March 4, 2006                                              God is Misrepresented

This time God was telling Joshua they could take the spoil. They could reap the rewards of the victory. They could burn the city and slay the inhabitants. I have seen so many vicious and malicious web sites where people are denigrating and blaspheming God, over things like this in the Bible. They call it the atrocities of God. How sad to be so desperate for the sin that makes you miserable that you would smack the hand of mercy that is available away. They thumb their nose at the only hope they have. Yes, God told his people to go in and conquer this city and kill everyone, spare none. But if you take the Bible-the WHOLE thing, not just pick a few verses and try to interpret them out of context, you can't help but see even if you only half try what a loving, merciful God he is. He gave these people 450 years in this land, and they would have none of righteousness, they sinned so grievously they brought judgment to their doorstep. He can't stop being a holy and JUST God because man would rather be corrupt. And he is no respecter of persons, for just as he used his people Israel to conquer and destroy these people who rejected the mercy and goodness of God, and when you do that, all that is left is the severity of God. Years later, generations later, when God's own people began to out sin the people around them, and reject God, he sent the nation of the Babylonians against them, to destroy their cities. To slay the unrepentant who would not take heed. Those who listened to the prophets, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, they went into captivity. God protected them and blessed them there for 70 years. But that is just how God deals with sin. He stretches out his hand offering mercy and grace and is so long suffering. He bore long with these people. He warned them for years before he sent judgment. He didn't want to do it. If you read the book of Jeremiah you can see how he pled with these people, only to have them turn around and kill his prophets or throw them in jail. The sawed Isaiah in two pieces. Jeremiah they threw in jail and left for dead. Countless others were slain. When people don't want to hear the word of the Lord, and willingly are ignorant of who God is, what more can God do? I say willingly because he has the call out right now to all, come, seek me while I may be found. I'm sending my Son soon, he's coming. You need to be ready. But the majority of the world scoffs at this. They would have none of his reproof. God never destroys a people without warning them, without trying to deal with them and offering mercy first. That is his pattern all through history with his dealing with people. He has been misrepresented, lied about, blasphemed, misquoted, misunderstood, and neglected by people. Yet he lets the world stand. He continues to send rain. I am well aware he does not need people to defend him. I know what happened to Uzzah in 2 Sam 6:7 when he thought God needed a human hand to hold him up. God doesn't need man's help. Man desperately needs God's.

It got to bothering me in the first year or so after I got saved about all the starving people in foreign lands, and I prayed about it, troubled, wondering why. And God showed me that sin and idolatry was the reason. I mean, these people walk around starving, while they worship the cows that God made to feed people. They think every animal around is some kind of God-and didn’t the scripture say they would worship the creature more than the Creator in Romans 1:25? You have environmentalists who would fight to protect a species of fish and let firefighters fighting a blaze out in Washington State die, because they couldn’t legally get water from a nearby lake to put out the fire, because they might damage a so called endangered protected species of fish, and these same people would probably not bat an eye at murdering an unborn child in the womb. Only when you believe in no God can human thinking become so corrupt and so skewed. Unbelievable? It happened on July 10, 2001. A fire started in Okanogan National Forest in Washington State. Firefighters were dropped to fight it. There was a river in the area. It took them nearly 10 hours to get permission for a helicopter to get water from the river to fight the fire, because of a fish that was so called protected species. In the mean time, four firefighters were burned to death, near the river, trapped, because no one brought the water that would have put out the fire and saved their lives. Over a FISH. I remember hearing about this the summer it happened. It was enough to make your blood boil-to think human life is not as valuable to some people as a fish? What has happened to America? When did things start to go so bad? Doesn’t the scripture say all nations that forget God shall be turned into hell? That may literally be one day, but there are large portions of this nation now that could be described as hell on earth...because of crime, gangs, drugs, and violence. God help us get back where we belong, on our knees before your merciful face....God doesn't need us to defend him, I know. But my prayer is oh Lord, rise up, glorify your name. You are so good. You have been so good to people all through out time. There is no darkness, no badness in you. Only light and love. But you are holy and you cared so much about people you became a man and suffered horrible torture and death to offer them redemption. Help us as your people be a light and love even those who hate and scoff. I know what you did with Apostle Paul, you can do it again, Lord. Have mercy Father. They are blind and do not understand. Willingly ignorant or not, they have no comprehension what they are rejecting, nor the horrifying reality and its awful consequences they so eagerly embrace.

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