"For they exchanged the truth for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." Romans 1:25

When you read carefully through the Bible you see clearly that God is both loving and just. God is quick to forgive and bless and there are numerous examples in Scripture of His mercy. But you cannot ignore nor escape the fact that God exercised severe judgments on those who acted wickedly.

 You might immediately think of the exceedingly evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and how God utterly destroyed them by raining fire and brimstone from above. For just a moment, capture in your mind what that scene must have looked like. . . . These were godless cities but let’s not forget that God also exercised terrible judgments against His own people, Israel when they refused to obey Him.

The Bible says that God is love. This means that everything He does is motivated by love. Godly love is not a mere feeling, but manifests itself as out-flowing concern for man, His plan, and for His plan for man. When God blesses the faithful He is motivated by love and when He curses and destroys the disobedient He is also motivated by love. God’s wrath is as much the embodiment of love as is His blessing.

This creates a problem for the nominal Christian, for he wants God to be a god without wrath. Many Christians today refuse to give witness to the true God because they are offended by Him.

No, they would never say that, or perhaps even think it, but their actions show that this is true. Many only want to emphasize the forgiveness and blessings of God and are uncomfortable witnessing of a God who hates sin and who expends His wrath. But to proclaim this god is to give witness to a god that only exists in the recesses of the human mind. It is only an imaginary god. The true God loves righteousness and obedience and hates sin and disobedience.

The nominal Christian is comfortable sharing the love and blessings of God but is embarrassed by the stories of a vengeful God who destroys the world with a flood, destroys wicked cities with fire from above or who commanded Israel to stone sinners.

 But this is as much of who the true God is as when He offered His only Son to save sinners from the curse of sin. God is God, and God is love. He doesn’t just have love, He is love and everything He is motivated to do or not do is motivated by love. God is the creator of life and declares that "all life is His."

When God takes a life He is taking what is already His, and when He spares a life it is because He chooses to. The only life a man has is temporary life, yet this God of love gave His only Son in order to give us eternal life in Him.

 Choose this day whom you will follow and proclaim - an imaginary god or the true God as revealed in the Bible.