Sixty Days: Day Fifty-One

Today's Reading:

• 2 Chronicles 8-14
• Job 12-20
• Micah 6-7
• Nahum 1-3
• Habakkuk 1-3
• Acts 5-7
• 2 Peter 3

Reading Time:  More than 1 hour, less than 2 hours...

I've doubled up on a lot of reading days, attempting to catch up from the time I lost on vacation.  I started this reading plan on August 28; October 28 is next Tuesday.  I am currently on target to finish October 31, which was my goal to begin with...I gave myself 64 days to do a 60 day Bible reading plan.  Regardless of when I finish (and it will be next week sometime), I am happy to say I will have read my Bible through, Table of Contents to Maps, in 2014.

Today it seemed like a consistent message was being preached at me from the Scriptures, no matter where I was.  History, Wisdom, Prophecy, Epistle.  They were all saying the same thing.  The guilty will not go unpunished.  They may be getting away with sin for a season, but seasons change.  What goes around comes around.  You reap what you sow.  Your actions produce results...or consequences.  So be warned.  Whatever you're doing is seen by God, and if God doesn't like it, He won't let you get away with it for very long.

People have dropped dead under the weight of God's wrath.  Whole cities and civilizations have been annihilated by the anger of God.  The ruins of Ninevah (the subject of Nahum's prophecy) were under sand for 2600 years after they refused to heed the voice of this second prophet sent to them.

This is not the kind of God people want to hear about in the here and now.  Church people, even preachers, are uncomfortable with a God who kills people for lying about their tithes and offerings.  We like the warm and fuzzy God, the one full of grace and mercy and compassion and love, who accepts everybody just like they are.  We like Him so much, we have forgotten that He is also a God of law and order and justice.  He is the rewarder of those who seek Him, but He is also the great judge over all the earth, who keeps track of every tear we shed, every word we say, and every deed we do.  We are more comfortable with knowing that heaven is for real, but we are not always at ease with the thought that hell is for real too.

But because I believe what the Bible says, I believe there is a hell.  I believe there is eternal punishment in darkness and everlasting fire for those who don't believe in God and in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son and our ever-living Savior.  I believe there are levels of suffering in hell, visited upon the damned in accordance with their deeds.  But I also believe that no one HAS to go there.  Everyone has been given a choice.  Unbelief is the dead end, no outlet option.  Belief in God and in Jesus Christ is a free, one-way ticket to Heaven, and that's the choice I have made.

And I'm extremely thankful today that because of God's love and mercy and grace and compassion, He saved me in spite of myself and my sins.  He is a forgiver of those who confess.  He is the accepter of those who come to Him.  He is the Savior of sinners who call on the Name of the Lord.  In judgment, He still remembers mercy!

Thank you Jesus for that!  I couldn't make it without You.