“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways saith the Lord. 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
These two verses have been on my mind all morning, so I figured that the Lord wanted me to think about them and share my thoughts with you. Have you ever wondered why you do not fully understand God? I’m sure you have. I thought about what God would say if I asked Him this question. I think that He would say, “You do not understand me fully, because I am God and you are not.” He plainly stated through Isaiah: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God is beyond human understanding, but He has not left Himself without a witness through scripture that can help us understand what we need to understand about Him. We need to understand that God judges sin. I will begin with the negative in order to close out with the positive. The Bible is very clear that God does not like sin; in fact, He hates it. We cannot gloss over this biblical fact. Some prominent preachers are trying to do that today, but they are wrong. We can go back to Adam and Eve and understand that God judges sin. Sin is the reason that we do not have paradise on earth today. Throughout the Bible, we see that God does not tolerate sin. God’s own people, the Jews, faced many hardships because they ran afoul of God’s hatred of sin. Perhaps, the greatest illustration of this fact is that when Jesus was on the cross all of our sins were piled on Him. Jesus took the judgment that all of humanity deserves in order for us to be saved. God will judge sin, but He is always ready to forgive sin through the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to understand that God loves us. It is difficult to understand how a God who judges sin can also love the sinner – but He does. The Bible is plain about that: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The whole theme of the Bible is that God loves us in spite of the fact that we are sinners. Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” This means that every living human being is a sinner. Quoting Psalm 14:1, Paul wrote: “As it is written, There is none good, no, not one. 11. There is not one that understands, there is none that seeks God. 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10-12) In spite of that fact, God still loves us and has proved it by sending His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. When by God’s unmerited favor, which we know as grace, we put our faith in Jesus, the God who loves us in spite of our sins, will save us. I cannot honestly say that I understand that, but I can say that I believe it because I trust the word of God. You need to understand today that God loves you. We need to understand that in spite of all of our shortcomings, and we all have more than we are willing to admit, God will use us in His service. I have been preaching fifty-four years, and I still wonder why, out of all of the people that I know, some much better people than I, God chose me to be one of His preachers. I sometimes feel like Paul who never fully understood why God would use him after his persecution of Christ’s church. Here is what Paul wrote to his son in the ministry, Timothy: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 16. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe in Him to life everlasting.” While Paul might not have fully understood why God would choose him, he did understand that if God could save him, He could save anybody. He stands as an example of the love and grace of God, and of the fact that God will use broken vessels to serve Him. This means that Jesus will use you. If you are puzzled by some of the thoughts and ways of God, join the club. But He has given you a Bible to help you understand what you need to understand. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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