
God never changes.  He still loves us.  Sending Jesus was one of His
attempts to reconcile with mankind.  The nature of God has not changed.


Sinning in the face of God was punishable by immediate death.  There are
several OT passages to back this up.  God is God.  He cannot tolerate
the prescence of sin in His midst.  And the Israelites knew this!  And
still, some of them chose to disobey and were destroyed.  Were these
people KIND and LOVing themselves?  God gave them every break He could
but in the end, He really had no choice in the matter.  Seeing as how
we were failing to achieve salvation on our own, He sent His Son to die
for us - to be the ultimate sin offering.  Now we live in the age of
grace.



He sent His Son as a consolation to us, out of love.
 

Hey, let's be fair for a moment here.  KIND and LOVING does not mean
a free ride.  There is an amount of give and take as in any relationship.
Parents are supposed to be kind and loving but does that mean that 
children can do whatever they want?  NOT!  Part of being a parent means
administering punishment when the child is at fault.  Part of being a 
parent means giving instruction.  God tests us through the trial of
life such that we may grow stronger.  He teaches what is right and 
what is wrong.  The consequences of our actions are made clear to us,
be it Heaven or be it Hell.  If God did not follow through with what
He has warned us about, He would not be a very good parent.

In parenting, if a parent issues a warning but does not follow through
with it, the children will not take that parent's words very seriously.
God does the same by telling us who have ears to hear what to do and
what not to do.  By life's trials, we see the folly of doing our own
will rather than His.  He warns us about the consequences of rejecting
Him when it comes time for Judgement.  Do we follow Him?

I will.

Peace be with you,

Malcolm Lee  :)
