Ken brought Rose’s beef up to Teresa and us.  We were able to have a brief time of fellowship with him, Teresa and Deed.  Not anywhere near long enough, but still it was good to have them here.

He had to get back to their farm, lots to do there since he has been tied up on the homicides – and of course lots of things to still do on those.  He was meeting up with Steven on I-5 on his way back.  Steven had an appointment that lasted longer than expected, but they eventually got together.

Jeremiah 45:2-5  Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch:

³ Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.

⁴ Thus shalt thou say unto him, The Lord saith thus; Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land.

⁵ And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

I have heard, many times, that the books of the Old Testament are just history, when Christ came the Old Testament ways became null and void.  After all, Christ was sent to be our redeemer and His message was one of love and compassion.

They say God know longer thinks the way He did in the Old Testament, those times have passed.

How can a compassionate God destroy people and send them to hell?

There are people that actually believe this, and to them ‘If I believe it then it is true.’  And that of course is if they actually read or understand the Bible accepting it as God’s Word – or at least part of it, the parts they like – they don’t even believe all of the New Testament – just want to believe Jesus loves us.

Yet, we are all God’s Creation, we know that He doesn’t want anyone to perish; He doesn’t relish the burden of having to condemn souls to hell.  But, He will.

I can’t remember which decade, now, although I believe it was in the 1980’s when people came to the conclusion that coddling their children and not holding them accountable wasn’t working.

They enabled them to sin, to destroy their lives with drugs and illicit acts by welcoming them back, covering their costs, or anything else they could do to help them recover – anything except hold them accountable and take action that forced the child to understand what they were doing was destructive to them and to others.

So a new method of love was decided upon, it was call ‘tough love.’  Parents were told not to cover the expenses, not to bail their children out, but allow them to suffer the consequences of their actions and then, just maybe, they would come to understand they needed to seek redemption.

While this did work for some, unfortunately it didn’t for far too many – the ‘tough love’ came too late for their restoration.

You cannot hold your children’s hands all of their lives.  It is up to the parents to raise their children to understand that there are consequences for actions, and if those actions are wrong then suffering may be their fate.

If a parent starts giving those lessons early in a child’s life then they are more apt to act responsibly and do what they know is right.  In the 1970’s there was a movement that declared if you just love a child, you won’t have to correct them – they will just understand.

That didn’t work; thus, the ‘tough love’ concept.  It wouldn’t have been necessary had these parents disciplined their children – in love and with a desire to help them grow into responsible adults, when they were young.

Today, we are seeing an even worse type of parenting.  No matter what their child has done it is someone else’s fault.  It isn’t the child’s and it certainly isn’t the parents’ it has to be those in authority who won’t allow them to be themselves.  Who try and hold them accountable for their actions or lack of them and thus the child is unhappy – so the parent is unhappy with the authorities. 

Parents teaching their children and holding them accountable is becoming a rarity.  We but have to look around us to see how that is working out.

I do understand that there are times that no matter what the parents’ do, the child doesn’t respond – one of the biggest problems and worries for a parent and the most dangerous for the child is drugs.  No matter how a child is raised, no matter how well they have done in the past, once they start using drugs they can go into a downhill spiral that can destroy them.

However, we still must try.                

God did all He could to lead the Hebrews into righteousness.  He gave them great leaders; He gave them prophets that told them what His expectations of them were.  He gave them opportunity after opportunity to come back to Him – and when they did He forgave them. 

Despite the history they had of what happens when they rebel against God, they still turned their back on Him, declaring they will live as they wish.

He would use discipline to correct them, minor at first as any parent does, but in the end many still refused to accept His authority and He had to use ‘tough love’ to bring those that were left and understood what their people had done, back to Him.  He used their enemies to perform that horrendous discipline.

God’s discipline can destroy people and nations.  America, indeed most of the world, has forgotten that.

The world pats itself on the back and says we are wiser than the Hebrews, we don’t believe in all that mumble jumble of God punishing people for wrong doing.  We create our own reality and God isn’t included – or if He is He either doesn’t care or is so full of love that He would never send anyone to hell.

And despite all the finger pointing and accusations of hate that Christians receive because we tell people that He has not changed and that He does hold people accountable – He has not changed and, despite their denial, He will hold them accountable.

Malachi 3:6  For I am the Lord, I change not;

Hebrews 11:5-7 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

⁷ If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

God didn’t send the armies of Hebrews enemies in to annihilate them and wipe them off the face of the earth.  He sent them to reinforce their need to listen and obey Him.  He needed to get their attention, He didn’t want to discipline them, He didn’t want to send these terrible punishments on them, but He loved them and He didn’t want to send them all to hell.

He told them that they would flourish and have peace and well-being if they accepted His Word and did what He commanded.

He loved them and told them so over and over again.  Yet, they were still disobedient to Him.  He gave them every opportunity to change their ways but they chose to ignore Him.

Out of love He chastised them.  Out of love He chastises us.

That is precisely what He is doing today, and despite the retribution the world is taking against Christians for proclaiming God’s Truth, as the Hebrews did the prophets, there will be a time of accounting for the world and it will not be to their liking.

God loves us, but it doesn’t mean He will accept the cesspool of sin the world has become.  It doesn’t mean He is not going to bring fire and brimstone down on the world – and that is happening in the form of bombs, attacks and possibly even much of the natural disasters that are occurring around the world – in an effort to bring us back to focusing on Him.

Yes, Jesus preached love and the actions to demonstrate our love for Him by showing His love to others.  But that doesn’t mean that He isn’t willing to send those that refuse to accept Him to hell.

Jesus is God.  God changes not, neither does His Son.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

And, as His Children, saved by His Grace, we need to continue telling people that.  Jesus does love them.

Ephesians 2:7-9 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again