Awakening

Hubby and I were talking over supper tonight…. just about Who and What God is, and how we can’t even fathom all of Him…. about His power, His complete intolerance of sin, His holy wrath poured out on his own people because of it, and His willingness to take all of that wrath and pour it out on His own Son in the space of a few hours so that we would no longer be the targets of the punishment we so deserve… how the One Who created the universe, Who literally holds the stars in His hands and speaks to the wind and waves (really try to think of and picture all of that and grasp the reality of it), the “God of angel-armies,” the great and awesome power that is Him, that is I AM…

                 That Power…

…has a heart that beats for us individually… focuses individual attention on us… meets personal needs, big and small, whispers words of love and encouragement to our hearts….. and yet, how lightly we, His people, take that great love held out to us with open arms. How we trample His grace, how we joke about sin, how we excuse our willful, though seemingly small indiscretions because “after all, we are only human”… how, as a whole, we tend to live for ourselves and our own immediate needs, wants, and goals… His own people, bought with a great and precious price, placing our time and efforts and resources at the altar of the here and now, instead of putting our all into eternity and His kingdom… giving Him the token worship and “Thank You, You are awesome!” on Sunday, and then getting on with our daily lives. We are all, or should I say, many of us, are guilty of allowing the urgent and the self-serving to over-shadow the reality of the things that are eternal – the souls around us that are lost, that His great heart is beating and crying out for.

…And as we talked, we became so emotionally over-whelmed that neither of us could speak. The reality that hit us both simultaneously was so heavy and terrifying and overwhelming that we just sat there, both fighting tears. I am, in this moment, so humbled by the grace offered me by such a perfect Love that I am speechless, my silent heart somehow begging for forgiveness for a lifetime of taking lightly this great and overwhelming thing that my mind is having trouble even processing…

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.  For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?  ~ Hebrews 2:1-3