Knowing God - Revelation 3:19

(from Pastor)

As many as I love

I rebuke and chasten.

Revelation 3:19

We find several passages like this in scripture.

For example, in Psalm 23 we hear that "[God's] rod and staff, they comfort me." I don't know about you, but I don't find it comforting to be grabbed by the neck with a hook nor bonked on the head with a correcting stick.

In John 15 scripture tells us that Jesus prunes us whether we're good or bad! "2 He [prunes] every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit."

Correcting sticks, pruning shears, rebuking, chastening. How is that love?

I caught two minutes of an interview on the radio yesterday regarding a book entitled, I think it was, "The Other Wes Moore." The author -- the first Wes Moore -- grew up in a tough inner-city environment. He researches how he rose from that environment to be a Rhodes Scholar and State Department assistant to Condoleeza Rice and the other Wes Moore -- who grew up in the same years on the same streets -- to be on death row for killing a cop.

In the end, the final analysis -- at least in the two minutes that I listened -- is that one Wes Moore had parents who loved him enough to use correcting sticks, pruning shears, rebuking, and chastening ... and the other didn't.

In Christ's Love,

a guy who wants to be hit with a stick

(no ... I know what you're thinking ...

that's God's staff I'll submit to ... not yours!)

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I often say that I need to be hit over the head with a 2x4 to know what God wants me to do.  But I think this is talking about more of a disciplinary action.  Helping a person grow.  Correcting sticks ... disciplining.  Pruning shears ... helping a person grow.  Neither are pleasant. Neither are requested. However, both are necessary to grow. learn. obey. They help set and enforce boundaries. It is all difficult, yet so very necessary in life with Christ.