Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
“The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Romans 6:23
The earth is amazing! How many continents have you been to? The vast Pacific Ocean seems endless, the depths of the sea remain largely uncharted, unexplored. The universe? There is no way that we can fathom the expanse of the universe. The light from the Sun takes only 8 minutes to arrive at planet earth. When you watch a sunset on earth you are watching history, an event that took place 8 minutes prior. Consider this: if the Milky Way was shrunk to fit in the borders of the continental United States, our Solar System would be the size of a quarter hidden somewhere in North Dakoka and planet earth would be a single grain of sand resting on the quarter. There are some 8.3 billion humans occupying space on the grain of sand.
Is God punishing me? The short answer is a resounding NO! No, the Master of the Universe is not punishing you. If you think that God is taking the time to punish you then you have an over-inflated ego. God only desires good for you. God never has punished you. God never will punish you.
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7
God is abounding in steadfast love. God is not punishing you. This text describes God and the reality of the human journey. It is descriptive, not prescriptive. It does not have to be this way; it just is this way. The Bible speaks of familia brokenness, the generational fallout that follows abuse, neglect, betrayal and disobedience to God’s ways. The sins of the parents are visited upon future generations; we see this reality all around us. Until destructive cycles are broken the dysfunction will remain long after the ancestors are gone. The neglect of their ancestors will leave our grandchildren with a warming, less habitable world and an oppressive national debt. God is not punishing us; God has no desire or need to punish us. We do a good job of punishing ourselves as we live with the consequences of our life choices.
Many in our community and in our world, experience suffering that can be directly attributed to the freewill choices of others; corrupt governments, greedy powerbrokers, self-centered family members.
Is God punishing me? There may be many causes of the suffering that you are currently experiencing, but God is not one of them. Two days after writing this piece, I fell down a flight of stairs, fracturing my arm, chipping my elbow, complicating my life. Is God punishing me? The answer most certainly is NO. The universe does not revolve around me, and I am guessing that God is too busy to plan my missteps. The accident came about as human carelessness put me at the mercy of inescapable force we call gravity. The laws of Physics are not punishments; they bear witness to God who brought order out of chaos.
Is God punishing me? Look to the stars. Science tells us that 94% of the images we see in the evening sky are no longer there. The universe is vast; our God is mysterious and beyond our comprehension. The Bible is clear; God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. God is not inclined to pick on poor humans resting on a speck of sand somewhere in North Dakota.
One beggar, telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
