Abounding in Love

 

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Psalm 86:5 (ESV)

Church member: “Well, I know they aren’t Christians so I can’t expect Christian behavior from them.”                                                                                                                                                      Pastor: “Why not? God does.”

This Pastor’s point was that every person will face God at judgment and will be judged to Heaven or Hell based on their earthly decisions.

According to the scriptures, God is immutable. He does not change.

• For I am the LORD, I do not change. Malachi 3:6a
• Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Most of us agree in principle with these verses (They are the Word of God, after all). But, do we really believe them and are we willing to stand firmly in them?

The unchangeable nature of God means that what He says about who is judged and how they will be judged stands today. It means that what the scriptures say about sexual immorality stands firm; sex is for marriage and homosexuality is sin. He absolutely condemns the shedding of innocent blood. He has not changed His mind and we can be confident that He will not.

Whose blood is more innocent than a baby’s, especially a baby in the womb?

In today’s culture, New York State feels free to pass a law that permits abortions until the day of birth of a baby and then they celebrate it as if it were some great victory. The truth is that this is not really any more than we already have in the rest of our country. There is no difference between killing a baby in the womb at 3 weeks, 24 weeks, or full term.

May the Lord have mercy on us as a nation and open our eyes to the Truth of how much innocent blood has been shed.  (Deuteronomy 19:10, 13).

We have definitely gotten to the point where we are calling good evil and evil good. Abortion is murder.  Extra-marital sex is adultery, even if it is experienced via pornography. Innocent blood is to be protected not taken. In other words, if God calls it sin, it is still sin that will be judged, if not immediately, then when He wills. He is patient, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Numbers 14:18).

In His mercy God said that He will forgive the repentant sinner. I often think of God’s forgiveness of King David when he repented of both adultery and murder (you can read the story in 2 Samuel 11-12). Even as a nation, God looks for repentance.

A Christian who is silent about abortion or votes for bills that allow the death of babies in the womb is perpetuating a sin of  grave magnitude. BUT GOD, is a God of grace and mercy. He abounds in steadfast love for His people.

Numbers 14:18 says,  ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation (ESV).’

Will we repent and cry out for justice for those who cannot cry out for themselves? If not for ourselves, for the future generations who will suffer the consequences of our silence?