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 heart and mind in 1 Chronicles 9:1,
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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"They were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness."
"Unfaithfulness" is defined by Merriam-Webster as "not adhering to vows, allegiance, or duty". It is an indictment of omission. Israel failed to put her trust and faith in God and so the northern ten tribes were destroyed by Assyria and the southern two by the Babylonians, who took the remnant left into a captivity that lasted seventy years.
The unfaithfulness of Israel led them into a rejection of their God and a headlong pursuit of idolatry. As is often the case, when the Lord is not pursued, something else will be that leads to destruction.
This morning it occurs to me that all it takes to find ourselves spending an eternity in hell, is to simply fail to do one very important thing - fail to place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. We don't even need to pursue idols as Israel did, we don't need to engage in sinful activity - all we need is to fail to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. By not choosing to do so brings us eternal judgment. Just sitting there and doing nothing is enough to disqualify us for heaven.
The purpose of this life is to sift mankind. Those who choose God inherit a place in God's family. Those who fail to choose God miss that opportunity.
The line of reasoning, "I'm not so bad" misses the point altogether. Doing nothing is fatal. Each and every one of us needs to act on the gospel invitation - failure to respond in faith and trust by the end of our earthly life brings damnation.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
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