Tursting, not Testing

Part of my duty to my family requires that I work a second job in addition to my work as a pastor. I chose (with the help of the Holy Spirit) to work as a substitute teacher in the Woodland Park Schools. After much preparation and paperwork, I finally had a class yesterday. It was better than I thought because I got to watch a young student teacher teach some of his first classes. The first class was a senior honors English class. They were discussing the creation stories of Greek mythology. The second class was a freshman English class. Wow! What a difference in the two! I could tell the teacher was having fun and enjoying the first class; it seemed to be what he signed up for. The second class was a little different. They were your typical freshmen on the first full week of school after a long day of sitting and listening. I was proud of the teacher though. He kept his cool and was learning to be patient with their attitudes; they were testing his integrity!

I thought this morning how God must feel when we test His integrity. When we see how far we can push His grace and mercy. When we see how far we can push His sense of right and wrong. We we look Him right in the eye while we are rebelling against the classroom rules.

Thankfully God is a patient God. He is a jealous God, but a patient God as well! Thanks to Christ's sacrifice we get to see more of His patience than His wrath. We get to enjoy the forgiveness in life before the judgment in death. Let's just be careful not to test that patience too much!