know what else to say!! It's wonderful!!

Blessings,
~Amy :)
http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com

foretastes said...

Thanks for the reminder that our God is most trustworthy. He knows what He's doing because He's already seen the beginning and the end. We are His and in His keeping. He will do what it takes to rid us of all that entangles and keeps us from His goals. Good stuff here, Bro.

Randy said...

The article on "The Grace of Wrath" talks about the love God shows even through his wrath. True enough. But that only gets me so far - no matter how much I see and understand how these things work together, in the end I am by nature a sinner who does not obey.

The ultimate Grace of Wrath is the grace I received when he poured out His wrath that was for me onto His Son. There is no greater example of the wrath and love of God at work together than this. And like everything else I am coming to know about Him, it blows me away.

Rich said...

Amy,

Two things come to mind in reflecting upon this piece, :Be still and KNOW that I AM God!"

"Stand still and know the Salvation of your God!"

Blessings to you :)

Dave,

God is not mute; the word spoke, not out of a whirlwind, but out of the human larynx of a Palestinian Jew.

He calls us by name, and He never confusses us with another..he says to Dave, Hey mighty man of valour, you are Mine, and I Am yours!

Rich said...

RC,

"There is no greater example of the wrath and love of God at work together than this. And like everything else I am coming to know about Him, it blows me away."

Amen! I share in your joy as well.
I feel at best I am but a toddler just learning too crawl through His maze of Grace!

Blessings to you :)

Rich said...

Dave,

I loved your thoughts thanks.
What I am sensing is this, as His unconditional Love for us becomes everything to us, we will be much like Adam and Eve, naked but not self-focused-conscious.

We have been clothed from within by Christ, and it is in these repeated sin-self conscious times we either get lost there, or turn to Him in us as us, ergo, in that very moment He is becoming that much more fully formed in us!

Hidden with our beginning to realise His great love for us is a strength-power we never knew we had in simply responding to His ability.