I recently saw a car with a wolf sticker on the back. I do think God created an especially aesthetic and dignified creature in the wolf, so I was drawn to the sticker which then read, "Love wins."
That got me to thinking of the times when love has indeed made tender hearts that were once hard.
Yet some will always remain hardened in their hearts because of God's sovereign choice. Hence:
Luke 13:
23 Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' 26 then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' 27 But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.'
And then we have Elijah, who despite God's great shows of power, felt concerned and disheartened that Jezebel didn't heed God's message. But God sent terrible displays of power for Elijah to witness, yet He wasn't in the earthquake, etc [I Kings 19]. Then Elijah heard a whisper. This demonstrated that it wasn't God's intent to save those people through those powerful acts.
Now, I had heard once in a sermon that unbelievers hear when we whisper, but not when we proclaim boldly, but there are four problems with this view:
1. It was the Lord who sent the fire from heaven, not man, so this view would judge His own means and methods
2. God only whispered to His own servant Elijah, not Jezebel, Ahab or the people
3. It doesn't take into account God's sovereignty:
I Kings 19:18:
Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."
4. It fails to take into account the Lord's judgment as revealed in verse 17. This judgment was predicted in conjunction with God's sovereignty.
Sometimes the tendency is to only preach mercy but gloss over the wrath, or to preach all wrath but no mercy or grace for the seeking. Both are distortions of reality. Yet it is so very, very hard to do everything you can to love the lost and see their hearts grow even more leatherlike than they were before. It's a hard job teaching the other side of scripture. Both wrath and mercy are part of the program.
Yet love does win: God's love for His own and the true Christians' love for Him and each other. This is the love that conquers evil. But how can a loving heart bear the thought of people making decisions to reject love and mercy? Some people you just can't love into Christ. You can nurture them, give them all the teaching they request, spend time giving them every opportunity, and still they scorn and despise the sacrifice of time and concern. They make their own decisions, and no one makes those decisions for them.
Please share your insights and thoughts on the matter.
That got me to thinking of the times when love has indeed made tender hearts that were once hard.
Yet some will always remain hardened in their hearts because of God's sovereign choice. Hence:
Luke 13:
23 Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' 26 then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' 27 But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.'
And then we have Elijah, who despite God's great shows of power, felt concerned and disheartened that Jezebel didn't heed God's message. But God sent terrible displays of power for Elijah to witness, yet He wasn't in the earthquake, etc [I Kings 19]. Then Elijah heard a whisper. This demonstrated that it wasn't God's intent to save those people through those powerful acts.
Now, I had heard once in a sermon that unbelievers hear when we whisper, but not when we proclaim boldly, but there are four problems with this view:
1. It was the Lord who sent the fire from heaven, not man, so this view would judge His own means and methods
2. God only whispered to His own servant Elijah, not Jezebel, Ahab or the people
3. It doesn't take into account God's sovereignty:
I Kings 19:18:
Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."
4. It fails to take into account the Lord's judgment as revealed in verse 17. This judgment was predicted in conjunction with God's sovereignty.
Sometimes the tendency is to only preach mercy but gloss over the wrath, or to preach all wrath but no mercy or grace for the seeking. Both are distortions of reality. Yet it is so very, very hard to do everything you can to love the lost and see their hearts grow even more leatherlike than they were before. It's a hard job teaching the other side of scripture. Both wrath and mercy are part of the program.
Yet love does win: God's love for His own and the true Christians' love for Him and each other. This is the love that conquers evil. But how can a loving heart bear the thought of people making decisions to reject love and mercy? Some people you just can't love into Christ. You can nurture them, give them all the teaching they request, spend time giving them every opportunity, and still they scorn and despise the sacrifice of time and concern. They make their own decisions, and no one makes those decisions for them.
Please share your insights and thoughts on the matter.
Those of us who have tried to do it on our own, got humbled, fell to our knees and found the beauty and power of our loving God, don't we already know and feel the depth of pain of those who do not know God? The "lost" serves as a constant reminder to us all that their lives are so meaningless without the love and power of God. If we stop and think about how we finally came to truly know God, wasn't it precisely LOVE that won us over? For me, the answer is "yes". It was God who showed His merciful and passionate love for me at my lowest moment in life. He showered me with blessings and angels to let me know He is with me, loves me and will never leave me.
...I was choosing the Lord it seemed to me.
