Taken for granted??
Taken for granted??
This morning's devotion for me focused on Hebrews 10:26-29 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?"
Reading these few verses made me ponder through a number of questions:-
1) Have we been taking God's grace for granted?
2) If yes, why is it so easy for us to take Him for granted?
3) What are the consequences for us, in taking God's grace for granted?
Mediating and pondering through these questions point-by-point, I realized that "Yes", many times and very often, we have taken God's grace for granted. I guess part of the reason is because sometimes there's off-balance in preaching the Word of God. What do I mean by that?
If we were to preach a God of wrath, judgement, anger, righteousness, holiness (and yes, these are also characteristics of God), then we began to "scare off" people who are truly seeking forgiveness and grace from God, giving them a perception of God being the angry one that stomp after us in every little act that we have done that displeases Him. The fear of God, the fear for the Lord becomes a very negative, oppressive kind of fear.
However, on the other hand, if we were to preach a God of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, embrace, patience (and yes, these are also characteristics of God), then we begin to give people a perception of a God who will always be bearing with our nonsense, how ever severe they are. After all, God will forgive me when I ask for forgiveness, isn't it? True - but then we forget the aspects of repentance. We take only what we like - the forgiveness and lovely dovely part, and forget our part of the deal, ie. repentance. We begin to take the meaning of repentance very lightly - telling ourselves as long as we say "Sorry, Lord" and perhaps keep our toes off for a day or two, we're fine.
As teachers and preachers of God's Word, we need to be very careful about how we preach about God and His Word to those who hear us. Very often, we like to preach words that tickles the ears - we don't want people to react in anger to our messages and stomp up to us and criticize us, or whatever. But if we take a careful look at the prophets of old - real men and women who carry the messages and words of God - they spoke boldly ... they spoke what were put in their mouths, no more and no less ... they spoke courageously, even though they know it means rejection or persecution. They were willing to preach what God said people needed to hear.
Read Hebrews 10:29 again "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?" The consequence of treating God with contempt is very severe. Have we ever notice it? Have we ever treated the sacrifice of Jesus, the blood of the covenant, the Spirit of grace like nothing, taking whatever goodness God has shown us for granted?
Beware! While God is gracious, He also maintains discipline. We ought to fear the Lord as we live our lives - not that negative, oppressive fear, but the healthy fear of not wanting to displease or hurt him with our actions - just like we would all love to make our parents happy, or someone we love happy - that's the kind of attitude, not deliberately hurting those we love. How much do we love God? That's something we have to answer for ourselves, but dear friends, take heed of Hebrews 10:26-29.
This morning's devotion for me focused on Hebrews 10:26-29 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?"
Reading these few verses made me ponder through a number of questions:-
1) Have we been taking God's grace for granted?
2) If yes, why is it so easy for us to take Him for granted?
3) What are the consequences for us, in taking God's grace for granted?
Mediating and pondering through these questions point-by-point, I realized that "Yes", many times and very often, we have taken God's grace for granted. I guess part of the reason is because sometimes there's off-balance in preaching the Word of God. What do I mean by that?
If we were to preach a God of wrath, judgement, anger, righteousness, holiness (and yes, these are also characteristics of God), then we began to "scare off" people who are truly seeking forgiveness and grace from God, giving them a perception of God being the angry one that stomp after us in every little act that we have done that displeases Him. The fear of God, the fear for the Lord becomes a very negative, oppressive kind of fear.
However, on the other hand, if we were to preach a God of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, embrace, patience (and yes, these are also characteristics of God), then we begin to give people a perception of a God who will always be bearing with our nonsense, how ever severe they are. After all, God will forgive me when I ask for forgiveness, isn't it? True - but then we forget the aspects of repentance. We take only what we like - the forgiveness and lovely dovely part, and forget our part of the deal, ie. repentance. We begin to take the meaning of repentance very lightly - telling ourselves as long as we say "Sorry, Lord" and perhaps keep our toes off for a day or two, we're fine.
As teachers and preachers of God's Word, we need to be very careful about how we preach about God and His Word to those who hear us. Very often, we like to preach words that tickles the ears - we don't want people to react in anger to our messages and stomp up to us and criticize us, or whatever. But if we take a careful look at the prophets of old - real men and women who carry the messages and words of God - they spoke boldly ... they spoke what were put in their mouths, no more and no less ... they spoke courageously, even though they know it means rejection or persecution. They were willing to preach what God said people needed to hear.
Read Hebrews 10:29 again "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?" The consequence of treating God with contempt is very severe. Have we ever notice it? Have we ever treated the sacrifice of Jesus, the blood of the covenant, the Spirit of grace like nothing, taking whatever goodness God has shown us for granted?
Beware! While God is gracious, He also maintains discipline. We ought to fear the Lord as we live our lives - not that negative, oppressive fear, but the healthy fear of not wanting to displease or hurt him with our actions - just like we would all love to make our parents happy, or someone we love happy - that's the kind of attitude, not deliberately hurting those we love. How much do we love God? That's something we have to answer for ourselves, but dear friends, take heed of Hebrews 10:26-29.
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