Punishment

People's perception of God is always interesting to me. I meet so many people from all different walks of life and when we get into God discussions I am amazed at how little people actually really know about Him. Most of them have no idea where they even got their information. They rarely, if ever, go to church, or maybe went as a child; they don't listen to Christian radio; many don't have a Bible and most who do have NEVER read it for themselves. After they think about it for a while they usually answer my question with something like, "Well, I guess I learned it from my parents" or "I think there used to be song on the radio in the '70's that said something about God and a Mrs. Robinson" or "Some of the sitcoms I watch on TV have skits about God now and then" and my favorite, "Oh I saw something on one of those news shows that told me that."

Mostly this breaks my heart because often their understanding of God does not remotely resemble what the Bible clearly teaches us about Him. Don't get me wrong, I don't think my finite mind has the capacity to fully understand an infinite God; but I do believe it is capable of understanding what He has revealed about Himself in the Bible.

Since I've been in a healing ministry (13 years now) and meeting with those who believe they have done the "unforgivable" sin, this key point of knowing who God is critical. These wounded individuals often say they have lived for years, even decades, always waiting for and fearful of God's punishment. Typically I spend a lot of time working with them to show them, from the Bible, who God is. I tell them that God is not sitting in Heaven waiting to "lower the boom on them" but that in fact He is there waiting to love them, waiting for them to run to him. The problem is they are so busy running away from God they can't accept that He even wants anything to do with them. They have forgotten how much He loves them, or perhaps they never knew.

Today, while praying, I was reading through Scripture and came across an interesting verse in Isaiah. It was one of the moments where the words seemed to jump right off the page. I read them over and over again and just meditated on the meaning behind them. I am compelled to share that verse with you now:

Isaiah 53:5
But He was wounded for the wrong we did. The punishment, which made us well, was given to him, and we are healed because of His wounds.

Wow. God is not waiting to punish us and He already has proven His love to us by sending His one and only Son to take the punishment for us. "It is finished." What more can we do? Accept His love, accept His forgiveness and live as one who has been forgiven and is healed from all sin!