We Love God!

God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)

Martin Luther said that God wields two rods. One is the rod of Fatherly kindness – the rod of love and mercy to correct His children. The other is the club of anger flowing from justice and wrath toward His enemies. We know for the Christian, Christ took the rod of anger on our behalf. Justice was accomplished we He took our sin upon Himself. God’s wrath was fully exhausted upon Him. We have been forgiven and adopted into God’s family. Yet in that family we do receive the rod of correction from a Father that seeks to correct us when we sin. It is because He knows better than us the consequences of sin. It is because He loves us! Discipline is always a sign of love.
Randy Smith

What irony that sinners consider the greatest problem they face in this world to be the problem of pain. The ultimate insult against God is that man thinks he has a problem of pain. Man, who deserves to be plunged into hell at this moment, and is indescribably fortunate that he is breathing normally, complains about unhappiness. Instead of falling on his knees in the profoundest possible gratitude that God holds back His wrath and infinite fury, the sinner shakes his fist in heaven’s face and complains against what he calls “pain.” When he receives his due, he will look back on his present condition as paradisiacal. What he now calls misery, he will then consider exquisite pleasure. The most severe torment anyone has ever known in this life will seem like heaven in comparison with one moment of the full fury of the divine Being.
John Gerstner

The Chosen Ones

The Chosen Ones

Gem #42 – The Chosen Ones

In the very beginning, when this great universe was in the mind of God, like unborn forests in a cup of acorns; long before the echoes walked in the quiet solitudes; before the mountains were brought forth; and long before the light flashed through the sky, God loved His chosen men and women. Before there were men and women–when the heavens were not yet fanned by an angel’s wing; when space itself did not an exist; when there was nothing but God alone; even then, in that loneliness of Deity, and in that deep quiet and depth, His heart moved for His chosen ones. Their names were written on His heart, and they became dear to His soul.