the God we want or the God who is

so the reading of 1 Samuel has Saul falling from grace. We've already seen the Israelites wandering around in the wilderness until a whole generation died and the next generation would have nothing to be proud of. Later on, we see that David sins and as a result, God promised that the sword would never leave his household.

So what's the deal?

Is this just the old testament God who is full of wrath and punishment? I don't think it's that. I think our perception of grace and mercy is a little off. Grace is recieving something we don't deserve. We don't deserve eternal life or God's love. But He gives them to us anyway. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. We deserve punishment and death, but we sometimes don't get them. Here's the misunderstanding. We assume forgiveness means that there are no consequences. The truth about forgiveness is that it is between you and the one forgiving. Forgiveness makes you right with the other person and it restores the relationship. The consequences are something else altogether.

Your parents will always forgive you. They won't hate you forever. But they will probably still give you consequences. I know it's hard to think about a loving God as also a punishing God, but oftentimes the consequences are necessary for teaching and refining so that you may be complete and whole, not lacking in anything.

(yes, this was written during Randy's sermon)