God is Love

Ezekiel 3, "Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.' So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth...But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house.' And he said to me, 'Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. Go now to your countrymen in exile and speak to them. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says,' whether they listen or fail to listen." I feel this calling on my life. I feel like Christ is asking me to write, whether others listen or not. I have been alone in exile and I feel He is asking me to share my life so that others may have a chance to get out of their own exile.

God has given us so many warnings. He is a loving God. He is love, but He cannot tolerate sin. Through His love, He has given us a chance to be saved from our sin, but we must act on that chance. Many people read the Old Testament and see a God of wrath and vengeance, but I see a God of love and patience. I see this because for years He would warn the people of the inevitable to come, if they did not turn from their sins. He did not want them to suffer, so He sent others to warn them of the heartache they were going to cause upon themselves. In my own life, I can look back and see the warnings God was putting right in front of me. It is like He was begging me to stop and turn to Him, so that I would not have to suffer so much. But in my rebellion, I turned my back on Him and did what "I" wanted to do. So in retrospect, I chose my own misery. I chose to not heed the warning. I chose to "live the good life." In choosing my own ways, I chose my destruction.

God is good. God is love. The other day Eric, my 6 yr old, asked me, "Mom, why is God love?" I looked at him and said, "That is just who He is. He is love." Then I asked him, "Why are you a little boy?" "I just am," was his reply. Then I ended with, "That is why God is love, He just is." In this love, He is constantly warning us to not choose destruction, but begging us to choose Him. In His love and mercy He is giving us the opportunity to choose life. He warns us that He cannot tolerate sin and He can only accept us, if we will accept Him. In His loving kindness, He gives us the ultimate decision. He will not force us to choose Him. He waits patiently for us to come to Him, but there is a warning. There is destruction waiting for us, if we choose it. In this life I choose Him. But in this life, He allowed me to choose my suffering as well. Every day I must make a conscious effort to choose Him. My choice is in everything that I do, from the music that I listen to, the shows that I watch, the "everything" that I put in my body. I choose Him in how I choose to dress. I choose Him in how I talk to my family and others. Or do I? I must stop and look, every day, at the choices that I make. He is love and He is begging me to choose Him. What are you choosing in the choices that you are making? "I place in front of you life and death, choose this day how you will live. Choose life."

Oswald Chambers, "If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all efforts of worth and excellence are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but its difficulty does not make us faint and cave in—it stirs us up to overcome. Do we appreciate the miraculous salvation of Jesus Christ enough to be our utmost for His highest—our best for His glory?"

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/07/07/devotion.aspx?year=2009