God is Kind But Not Soft

God is Kind, But Not Soft

Who among us believe God's discipline is sweet or that it's not going to hurt or even leave a mark?

Nope, it totally hurts and it gets worse when we continue to be stubborn. But the good news is that God is such a loving God, His kindness is off-the-charts and He extends His mercy as much as He can. Indeed they are new each morning, all of us gets a fresh start the moment we wake up but we can only stray away so much until we run out of 'get out of jail free' cards.

So who here thinks, God does not discipline us as He disciple us? Yes He does and many times He does it through His Word.

Now, the book of Romans has always been an eye opener for me and It's not going to surprise me that in the near future our politically correct world will find a way to ban it, label it as intolerant and worse, make it illegal.

So in the meantime, it is wise to keep on studying it as much and as long as we can freely do so. Today, let's read a short portion of it...

"Those people are on a dark spiral downward (referring to the stubborn people who has turn away from God). But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.

You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change."  Romans 2:1-4 (MSG)

Wow, I told you, God's Word disciplines and it hurts but they have the power to renew our minds and to change us.

This passage is one such passage and if there is one thing, I want for us to take away from this, it is that God's out-of-this-world kindness is what will bring people to repentance and radically change their ways. And us, who have already knew and tasted this loving kindness first hand, have the awesome opportunity to share the same life-changing love we have received to people who are still stumbling in the dark. It's how God set it up. Leave the judgment and the wrath to God, that's not what we're suppose to do. And yes, that's hard and it hurts, but it's the truth, and this is what's going to set both us and them free. Point them to Jesus and let God take over.

"Don’t you know that the reason God is good to you is because he wants you to turn to him?" CEV