Saturday, July 22, 2023

THE CALAMITY OF THE WICKED

I was studying the Sunday School lesson this morning and ran across a passage that mentioned how people sacrificed their children to idol gods by making them pass through fire, and it made me very sad for mankind that we have sunk so low. These endless mass shootings… oppression… betrayal… and the list goes on. The other day I was doing a study on The Works of the Flesh. I made a list of all the things named in the word of God that defines the flesh and it almost filled up a whole page. Wow!😲 We have a built-in tendency to be evil, and some people violate their conscience so much till their immediate response to everything is to respond with evil.

Then I remembered a verse in Proverbs that says, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” At times it may seem like evil is running rampant in this world and God is not paying it any attention, but actually He is. In The Great White Throne Judgment, the apostle John said he saw books opened and the dead were judged by their deeds recorded in these books. It’s not forgotten, and when the great day of His wrath has come, the wicked will stand before the King of kings and the Lord of lords and receive the judgment for their actions, and His judgment is righteous.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 2:5-9, In accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath, in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who "will render to each one according to his deeds": eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness — indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil. No one escapes judgment. Not one.

Hell and Destruction holds no secrets from God. The psalmist David prayed, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You” (Ps 139:7-12).

The psalmist David also said, “Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be mowed down like the grass, and wither as the green herb” (Ps 37:1-2).

In one of Jesus’s final prayers while He was on earth, He prayed to His Father for us: "Father, I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:9, 15). Jesus prayed for us and I certainly do believe in His prayers.

I’m not trying to depressed you with this blogpost, I am hoping to encourage you that God has not abandoned mankind. He is the Good Shepherd, and we are His beloved sheep. The Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

Someone wrote a song that says, “As long as I live and trouble rise, I will hasten to His throne.”

Go in peace.

To God be the glory.
Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove