meditations for an everyday relationship with Jesus

God is just

Psalm 92:12-15 The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courtyards of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green, to declare: "The Lord is just; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."

The upright ones will continue to thrive into old age just like the magnificent cedars of Lebanon or the redwoods on the west coast of the United States.

They are planted in God’s courtyard, and they bring Him great pleasure. Unlike fruit borne in our youth, the fruit borne of wisdom and life experience is not necessarily more abundant, but it is sweeter and more filling.

The roots we send out over a lifetime seek to wrap around the rock of our Lord Jesus and our stability is reliant upon Him.

Grace part 1

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father or mother and doesn't listen to them even after they discipline him, his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown. They will say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he doesn't obey us. He's a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid."

If we did this today the bodies would be piling up at a much greater rate than we could bury them. I am no longer convinced that stoning to death would be an adequate deterrent. Just a larger pile of corpses. I suspect that this is what God was beginning to notice.

Thankfully belief purges the evil we are unable to purge on our own. Jesus on the cross has done what no amount of stoning will correct.

Being an addict, it was finally Jesus who saved me, not the prospect of having rocks hurled my way. When Jesus died on the cross the stones were laid down and our souls were set free. The problem with stoning is that the real culprit is never dealt with: our cozy relationship with sin!