RIGHTEOUS GOD

For those of you still going a chapter at a time through the Bible with me, we are in the book of Ezekial. For more than the past week, several times each day, we read how the Lord disciplined His people so that they would “know that He is God.” This is not just so the people would acknowledge God. It is so that people would reconnect with God in a loving manner… with Him as their Father and the people as His children. Yet, the people kept going astray; so God took corrective measures to get them in the fold. The Bible teaches us that God disciplines those He loves. Man’s folly is that he is his own worst enemy. He just can’t seem to withstand blessings and abundance very well. It often seems that the more we have the more independent of God we become. On the other hand, rules, boundaries, and limitations are important to man in order to keep him from wandering. If he is not disciplined - - -convinced to go back to righteousness - - - then there is seemingly no stopping him. We’ll live our own way, while disregarding God’s way, until a great upset occurs in our lives. Then we turn to God, often making all sorts of promises and covenants. After the pain eases up, there we go again. Yet, God loves us so much that He will not abandon nor forsake us. He will keep attempting to change us (discipline us) until we decide to surrender unto Him…or until we totally turn our back on Him. As a people, as a nation, it appears that we are turning our back on Him. I don’t want to seem negative but reality is very important right now. We not only lack obedient love for God, we also lack fearful awe of God too. There is little to fear from God in the new lovey-dovey God that is presented today. We act like He is all mush with no ascription to character, virtue, honor, and righteousness. We just live how we want to and “our loving Jesus will be there to meet us at our point of need.” We might be in for a bit of a surprise when this whole thing is over, for the Lord of the Bible is a righteous God.