Friday, May 6, 2022
God Sees Everything,
Nothing is Hidden,
Not Even by Mountains
or Trees
or Darkness of Night!
Ecclesiastes 12:14
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Romans 14:12-13
So then, each of us will be accountable to God. Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another.
Words of Grace For Today
Today I repaired a wire on the truck I borrow. Not a big deal, just a speed sensor for a wheel, without which the computer stabilizer to help avoid sliding (it’s the computer program that nearly threw me into oncoming traffic when the roads were icy!) , to supposedly maintain traction (when one or more wheels is wont to spin), and to determine when to use the ABS braking. Only the last is worth much, but still it’s best to keep everything in repair. One can turn off the other two if need be.
The thing is the wire to the speed sensor is not in a place where it can get caught on anything, and the wire did not wear through or break. It was cut, not just once but twice (so the wire did not hang down I would guess after the first cut!) Someone came out here while I was bicycling to town and intentionally cut the wire, twice. Talk about … well dirty dealing, sabotage, and something someone is going to answer for! Well, not because of me.
It’s just we always trust or at least hope that those that do dirty deals will eventually be caught and will pay for what they have done.
Our scriptural record tends to support that as well.
‘Even if other humans never know what you’ve done, God knows and you will have to pay for what you thought you got away with’, or so goes the thought. Much like the wall hanging I once saw and was caught off guard by enough to take a photo of it:
Karma,
I have a list of people
you seemed to have missed.
Come around again, please.
The list of popular sayings along this line are endless, for example:
What goes around, comes around.
Crime does not pay.
If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.
Everyone gets what’s coming to them, eventually.
Except, despite all our wishes that it were so, this is not how God tells us God works.
Yes, what is hidden or secret will come to light.
Yes, though everyone else may not know, God knows. God knows everything.
Yes, there will be judgment for everyone.
Yes, yes, yes … except.
God’s clearest statement for us is in Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection, by which it is clear that God’s foremost and consistent manner of dealing with us is grace, ie God judges us and forgives us our sins. God judges our enemies and all evil doers, and all people, and God forgives us all … except some sins God does not forgive … but we will never know what sins God will not and does not forgive.
We can bind or retain all the sins we deem worthy of such note, but we do not judge others. Only God judges, and God judges us all, as God knows all, sees and hears all, and reads every mind and heart.
Where does that leave us?
Should we toss every care to the wind and make our way through life of sin and evil with no care in the world, because God will, after all, forgive us anyway?
Should we not notice other people’s sins and care that their sins hurt not only us but many, many other people?
Should we just give up!
No, none of that, not no way, no how!
God graciously deals with us and equips us to love … to love ourselves, to love our neighbours all, and even to love our enemies.
Our task is to share God’s Grace, not to pretend we can judge others for God.
Yes each of us will be accountable to God.
But the best we can do is get out of God’s way, and not get in other people’s way of seeing God.
Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another.
That is the tricky part: not being a hindrance to others, and not putting stumbling blocks in others’ way to seeing God’s Grace for them!
Tall order, for short people … but short people well equipped for the gift of life and grace for all.