Coming to God involves living the tension of His Holiness and His Grace. God has been misrepresented in our times. He is either spoken about as a stern finger pointing judge or as the type of loving God who will overlook the sin, never judge, and always forgives whether repentance is actually embraced or not.
I do not claim to know totally the character of God's grace, mercy, holiness and judgements. What I do know is that there is a tension that we must live within. We worship God as God...the loving, merciful God who is Holy and hates sin...ours included. Read out loud the words of the Psalmist:
Psalm 95:1-11 (NRSV)
1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways."
11 Therefore in my anger I swore, "They shall not enter my rest."
It was Martin Luther who wrote "semper simul peccator et justus" -- which translated means "Always at the same time sinners and justified". Lent reminds me that I live in this state...in awe of the character of God's grace, while mindful that He is Holy and I must listen to His voice while I travel through this world.
I do not claim to know totally the character of God's grace, mercy, holiness and judgements. What I do know is that there is a tension that we must live within. We worship God as God...the loving, merciful God who is Holy and hates sin...ours included. Read out loud the words of the Psalmist:
Psalm 95:1-11 (NRSV)
1 O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways."
11 Therefore in my anger I swore, "They shall not enter my rest."
It was Martin Luther who wrote "semper simul peccator et justus" -- which translated means "Always at the same time sinners and justified". Lent reminds me that I live in this state...in awe of the character of God's grace, while mindful that He is Holy and I must listen to His voice while I travel through this world.
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