Monday, January 2, 2017
529 - Is God Mad at Me?
Spirituality
Column No. 529
January
3, 2017
Common
Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Is God Mad at Me?
By
Bob Walters
It
wasn’t a sure thing that my wife Pam and I would actually make it to church
this past Sunday morning … on New Year’s Day.
We visited friends New Year’s Eve and
were home well before midnight but Pam was nursing a cold and we both were
tired from a full day of tearing down and packing up Christmas decorations. Our intention had been, yes of course, to go
to church on the holiday even if partly just to be counted and see who else
showed up.
But in the winter dark and the cold
and getting up … who would miss us?
Virtue won out, and on the way to
church I mentioned to Pam that I was glad she felt well enough to go but that I
already figured I would go regardless because I had this weekly column to write
that afternoon. Normally I write on
Saturdays but Christmas clean-up got in the way and skipping church was no way
to start my writing day.
"Didn’t want God to be mad at you?”
she teased.
And there we have today’s subject in
the form of a question – “Is God mad at me?” – and an answer, “No, not even a
little bit.” Also please be assured, God’s
not mad at you either, not any more, not since Jesus. God loves us and always has, but we humans routinely
underestimate God’s charity.
And Satan is all for it.
God cuts a fearsome swath through the
Bible’s Old Testament. There is nothing
cheerful or hopeful or nurturing about God’s reaction in Genesis 3 to Adam and
Eve’s sin, to the world’s sin when God told Noah to build the ark in Genesis 6,
and on through the 39 books of the Old Testament. What we know about God is that He created the
world for his pleasure and made human beings in His own image that with their love
and obedience, of Him, God in His Kingdom would be glorified.
With Satan’s help, mankind screwed
that up with disobedience, bad choices, rebellion, misplaced legalism and on
and on. God is perfect, man is imperfect
and neither has changed. What has
changed, what is new and what was unexpected was God’s New Covenant in Jesus
Christ covering the sin of our disobedience and the Gospel of freeing us sinners
to love God in His mercy, not fear Him in His wrath.
Satan wants us to fear God’s
wrath. Jesus wants us to know the
enormity of God’s love, mercy and compassion.
Jesus, fully man and fully God, saves us – if we let Him – from sharing
the certain and fierce hell of Satan’s eternal punishment. The Holy Spirit is our spiritual comfort in
this physical life of occasional horrors, shining the glory of God and the
light of Jesus into our lives, freeing us from the doubt, guilt and fear Satan
relentlessly preaches into our hearts.
Even going to church on a holiday
Sunday morning. And Pam knew it.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com)
wishes a Happy New Year to all and the joy of discovering ever-increasing
freedom in Christ. Joy is Jesus; fear is Satan.
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