Paulson Post

I recall the days sharing an apartment with a few other single men.   None of us knew cooking so we had a lady sending us lunch-boxes every day. We noticed that over the weeks this kind lady has customized our lunch boxes to suit each individual’s likes and dislikes—each of us had our favorites dishes more often while the dishes that we detested have disappeared from the menu. We were amused. How did this woman know what each of us like though she hasn’t even met most of us even once? We quizzed the man who brought the lunch for us every day. He told us the secret. She would check all the lunch boxes that we returned and made a note of what remains in them. Whatever, a person did not eat she considered it as a dislike and whatever was eaten, she considered as his favorite. Thus, over the weeks she knew what each of us like and what we detested. Now you know why we adored her! Knowing God’s will and pleasing him by doing what he likes is even more noble. That is what we are call...

"For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer" (Isa 54:7-8) God is a holy God. The earlier chapters of the Book of Isaiah present the awesome holiness of God (chapter 6). Since God is a God of wrath and justice he punishes sin and wickedness. God sometimes may use ungodly people to punish his own people who are disobedient. That was the role of Assyria, Israel's political enemy who brought the Northern Kingdom of Israel to destruction. God described Assyria as the rod of His anger (Isa 10:5). That's only one side of God. The other side is that of a merciful God. Years later, after he inflicted punishment upon his people at the hands of the pagans, he raised up another pagan emperor to show kindness to them. That is Cyrus the Persian Emperor whom God describes as His anointe...