Laughed At and Destroyed

Did you know that if you're following in the will of God, He laughs at those who come against you? Not only does He laugh, He scoffs at them according to Psalms 2:1-4. The King James version uses the phrase "the Lord shall have them in derision". Derision is just a shorter way of saying extreme mockery, humiliation, or ridicule. We don't want to be associated with those that God mocks. We don't want to be part of their group, part of their "in" crowd. We don't need to try to "fit in" with the world. When we join the world in their wickedness, we become a part of the group that God Himself ridicules.

We definitely don't want to be a part of that group, and Psalms 2:5-9 tells us why. God will deal harshly and angrily with them. They will be ruled with an iron scepter, and broken like pottery. Those who don't follow after the will of God will be utterly destroyed. We see a reference to this in Jude 1:5, where it talks about the people who complained about the Manna from Heaven, and we see that God destroyed all of those who complained.

Psalms 2:10-12 tells us what to do: serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son, and take refuge in Him. Jude 1:20-25 gives us a correlation to that as well, showing that not only should we take refuge in Christ, but that we should bring as many in with us as possible, saving them also from the wrath of God. Romans 12:1-2 says to give our bodies as a living sacrifice, and not conform to the world, but let God transform our minds to follow Christ. Let us not join in the world and be mocked and destroyed by God, but let's follow Jesus and save as many as we can through His power in our lives.

Life's Not Just a Bed of Roses

Did you get saved expecting it to make life easier? Did you get saved expecting God to make you rich or famous? Do you preach, teach, and believe the Word of Faith doctrine? 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 would tend to disagree with your idea of what it means to be saved. Certainly, God does richly bless His children, but it is not always so.

God always meets the needs of His children though. Consider the children of Israel in Exodus 16:3, out in the desert, hungry; then in Exodus 16:11-15 God sent bread in the morning with the dew for them to eat. And no, it wasn't just some bland bread, according to Exodus 16:31 it was like wafers made with honey. Ultimately though, God's people got tired of the provision of God and longed for the enslavement of Egypt again in Numbers 11:1-6. Their greed brought the wrath of God on them though, and many died of a plague in Numbers 11:33-34.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes good things happen to bad people. Matthew 5:45 tells us that God causes the sun to rise on everyone, and rain to fall on everyone. So then, ultimately, did you become a Christian because you love Jesus because He died on a cross as a sacrifice for the sins you had committed and because God in His supreme love reached down His hand of grace to you, or did you become a Christian because you wanted earthly treasures? Wanting things you don't need or deserve is greed. Is your entire faith is based on greed? Matthew 6:19-21 says to store up treasure in Heaven, nothing on this earth is going to last.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 now gives us the greatest thing we have. For as much hardship, as much pain, and us much suffering as we go through, we have an equal amount of comfort in Christ. We can rejoice that we have hope in Jesus that through our suffering for Him we are drawn closer to Him, and that one day we will see Him face to face.