Are We Judging God or is God Judging Us?
Good Morning Friends,
Tomorrow the sun will come up and it will be Election Day and it is an important day but make no mistake out it, some will win and some will lose. Now maybe you understand the doctrine of election and if you do you have figured out more than I. But somehow I have got to think that it is relevant for us now as we are involved in an earthly election. And I just have to thank God for choosing me in the only election that really matters and I have to be thankful that I have been chosen to be satisfied with God and for God regardless of who becomes President of the United States. Now some of you may not have a clue of what I am talking about, but the doctrine of election is a real hope for us to deal with what is happening. Sure it is difficult for people to understand. It is hard for a fish to know if they are wet. That is why our arrogance is so blind to us. And our pride and arrogance rules us even while we are being delivered. Our quickness to judge is frightening. We see it in our elected officials. But when a person embraces and is embraced by the doctrine of election something is unleased allowing people to serve in powerful ways. Something happens to make us more humble. Even so with the election, it is in God’s hands now and I wonder if in a few days we will be asking with a more humble view: Are We Judging God or is God Judging Us?
Scripture: As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
Colossians 3:12 (NRSV)
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”
Romans 11: 1-8 (NRSV)
The haughtiness of people shall be humbled, and the pride of everyone shall be brought low; and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. The idols shall utterly pass away.
Isaiah 2:17-18 (NRSV)
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever, to observe all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NRSV)
‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
Job 42:3-5 (NRSV)
just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:4-6 (NRSV)
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.
Romans 9:3 (NRSV)
Message: The Doctrine of Election is not a situation of God voting for us and the Devil voting against us and then we having the final vote. Paul was willing to die for those he saw as being cut off from God. No, this election has winners and losers and is God’s free choice before creation, not based on foreseen faith, to which traitors will be granted faith and repentance, pardoning them and adopting them into God’s everlasting family of joy. And this should bring us hope for God may elect everyone. But I am not sure for we seem to be living as a church in purgatory in need of an extension of grace to finish the work God has planned for us.
The point is that many people treat this situation with less seriousness than they should. Too many consider life as a game and believe that he who dies with the most toys wins. But all that seems rather silly. What makes it worse is that people play that game by so many different standards and what appears to me to be misunderstandings of life’s purpose. It seems to me that if we are to have a successful experience we need to agree to follow who leads us to life…We need to agree on a point of authority and the rules of God.
And one of the great mysteries of this is that God has predestined some of us to be saved by love for love. The basis of this righteousness given by God is our faith. For we do not know we are saved until we believe we are saved. Only by living with confidence in the faith of God’s love and His power can we hope to live in love. The process though unique to each of us always begins with faith and always ends with love….It is the test of the law. The proof of our election is Christ’s love in us. That is not to say that all we need is love but it is to say that love is the primary means we have of applying the law. Only when we love God in the expression of loving others can we fulfill the law. That is what Jesus did. The challenge of our calling is that we follow in His Way with the same love that Jesus had, connecting our love of God with our love for our neighbors regardless of who becomes President and the next Justice of the Supreme Court. So today’s devotional is about who is going to rule our hearts not our country. Today’s devotional is about being thankful for our God is sovereign.
Pray we as Christians realize we have a higher calling. Pray we turn to God in the love of Christ who fulfilled the law and now give us a path with sure footing grounded in the grace of the King. Pray we grow in Christ like faith. Pray we repent. Pray we choose the way of Jesus. Pray we are rigorous in our thinking about the Bible. Pray our minds are conformed to the wisdom of Christ. Pray we hear the word.
Pray we see that which God wants us to see. Pray that God sees the possibilities in us when others are confused by appearances. Pray we glimpse in love His reality. Pray we serve a God who sees when everyone else does not. Pray that we believe that God has a plan for our lives. Pray that we fulfill a dream to become significant because of what God is doing in and through us. Pray we not try to survive by pretense. Pray we be who God wants us to be. Pray we see through the eyes of love. Pray that we would be willing to follow Jesus sacrificing for the benefit of others our pride and arrogance in favor of bringing comfort to those in need. Pray that we not forget God in our prosperity. Pray that we not develop an arrogance that we deserve the blessings we have received. Pray we are healed of our prejudice and arrogance. Pray we receive God’s grace.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 