16 October 2013 - rocking out

16 October 2013 - rocking out

By your stubbornness and impenitent heart,
you are storing up wrath for yourself

Are we impenitent?  Are we like Paul's interlocutor, assuming that since we're in the right in group we're good to go?  Our physical presence in the Church is not enough.  We can't sit within these walls judging others and yet continuing to sin.  Our hearts must be here as well.  We need to continue to seek God's kindness as it leads us to repentance.  While we are still on this side of eternity we always need repentance.  We always need God's kindness.

The LORD will not tolerate barriers between his children.  We are not meant to judge others.  We are meant to invite them to mercy.  We know that this means that they are sinners.  But we ourselves are sinners.  We ourselves need the same mercy, no matter how holy we may be.

"There is no partiality with God" and so there must not be with us, either.  The veil is torn.  Love is uniting his children.  We must allow love to work in us and through us.

Lord, you give back to everyone according to his works.

There is no in group mentioned.  There is no one excluded.  It says, "everyone".  And this standard of justice should be fearful because we know we cannot measure up.  There is only one way to know this truth and to still be at peace:

Only in God is my soul at rest;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all.







Without God at the center we are of necessity trying to be righteous on our own.  And ultimately this means we are doing it for our own sake, for our own pride.

When God is reigning on the throne of our life we have the integrity that the Pharisees and scholars of the law cannot manage on their own.  We need to have such a personal relationship with God that we can pour out are hearts before him and trust him at all times, as the psalmist instructs us.  When God is at the center we won't just judge others and then do the same sinful things ourself.  We won't just lift a finger we will give our all to help.  We realize that we and they both depend on the same grace, the same rock, and the same salvation.