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During today's conversation on Back Porch Theology,

the second in a series on God's severe mercy,

which is kind of like saying his divine discipline,

always, always, always takes place under a canopy of grace.

We're swimming in the deep end of a colorful, albeit very concise book in the Old Testament

called Zefaniah. It's the ninth book in a 12-book anthology called the Minor Prophets.

When I was little, I thought these books that make up the

caboose of the Old Testament canon were described as minor because they were written by petite

prophets who perhaps needed to ingest a few more carbs. But I found that later, that they're

simply referred to as the minor prophets because they weren't as long-winded as peers like Isaiah and Jeremiah who take up a lot more real estate in our Bibles.

And Zefaniah is especially concise because his whole book is only 53 verses long.

But goodness gracious, does this prophet pack a lot of content about the fallenness of humanity and the faithfulness

of our creator in a few short pages? His overarching theme regarding how our crooked hearts will

consistently lead us off cliffs without God's compassionate intervention reminds me of something

one of my favorite authors Brennan Manning wrote.

He wrote this, if we gloss over our selfishness and rationalize the evil within us,

we can only pretend we are sinners and therefore only pretend we have been forgiven.

Today's conversation is like a flashing light in front of dangerous

railroad tracks. It'll remind us to stop and thank God for rescuing and redeeming prone to

wander saints like us before we get smashed to smithereens by the consequences of our own bad

choices. So please grab a cup of coffee in your Bible,

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