God: Judge

God: Judge

Take God at His Word
Getting children to eat what is good for them can be quite a problem. Convincing them that you mean business takes more strength of character than some parents possess. Yet the mother who lets her child indulge his preference for sweets, instead of such body-building foods as milk, meat, and vegetables, does not really love him as much as the mother who does her best to see that he gets a balanced diet. The parents who give in to a child on matters that affect his future health and character are not loving. They are merely encouraging him to go on getting his way in all future contests of will. They are laying the foundation for trouble for the rest of his life. So it is with God. Unless people believe that He means what He says, they will run to all kinds of excesses, and ruin their lives for time and eternity. Although the Bible consistently proclaims that unbelief and sin, if unrepented of in this life, will result in eternal loss, too many people refuse to take God at His Word. They choose to believe He is too soft-hearted ever to condemn anyone to eternal punishment.

God the Judge
Returning home from school one day, my little boy came to me with the evidence of what he had had for lunch smeared all over his mouth. I told him to go wash his face and come back to show me the results. He returned in a hurry, saying, "I am all clean now, Daddy." "Are you?" I asked. "Sure. I washed just like you told me to." From his point of view he was clean, but from where I stood he still looked dirty. It is not what we think of ourselves that counts, but what God our Creator thinks of us.