OCTOBER 18, 2024

   “True evil is unlikely to receive an invitation from us, so it clothes itself in just enough truth to make itself look appealing and then it looks to unpeel us.” 

― Craig D. Lounsbrough

ISAIAH 65-66

1“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;

I was found by those who did not seek me.

To a nation that did not call on my name,

I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’

2All day long I have held out my hands

to an obstinate people,

who walk in ways not good,

pursuing their own imaginations— (65:1-2) 

2 THESSALONIANS 1

3We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,^b and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 4Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

JOURNAL 

It is truly amazing when I think about the fact that the power that created the universe would seek out mere humans to love and have relationship and would then be rejected. How insane is that whole idea. If I put that idea in today's world...to imagine that someone really famous and powerful sought me out to have relationship. Say they knocked on my door and asked if they could come in and just wanted to hang out with me, all day, every day. Say they wanted to help me with all my problems and struggles. All they asked for in return is that I would receive their generosity and love and would continue to have a friendship with them. That we would become best friends. They would then guarantee that they would never leave me and would always forgive me, even when I rejected them. 

To reject that offer would signal that something was really messed up with me...with my thinking and my heart.  I wonder if that is the core of why I would not seek God out in every moment. I wonder if it is because I distrust the offer. That dialogue sounds very familiar...    

4“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

GENESIS 3:4-7