"Relentless"

"Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds." (Psalms 68:34) By the way, you do know that it is okay to be broken, right? The whole point of Paul's exhortation in Romans 7 is about our need for God's healing touch. We would not need a Healer if it were not for the fact that we are sick beyond our ability to make ourselves well. The way I see it, Israel is a large scale model of the normal Christian, showing us how God is so relentless in the salvation of His chosen people. He delivers them over and over, even though they keep going astray. I can't help but think of Hebrews 12:1 when meditating on this verse, which says, "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." I love guest speakers, they just always bring something unexpected. At the church I attended yesterday they had a guest speaker; the Pastor and most of the men were at a Men's Retreat, so the regular message was interrupted. The speaker actually used the words "The True God" in his message; so you can imagine my sense of confirmation in the choice of where to attend church. Any time I am out of town on a Sunday, I try to visit a local Calvary Chapel; I hardly ever go away disappointed in the message; and I never go away without knowing more than before I went. That is one of the great things about God's word, is that His word is always fresh; even though you might have read the same Scripture a thousand times, it can still reveal something new to your heart; it can still minister to your current location, even though it is the same address that you have visited, time and time again...
 "So think clearly and exercise selfcontrol. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy." And remember that the Heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as "foreigners in the land." For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold and silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days. Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say, "People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever." And that word is the Good News that was preached to you." (1 Peter 1:13-25) NLT