Loving and Righteous

I so wish I could infuse these pieces with the joy I have in my heart after spending time with the Lord.  The Bible, even passages written 2500 years ago, is so alive and fresh when the Holy Spirit speaks it into our hearts.  The heart of what I heard this morning:  that the love and righteousness of God balance in His nature.  Love without righteousness is unholy nonsense.  Righteousness without love is prideful and destructive. 

Jeremiah continued to cry out to the children of God in the passages I read this morning...'You are God's children.  Live that heritage--not the one from your natural families.'  That call remains.  Everyone of us inherits our family's 'sins' and we pass along sin--usually unwittingly and unintentionally.  God's call is to examine our lives--examine Him and choose God as our legacy.  Jesus gave us the option to choose, let's not waste it!  The open arms of God continually reach out to us.  If we reject those arms, if we choose to go our own way (which will be worse than the ways of those who went before us), God will allow the purifying fires of His righteousness to consume the idols we pursue.

One of the studies I dug into this morning gave great clarification that helps us avoid 'unholy righteousness.'  Sin is the rejection of God...but sin is not an action per se.  Sin is an attitude.  If we get focused on the specifics, we'll be prideful and cause destruction.  The attitude of holy love will be a Light for our path and others.  There is natural love and even natural righteousness:  God IS super-natural.  That's let the Spirit live that super-natural life in us!

I don't feel this comes close to articulating the exciting beauty I saw in the nature of God this morning. I pray the Lord will infuse your spirit with the JOY of the Lord anyway!