Spiritual Ponderings

I recently became aware of the real meaning of the passage in Romans 2:5 where it talks about storing up wrath for the day of wrath. Each of us is very literally a container of wrath and if not healed of this liability it will serve to destroy us in the day when we meet the igniting fiery presence of God. This wrath will burst out from inside of us to consume us with bitterness, rage and fury, particularly against those who convinced us that God was the one who was wrathful and arbitrary or that He was placating of sin and it made no difference how we lived. But something else came to me this morning to add to this growing awareness of my own large reservoir of wrath waiting to sabotage me at any time. I used to see this deep, buried container as full of sewage tightly sealed. I was aware that it contained repressed long held memories that I have tried to ignore for many years. I knew that these were symptoms of the long simmering rage that I always felt under the surface growing u...

Its starting to make a little more sense to me now, how that Jesus could be assigned as the judge and yet was not sent to judge anyone. That fits with what I have learning about real judgment. You who judge, do you not do the same thing yourselves? (Romans 2) If Jesus had come to judge us this principle would have applied to Him as well. In judging us He would have become just like us in participating in our sins. But by speaking the truth in real love, Jesus became an opportunity for us to reveal the choices of our hearts in response to His words of truth and love as well as the way in which we treated Him. I learned recently that judgment happens in the way in which we treat the vulnerable. So Jesus came without resisting evil men, as a vulnerable man to expose the secrets of the hearts of many. (Luke 2:35) Thus He became the catalyst for judgment to take place while at the same time not passing judgment on anyone. By speaking truth He created the circumstances for judgment...