DEVOTIONAL

Saints of God, those who have been bought by the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, having been predestined from the foundations of the world to be conformed into His image by His sovereign pleasure, may your eyes continually be opened to see the spiritual death of unconverted souls all around you. These individuals are like wild waves of the sea, casting up foam of their own shame; like wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever, who await the fiery judgement of eternal hell. Oh my brothers and sisters, have our hearts become so calloused that we do not even shed a tear for the terror that awaits the unrepentant heart? Have our hearts become so desensitized that we do not fly to God in holy prayer with an agonizing soul for those who are under divine judgement? Oh the sinfulness of sin, how it has cast a spell on God’s own children. Yes, upon His own sons and daughters who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, whose hearts have been open to divine truth and the revelation of the reality of this day, when God will tread the winepress of His fury upon those who have rejected His Son, Jesus Christ.

Now it is true that as Christians we never put ourselves in the place of God as if we ourselves know the eternal destination of a soul. But the scriptures reassure us that the continual actions of an individual publicly displayed for all to see, is a way to measure the state of a heart. For Jesus Himself tells us, “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.” Paul, under inspiration, in great detail, also informs those who are at Corinth, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” So then, as those who have been chosen by God, holy and beloved, may we put on a heart of compassion, yielding ourselves in holy obedience to God’s word, laboring for those who are bearing unrighteous fruit.

We are to unashamedly let the light of Christ’s love shine in the members of our body before men that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven. For just as Jesus was sent into the world, to be a light to the world, exposing the darkness of the human heart, so now He sends us into the world, to also be a light to the world, and to expose the darkness by testifying of His death and resurrection. Lord God, give your children a deeper repentance, a terror of sin, a deeper knowledge of Yourself as Savior, Master, Lord, and King. Plow into our conscience deep furrows of Your word, engrave upon our minds your perfect righteousness so that we may never forget our calling, and give us holy passion to seek and to save that which is lost.