Do we know God the Father and Messiah Yeshua/Christ Jesus the Lord? Or do we limit our knowledge of God by our own personal preferences, personal experience, emotional personality? Probably all of these, as we tend to make God in our image of what/who we want Him to be, rather than as He Is. But a truer knowledge will be learned through obedience to faith in the gospel, and so must be theologically sound (even if we don’t think of ourselves as ‘theologians’), doctrinally sound, Scripture based. (The Scriptures cannot be broken!)
We are not faithful witnesses of Yeshua if we skew the revelation of God’s perfect holiness and love: He is good, and He is severe; He loves unconditionally, and He hates whatever exalts itself in opposition to so great a sacrifice. His mercy is great, and His judgments are all righteous and true. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God! What a joy to know, to honor, and to love our Father in Heaven who made the way to save those who repent and believe in the shed blood of His Son on the cross from the wrath to come, that we might live in His presence forever!!
The reason that this comes to mind is as I’m listening to a wonderful YouTube mix of Keith & Kristyn Getty songs
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoy74orJu10&list=RD02hoy74orJu10 ), I heard a couple of weeks ago that the liberal Presbyterian (USA) church has decided to ban the Getty’s and Stuart Townend’s song, “In Christ Alone”, from their revised hymnal. That church does not agree that God should have any wrath to satisfy regarding sin and sinners!
As good and wonderful and edifying as this music is, and the excellent quality of musicianship, I still long for and anticipate that great day when the angels and the Church of the first-born, directed by the victorious Choir Director — the Lord Messiah Himself — will praise and worship the Father in perfect spirit and truth, with no hint of ‘performance’, whether by the artists or by the congregations and audiences. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!