"Holy War"

"They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood." (Psalms 94:21)
Besides this complex and totally misunderstood grace that we have been given, there is the reality that every single one of us will be judged; one way or another, there will be justice on that last day. I love that God gives us mercy; we ask Him for forgiveness, and He faithfully forgives us and cleanses us from all of our unrighteousness; that is want Jesus did for us on that cross, paid the price for our sins. Grace, on the other hand, grace has freely been given, but it comes with a price. That might not sound right; how can something be free and yet come with a price? One day we will be asked, "What did you do with the grace you were given?" When a slave is given mercy and set free from bondage, they are free to do whatever they want with their life; but when that same slave is adopted into the Master's wealthy family, then they must take on the role as one of the heirs. That's pretty much where we find ourselves as one of God's children; we have been adopted into His Kingdom, and now we must take on the role of one of the heirs to that Kingdom. That said, there are many forces working against us to stop us from assuming the role that we have so graciously been given. Besides our own inadequacies, which really don't matter to God, we have those around us who either hold us back or we hold back because of them. And then, we have our real enemy, none other than the devil, who is constantly telling us that we are not worthy, unfit, or unforgiven. About that bowl of soup; I know it was a little weird to illustrate God's will that way, but just because we make wrong choices and God can still work with that wrong choice, does not mean we don't suffer for the wrong choices we make. I just needed to make myself clear on that, just in case you thought wrong choices were good choices. God can make anything work towards the good for His purposes; it might cost us our life, but even so, He's all about saving souls, because this life is expendable. We must be about our Father's business...
"He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that everyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him." (2 Corinthians 5:15-18) NLT