Does God So Love the World?

I love Johnny Mac. Read his writing below.

Does God So Love the World?
John MacArthur

Love is the best known but least understood of all God's attributes. Almost everyone who believes in God these days sees Him as a God of love. I have even met agnostics who are quite certain that if God exists, He must be benevolent, compassionate, and loving.
All those things are infinitely true about God, of course, but not in the way most people think. Because of the influence of modern liberal theology, many suppose that God's love and goodness ultimately nullify His righteousness, justice, and holy wrath. They envision God as a benign heavenly grandfather-tolerant, affable, lenient, permissive, devoid of any real displeasure over sin, who without consideration of His holiness will benignly pass over sin and accept people as they are.
Liberal thinking about God's love also permeates much of evangelicalism today. We have lost the reality of God's wrath. We have disregarded His hatred for sin. The God most evangelicals now describe is all-loving and not at all angry. We have forgotten that "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). We do not believe in that kind of God anymore.
We must recapture some of the holy terror that comes with a right understanding of God's righteous anger. We need to remember that God's wrath does burn against impenitent sinners (Psalm 38:1-3). That reality is the very thing that makes His love so amazing. Only those who see themselves as sinners in the hands of an angry God can fully appreciate the magnitude and wonder of His love.
In that regard, our generation is surely at a greater disadvantage than any previous age. We have been force-fed the doctrines of self-esteem for so long that most people don't really view themselves as sinners worthy of divine wrath. On top of that, religious liberalism, humanism, evangelical compromise, and ignorance of the Scriptures have all worked against a right understanding of who God is. Ironically, in an age that conceives of God as wholly loving, altogether devoid of wrath, few people really understand what God's love is all about.
God's love cannot be isolated from His wrath and vice versa. Nor are His love and wrath in opposition to each other like some mystical yin-yang principle. Both attributes are constant, perfect, without ebb or flow. His wrath coexists with His love; therefore, the two never contradict. Such are the perfections of God that we can never begin to comprehend these things. Above all, we must not set them against one another, as if there were somehow a discrepancy in God.
Both God's wrath and His love work to the same ultimate end-His glory. God is glorified in the condemnation of the wicked; He is glorified in every expression of love for all people without exception; and He is glorified in the particular love He manifests in saving His people.
Expressions of wrath and expressions of love-all are necessary to display God's full glory. We must never ignore any aspect of His character, nor magnify one to the exclusion of another. When we commit those errors, we throw off the biblical balance, distort the true nature of God, and diminish His real glory.
Does God so love the world? Emphatically-yes! Proclaim that truth far and wide, and do so against the backdrop of God's perfect wrath that awaits everyone who does not repent and turn to Christ.
Does the love of God differ in the breadth and depth and manner of its expression? Yes it does. Praise Him for the many manifestations of His love, especially toward the non-elect, and rejoice in the particular manifestation of His saving love for you who believe. God has chosen to display in you the glory of His redeeming grace.

The JW's don't like me anymore

So, I backed out of my driveway today to see some Jehovah's Witnesses down the street making their way down our block. My heart raced and I accelerated the car in order to make my errand and get back in time to talk to them when they knocked on my door.

When I got back, I made a pass to see which door they were at, and... YES! They had not made it to mine yet! So, I ran inside and opened the window and waited. I watched the married couple and their son make their way toward our neighbors' houses, one at a time. Finally they left my next-door neighbor's house and started walking toward our house. I even grabbed Emmie and was prepared to put her up (because she barks and freaks out when someone rings the door bell), but to my consternation, there was no ring. No knock. 10 seconds went past, then 30, then 2 minutes. No Jehovah's Witnesses. I opened the door and walked to the mailbox to check the mail. They had straight passed my house!

The JW's don't like me anymore. We have a history. I have invited them into my home, and we have sat down at the table before and duked it out with our "swords" (my Bible and their "Watchtower improved" bible look-a-likes). Anyway, that incident ended well in my opinion, with me agreeing to study with them further. They never called back.

The next group came by and the lady gave me a pamphlet and I graciously took it. I said with a smile, "Oh great, here is something I would like to give you", and I offered her a gospel tract. Her expression changed and she said, "We don't accept anything people give us", to which I replied, "Okay then, I won't accept what you give me either", giving her pamphlet back. I thought it was only fair that we exchanged literature. She didn't agree. As I closed the door wishing them a good day, I said, "Make sure you've got the right Jesus!" I don't think she appreciated that.

Then there was the letter that I sent out to all my neighbors about the recent visits by the JW's. I quoted a lot of scripture that clearly portrays Jesus as God, a minor detail that the JW's don't happen to believe. Maybe that letter got around to them. I don't know. But I do know that I am "on their list" now. They don't visit anymore.

27 by 6

I drove down Atlanta Highway the other day and was amazed and disgusted at the same time at the number of PayDay loan places, so I decided to count on the way back how many there were. On Atlanta Highway from Ann St. intersection to Taylor Rd. intersection there are 27 - yes 27 - payday advance places. That's only a 6 mile stretch of road.

I'm so proud to know that these places are servicing our hometown and helping people get the money they need for a fair, low rate of 300% interest on their own money.

So flippin proud.