Key Thought

There is tremendous pressure to make God a nice, benevolent, senile man who smiles for everyone and judges no one. In a society and culture of quick fixes, God is easily manipulated and all people deserve to get to go to heaven and be with him forever, no matter how they have lived. The shortsightedness of such a view is apparent to anyone who has been in the presence of evil. It doesn't matter if that evil is disguised and clothed in social respectability or if it is unvarnished and terrifying. Evil and God, evil and goodness, evil and heaven don't fit! No matter how much we want to blur the distinction, God does care about the difference between righteousness and wickedness. It matters deeply to him; it is his holy character to treat people justly and as their actions deserve. Without the transformational power of Jesus' death and resurrection -- and our participation in it that even through grace, faith, baptism and the Holy Spirit -- we all would fall outside the boundaries of righteousness and justice would demand a rigorous verdict of us all. But Jesus is the great righteousness maker. His sacrificial death that we share in through grace and his abiding power to transform us daily through the Holy Spirit make us righteous and holy in the sight of God. But those who do not know Jesus as Lord, who have not honored him by their lives, words, and heart, will find that while God's justice is fair and true, justice without Jesus' grace is a bitter prize to receive!

Today's Prayer

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O great Judge and Father of the Ages, thank you for the sacrificial death and transforming life of Jesus Christ my Lord. I thank you that I stand in your presence without fault, free from any accusation, and holy in your sight. But Father, I know that those attributes are mine by your grace and not by my actions, so I pray this day that my life bears witness to the righteousness you have given me in Jesus. To your glory and in the name of Jesus I ask it. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

"No person knows when that day or time will be. The Son and the angels in heaven don't know when that day or time will be. Only the Father knows. When the Son of Man comes, it will be the same as the thing that happened during Noah's time. In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking. People were marrying and giving their children to be married. The people were still doing those things until the day Noah entered the boat. Those people knew nothing about what was happening. But then the flood came and all those people were destroyed. It will be the same when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field. One man will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain with a mill. One woman will be taken and the other woman will be left. "So always be ready. You don't know the day your Lord will come. Remember this: If the owner of the house knew what time the thief was coming, then the owner would be ready for him. The owner would watch and not let the thief enter his house. So you also must be ready. The Son of Man will come at a time when you don't expect him. "Who is the wise and trusted servant? The master trusts one servant to give the other servants their food at the right time. Who is the servant that the master trusts to do that work? When the master comes and finds that servant doing the work he gave him, the servant will be very happy. I tell you the truth. The master will choose that servant to take care of everything the master owns. But what will happen if the servant is evil and thinks his master will not come back soon? Then that servant will begin to beat the other servants. That servant will eat the food and get drunk with other people like him. Then the master of that servant will come when the servant is not ready. It will be a time when the servant is not expecting the master. Then the master will punish that servant. The master will send him away to be with the hypocrites. And in that placepeople will cry and grind their teeth {with pain}.

— Matthew 24:36-51 (ERV)

Easy-to-Read Version copyright © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center. All rights reserved.