Again

Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. They served the images of Baal and Ashtoreth, and the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia. They abandoned the Lord and no longer served him at all.
Judges 10:6 NLT

I belong to a small group at my church and our "extra" reading this session is the Book of Judges. I've been finding it difficult to journal on these chapters. The behavior of the Israelites is so repetitive and predictable; that is, until I finally realized it's the story of mankind from the beginning of time to this day...

We sin and get into trouble. We pray and repent and beg God to rescue us. He does in a mighty way, and we toe the line for a while and everything is good. Then in the good times, we tend to forget that God forgave us and rescued us and before you know it, we're back in it again! Sound familiar? It is chronicled in the Book of Judges. Over and over. Again and again.

The practical application of it all is that disobedience always brings judgment, but it's also about God's faithfulness in spite of ourselves! And THAT is chronicled throughout God's Word!

Colossians 1:19-22 NLT assures us, For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

To think that God loves us enough to reconcile us to Himself through the Cross at Calvary so that we can stand holy and blameless... When was the last time you thought about that? Well... let's think about it again.

Prayer:

Father,

          As we are reminded yet again of Your faithfulness and goodness and mercy and grace to forgive us and save us, we ask also that You prepare the hearts and minds of those who will attend church this Easter weekend around the world. Let them hear and embrace Your love story for us all and may it change their lives, too. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen