Love of Wrath

Hello lovelies! I have officially been a resident of Liberty University for a month! How exciting is that! 

At Campus Community tonight we were talking about God as both a loving and Wrathful God and I felt like somebody ought to tell ya what that means and since I have this here blog that might as well be me!

When I say that my God is a wrathful God most people think He is waiting in the wings for us to screw up so He can smite us with His holy wrath! You couldn't be more wrong.

God is first and foremost a God of mercy. Do you have any idea how many times I've screwed up? If God was an impatient God I wouldn't be sitting in front of a laptop typing a poorly written blog! No God is a merciful God. But there's a problem; if God is a merciful God then how can he judge me? Because He is also an absolutely good God, and if God is absolutely good and He is the Judge of all creation then how can he allow evil to go unpunished? He simply cannot.

So you see here that God is faced with a dilemma; He cannot allow evil to go unpunished, and His children insist on doing evil things. *sigh* What's a God to do? This is where Jesus comes in. Somebody has to be punished for all this evil and He doesn't want it to be us, He is a loving God after all. So in comes Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, ready and willing to take our place. God pours out all His judgment and wrath on a perfect and blameless man. It's bloody, it's shameful, it's a public display of God's judgment. And it gives Him great satisfaction to see justice done because He is a just God.

And that's that. God gets justice for sin and He can spend the rest of eternity loving, and being loved by, His creation. accept that we, as the dumb, rather senseless sheep that we are, insist on abusing the gift we've been given, which is basically like slapping God in the face. Frequently. Now if God were not a God of mercy He would do what your parents likely would do if you slapped them in the face, bend you over their knee and teach you some manners. But that's not God. God is infinitely patient, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. You can see this in His letter to the Chruch of Thyatira in Revelation 2:

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet.... 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds,and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

God gave Jezebel time to repent, it was her fault that she chose not to take it. So while you are continuously slapping Him in the face, He is calmly telling you to stop. You and I both know what our Father is capable of, yet He is giving you the chance to stop. Does that mean that you are free from His wrath? No. He is simply giving you the option to ask for forgiveness. 'But Bri,' I hear you say, 'I've been doing this for years and nothing horrible has happened.' To that I ask you this, has God simply left you be? You see, His wrath doesn't have to be fire and brimstone. God knows what's at the end of this road and He may have decided to let the result be punishment enough. I came the realization that God hadn't punished my repeated sin, not because He is a forgiving God, but because He said 'if she insists on playing with fire the burn itself will be punishment enough'. Does that sound malicious? I don't think so. God gave me every opportunity to repent, I chose not to take it. I was slapping Him in the face after all. He gave me mercy and I chose not to accept it and a good Father reprimands His children.

The Love of Wrath

The wrath of God
A naked man
Held aloft
By sinners hands
The love of God
His sacrifice
To cleanse our hearts
Of sin’s firm vice
His wrath poured out
Sweet justice served
Our bail paid off
With five broken words
The three in one
Torn one and two
Your Father’s face
Was turned from you
A roaring lion
Turned to a lamb
The wrath of God
Was turned from man
And in its place
A fathers love
Given free reign
Rains from above
What heights of love
What depths of peace
My fears are stilled
My strivings cease
The sting of death
The wrath of God
Was spent on Christ
To clense our flaws
The flood was passed
The winter gone
And all He asks
Is for a song

TTFN! That's ta ta for now!