Oh No! God is mad again!

Scripture:
... Now God has finally become angry and will punish them. [1 Thessalonians 2:16 CEV]

Observation:
I like the CEV [Contemporary English Version] because it is easy to read, but this passage seems to take on a bit of a different meaning in this version than it does in most. Here it looks like they have finally made God mad and now He is going to come down and smite them a Godly smiting. In this particular translation, it came out this way, but in different places in the bible, and in many other translations, (yes, even including the King James) God is made to look as though He is on an emotional roller coaster. He gets mad and wipes out a bunch of people just because they offered Him some fire instead of meat or grain or something else. Or He gets mad and decided to flood the entire planet. Or He gets mad and decided to kill off all the Israelites in the desert for grumbling. We see it all through the bible. The overall message of these passages comes through loud and clear. God is mad and somebody is gonna get it.

But I refuse to believe that God is so emotionally immature that He can have a tantrum like that. There must be some underlying causes of these spurts of anger. And sure enough, when I dig down I discover that not only is there a justifiable reason for God's anger, but that it actually inflames my anger as well. Injustice and other things that raise my ire. How could man be so callous? Why must we destroy ourselves with our own stupidity and greed? Why are we killing each other? Why do we steal from each other? After meditating on these things for a while, I can truly understand why God would want to wipe us all out.

Application:
If I were God, I would have already destroyed many millions of people for these things. But I look again and I see that His forgiveness runs so deep that He gives even murdering, thieving, lying, cheating low life people more chances than they deserve. And as I look back at my life, I have to admit that I have earned His punishment on more than one occasion. How can I judge someone when I may have been guilty of the very same thing? I can't. I have to forgive them as well because I can not judge them. I'm simply not qualified to sit there and decide on what they are doing or not doing.

Its a very good thing I'm not God.

Prayer:
Master! Lord! Father! I see so much wickedness in us, Your children. Oh how I grieve for what we have done and what I know we will continue to do, and much of it supposedly in Your holy name! Oh my blessed Master, I can only beg that You continue to forgive us Your stupid children and keep on giving us Your word that we might at last see and know how bad we have been and turn away from it and come only to You. Praise You my sweet Lord! Praise You for Your unending love towards us! Thank You Father for touching my life in a way that has made me want to be closer to You, not further away! I bless Your name my Father, the name of Jesus, and I pray to You in Your most holy name when I say, AMEN!