RIP David Bowie!

Deuteronomy 19:21

"You must show no pity for the guilty! Your rule should be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot."

Lord, this admonition was not intended as a call to revenge. It was intended to keep us from exacting more recompense than is due. It was intended to extend mercy and along with justice.

Lord, you are a God of justice, but you are also a God of mercy. Only you know how to perfectly blend these two mutually exclusive traits, or so they seem to our finite human minds.

I've been thinking a lot about your justice and mercy since yesterday when I heard that David Bowie died.

I posted on my Facebook page that I hoped he knew you. Otherwise, he is spending an eternity in torment. That got me thinking and wondering. How can a God of mercy send anyone to that fate?? But you reminded me that you have done everything you could to prevent us from having to go to hell. You even sent your only Son to die for our sins. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16 NIV

We are the ones who continually reject your mercy and therefore incur your judgement instead.

It's like someone standing before a judge. This person has been proven guilty. They know they are guilty and don't deny it, and the whole world knows they are guilty as well. The judge can't let that person go free no matter how merciful he is.  

The judge can't let that person go free no matter how merciful he is.

So the judge pronounces the sentence on the guilty person; death. But then someone comes in and says, "I love this person!! I want to take their sentence in their place. Please let me die in their place." The guilty person would be crazy not to accept this offer of mercy. And yet this is exactly what people do every day.

Lord, that post on Facebook has ignited a firestorm of negative comments. My SIL is a Jehovah's Witness and was posting stuff about hell not being real and that people are no longer conscious after they die. I admit, I did not handle it in the most loving way. I deleted her comments and told her not to post that stuff on my page. Not the most loving reaction. I did not want others to be led astray by those lies.

Lord, please forgive me for the way I reacted. Please help me to know how to respond in the future. I don't ever want to compromise the truth, but I don't want to be unloving about it either.

Please open my SIL's eyes to see the truth! Please bind and remove satan's work in her life. Lord, she has years and years of lies that she as believed. But you are bigger than all that! I know that nothing is impossible for you!

Please, give comfort to David Bowie's wife, Iman. Help her to run to you when the grief overwhelms her. In Jesus' name, amen. <3

MEMORY VERSE

Psalm 90:17

"May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us - yes, establish the work of our hands."

Psalm 90:17

YEAR VERSE

Psalm 37:3-5

Trust in the LORD and do good.

Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Take delight in the LORD,

and he will give you your heart's desires.

Commit everything you do to the LORD.

Trust him, and he will help you.

Psalm 37:3-5