Jesus says in Matthew 10:34:

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword."

Yikes. Time and time again, we learn that the Lord, above all, is love. And He is! To give your only son for the sake of this sinful world, that is love in its highest, purest form. We, as fallable, will never truly understand the sacrifice Jesus made for us. And it is because of this inability to think of God as love from His perspective, not from ours that we incorrectly throw down his judgment of us.

"But if this God loves us, He wouldn't condemn us"

But He didn't! The Lord has given us free will to live our lives as we please. We can treasure or butcher the one life we have here on earth. Most importantly, we can choose to follow or ignore Him.

Think about this: how would we differ from mindless robots if we were forcibly instructed to love Him? We wouldn't! How can we truly love the creator of the universe if He has a leash around our necks? We can't!

It is this choice from the Father that displays His ultimate love for us. How ultra-sorrowful He must feel when another one of us falls through the cracks, but oh how ultra-joyful He must feel when another one of us gets on our knees and accepts Jesus into her life.

One last thing I'd like to close with is that we are at war here on Earth. The "sword" is consistently with us, be it by prayer, witness, action, etc.: we hold the name of the Lord on our shirts. We aren't here to glaze the world with a peace that pierces skin-deep, and superficially binds the world in harmony. We're here to win a war in His righteous name.

Praise His Holy name.

--JT

Recently, God has revealed in me the vices which I have either not acknowledged, or have not properly addressed. He has told me, in an extremely powerful and emotional way, that I must seek forgiveness from Him, from those I have wronged, and to change my behaviour and thought-process.

As I continue to reform, verses continually pop up that grant me encouragement.

"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." -- Matthew 7:12

Simple, yet profoundly elusive. I love how Jesus states this in a positive manner. If you look closely, it's not just refraining from saying and doing bad things to people: it also includes taking the initiative in doing good things for them. You know what makes this simple rule of active goodness and mercy even more awesome? The fact that our Father actively, consistently, and unconditionally shows this very same mercy to us every day.

Cool eh?

--JT