I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
At our church, we just finished the study of the Book of Revelation. The good news is that there’s a new Heaven and a new earth and God is the ruler, so no more corruption or temptation or sin. The bad news is that the good is preceded by God’s wrath, the final judgment. God has judged many nations throughout history and as I have been reading Isaiah for my devotional, I have seen that the wrath of God against Babylon parallels the wrath He demonstrates against the earth in Revelation.
I am not a Bible scholar, but I do know that in Isaiah God is speaking directly to Babylon and says that He will punish them severely. He will crush those who have shown only arrogance. God is not tolerant of pride at all. Think back to how Satan rebelled; he demonstrated pride and arrogance. To me, Babylon represents all nations, all people who stand up to God and say that they don’t need Him will be judged by God.
God’s original plan was for a perfect world without sin, but His plan was thwarted by Satan’s temptation and the choice of mankind to sin. God’s judgment cannot be stopped. It is coming. Babylon was an example, a prototype, if you will, of the judgment to come. I know that God must be looking on the world with deep sorrow because He has done all He can to save mankind from itself and the desire to follow their own ways. But once His wrath is unleashed, He will not be stopped by anyone.
I am not fearful of God’s wrath. I am fearful of how much destruction mankind will cause with their wickedness before God judges. God’s timing is perfect and I trust Him to stop the madness at just the right time, just as He sent Jesus at just the right time. In the meantime, I am praying for many to come to the Lord so that they don’t face God’s great judgment and wrath.
I must honestly admit that I did not listen to President Biden’s speech last night, mostly because his rhetoric and pandering to the liberal left sicken me. However, I do subscribe to “The Daily Wire” and received a copy of Tim Scott’s rebuttal on my SafeChat newsfeed this morning. His entire speech can be found here, and he shows that he “gets it.” He understands that a nation divided against itself cannot stand and that America needs to be united, not torn apart.
I’m not going to debate politics here, but I do want to point out what the Holy Bible says about speech, specifically in relationship to actions. Note that in this verse we are admonished not to be arrogant in our speech. In what ways do we show arrogance when we are speaking? I think we do this each time we rush through a conversation with someone whom we don’t consider important in our lives. We just want to move on to the next thing that we consider critical or meaningful, and if the person to whom we are speaking is not part of that plan, we rush our words and turn away. Sometimes, we don’t even listen to them. I think that we show arrogance when we insist that our opinion is the right one and there is no other. There is only One Way to Heaven, that is true. But all of the rest of our opinions are just that…our own opinions. Even my statement about Joe Biden’s rhetoric is only my opinion, and I sincerely believe that you are entitled to your opinion as well. I think that we show arrogance when we don’t take time to listen. We interrupt, talk more loudly and insist that our conversation partner listen to us when we refuse to take the time to listen to them. A wise pastor once told me that we need to listen twice as much as we speak. I have found that I can learn a lot about people just by listening.
All knowledge comes from God and we need to give Him the credit for that instead of pontificating with our own views. The only knowledge that is important is about God and leading people to God and away from sin. After all, God is going to examine all of our actions and I have found that most generally, my actions follow my speech. If I am irate at a certain person for taking my time, my actions are to walk away from them as quickly as I can. Is that what Jesus would have done? How would Jesus act in the current political climate of divisiveness? Would He have taken sides or would He simply have continued to do as the Father instructed Him, teaching and healing and just being the example that we need to follow? If you believe that the latter is true, should we all not be examples for others to follow, leading others to the Father and to eternal life?
One of the reasons that I appreciate Senator Scott’s speech is that he seemed to give it with humility. He didn’t pretend to know everything; however, he did give insight into his own humble beginnings so that I could relate to him as a person instead of one of 100 Senators governing us. He called for unity, a real cry of my heart. Finally, he made the point of saying that you cannot fight discrimination with more discrimination. Shaming white children for being white is no better than shaming others for their skin color. As I told my students when I was teaching: “We are all kin to each other because we are all descended from Noah, regardless of our skin color. Skin color is just melatonin. It doesn’t make me who I am. That’s my choices which form my character.” I liked that Tim Scott knows God’s truth and acts like it. His actions have shown me that he does care about others. He tried to get a common sense police reform bill passed. He has fought for justice in the Senate during the time that he has served and has been an outspoken advocate for the people. Finally, he has not enriched himself on the backs of the people whom he claims to serve. I point out these actions because I want to remind people that God hears the speech, and He judges the actions.
May each of you have a blessed day with God guiding your footsteps and putting a watch over your mouth as He opens your ears to hear.
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