Intro: improvement
Morning Thoughts: randomly encouraged
It also brings me comfort that the Lord is in control instead of me. That means, He's got a plan He's following for my life, as I seek Him. If He could guide me here and use everything I did in college for good, then He can do the same thing now, and someday perhaps, I'll know what it means. I just felt better and more encouraged in general for no reason this morning. Maybe someone(s) have prayed. Thanks!
Sermon: about what could make Jesus angry
Backstory concerning the sellers in the temple
Related Scripture
Mark 11:15-18, "And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching."
That's not how we usually think of Jesus
A new perspective for me on the Lord's rage
When I first heard that, I was deeply moved, because I hadn't thought that way about the Lord, exactly - not exactly - but you know, He sees everything. Everything that people try to hide, all the evil they do AND the good - He sees it all. And how much pain He must feel watching all this evil that goes on, I cannot even imagine.
Proverbs 15:3, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
Of what it reminded me and realizing how much He loves
I don't understand how things work but I wonder
The enemy uses people to do his evil works. Well, the Lord has His own people that obey Him to counter the enemy. There's a war going on all the time around us. We just have to open our eyes to it. All the time, I'm asking the Lord to help me see the back drop of what's really going on. I don't think I'm anywhere near yet what I could see. But maybe it's the Lord's mercy that He doesn't give me that vision all at once, because, considering what happened the last time I felt I saw better, I don't think I have the strength to bear that. It would probably crush me, to see EXACTLY how He sees. But I do want to get there someday. I pray He makes me stronger.
FIN
Remember that I'm no authority on Scripture. These are only things I like to think about or have thought and I could be wrong. I write them to provoke some of you to thought, perhaps, so that you can look up the Scriptures too, maybe learn them a little better and decide what you think on these matters. Everyone should know for themselves why they think what they do.
Other Scripture related to the Lord's anger, love and grief
Luke 19:41-44, "And when he drew near and saw the city [Jerusalem], he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Mark 3:1-5, Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
Luke 23:33-35, And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching,but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”