Read the Book: October - DecemberSample

THE LOVE IN GOD'S JUDGMENT

The Book of Revelation can be intense. Reading chapter after chapter of God’s judgment can be overwhelming. Sometimes seeing destruction like this can seem contradictory to the love of God that we see in other places in the Bible. In reality, in order for God to be a just God, He has to punish sin. He created a perfect world, with no suffering or pain, and people, through their sin, brought pain into the world. It broke the relationship that every person has with God, other people, and the earth. Because He loves us, God provided a way for us to experience that love by sending Jesus to take responsibility for the sin that was not his fault.

God has created a place for us in Heaven but, because He is a perfect and just God, He can’t allow sin into heaven. Jesus’ blood is the only thing that provides the covering for our sin. For those who choose not to accept what Christ did on the cross, God can’t allow them into heaven because sin is not allowed. God’s love is the reason that He has to cleanse the earth of the pain and brokenness that is so widespread here. This is not the way that God intended things to be.

There is a reason that God is the one that is in charge of the judgment. We tend to want to draw a line separating the “good people” from the “bad people”, to protect the “innocent”. However, if we really look at the requirements to be holy and be welcomed into heaven, we realize that the line has to be drawn, not between good people and bad people, but between Jesus and the rest of us. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) The only One that deserves to be in heaven and escape the wrath of God is Jesus Himself. That is why the only way that we can be allowed into heaven is through His sacrifice. God’s judgment can seem harsh to us, but what we must remember is that His judgment is what all of us deserve, but that it was His love that provided a way out through Jesus.

FAMILY CONNECTION

Before you eat a meal, set a stopwatch for thirty seconds of silence! When it ends, everyone can eat. Was it hard to wait for thirty seconds before you could eat? It says in the Bible that in the moments before God returns there will be thirty MINUTES of silence. The entire world will be patiently waiting for God, who created everything, to proclaim His return. We can excitedly wait for the return of the God who created everything! But now is not the time to be silent! How can we tell people around us how amazing God is?