Spiritual Ponderings

Who's judging who? When God doesn't deal with criminals and dictators or perpetrators the way we think they should be dealt with, how does that make us feel about Him? Do we feel a little bit resentful that those vicious people did not ever receive at least some of the pain that they inflicted on others or maybe on us? Religious piety may tend to mask over our real feelings about situations like this, but when something happens very close to us it usually becomes impossible to hide our true feelings any longer. Just about every one of us has a point at which we might snap and become furiously angry at injustice. And behind our rage at injustice by others is an even deeper resentment that God has seemingly done nothing to prevent it or stop it from happening. In theory we often say that God is the great Judge of all the earth. But what do we really mean when we say that? Don't we secretly at least, hope that being an all-powerful Judge that He will at some point give ou...

And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22) I have been grappling for years to perceive from heaven's viewpoint what the death of Christ on the cross really meant in the context of the real truth about God. Nearly every belief that I have ever heard taught on this subject is riddled with insinuations inferring that God is out for blood, is eager for punishment and uses at least some of the tactics of the enemy of perfect righteousness. As I prayed and searched my own heart this morning and meditated on this even more deeply, something clicked inside of my mind that I want to grasp better. The above text has caused uneasiness in my heart for many years because it seems to reinforce the dark views of God that I can no longer embrace as truth. But now an underlying assumption is leaking out along with better insight as to what must be true. I have been convinced that Jesu...