His mercy can be blocked

Joshua 12–13; Psalm 145; Jeremiah 6; Matthew 20

Last night just before midnight a thunderstorm hit our city. Usually such storms are exciting with all the noise and driving rain. This time it wasn’t. Two times the lightning was violent and very close. I almost expected someone’s house to be on fire and my heart was doing loop-de-loops. The wind and rain were also furious but nothing like those two bolts of lightning.

This morning the sun is shining as if nothing happened. No news of ruined homes or other damages. I thought of the NT verse that speaks of the goodness of God to send rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45) then read today’s psalm where God’s goodness is praised. It seems universal like the rain, yet David did make distinctions between that and the goodness the Lord shows only to His people.

David speaks in a general sense about God’s attitude toward all people:

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. (Psalm 145:8–9)

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. (Psalm 145:13–17)

These verses speak of His great patience and love. He is good to all and His mercy is shown in the many things He does for people that we cannot do for ourselves, like breathing and making it rain. He is kind — even though resisted and resented. He supplies food and takes care of the basics of life. The whole world experiences His goodness.

David also speaks in specific ways about God’s relationship to those who are His people through faith in His Son:

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. (Psalm 145:10–12)

All His works refers to whatever He has done in creation and the regeneration of His people, His saints. We who believe declare His power and talk about Him in ways that those without faith do not recognize or do. For all who have new life through faith, this is significant. David says more about how anyone can be saints and part of His kingdom, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” (Psalm 145:18–19) This blessing is for those who are poor in spirit and recognize their poverty. It is not for the proud who think they don’t need Him.

The last two verses of this psalm mixes the two groups and speaks of their destiny:

The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. (Psalm 145:20–21)

My life is preserved for eternity. God gave me this life, yet it is available to everyone willing to call on Him and speak truth to Him, particularly about sin and needing forgiveness. He calls those who reject this offer ‘wicked’ and their destiny is not the same. Because of His incredible goodness, I can praise Him, yet He desires ‘all flesh’ to bless Him forever.

APPLY: Grateful humility today, and the rest of my days, thankful for salvation from sin — and that those electric bolts of lightning were not meant to scare or destroy, merely to remind me of His incredible power!

 

 

Jesus outdoes West Jet

A promotional idea by a Canadian airline warms the heart. They used technology to have a ‘real’ Santa commune with passengers in a lounge waiting for their flight. Santa knew their names and asked each family member what they would like for Christmas. Then, while the flight was happening, airline employees rushed to ‘play Santa’ and bought every gift requested (from socks to a large TV), wrapped them, and tagged each one with the recipients full name. When the airplane landed at its destination and the passengers gathered to pick up their luggage, they were astonished as these gifts came down the belt and into their possession. (See the video)
 

Today’s devotional verse has a connection to this story. It is about God who created all and is the source of all goodness. While He isn’t a ‘Santa’ who indulges our every wish, He is our very source of life . . .

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “In him we live and move and have our being”  . . .  (Acts 17:24–28)

The Bible speaks of a common grace, a goodness to humanity that is partly described in these verses. One author says that this grace began with a “stay of execution” in Eden. God told Adam and Eve that if they sinned, they would die, but He delayed that judgment. Instead, He promised a Seed of a woman that would triumph over sin and death, meaning redemption for all who would believe.

This common grace keeps all mankind living and breathing. It also gives all mankind a sense of God, even a longing. Every religious system testifies to a conviction of moral accountability before a holy God for how we treat each other. Common grace gives our hearts a sense of eternity, just as God also “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)

By this common grace, we also know that we fumble and have a vague sense of living in the dark, yet there is also a hope that nothing is quite impossible. We want to do good, yet under that desire is a vague knowing that we always miss that which we need the most. We sense that we fall short, mostly without realizing that this knowledge is a grace from God as well.

Grace presupposes fault and sin. We were not created as sinners, but in the image of God, meant to rely on Him in a moral and personal relationship. The first sin broke that relationship, and since then grace keeps us breathing until we can find our way back to God, or rather, until He brings us back.

I read this week that every good thing is from Him, the One who is far superior to any Santa. Yet in our sinful state, we pervert the good to make it personally profitable. While we still want that goodness that we lost in Eden, we do not have what it takes to make it pure and holy, godlike. Instead, we do our best, but always with mixed motives and selfish gain in mind. Even the giving of gifts warms our own hearts and certainly creates good customer relations.

Creation was God’s good gift. He is perfect, complete in Himself and needed nothing, yet made humans to love and to reveal His goodness. The response should have been gratitude, obedience, and intimacy, but we blew it. Grace became God’s next good gift, grace until the fullness of time when grace and God came into time and space . . .

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

We marvel at modern technology that can project live images that talk to live people and make wishes come true, yet isn’t there a greater marvel? How about a God that became man, a God who speaks to people dead in sin and makes those who respond live again? And He does it without computers, cameras, wireless connections, or even hoards of helpers . . . but by grace. And by grace we can be saved through faith, not our own doing but because this is the unexpected and unequaled gift of God!