1.19.2007

Philippians 1:6
… He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 12:1,2
… Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Romans 5:8
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Hello everyone-

I hope that you are well and that over the past two weeks the Lord has been teaching and growing each of you through whatever sorrows or joys you’ve experienced. My apologies for taking a while to get back on track with this, but I’m now moved into the city and adjusting well to my new surroundings.
There’s plenty that I would like to write about, and eventually I’ll get it all out to you over the weeks. But I want to go back to something I was pondering a few weeks ago: the compassion of the Lord. As I was reading through Isaiah, there are several times when the Lord speaks about His wrath on His people the Israelites because they have strayed from His ways. They’ve done wicked things in His sight and they are to receive their due discipline. However, although the Lord expresses His wrath, after a time He also expresses compassion. Isaiah 30:18 caught me somewhat off guard, stating, “Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”

The Creator of all the earth longed to be compassionate on Israel, the very same people who may as well have spit in His face. God is completely and totally just and righteous in His anger, but He’s also God of love and compassion. How they all work together in perfection I’ll never understand or know how to express. This is an encouraging thing to take note of, though, and to praise the Lord for. My boyfriend and I had a conversation just the other day about how awesome God is for having grace on wicked people – for if He didn’t, none of us would be saved. We’ve all done something wicked in the Lord’s sight, as Christian people or before our hearts were turned to Christ, and yet we’re still here alive and breathing. How amazing grace is indeed! Shouldn’t our response be to strive to get out of the entanglements of sin and follow the Lord’s ways? Shouldn’t our hearts be for the Lord, rather than ourselves, and long to follow the God of such great compassion? And even more, God is so worthy of our praise for this grace and compassion that we are so unworthy of. I urge you as brothers and sisters in Christ to take these truths to heart, and look to follow God’s ways through studying the Bible and through prayer; all I ask is that you would encourage me to do the same. It would not be fitting for me to say it to you and not acknowledge that I have a share of faults and failures that God knows I struggle with. We can all be encouraged by David who, although he had entanglements in adultery and murder and had to repent, is recorded as a man after God’s own heart.

Our hearts ought to long and hunger to follow the Lord, and I pray that the Holy Spirit would make it so in each of us. I also pray that we would praise the Lord for His unending compassion, and also for His perfect discipline. I ask that as children of God we would be compassionate and loving towards one another, while also speaking truth in love when we see each other sin. May the Lord continually change and grow us into the likeness of Christ.

In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne