As much as we hate the idea of judgment - the idea that God is watching our every move and every thought - and that they will all come under the scrutiny of his critical eyes, the idea of judgement is something we simply cannot escape.

This passage is a bewilidering mix of attitudes from Jesus. On the one hand, he is incredibly harsh with the relatively good conservative small towns he “curses” here with his “woes”. But on the other, he is incredibly gentle and meek with the social and moral and ethnic outcasts. In the very same passage we find him on ultimate extremes of attitude toward people. And we wonder: which Jesus is the real Jesus?

This week we are looking at God’s attribute of love. And what we’ve seen is that God’s love is far richer and deeper than we at first imagine. Because his love is based on a relationship with us and not on our performance, his love is fixed in his nature. And because our definitions of love are based on typical human performance, we have skewed pictures of a God who loves us more when we live in obedience and less when we don’t. And so we desperately need to have our understanding of his love stretched.

This week we are looking at the attribute of love. Our God is a loving God. But what we’ve seen is that his love is far deeper and far more profound than we typically imagine. Because we filter our concept of love through the lens of human love, our pictures of his love are far too small. And we assume that his love, like ours, can be strained and lost.

This week we are looking at God’s attribute of love. If there’s anything that we know and appreciate about God, it’s that he’s loving. And yet, as we’ve seen, we really don’t understand the depth of that love - nor do we get the nature of that love. The love of God is a concept that we filter through our earthly experiences of it. And therefore we assume that God’s love is merely a sentimental feeling that can be enhanced or lost depending on how we treat him. We see his love like other people’s - fragile and something that can be lost.

This week we turn our attention to the attribute of God that everybody loves the most: that our God is a God of love. And we will be looking at the story of Hosea for our picture of that love.

This week we are looking at the majesty of God - at his great power. And what we’ve seen is that there is a power that belongs to God alone. He is the supreme Ruler who merely speaks, intends, wills, and it comes to pass. But there’s also a power that belongs to mankind. As stewards of his kingdom, God has given us the power to rule over his creation. And embedded within that calling, is the image of God that gives us the need to rule - the longing to be in charge.

This passage also talks about a power that belongs to man (humanity). Because we are made in God’s image, as the crowning jewel of his creation, he has endowed us with a reflection of his power - the power to rule his creation on God’s behalf. And our Psalm contrasts two approaches to human power that we can take. The one source of power comes from ourselves - as the Psalmist puts it, from armies, horses and chariots (16-17). The other source of power comes from waiting upon God to be our Shield (20-21).

This week we are looking at the majesty or the power of God from Psalm 33. Few of us doubt that our God has great power. But functionally, we all live and act as if that power is limited in its scope (he can only do so much) or limited in its application (he could help me, but probably won’t).

This week we will be looking at the majesty - or the power of our God from Psalm 33.6-20. The past couple of weeks have demonstrated for us in very tangible ways the incredible power of nature and what kind of destruction it can produce. But all that power of nature combined is a drop in the bucket compared to the power of God.