The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in James 1:14-15,
"After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
Sin brings death. We are told in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. In the account of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden God told Adam, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 2:16-17. In speaking of the sinful, in Revelation 21:8, the One seated on the throne told John, "the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." The sinful will all enter into eternal death.
Sin brings death!
Why is it that sin gives birth to death? In Psalm 33:8-11 we read, "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." From this passage I learn that although I may have my own agenda and my own desires, the Lord has his. The creation he brought about exists to fulfill his plans and purposes! (How many times have I found myself living in such a way as if it were the other way around, that God exists to help me accomplish my desires, my agenda?)
We were created out of God's own purposes. When what he has created does not fulfill his purposes, he destroys it. This is evidenced in the account of Noah's flood. In Genesis 6:5 we read, "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." As a result, he destroyed the world through the flood. In Genesis 11 we read of people who pursued an agenda not in line with the Lord's. They said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Genesis 11:4. There, rather than destroying the people, God destroyed their purposes. He scattered them over the face of the earth, confusing their language. How many countless nations and empires have found their fate in the judgment of God for pursuing that which is not God's agenda!
As we see in Psalm 33, the Lord has his own purposes. Creation exists to fulfill those purposes and when it fails to do so, the Lord does something different. In Jeremiah 18:3-4, we read, "I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."
What is so wonderful about our God is that he provides opportunity for us to regain a position back within his purposes. We read further in the Jeremiah passage, "If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned." Jeremiah 18:7-8. God's plan of redemption is just that. Where we all deserve to be tossed into the ash heap of his judgment, God has made a way for us all to escape our place in his judgment and be reinstated within that which is his purpose and agenda. All he asks is that we trust in him...
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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