Kindness and Severity
After some reader feedback from our No Man (or Woman) is an Island podcast, Brad and Wayne find themselves in a discussion base on Romans 11:22 about the kindness and severity of God. Many people misunderstand the reality of the loving Father as just a God who is nice all the time. What about God's severity? God is not just love, he is also light. Understanding that will change our view of righteousness from an onerous obligation, to one of the most incredible offers God makes to us. Knowing and loving him, who wouldn't want to be like him?
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This reminds me of learning from He Loves Me or Transitions, that I always imagined God’s wrath with out His Love. It’s so difficult to grab a hold of because we all have so little experience of punishment or discipline with love. The more I live loved the more I can see that “sin diminishes me” and it seems to be getting a little easier to move forward into the yuck instead of plugging my ears and singing la la la la. Not that I don’t do that, its just that I can tell its less than it use to be. Does that make sense? I do so grow weary with the response to Grace teaching that is all about liscense. Author Dan Stone points out in The Rest of the Gospel, that when people hear Grace teaching and they hear liscense they are hearing it with “law” ears. And when you hear it with Spirit you hear freedom. I think its amazing how much energy is used focused on sin on self and relational love gets missed. One can only conclude satan is busy But God is bigger. This was good. Thank you Brad and Wayne.
The balance of love and justice is a tough one and one I think we just need to be honest and say it is a struggle to understand the judgement of God- but if all things/actions were the same, then good and evil would be the same and we know that is not true. True love has two sides and yet in the end, God paid the ultimate price. -which Jesus Christ demonstrates powerfully and The Shack demonstrates beautifully
– cornelia seigneur
west linn oregon
http://www.writermom.net