My sudden new thought for the day...

Currently I think the most terrifying thing about God is His choice to give us choice. It’s terrifying because of the vicious depravity it made possible…and because of the raw and immense pain God opened Himself up to. A God who can choose to be gouged with such ferocious sin and rebellion… is terrifying. With one eye shut the choice looks like weakness, but with both eyes open it has an inhuman strength to it. What it proves is that God is wholly other… or Holy. He is waiting with an everlasting patience, bearing every anguish that humans experience, so that we might choose Him again… and again.


The next most terrifying thing is my ability to choose sin over God -despite the way it deeply wounds God and despite the judgment that hangs over my head. We all live under the guillotine so to speak – the only difference is that Jesus is holding it back for Christians. So although I am spared, each choice of sin I make swells the judgment that came down on Christ. Someone once wrote that our sin held Jesus to the cross… I’m beginning to see the enormity of the truth in that. Sometimes I think that I sin mostly because I’m so careless. Maybe it would help me choose God over sin if I remembered every morning the judgment Christ is upholding from coming down over my head… and that any choice apart from God adds more weight and pain to that judgment.

I was reading Oswald Chambers (Boy he doesn’t mince his words). He says this about sin. “If sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin will be killed. There is no possible ultimate but that. The climax of sin is that it crucified Jesus and what is true in the history of God on earth will be true in your history and in mine”. WHEW. Once in a while it’s nice to have those black and white moments. It frees me to BATTLE. You cannot have two masters… when I choose sin… I am killing or x-ing out God’s life. So YAHHHHH I had better wake up and fight! I don’t want to be spit out as lukewarm because I was careless and sleepy. (You know those sleepy days where you’re like… eh. I can let my mind wander… not think about the admirable and praiseworthy things. Eh I can complain about this annoying woman. Eh… I can read this stupid People magazine. It can’t hurt). But it sure can. Pretty soon all your head is full of is complaints, scandal, gossip, and half naked men or women. Heh… sorry my complaint is magazines. But anyway, there’s no point any even dwelling two seconds on those things. There are people to pray for, praises to sing, thanks to give, peace to receive, joy to laugh, terrifying aspects of God to ponder… well you get the picture. This morning, I spent outside instead of in the dark adoration chapel. With the world flung beneath me (I was kind of on this hill) I burbled praises up to the blue sky with no one but God to hear. It was lovely. I thought maybe that I could go on singing forever.

Just making the choice to praise instead of curse can set you back on the path to peace and righteousness and win the battle over sin for a moment.