There is no heaven that has a little corner of hell in it. God is
determined to make you pure, holy, and right, and He will not allow you
to escape from the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit for even one moment. He
urged you to come to judgment immediately when He convicted you, but you
did not obey. Then the inevitable process began to work, bringing its
inevitable penalty. Now you have been “thrown into prison, [and] . . .
you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny”
(5:25-26).
Yet you ask, “Is this a God of mercy and love?” When seen from God’s
perspective, it is a glorious ministry of love. God is going to bring
you out pure, spotless, and undefiled, but He wants you to recognize the
nature you were exhibiting— the nature of demanding your right to
yourself. The moment you are willing for God to change your nature, His
recreating forces will begin to work. And the moment you realize that
God’s purpose is to get you into the right relationship with Himself and
then with others, He will reach to the very limits of the universe to
help you take the right road. Decide to do it right now, saying, “Yes,
Lord, I will write that letter,” or, “I will be reconciled to that person now.”
These sermons of Jesus Christ are meant for your will and your
conscience, not for your head. If you dispute these verses from the
Sermon on the Mount with your head, you will dull the appeal to your
heart.
If you find yourself asking, “I wonder why I’m not growing
spiritually with God?”— then ask yourself if you are paying your debts
from God’s standpoint. Do now what you will have to do someday.
Every moral question or call comes with an “ought” behind it— the
knowledge of knowing what we ought to do.
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