Am I vindictive?

“You are judging me!” is a much over-used accusation.  Our value on self-expression has stolen our willingness to accept correction as well as our ability to speak honestly about right and wrong. Paradoxically, all this ‘freedom’ is actually causing the expansion of regulation.  Fearful of the chaos that will inevitability result from love of Self, we allow nameless, faceless agencies to impose regulation on just about every part of our lives!  We do not trust each other to make choices that will promote the general good so we clamor for laws to ‘protect’ us and our property.  Morality is overridden by emotional need so often that we do not trust people to do the ‘right thing’ to honor promises, keep vows, or fulfill contracts without coercion of the law.  Strangely, the nation that was built on freedom has allowed an unprecedented growth of police powers and imprisons a larger percentage of her population than any country in the world!  In October 2013, the incarceration rate stood at 716 per 100,000.  We have about 4.4 percent of the world's population, but we have 22 percent of the world's prisoners in our jails.

So what happened to us?  No single thread accounts for the sickness of American society, but a primary one is the loss of a sense of accountability to God that promotes choices of personal responsibility.  We discarded Judgment Day!  The portrait of God morphed from an Almighty Being of majestic holiness to a remote Deity, loving but detached, perhaps even impotent.  We are cut loose from the constraints that arise out an expectation that we will give an accounting to One who "judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart!”  But the Scripture is clear that  “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." (Hebrews 4:12-13, NIV)

The Proverb is inscrutable to the average American mind today but the truth it holds remains: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." (Proverbs 1:7, NKJV)  When God owns His rightful place in us, there is an order to life that flows from knowing both His mighty power and His immeasurable love!  We need to know that He cares for us and that He is unafraid to bring justice.  Without Judgment Day we will slip into unbridled sin and deep fear.  We will either live too passively in the face of evil, accepting it as irresistible; or we will become too violent, taking up our guns in a determined attempt to put an end to evil-doing.

Evil, in me and in my world, is real, not imagined.  It demands a Day of Judgment that will bring about justice.  If I cannot hope for justice when I see the bullies and tyrants of the world in temporary triumph, hope is gone. The only reasonable response would be to jump into the mad rush of self-expression to grab whatever momentary pleasure might be found, no matter the expense to others.  But, I hope for Judgment Day! Am I vindictive? Not at all.  Knowing that God, in perfect justice, will bring all to account gives me the ability to forgive as well as the motive to live a holy life.

You may rightly say, “Jerry, what makes you think you will not fall under His gaze, cut down by your own sins?”   Only one thing:  the grace I have received through Christ Jesus, my Savior!  Yes, Judgment Day makes the Gospel all that more wonderful. I sing joyfully that  “I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind but now I see!”  Because, ‘T’was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved! How precious did that that grace appear, the hour I first believed!”

Are you unable to stand against evil?

Have you given up hope because of the seemingly flood of evil in this world?

Are you finding yourself angry and violent in response to the sins that visit such suffering on humanity?

Take hope and strength from God’s promise of Judgment! The words that close the Scripture in the final chapters of the Revelation can be horrific for those who do not grasp the gospel, but to me they are words of hope – for me and for the world.  A small excerpt is our word from the Word for today.  May they cause us to fear, to become wise, to take hold of Christ, and to pray for the defeat of evil!

" After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” (Revelation 19:1-2, NIV)

"And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time." (Revelation 20:1-3, NIV)

"And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." (Revelation 20:12, NIV)  "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea." (Revelation 21:1, NIV)

Glorious Day!