Loved and Protected

Have you noticed how easy it is to get off track as a Christian? How easy it is to fixate on certain aspects of our relationship with God, and neglect others?

Our day is known for grace. And though grace is a good thing, I see something happening that isn’t so good. I call it “gracing out.” This happens when we forget that the God we serve is the same one who struck down sinful men with a single word. Who sent a ball of fire to consume Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed the earth with a flood. He’s the same God who said, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” Our God is a good and gentle God, a tender-hearted Father to those who love and serve Him with their whole hearts. But He is something else entirely to those who take Him for granted, and continue on in their sin.

He is a God of judgment. Scripture says God does not change, so the God who opened the earth to consume Dathan and Abiram in Genesis, is the same God we serve today. We dare not take lightly His grace and mercy, for He can become our judge in an instant.

I don’t know about you, but everything I see reflects His hand of judgment on our nation. The terrible winds, driving rain and thunderstorms, drought, flooding, fires, tornadoes, economic downturns, job losses, power outages–all these things are ongoing and unusual, and they portend worse things to come.

And why shouldn’t He judge us? We have removed His name from our courthouses, schools and money, and have flaunted our sin in His face. So how dare we think we won’t face judgment?

Before this is over, the Bible says every knee will bow and confess that He is Lord and there is no other. We are now standing at a crossroads, one a narrow, steep path that Scripture says the righteous walk on. The other is the wide way, full of men going in the wrong direction. And time is very short, I believe, until we will see God, whether we believed in Him or not, and we will be forced to look Him in the eye, and be judged for what we have done in the flesh.

It’s time to bow down, body, soul and spirit, hook, line and sinker withholding nothing, because if we are not His, we will have chosen our course, apart from Him.

The time is now to search our hearts, making Jesus Lord over every nook and cranny, cleaning out the secret compartments that hold sin, repenting, putting them under the blood, and forsaking them forever. For even we as believers will be judged for what’s in our hearts, and nothing will be hidden in the end.

I can’t even imagine the shock and dismay some will face believing they were saved when God says, “Depart from Me ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you.” Those who held onto secret sin, who had their own agenda, those who preached another gospel, who promised prosperity in exchange for cash, will be judged.

Scripture says men will say, “Haven’t I preached in Your name? Didn’t I minister to the hurting and heal the sick and give money to the poor?” And Jesus will say, “Depart, and be cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

You see, He knows our hearts and can read our motives, and if they are impure, it won’t be a secret from God.

We dare not take for granted the marvelous grace of God any longer. We must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and do right, for time is short and judgment is at the door.

Let him who has ears hear the Word of the Lord!

Because of His great love,

Nancy

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