Kissing and Cursing -- Christ's Guide to Dispensing Wrath

When contemplating the wrath of God and applying His perfection with my imperfection I can't help but ask, "how in the world can I still be here? I should have been destroyed long ago time and time again."

My question leads me to Romans 1:18 where Paul says, by the way, the wrath of God IS being revealed -- all the time. At that point, I have an "ah-hah" moment and say, "Ooooooh, maybe the wrath of God IS being revealed all the time against my old broken self in hopes that I would trust His Life and His new heart in me and allow my old body of decay to be destroyed in many different ways at many different times. In other words if I asked Jesus, when are you pouring your wrath out on my dead self Jesus? He replies, "I am all the time." Oooooooh.

From my "ah-hah" moment, I then stumble upon Romans 7 - "So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

From Romans 7 I'm nudged to I Peter - "These trials have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed" (FYI - That's a paraphrase.)

From Peter I imagine the scene where Stephen is murdered in Acts. I picture myself being killed like Stephen and I hear the heart of Christ in me saying, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

Then, I hear Christ in Moses (Exodus 32:32) saying take their wrath out on me God, so that I might be written out of the book of life and they may be forgiven.

I hear Christ in Paul (Romans 9:3) crying, "damn me Lord such that they might not be cut off from Christ."

I hear Jesus crying from the cross as He eternally bears the wrath of God and pours out a love that makes all things new, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

I'm so stupid that I subject myself to wrath and don't even know it. The heart of Christ beckons me again and again to surrender my ignorance and allow His relentless, extravagant limitless mercy to flood my dumb reckless wrath deserving failures. Scripture says that the spirit intercedes for us. In my case, I believe He has to because I have absolutely no idea whatsoever the degree that I fall short and the degree that Jesus goes the extra mileage to redeem me.

What blows my mind and heart this afternoon when looking at this weeks study is this : The heart of Christ is unusually alive in me when my heart breaks for my enemies to the extent that I beckon God to curse me so that my enemies would be filled with the wonderful mystery of Christ's mercy.

"For God so loved the . . . . . WORLD. . . . that he gave His son . . . . (John 3:16) . . . .to be cursed.