{"id":5737,"date":"2014-08-25T00:05:38","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T07:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5737"},"modified":"2014-08-24T14:44:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T21:44:33","slug":"seek-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/08\/25\/seek-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Seek God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seek the Lord while you can find him.
\nCall on him now while he is near.
\nLet the wicked change their ways
\nand banish the very thought of doing wrong.
\nLet them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.
\nYes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.
\n\u201cMy thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,\u201d says the Lord.
\n\u201cAnd my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
\nFor just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
\nso my ways are higher than your ways
\nand my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We\u2019re always guilty of something. Every inclination of human beings is evil all the time and was God\u2019s primary motivation for destroying the human race in the flood. The Psalmist agrees that all human beings have become corrupt and there is no one who does good, not even one. If you\u2019re human, you fall into but one category: sinner.<\/p>\n

The comfort for we sinful humans is that God\u2019s thoughts, his ways are nothing like ours. We love those who love us. It is easy for us to be nice to those nice to us. But how many people are nice to those who repay evil for good, who cause them pain, who harm them? How easy is it for us to forgive? But God\u2019s ways and his thoughts are not ours. While we were still sinners, still his enemies and still actively working against him, at that very moment, at our very worst, that\u2019s when Jesus died for us, demonstrating just how much he loves us, and just how different God\u2019s thoughts are from ours. Altruism is rare. Generally we love only those who love us back. We get something out of our relationships or we wouldn\u2019t maintain them. That\u2019s how we think. It isn\u2019t how God thinks. He loves regardless of the reaction; he isn\u2019t in it for what he can get out of it. Instead, he is concerned only with what is best for us: what we can get out of it. We are guilty, but Jesus took our guilt and applied it to himself. So we don\u2019t have to feel guilty any more. Instead, we can feel relieved and grateful. God wants to make our thoughts like his.<\/p>\n

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Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord that he may have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5737"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5737"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5739,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5737\/revisions\/5739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}