Judgment...

Why are Christians so afraid of admitting that God is a righteous, holy and just God of judgment? Probably because it contradicts the image of the god we've fashioned in our own hearts of how we want him to be.

If you read your own Bible thoroughly, nothing I say should strike you as made up by myself about God.

I've noticed a common reaction when I describe the concept of repentance to many people in the Body of Christ, young and old: many are almost embarrassed or ashamed or offended of admitting a quality of God that is true of His character, but isn't politically correct to acknowledge in any form.

In order to acknowledge the need to pray and fast for a nation, in order to seek for a revival one must acknowledge the reasons why it's necessary to do so. The very concept of the word for "revival" has to do with reviving something that is almost dead. Bringing something back from the dead is resurrection, bringing something back to life from the brink of death is revival. As a church, do we really understand what we're asking for when we seek after and talk about wanting revival to come to our church, town, region, nation, etc...?

At the time I shied away from making a public opinion about if things like tsunamis or Hurricane Katrina were acts of God (judgment) since it's too easy to assume they are. BUT when I read the Bible, I see different catastrophes and calamities as being a way God wakes up or punishes a society, usually out of an attempt to provoke a people to repentance.

So why are most Christians so afraid of admitting it, and a few pious people WAY too excited to zero in on this attribute of God?

Most are scared unbelievers will turn away from an angry God, so we present Him only as a loving uncle or grand-dad, and shy away from talking about hell, and from talking about the consequences of sinful lifestyle, and shy away from allowing people to make the connection for themselves that God does things/allows things to happen as an act of mercy knowing that sometimes the hard smack of hitting rock bottom is the only way some people will turn from their wicked ways and lift their hands up to Him.

Judgment is oftentimes the most merciful thing God could do, like a last ditch� effort to get someone's attention. He would rather have a whole nation turn to Him voluntarily, instead of as a reaction only when they've lost everything and have nowhere to turn to except to Him. He's not some police officer in the sky seeking attention in order to fulfill some personal insecurity. He loves us, and cares too deeply about His people to allow them to spend eternity in hell.

One of the most common ways judgment is inflicted is through sowing and reaping. This actually is a spiritual law set in motion by our actions (or inaction)--God leaves it totally up to us in many respects, if you will. This is obvious in matters like if you smoke 5 packs of cigarettes a day, you will reap� all sorts of things in due time, lung cancer, diseases, premature heart attacks and all sorts of things. This is not an instance of God "inflicting"� anything upon someone because He's mad at them for smoking cigarettes, but the law of sowing and reaping tobacco to his lungs, necessitates that he will reap something, and in this case, deteriorating health if not death itself ultimately.

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