"Give and Take Away"

"Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down." (Psalms 102:10)
Ultimately, God calls the shots; it would serve us well to understand that and to let that guide our lives. I know that there are more and more people who might not believe that's the case, but sooner or later it will be made abundantly clear. That word "indignation" is pretty much anger, because God is angry at sin. Just because God is love, does not mean that He does not hate, because God hates sin. He hates what sin does; He hates that sin destroys and kills, and that it separates Him from His children. Indignation also means punishment sent from God. You can think of it any way that you like, but sin will be punished, one way or another. For those of us that are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, our sin was punished upon the cross; so as far as we are concerned, the punishment for our sins has been dealt with, once and for all. Now, if you really want to explore your options, you could consider what it was like for the Father, as He poured out His punishment of sin upon His only begotten Son; consider how it was for Him to allow such brutality and anguish to be put upon His Son, and then how little He will tolerate anyone that refuses to receive the free gift that His sacrifice provided. You want to talk about give and take away; the life that was freely given, gives God the right to take away the life of all who refuse His loving offer. So, if you might have any kind of notion that God, who is all about love and mercy, will not judge sin by sending people to hell, then you might want to think again. Yesterday at church we had a guest who led us in worship. She was apparently there for the Woman's Conference on Saturday, but she stuck around to do worship on Sunday. There was this one song that she shared with us, it was about Jesus saying, "Not my will, but thine, be done." That is pretty much what it all comes down to, that we seek to do the will of the Father; and the Father's primary will for all of us, is that we believe in the Son. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the Father declared from heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." If you would, that was the Father lifting up the Son; Him casting down the Son was for the punishment of sin; which actually was the lifting up of the Son again...
""How are these things possible?" Nicodemus asked. Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe our testimony. But if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life."" (John 3:9-15) NLT