Do you know how many cars are stolen in California, USA each year? Well in 2016, over 86 thousand were stolen which equates to about 10 per hour!\u00a0<\/p>\n
How many are made known to the public in real time? Virtually none. But in 1981, the police went to great lengths to inform the public that they needed to find the thief of a certain car – even going as far as getting radio coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the value of the car, and the thief hadn\u2019t murdered anyone? Why the special attention?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nWhen you run, but shouldn’t\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Before we answer that, it would be good to imagine what\u00a0you\u00a0would be thinking if you were the thief. Trying your hardest to get away, thinking that the police were out to get you. Hiding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the reality was, the police were trying to save this thief. You see just before the car was stolen, the owner placed some crackers on the front seat. A tempting treat for the thief, but not intended for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crackers were there for rats that had infested the owners house. He had laced them with a deadly poison that would kill the thief should he eat any. The owner told the police, triggering a fervent search for the thief\u2026to save him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are often like that with God – we run, thinking He wants to hurt, punish or kill us – but the reality is He is pursuing us to save us – to forgive us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is it time you turned back to God? Is it time to give up and allow Him to forgive you? To hand ownership of \u2018your\u2019 life over to Him?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seriously, if you don\u2019t, you will eat the poisoned crackers and die. The Judgment of God can not be escaped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is an amazing to think that we believe we can hide from God\u2026but ever since the first two humans, we have tried.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they hid from God as soon as they heard Him. A game of hide and seek with the Creator who can see everything and knows everything? Ridiculous!\u00a0<\/p>\n
What about Jonah, who didn\u2019t want to do what God said, so thought He could sail away from the One who made the ocean!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nWe can\u2019t escape God\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
David made it clear:\u00a0
I can never escape from your Spirit!<\/em>
I can never get away from your presence!<\/em>
If I go up to heaven, you are there;<\/em>
if I go down to the grave, you are there.<\/em>
Psalms 139:7-8 (NLT)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nThankfully, though God is not a bad God. If He were we would be doomed as we can not hide nor escape from Him. And God is not \u2018just\u2019 a\u00a0good\u00a0God but is actually love!<\/em>
But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.<\/em>
1 John 4:8 (NLT)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nHe wants the very best for us\u2026and\u00a0nothing\u00a0can seperate us from His love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God\u2019s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow\u2014not even the powers of hell can separate us from God\u2019s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below\u2014indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/em>
Romans 8:38-39 (NLT)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nJust like the police trying to catch a thief to save his life, God pursues us, not to condemn us but to forgive us. His very nature is to love and forgive, not to punish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eternity is a long \u2018time\u2019 to be wrong, suffer for your sin and be separated from the One who gave His Son to save you. Turn to Him now while you have breath and receive His love and forgiveness.<\/p>\n
Conclusion:\u00a0Running from God = death, but He STILL offers life<\/strong><\/p>\n
PRAYER:\u00a0Lord, may we release that Your nature and essence is good – is love. May our hearts recognise that we are doomed without you – running from the only One who can give life and forgive. May we release that the crackers are poison!\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
But the reality was, the police were trying to save this thief. You see just before the car was stolen, the owner placed some crackers on the front seat. A tempting treat for the thief, but not intended for him.\u00a0The crackers were there for rats that had infested the owners house. He had laced them with a deadly poison that would kill the thief should he eat any. The owner told the police, triggering a fervent search for the thief\u2026to save him.\u00a0We are often like that with God – we run, thinking He wants to hurt, punish or kill us – but the reality is He is pursuing us to save us – to forgive us.\u00a0Is it time you turned back to God? Is it time to give up and allow Him to forgive you? To hand ownership of \u2018your\u2019 life over to Him?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus-time-devotionals","tag-forgiveness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pasDCW-fK","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":977,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wildeden.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}