Reply To: Knowing God Chapters 17 & 18

It’s amazing how an emotion like jealousy, when felt and filtered through sinful human flesh is so dark, “one of the most cancerous and soul-destroying vices” yet when understood and expressed through our perfect Creator and Redeemer becomes the light of holy, moral glory, a positive virtue, an aspect of His covenant love for His people. The jealousy of God “requires us to be zealous for Him, to become men of one thing, to please Him; to say along with Jesus ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work’ ” His Spirit revives us, sets our hearts on fire, gives us clean hands and pure hearts -let us not lift our souls to another!

Again confusion and distortion of truth, where man tries to envision or make God into His own image and then tries to propitiate his sin by doing good works. The heart of the Gospel is such a love story – our Creator who first loved us then redeemed us from sin and death to reconcile us to an eternal, personal relationship with Him. He did so by offering His one and only Son to not only die the most horrific death of crucification but also, taking upon Himself all the sins of the world to atone for ours, He felt the depth of separation from His Father, “the deepest of all human problems. ‘Never man feared death like this man’ ” Perhaps the most incredible demonstration of empathy, that He actually felt what the lost will feel through eternity. Praise God for those who have been chosen and accepted adoption into His family, that we may have peace with God who is always for, never against us! Who loved/loves us with a sacrificial love, the depths of which cannot be measured. Help us Lord to imitate Your love with each other, all for Your glory. May Your praise ever be in our mouths.