Thank you so much for helping me prepare and think through this message series. Honestly I did not think this process would be so fulfilling and helpful. Your input and discussion challenges me and I think keeps me on a relevant track. I hope you will continue this journey.
Sunday September 20 I will be speaking on God’s love and judgment.
The thinking follows the logic that God’s image can shed light on who we are…our identity becomes clearer as we connect with his image.
In Genesis 1-3 amazing pictures emerge. God creates mankind in his own image and he calls them, man and woman, good creatures.
I see a God of love speaking the world into existence, and our Creator then fashioning man with his own hands. The image is of a personal Creator God who personally brings man into being with love and tenderness.
Then when man falls from the pride of sin, the same loving God judges mankind, pain and suffering result.
How do you reconcile the loving Creator and the just judge? How do you connect those dots in your own life?
Hope Experience 
perhaps it's the reality He is “just” – his love is always extended… judgment is not God's desire – his desire is love. mankind forces the judgment because they reject his love… his judgment is mankind's doing because of their antithesis to love which is pride.
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God does love and judge at the same time. What might seem at first like a contradiction is actually something called an “antinomy,” which is two things that seem in opposition to each other but still both perfectly exist at the same time. It's the same case with God's sovereignty and our free-will. Somehow both can exist; in fact, both need to exist like two sides of a coin. It is another mystery, but I am so grateful that God is both perfectly loving and perfectly just. His love never fails and His justic flows.
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I am very much looking forward to worshipping with many of you at our church this week. Each week I will try to post some internet sites as resources for you to prepare your heart in worship. I haven't figured out yet how to make it a direct link, so you just need to copy the url address and paste it into your web browser in a new tab so you can get back to this site quickly.
One of the songs we'll be singing this Sunday is “God of This City,” by Blue Tree. I would HIGHLY recommend that you watch this video which explains the story behind the writing of this song. What an absolutely AMAZING demonstration of God's love and justice!!! The video is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXh_tgjnYJw
We will also sing “The Love of God,” which I think is one of the most beautiful poems/hymns ever written about God's love. It paints such a gorgeous picture of Him. You can listen to it at…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fla6EO07I3E
We're also singing, “Your Love, Oh Lord,” which is inspired and based on Psalm 36. I encourage you to read this entire Psalm during your quiet times this week and meditate on how deep and wide God's love is for you! You can also hear the song in the following video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTXP3bSnad0
Lastly, there is another song we're singing this week called “Your Grace Is Enough,” in which there is a line, “Great is your love and justice God of Jacob.” Now, there aren't that many worship songs written that refer to the God of Jacob, even though it is common in the Old Testament. Why is that? Could it be that Jacob was too shady of a character for us to want to include him in our songs? Jacob made a whole lot of mistakes in his life. He lied to his father, stole his brother's birthright, struggled for years to finally get his wife, even wrestled with an angel! But, the amazing fact is that everything about the line “God of Jacob” points back to God's grace and His love and His justice. God chose Jacob to start a nation of His chosen people. It wasn't up to or about Jacob. In fact, because Jacob was so flawed it shows better the power of God. Anyway, it's a great song and it deeply moves me every time I sing it. I like Matt Maher's original version (instead of Chris Tomlin's) because he keeps the “God of Jacob” line. You can see the video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9yrlYk-Bao&feature=related
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God is our loving Father too, our heavenly parent. We as parents have to guide our children into the right way. This sometimes means correction of some type or even punishment for wrong doing. His parental love for us is so great that, Yes, he punished Adam and Eve for making a poor choice, but through Christ Atonement for us, has given us a way back to him. What an awesome, kind, loving, perfect God.
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