This morning I enjoyed another meeting with a Long Term Care Hospital executive. It is always interesting to learn more about the inside processes and challenges in heath care at all levels.<\/p>\n
After lunch with my mom, I had an afternoon massage. That was welcome after my workout yesterday. By the time I returned home, I was ready for a nap, before working on some other projects.<\/p>\n
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…\u00a0<\/strong>You ask, \u201cHow have we tired him?\u201d You did it by saying, \u201cThe Lord<\/span> thinks anyone who does evil is good, and he is pleased with them.\u201d Or you asked, \u201cWhere is the God who is fair?\u201d<\/span> <\/em>Malachi 2:17 NCV<\/p>\n Malachi is one of the more interesting prophetic books. It is a question and answer discourse. It is like an interrogation or accounting of word and actions. What we see is in the attitudes and questions of the people they were “putting God on trial.” Their questions revealed a doubt about God’s love and questioning of God’s ways. But in the process the questions that revealed doubt and were used to excuse sinful behavior became “tiring” to God<\/p>\n The Lord was “getting weary” of their rebellion and the attitudes of His people. But in the words of those from thousands of years ago we see a reflection of the attitudes of many today.<\/p>\n The first one is expressed in believing that God is unfair, primarily because of the presence and seemingly toleration of evil. They had the attitude that, “God thinks anyone who does evil is good…” <\/em>How often we see many who become resentful toward God because they can’t reconcile the “presence of evil with a God of love.” The irony is that they want God to judge to evil in the most wicked individuals, but not judge the wickedness in their own life.<\/p>\n We see that throughout time the Lord in His mercy and everlasting love has provided an opportunity for people to change their lives, confess and repent of their wickedness. But we do see God’s judgment does come on individuals, groups and nations.<\/p>\n We can be thankful for the Lord’s compassion that doesn’t wipe us all from the face of the earth. Jeremiah declared, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed…”<\/em> (Lamentations 3:22 NIV) The psalmist asked the question, “LORD, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?”<\/em> (Psa. 103:3 NLT) We see another expression of “terrible things” the people said about God that echo to our present day. \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou have said, \u2018It is useless to serve God. It did no good to obey his laws and to show the Lord<\/span> All-Powerful that we were sorry for what we did.”<\/em> (Malachi 3:14 NCV) <\/span><\/p>\n What happens when what God does and allows doesn’t meet with our expectations When we have more trouble and hardships than are “fair”? What do we do when we see evil triumph over good and when we see the innocent suffer for the guilty? For many they conclude that it is “useless to serve the Lord.” Like the Children of Israel in the wilderness that grew tired of the provision of manna, they grow tired to the Lord’s mercy and patience.<\/p>\n In doing so, we see an attitude of expectation of God serving people, instead of people committed to serving the Lord. This was especially interesting for those original recipients of Malaci’s words. They lived in a day when Kings ruled in the land and people were expected to be loyal regardless of the decisions and conduct of the King. But the honor the people gave to human leaders they did not give to\u00a0 God.<\/p>\n We see this reflected in the Lord’s interrogation of the people, The Lord<\/span> All-Powerful says, \u201cA son honors his father, and a servant honors his master.\u201d I am a father, so why don\u2019t you honor me? I am a master, so why don\u2019t you respect me?<\/em> <\/span>(Malachi 1:6 NCV)<\/p>\n Our call is to trust God, not try God. We are called to submit to God and not expect Him to accommodate His plan and character to our limited understanding. The Bible says, “…how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!<\/em>“<\/em> (Romans 11:33 NLT) If God’s ways are impossible to understand we need to accept that. We rest in His love, mercy and justice. <\/span>His promise through Malachi to the people was this,<\/p>\n “…The names of those who honored the Lord<\/span> and respected him were written in his presence in a book to be remembered. The Lord<\/span> All-Powerful says, \u201cThey belong to me; on that day they will be my very own. As a parent shows mercy to his child who serves him, I will show mercy to my people.\u00a0<\/span>You will again see the difference between good and evil people, between those who serve God and those who don\u2019t.”\u00a0<\/span><\/em> (Malachi 3:16-18 NCV)<\/p>\n We should all be seek to be those who are among those who are known to honor and respect the Lord, to be those who will be found faithful in the day the Lord returns and makes a clear distinction between those who belong to Him and serve Him and those who don’t.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This morning I enjoyed another meeting with a Long Term Care Hospital executive. It is always interesting to learn more about the inside processes and challenges in heath care at all levels. After lunch with my mom, I had an afternoon massage. That was welcome after my workout yesterday. By the time I returned home, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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