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Writer's pictureBrian Doyle

Now That I’ve Offended You Often Enough…

I sometimes wonder how effective I am when I write every day. Not everything I write is going to be “awe-inspiring” or receive recognition. And I know much of what I do offends quite a bit of people. But, now that I’ve offended you often enough, I’m going to do so again, but let’s get down to why. I’ve come to realize something: We’ve been spoiled by the grace of Jesus Christ. We, who rarely have experienced anything like the biblical wrath of God, say “I’m okay, God must approve of what I’m doing. I don’t need His Bible, He loves me as I am!” And let’s get this straight: I’m not writing for any audience but Christ. It does not matter what anyone else thinks, it matters what HE thinks. Too often, we think God cares about our opinions, we think He cares about what we think, we think He conforms to our wants, wishes and desires. This is RUBBISH in the lowest sense of the word.


God doesn’t care about what you or I think, like some teenager trying to fit in with social status. God doesn’t need us in any way, nor is He dependent on our social media likes, comments, and thoughts. He wiped the earth clean with a flood. He, after nations would not repent, wiped them clean off of the world, to where we know their names, but few traces of their civilizations exist. And, currently, He is holding back His wrath because of what Jesus did no the cross.


God does not care about our feelings, He cares about our obedience. God isn’t about what we’re doing, He’s about making us Holy and restoring us in to the image He sent Jesus to die for. It is our sin that sent Jesus voluntarily to the cross, and it is Jesus holding back the wrath of God on our behalf. Some day soon, however, that wrath isn’t going to be held back. Some day soon, Jesus will return, and we will be accountable to Him. So follow Him now, before it is too late. Shed your opinions and ideas, and seek His will, and His way, because He is the ONLY way.


John 3:16-36


“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”


After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison).


Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”


He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.



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