Near Unto Burning

The difficulty of truth is its starkness. We don't always like the things that simply cannot be avoided and are often painful as well. This is the case with today's passage. It is a painful truth that we must acknowledge and deal with, for attempting to avoid it only endangers us and the ones we love. God is a God of love and mercy, but He also is a God of wrath. His wrath is beyond our ability to comprehend, the terror of that reality alone destroys us, let alone the truth of it unpacked and laid bare. His wrath is reserved for those who are not found in Christ and who thus have no advocate, no substitute and certainly no excuse. They are those who have opted to stand on their own two feet and deal with God man to man, as it were… they will find to their everlasting sorrow that they have not a leg on which to stand.