Thursday March 8, 2012

Read Deuteronomy 7:9-10

 

Like you and I God loves to be loved and hates to be hated. But unlike you and I God truly deserves to be loved and no one, not one single person, has any justifiable reason to hate God.

 

God reciprocates what He gets from us. If we love God and obey His commands, God lavishes us with love, even to a thousand generations. But to those who hate God and reject Him God will confront them with judgment and destruction.

 

One of the fascinating things about judgement day is that God will give people what they really desired from God. If someone has spent their life rejecting God then on that day He will give them their hearts desire - they will be rejected by God for all eternity. If someone seeks God and loves Him they will be rewarded with eternal life in that heavenly paradise.

 

But God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked. In Ezekiel 18:23 we read

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

 

God wants to lavish people, entire generations, with His love, His mercy and His goodness. The great blessing that you and I have is that we can be agents or vehicles through which God shares that love with the world. You and I can be the person that God uses to turn someone around from hating Him to loving Him. What an extreme pleasure and joy.

 

Prayer:

¥ Pray for the musicians and singers and tech people that serve us each week as they prepare and perform. Praise God for their willing and joyful service. Pray that God would bless these people and reward them for their blessing to us.

¥ Praise God for those people who help out in Mops each fortnight. Praise God that this help is allowing more people to hear the gospel. Pray that God would draw near to each of these helpers and reveal to them the importance of their work.

¥ Praise the Lord that we have many willing to teach the children among us and our youth. Ask God to bless these teachers and to show them the fruit of their labours.