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Religion today is not transforming people; rather it is being transformed by the people. It is not raising the moral level of society; it is descending to society’s own level, and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smilingly accepting its surrender.
–A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)

Tozer could see this occurring more than 50 years ago. And the trend has neither changed nor slowed, but instead has continued to pick up speed and our understanding of God’s Word continues being transformed more and more, such that this powerfully dangerous Word of God is being changed into something tame and safe.

God’s Word has never been safe when taken at face value and understood to truly mean death to oneself in the trading of my will, desire, plans, and goals for God’s will, desire, plans, and goals.

Are you standing on the timeless Word of God allowing it to transform you?
Or Are you working to transform the Word of God to be more palatable to yourself and those around you?
Are you consuming the teachings of God and being changed?
Or are you finding ways to change God’s teachings so that they become safe and powerless?

The New Testament looks on to “the day of judgment,” and proclaims Jesus, the divine Savior, as the divinely-appointed judge…. So the Jesus of the New Testament, who is the world’s Savior, is its Judge as well.

The Bible leaves us in no doubt that God loves righteousness and hates iniquity, and that the ideal of a judge wholly-identified with what is good and right is perfectly fulfilled in him.
–J. I. Packer

Judgment is not wrong. We need judges to decide situations of wrongful behavior.
If someone wrongs us, we want a good judge to decide our case.
We don’t want a judge who lets off the person who wrongs us due to a bribe – that would be an unjust judge.
We don’t want a judge who winks at the other person’s bad behavior due to their being a family member – that would be an unfair, unjust judge.
We want someone who will look at the situation and provide a fair, wise, righteous judgment.
We want someone who will uphold good and right behavior and be angered by sinful, evil actions.
We want someone who will never pervert justice.
Therefore, we want Jesus.
Jesus is the good Judge. Jesus is the ideal Judge.
Not only does he love good and hate sin, but…
He also has grace for us and was willing to take our punishment on the cross.
The just Judge came off the judge’s bench and paid the required payment in our place.
What a perfect Judge!

If relationships aren’t built on something deeper than finding good restaurants, working at the same company, or having kids in the same activities, they will change whenever the common bond is no longer there.

What connects believers is the reality that we were all very messed-up people, broken before a holy God, yet rescued and given new life in Christ. What unites believers is deeper than anything that can divide.
–Matt Chandler

We are designed to be in relationship… in community… with others. And yet, we find that many times our community that we are building with others is not built on something lasting. But when we build it on the gospel, our relationships are built on the strongest and most solid foundation that exists. It can allow people with great differences to come together with love for one another. People who wouldn’t have been caught dead together, now greet each other with a holy kiss – as brothers and sisters in Christ – the one who has transformed them and given them a new family under one Father.

We can state the gospel clearly; we can smell unsound doctrine a mile away. If asked how one may know God, we can at once produce the right formula: that we come to know God through Jesus Christ the Lord, in virtue of his cross and mediation, on the basis of his word of promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, via a personal exercise of faith.

Yet the joy, goodness, and unfetteredness of spirit which are the marks of those who have known God are rare among us.
–J. I. Packer

Packer’s book, Knowing God, is all about how to take that which is already in our heads and move it 18 inches lower to dwell in our hearts. He wants us to move from having lots of knowledge about God and become people who intimately know and love God – these are two very different things.

Just as I can know a lot about someone who is famous and yet not have any relationship with them, you can know a lot about God and yet not know God…not have any real relationship with Him. And only an intimate relationship of knowing God will bring you that joy, love, and peace that each of us long to have.

Pray that God will help you come to know Him and love Him and not just know things about Him.

Diseases are painful and problematic. However, Yancey rightly indicates that physical disease is much less problematic than spiritual dis-ease:

Jesus knew that spiritual dis-ease has a more devastating effect than any mere physical ailment. Every healed person ultimately dies — then what?

He had not come primarily to heal the world’s cells, but to heal its souls.
–Philip Yancey