Talk about writer's block!! Jeesh! This is frustrating. I've been trying to figure out what to say for the past couple days. I wanted to talk about how I finished the book of Judges (which is AWESOME by the way), but I had difficulty trying to expand on that. It was just SO good I couldn't get the thoughts to come together, or the words out of my head.
At first the book of Judges seemed extremely boring. It seems a lot like the middle ages. This person killed this king and took over that land, this person said this, this person lead Israel so many years, and on and on. But when I grabbed a devotional based on Judges, and started to follow the stories, it really began to open my eyes. And I couldn't get enough of it! Take the Israelites for example. When you first start going through the Old Testament, you'll think to yourself, "Why are the Israelites so stupid?!" God gave them so much grace and they ignored Him. He delivered them, issued a covenant to protect them, and they still did evil in His sight! But when you take a step back, you notice that things haven't really changed all that much. We all still do evil in His sight. Every one of us, every day.
The devotional I was reading through, from the Bible app by YouVersoion, was called Judges: Choosing God's Way by Dr. Michael Youssef. One of the main things I remember most out of that study was the Israelites never actually gave up on God. As Dr. Youssef explains it, "The Israelites did not set out to defy God or openly rebel against Him. They continued to be religiously observant. They continued to do charitable works. They went through the motions of their religion. But they had squeezed the Truth of who God is to the margins of their lives." They didn't deny Him, they just simply pushed Him off to the side.
Much like what we do today. We take God's word and try to fit it into our lives and what we're going through. When we face a difficult situation we sit back and say "God, fix it!" Rather than, "God, what are you teaching me? What is my lesson in this?" When we mess up and someone points it out (and there's ALWAYS someone), we excuse it away and say "I never said I was perfect." and we back it up with "all have sinned... (Romans 3:23)"
I had mentioned in an earlier post, I struggle with kindness and showing God's love to my coworkers. Its difficult to show them the love of Christ when they criticize me for loving and serving God. Well, yesterday, I had arrived to work quite a bit early; while I was sitting in the break room, drinking my morning coffee, I prayed. I asked God to show me the lesson I am supposed to be learning through this struggle. I didn't get my answer till later that evening at our bi-weekly Bible study/life group.
Our friends had chosen to go through the book Radical by David Platt. One of our friends (we'll call him Bob) had given us a forewarning that Platt is extremely blunt and sometimes brutally honest about the message he's giving. But it's good and we need to hear it. Sometimes it takes being blunt to hit us where it needs to. BOY was Bob right! Platt had discussed how our love for God needs to come first. Our love for Him needs to be so strong and pure that our love for others, in comparison, looks like hate. By loving God so strongly, loving others just becomes part of our nature. And Platt emphasized that he wanted to be very, very careful with how we were viewing that. He didn't want us to openly hate our families or friends in the name of loving Christ. He wanted to make sure that we weren't squeezing God into the margin of our lives. He explained "There is a dangerous temptation for us to try to soften Jesus' words to justify the way we live."
I felt the punch right there. Was I squeezing God into the margin of my life? Was I using His words to justify the way I live? Was I using the "all have sinned" excuse? If, for those who are reading this, felt that I have used that excuse, I ask now for your forgiveness. I want to be a Christian who is on fire for Christ. I want every one to know I am his follower. I want my love for Him to be so strong, and so true, that my love for others doesn't even compare. ("Looks like hate" as David Platt had put it.)
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