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Is God Just? Hell, Judgment, and the Character of God
In our last article, What Does ‘Everlasting Punishment’ Really Mean?, we explored how the Bible uses the word “eternal”—often to describe the lasting result of judgment rather than an ongoing process. This helped us see how phrases like “eternal punishment” fit within the Bible’s broader pattern of life versus death. Now we step back and ask the most important question of all: “What does all of…
Steadfast
This week’s poem is about the love of God. I wrote this in the form of a prayer to God the Father. From the perspective of a heart that is unsteady and unable to grasp the loyal love of God. In my own life, I struggle to know and truly understand God’s love. And I feel that it can almost feel counterintuitive, as we live in a world where hearts change so often. As you read, I pray that your…
In The Space Between
In preparation for writing this poem, I meditated on God’s grace. As I was thinking deeply, verse 10 from Psalm 103 stood out to me. “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” God’s natural disposition is to show us mercy even though we deserve judgment. His deep desire is to work things for our good, and it pleases him to do so. As you read, I pray that…
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...” Galatians 5:22-23 NASB #happySunday #cultivatethosefruits #characterofGod #belikeJesus
He looks at the heart.
Eliab comes right up and stands before Samuel. He is tall, probably strong built, possessing all the makings to be a king, a king over Israel. He may have been good looking too. One look and Samuel decides Eliab should be it. “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” he thought.
But then speaks a Voice to Samuel. The Voice of the Lord.
“Wait, don’t judge. Na ah. Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him.”
Wait a minute......
He says He rejects him! Samuel’s probably is thinking “You have got to be kidding me Lord. He has got the height, built, a stature of a King. Isn’t he the one?” Then the voice speaks on saying “I don't see things the way you see them. People judge by the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.”
Jesse then asks the rest of his sons to step forward, one by one, somewhat like a parade to see who fits the Lord’s criteria to be King. & you know what, none of his sons who were there at the moment fit to be the king.
Then comes on the scene, a simple shepherd boy, one who watches the sheep and goats in the field and one who was forgotten by Jesse himself. Ruddy, bright-eyed and good looking; he then stands before Samuel.
Then utters the Voice the defining words which lead to the anointing of the King of Israel.
“This is the one; anoint him.” (NLT Version)
Then the rest (the rule of King David over Israel) is history.
It was an ordinary afternoon while I sat in my dimly lit room, reading the passage where Samuel anoints the shepherd boy. As I read those very words which change the destiny of an ordinary shepherd boy “This is the one; anoint him” I felt a stirring in my spirit. It was that Voice of the ages (the Lord) speaking to me.
During the times I've heard this account being preached, the emphasis was always on the ordinariness of the shepherd boy; he was JUST a shepherd boy and Jesse did not even think he was important to be in that ordination service, plainly forgotten. Yes, he was the least of his brothers or at least that was what it may have seem like to man. But that afternoon something else took center stage for me.
The character of the Voice (the Lord); He was NOT a respecter of person.
Well, I have heard that countless times and even can say it in my sleep without grammatical errors. But that afternoon I felt like God was planting it in my Spirit.
He WAS, IS no respecter of person. He looks at the heart.
This is probably what I've been needing to hear, soak and meditate on this season of my life. I have been thinking and facing my inadequacies, insecurities, inabilities; just everything that I AM NOT but yet feeling the call, the call to stand before Him for service, the call to go higher and deeper. It has been brewing strongly in my soul this past few weeks. A very conflicted season I must say. What I am not + where I think God is calling me to go + what God sees me to be.
In the midst of this conflict “I am not a respecter of person. I look at the heart.” says the Voice.
Soaked that in, probably going to be soaking it in the next few days.
At the end of the day, it is not about the name I can get out of what calls me to do or how I am so incapable of to be all that God wants me to be. But it is about one’s heart. It is about what does God see when He sees my heart? Does it desire God in the secret places? Is it willing to align itself to the heartbeat of God?
Just like how the voice uttered the words “This the one” to Samuel, I know the Same has spoken these words over my life when I walked into that water to be baptized and received the Holy Spirit even at the tender age of 5, deciding that it is Him I want to devote my life to. I may not be an Eliab, physically capable, talented or anything like that but the Same has spoken. He has chosen me just like how he chose the shepherd boy.
I am not saying I have the purest of hearts that God has chosen me. In fact, so many times I wonder why me because of the ugliness of my heart. My heart is constantly going through surgery. But the questions ‘Is it really me that God has chosen’ have to stop, melt away in His character. I have got to accept that the Lord looketh at our hearts and He has spoken. Now all I have to be careful about is how my heart looks like.
At the end of the day, just like the shepherd boy, I want it to be said of me that I was, is a girl after God’s own heart. In the midst of the questions of what God wants me to do in the future, what is He calling me to be, I want how my heart looks like to God be at the crux of everything I become or do. Because after all the Lord looketh at the heart.
He WAS NOT a respecter of person when He chose the shepherd boy nor will He ever be.
A song which simply sums up the life of that shepherd boy and his heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aWEhNqnjuY
