Shame Can Bring Forgiveness

Psalm 83:16 - Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek Your name, O LORD.

I don't care how repetitive I am in my blog. The message will always be the same in the end...the most important thing there is is having a relationship with Jesus Christ, Son of Almighty God. Jesus, the only way, truth and life. Jesus, who died for our sins...something no one else has done.

In this nation we see people living lifestyles that exclude God. Many just don't think there is a need for Him. Maybe they hate anything He stands for and are offended. Or maybe they have been so badly hurt by a church that anger and bitterness consume them to a point where they will not step into a church again. Maybe they lost someone or something so horrible in their life that they are angry with God because they believe that a good God would not allow something so bad to occur.

I believe, as I have for a long time, that we are seeing the consequences of a nation turning its back on God. Do things look all that great these days? We are in days like the days of Noah: And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26-27) They heard the warnings Noah was putting out there but they did not want to believe them. Then it was too late.

Timothy later added this about those living in the last days: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...(2Timothy 3:2-4). Ouch.

Some see what they want to see...because they have not God and have bought into the delusion: The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2Thessalonians 2:9-12) Strong words? I guess!

I ask you to open your eyes and allow God to fill you with the wisdom of truth and knowledge. I ask myself time and again, who am I that God would allow me to see these things? I'm no one special...to the world...but to God...wow. It is a privilege to be counted as one who has just a tiny bit of wisdom and discernment.

Oh...but wait. That might be considered arrogant. And you know what? It might be. Some look at believers as arrogant because we say we have received Christ, believe we have a special relationship with Him, have changed spiritually, understand better His truth and, as one of these friends says, hold firm to our beliefs and have the hope Christ gives us, something others who aren't sure of this hope or have no beliefs don't understand because they have not heeded these words of God. Is it their fault? I don't know. If they have heard...even in these blogs (which are far from perfect)...and have laughed or determined the subject matter too absurd for their thinking, or they are offended because sometimes the content seems to offend...because it is the truth of God's Word...then, yes, they have chosen not to believe the truth and have believed the lie.

The truth is not difficult to grasp if one really wants to know it. God wants none to perish and there are many who will whether they live to be a hundred or die in an instant tomorrow. There is a very great need to know Jesus and His saving power. We cannot work for it. We must, though, desire and then seek it. Seek God.

Anyone who does not know God is His enemy of sorts. My prayer is that He would fill the faces of unbelievers with shame. Sometimes that's what we need to do...we need to see for ourselves the dreadful lives we live without Him. We need to see our sin and be ashamed, repent of those sins and seek Him. Then...He is just to forgive. He forgives as far as the east is from the west. The shame is then removed. A change will take place.

My message will not change. If it is offensive the offense is not with me but with He who showed us the truth. It's all about Jesus. Do you choose to follow Him or choose to live with others as in the last days of Noah? He's searching to and fro for those whose hearts are for Him that He might show Himself strong on their behalf. Will you join those He has sought and won over? It is unlike anything you have known. Join the "arrogant" ones who have a belief in something real and a hope like no other.

Isaiah 56:6 - Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.