21.2 Revelation – Saved not Spoiled

Saved not Spoiled

Have you been around a spoiled child?  The one who is at the grocery store with mom or dad and throwing a total temper tantrum over the most minor thing and mom or dad immediately bend to their wishes?

Most of us understand that love does not mean always getting what you want.  Sometimes the things we want are bad for us.  Sometimes we need to go through difficulty and challenges to build our muscles (physical and spiritual).  Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes the answer is no.  Sometimes the answer would be yes, but the way we go about asking the question prompts a no.

When God adopts us as his children, that doesn’t mean we get whatever we want.  Even though God’s resources are unlimited, He understands that we need limits and boundaries.  Not a lot of them, but a few to define the path and keep us safe.

While God’s mercy has no limitations, He elects to deploy it in ways that also embody the most grace for us.  Grace as a parent who bends down to the child and firmly emphasizes, I know you want it, but the answer is still no, now let’s go on and do the other wonderful things that I have planned for your day instead of wallowing on this dirty ground.

While God is also just, we need to not fool ourselves into believing we do anything to earn God’s favor.  Like a newborn infant, we cry, we throw up, we soil our diapers and that is about it.  Our greatest talent is cooing.  God’s provision is not a reward – we are incapable of providing God with anything He does not already have – it is again like a parent of that child.

My Answers:

3.
a.
Justice, dispensing just payment for actions and states both positive and negative, fair, equitable, honest, doing what is right
In our world today, justice is what is right in the eyes of man and, in particular, those in power.  It is delivered cloaked and unevenly.  Those demanding tolerance are normally the least tolerant of views unlike their own.

Mercy, compassionate, lenient, forgiving, dispensing grace, charity, safe quarter
Mercy is becoming an expectation or entitlement.  “I made bad decisions so you should not hold that against me” Mortgage crisis, student debt. – But the church still responds to those in need, including widows and orphans.

b.
God is slow to anger, abounding in love, forgiving wickedness, but also just and does not leave any sin unpunished

4.
Countless times of mercy, every day I’m alive is a day wrapped in mercy
Justice in the repercussions of choices, such as arthritis and obesity