Forgetting to Remember - From His Heart - Week of September 29, 2016

God is a God who loves to bless His people.  Everyone I know loves prosperity and blessings.  We love it when our lives are running over with good things and everything is coming up roses.  However, the potential problem with abundant blessing relates to memory.  In the midst of our prosperity, we often forget God who has so graciously blessed us (see Deuteronomy 8:11-14). 
 
When we begin to forget God, God works to get our attention.  More prosperity and blessings typically do not solve the problem … but a dose of adversity does.  Psalm 78:34-35 may not be anyone’s favorite verses, but they are true to human nature.  We are most prone to seek God when tragedy befalls us.  The Sunday following 9-11 saw churches overflowing with congregants.  Why?  In tragedy, people begin to seek God.  When human answers and human abilities fail, men are most apt to call upon the Lord. 
 
TRAGEDY OF TRAGEDIES
 
The tragedy of tragedies occurs when God allows adversity to come into our lives, and we still refuse to seek Him.  When our hearts get so hardened, so proud, and so rebellious that nothing will turn us back to God, the final judgment will surely commence. 
 
In the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the tribulation period (seven years) is depicted in graphic detail.  During these seven years—especially the last 1260 days—the righteous wrath of God falls upon a wicked world of Christ-rejecting men.  Revelation 16:9 gives us great insight into this nearing day, “And men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues; and they did not repent, so as to give Him glory.”  
 
Isn’t that response telling?  When the severest of difficulties strike … and men choose to blaspheme rather than repent, they cross the point of no return.  When neither blessings nor curses can turn men back to God, God is left brokenhearted (see Genesis 6:6).  He has no other recourse but final judgment and eternal hell.      
 
A WAKE-UP CALL
 
We desperately need to wake up to the world around us.  Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires, and famines are disasters with a purpose—to turn our hearts to Him, before it is too late.  To be sure, God is a God of love … but He is also a God of holiness, righteousness, and justice.  The Judge of all the earth will always deal justly (see Genesis 18:25). 
 
Noah’s ark was built as a refuge for the coming flood of judgment.  The ark was a huge vessel with ample room for a multitude of people to find salvation.  Tragically, outside of Noah and hisfamily, no one responded to the message of judgment and salvation. 
 
May we be like Noah and share the news of judgment for sin and salvation in Jesus Christ, before the wrath of Holy God rightly falls.  Surely, it is coming. The only ark of safety is Jesus, the One who died and rose again to purchase a place for us in heaven.

P.S.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  Direct questions and comments to pastorjeff@fromhisheart.org.