Do you think so? What do you think of Christmas? Does it give you a warm fuzzy feeling?
This year, as I read my Bible, I come across messages of sin and of God's intention to deal harshly with it.
Passages like Revelations 9:20-21:
The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.Or Zephaniah 1:18:
Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them
on the day of the Lord’s wrath.”
In the fire of his jealousy
the whole earth will be consumed,
for he will make a sudden end
of all who live on the earth.
These passages tell me that "peace on Earth, goodwill to men" is not entirely the message that we are to get. We should also know that Jesus is coming again to judge the world because of its unrighteousness. While judgement and unrighteousness are not popular messages, it is really something that we need to prepare for if we are to have peace with God ... eternally.
Would you agree?
Should we listen to only messages that we like, and shut out the ones we find unpleasant? Is there good and bad intertwined, as ying-and-yang? What is God really telling us? Are we listening?
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’
ReplyDelete“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.