Be Like Jesus?

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. (Isaiah 50:4–10)

While the prophet may have experienced what he describes, many of these words describe events in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. They also describe His attitude.

I’ve been thinking much about what it means to be like Jesus. The first thing is that Jesus came to us fully human and lived relying on the power of the Holy Spirit just as we are supposed to live. He did it perfectly…

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:1–8)

This servant heart included the humility to be taught. So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” (John 8:28)

I’m awed by this. God the Son didn’t consider Himself a know-it-all or even having any authority to speak unless the Father gave Him something to say. Because this is true, who am I to think I can blurt out whatever comes to mind? Being like Jesus means listening to the voice of the One who created me and it certainly means yielding all my thoughts and ideas to  Him. It also means total obedience.

Jesus, You know my heart. I can be selfish, wanting to do my stuff rather than listen and obey. Thinking this way seems impossible. Even as a redeemed person who wants to be like Jesus, I know that I cannot do it or even choose it apart from You and the power of the Holy Spirit.

False confidence?

Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”: These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments. You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing. Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror. You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have done business with you from your youth; they wander about, each in his own direction; there is no one to save you. (Isaiah 47:8–15)

A television series featured one character that had the attitude that no matter what happened, it would turn out fine. One of my friends is like that too. Neither one trusts God for ‘fine’ even though this positive attitude seems to be working for them, at least some of the time.

A pessimist might argue. The dictionary calls this person a prophet of doom. In a recent study of optimism, neuroscientists found an interesting principle: optimists shared similar patterns of activity in a key brain region when they imagined future events, but each pessimist’s brain patterns was unique. 

They were looking for the difference because optimism is associated with better physical, mental and social health. But the above Scripture adds another factor — an optimistic attitude also needs to be based on reality. In the OT audience that Isaiah was speaking to, the people wanted a positive future, but because of their sin, it was not going to happen. Their optimism was based on a strong ‘I want’ rather than on the will of God. The reality is that fighting with God and winning is not likely, no matter how positive I feel about the outcome.

I’m reminded of that book about the power of positive thinking. My dad was hooked until I said, “No matter how positive I think, I can never be an opera singer.” That burst his bubble. He knew how I sounded. 

The fans rooting for their hockey team in the NHL playoffs hold up signs saying “BELIEVE” as if their confidence will make winners out of the team, but that does not work either. Confidence in me and my plans seems right, but it does come with a warning:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13–16)

Some of us are not optimistic, meaning me. I’m more apt to think that I can’t do something. For this, James adds: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

Jesus, You are very good with attitudes and guidance as long as I’m trusting You and not myself or my feelings both negative and positive. Trusting myself never works out and how wonderful that You care and want me to do the right thing — and will let me know what that is. All I have to do is listen to You instead of my own thoughts and emotions.

OT and NT redemption are the same…

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. 
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.
“But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.” (Isaiah 43:18–44:5)

One problem with spending much time in the OT is that the rebukes to God’s people back then often distract me from the new thing God has done in redeeming believers by grace through faith. Not that this makes me think that God is still looking for obedience as a means of salvation, or that He ever did, but that if I do not obey, the consequences will make me respond to trials as if God is using them to punish me.

If I slip into that thinking, discouragement sets in. It seems like God is looking for obedience as a means of salvation by faith rather than evidence of it. Of course that appeals to human pride, but then there are days when that mountain I try to climb is way too high. This makes all those ‘therefore’ passages repeated in an era when God was using unpleasant consequences to illustrate that the relationship His people had with Him was missing faith in Him and His power. 

Today, since Jesus came, He uses trials to test and build faith. All the punishment I deserve was taken by Christ. Instead of the ‘therefore’ I need to focus on the “but now” and the “I will make a way” which are both true because of His grace and mercy to me.

Actually, salvation in the OT was like that also. God promised a Redeemer and His people were to live by that promise, believing He would keep it, and waiting for it in godly living rather than giving in to their old fears and doing what was right in their own eyes. Salvation has always been by faith. Right living is the evidence of it.

Since Jesus came, we are saved by faith, not by works but demonstrated by works in obedience. Same as the OT. 

Now I’m realizing how easily others separate the two testaments as they do. These ‘therefore’ passages are false accusations in a sense, yet they make me feel like jumping from Isaiah to Matthew. I need to remember that the OT points to Jesus, even in those ‘therefore’ rebukes.

Jesus, keep Yourself continually in my mind so my thinking is all about grace and not about anything else but You and Your promises. You will pour water into my thirsty life, and streams into my barren life. You will pour Your Spirit upon my children and descendants so they too will confess You as Lord and call on Your Name — even call themselves Your children. Keep me from getting caught up in anything else but You, Your will, and Your power to keep such promises as these and even more.  You say my offspring shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.” That happens because of Your grace and goodness.

When threatened…

Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? (Isaiah 36:13–18)

While this passage sounds like today’s political ramps and promises, it also sounds like the junk that my spiritual enemy, the Liar, tosses at me. Don’t trust the Lord. Trust yourself and you will prosper. Blah. Blah. Blah.

King Hezekiah was not so easily thrown into a panic at this threat nor interested in the false promises of this enemy. He “tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.” Then he called on other spiritual leaders and said: 

“This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ” (Isaiah 37:1–4)

Isaiah also sent a message to this king: “Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ ” (Isaiah 37:5–7) Hezekiah then prayed:

“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” (Isaiah 37:14–20)

God responded to the threatening king: “I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came. . . . . For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria returned home and as he was worshiping in the house of his god, his sons killed him. (Isaiah 37:28–38)

Jesus, this encourages me. I’ve had similar lies threaten me, lies against God and causing me a struggle to pray in faith that He will rescue me and those I pray for. I need the courage and trust of Hezekiah, realizing the lies, but also having wisdom to know how to encourage others who fall for the same threats.

 

Test #2

 Writing directly in an I-pad could be stressful! But easier than lugging my laptop on holidays.

His strength is perfected in our weakness:

Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.” And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant; and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.” For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. 

Egypt represents my old life of bondage, and like the grass seems greener there, the people of God can be lured into thinking that living that way is better than living for the Lord. It may be easier, but not better. When I drift into a fleshy way, God truly exalts Himself by showing mercy to me. My task ought to be:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

He convicts me of my error, forgives when I confess, and cleans up my thinking and actions. He uses even my sins in His redemptive process. The above passage adds more wonders such as:

For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 

As I get rid of sin and all idols, He blesses my productivity, binds up my brokenness and heals the  wounds inflicted by His blows. He gives me songs in the night, and I can hear His voice with a glad heart even as my spiritual enemies hear His fury. (Isaiah 30:7–31:3)

Jesus, I am so aware that relying on the way I thought and lived before You rescued me brings sorrow. Trusting my ways and not consulting You is foolish. You are wise and work against all who do evil. That old life is mere human without the power of the Holy Spirit and in it I stumble and suffer loss. Keep me always in Your will. Fill me each day with Your mercy and grace that I will live as You lead me and enable me to rejoice in You.

Another surprise…

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? (Isaiah 29:13–16)

The problem of a high IQ is thinking that they know all they need to know and even thinking that their knowledge and plans are hidden from God. As one commentator says, trying to conceal their thoughts from God indicates that they know that their thoughts and plans are sinful, yet as the psalmist writes: “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” (Psalm 73:11). 

Sometimes I wonder about those who are so set against God that they are certain of their plans and their destiny and certain God knows nothing about them nor cares. However, the psalmist later says: 

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:16–26)

He knows all hearts and can do anything He pleases. When I am upset at the hard hearts around me, He can soften and remind anyone who He is. No one is exempt from His power to reach into that stubborn place and gently change it.

Jesus, discouragement comes easy to my eyes, but You are able to encourage my heart by faith in what I cannot see. Someday You will answer the cries of my heart. In the meantime, keep my focus on Your promises and Your power lest I lose hope and take those ‘wise’ people off my prayer list.

Using lies to cover lies?

Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message. (Isaiah 28:15–19)

The one thing that I cannot bear is lies. If a person lies to me, I usually cut them off. In my mind, the relationship cannot be anything more than superficial or artificial. Trust is broken and without a restoration of reliability, I tend to want proof before believing anything that person says. 

This sounds cruel and a lack of love for the NT says: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” However, it also describes love as “not insisting on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:5–7)

Another verse says, “By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar” (Romans 3:4) and Jesus called religious unbelievers ‘liars’ in John 8:44. Does everyone lie except God?
 
It is plain that trusting God makes sense. It also makes sense that in many matters of life, I can evaluate trust by comparing what people say and do with what God says and does. Those who can admit lying may be justified in their words, and “prevail when judged.” This is the value of confessing sin. If a person can do that, they seem far more likely to be honest about most things. But if the lie is covered by another lie, this is a red flag, a warning to be cautious with my trust.

It is folly to lie to God. He knows my thoughts and my heart, even the words I will say before I say them. His foundation is Jesus Christ and every person will be tested alongside this sinless cornerstone. Apart from faith in Him, in His death and resurrection, who can pass that test? 

As the Word says, hating lies is a godly attitude, but hating people is not. The only way I can manage that is to pray for those who lie and ask God to deal with them in such a way that the reasons for those lies, such as fear, false ambition, self-protection, etc., fall away. Liars need to know that they are perfectly loved regardless of their performance.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:18–21)

My attitude toward those who lie is an attitude of fear also, of not trusting God to deal with them, and not being willing to be like Jesus who died for those who sin, including the sin of lying. I know these things, yet sometimes let my own fears allow the flesh to deal with liars instead of trusting the Spirit of God.

Jesus, this has been a difficult couple of days, yet I know Your heart of exposing my lack of obedience is an act of love. You want me to be like You — and that is the most loving motivation of all. So is Your power to change my heart. Keep my focus stayed on You, not on the pain of being lied to, or on using anger to deal with the pain. Your response is the only way: Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing… 

Wait for Him

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:15–18)

I’d set my online Bible so that the word “therefore” was highlighted in all 700 plus places that it occurs. Then, for reasons unknown, that highlighting vanished and I have not been able to restore it. 

However, I’m a bottom-line person and began to wonder what God is trying to teach me. It didn’t take long for His Spirit to put this thought in my head: far too often I’ve begun applying the truths in those ‘therefore’ passages to the frustrating people  I know instead of to my own life. It is easy to tell others what God says, but much more difficult to do it myself.

The bit about horses refers to using my own strengths — and I know that I have none. Horses don’t turn my weaknesses into strength. Neither does anger solve this problem. This is a God-problem that only He can fix.

I’ve not gone so far as to think ‘holier than thou’ but that could be deception for I am letting the disobedience of one person upset and even anger me. If that anger is because God is defamed, it might be justified, but most of the time I’m angry because I don’t see any regard for Him at all which translates to no regard for me either as I try to honor Him.

Jesus, I need more input from You. Isaiah says you wait to be gracious to me as I wait for justice from You. I’m not sure how that will work but need to keep my focus on You and not let the faithlessness of someone else be my problem. You are the only One who can change hearts — including mine.

When God judges the world…

There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city; the gates are battered into ruins. For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done. They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again. On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders. (Isaiah 24:11–23)

A book in the nearby library is written by an ‘expert’ outlining how to make it through the tough times that are coming upon us. I’ve not read it, only the jacket cover, but this author speaks of investing and other strategies to combat inflation. There seems to be no mention of the emotional strain people experience over increasing atrocities.

The above passage from Isaiah could be describing the brokenness in the universe, not just in economic matters, far worse that what that author thinks will need fixing. It seems a prophetic description of what will occur just before the Lord brings judgment. However, the fascinating part is this section:

They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. . . .” (Isaiah 24:14–16)

Those who did not stray from their covenant with Him will be anticipating this event, wanting justice in a messed up world. When it happens, joy will fill their hearts and God will be praised. 

Reading the news and seeing the progress of evil makes joy and praise look impossible yet those who know the grace of God also know the power of His Spirit to bring peace to our hearts. He says to His people:

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)
O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works. O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. (Isaiah 26:12–13)
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:5–7)

Those who trust God know that peace. It isn’t about all being right in the world, but about knowing Him, His goodness and His protection. I am safe in the hands of God. He knows how to judge sinful people but because His NT Lamb died for my sins, I am not condemned with them, but at peace.

Jesus, salvation is like this promise of judgment in that it will happen, yet not to those who know You. Instead of getting what sin deserves, faith in Your death and resurrection grants me eternal life and deep inner peace. For that, I rejoice and praise You — no matter what is making headlines or who is frantically trying to avoid the judgment that You promise will happen.

 

God's remedy for bad news

Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor. The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left. (Isaiah 24:1–6)

This reads too much like this morning’s newspaper. All bad news. Much confusion in every part. No mention of hope or trusting God. Some exhortation for human powers  to fix it, but all efforts fail and most of them get a low approval rating. Are we suffering as did the ancients because we are guilty of transgressing the laws of God and His covenant with us has been broken?

Some see good things, progress. Some see only selfishness and hidden motivations. The media promotes their bias. Podcasts and opposing political opinions add to the confusion. AI makes many wonder if truth can be found, or is all of it imagined or it just adds to the deceptions on the minds of the masses? Scams are robbing funds from those who are in the habit of believing everything they hear. How can anyone trust their bank when they send someone to pick up a ‘faulty credit card’ and rob that person of thousands? We are living in a world gone haywire.

The Bible indicates that all falls apart when we trust ourselves and not God. Personally, I know that is true. The Bible teaches me, but so does experience and my own lack of obedience. The above passage says this applies to everyone. It isn’t just for ‘religious’ people or those without thought for God. 

Spiritual truth is outside of opinions and human choices. We can make our choices,  but we cannot choose the consequences. This passage goes on to describe some of them. As my farming dad used to say, “I plant the seeds but God makes them grow” — or not. Without His blessing, our needs and joys go by the wayside.

Jesus, I know that every breath I take is in Your power. You can give me peace and joy. My actions and attitude can ruin my life, but if I am loving and serving You, Your  peace and joy remain, even when the headlines spell doom for the rest of the world. I want people to know that. Yet trusting You isn’t primarily about You changing circumstances, or even about You making our work profitable. It is about You granting peace and contentment no matter what is happening. For this, I am blessed.

Desiring God's Best?

All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away. Therefore I said: “Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains. (Isaiah 22:3–5)

I have been criticized for being concerned about the downfall of church leaders, or the sinfulness in Christians that I know. More than one person has told me that those things are not my problem, or given other reasons to ‘mind my own business.’ While I agree that it is possible to complain or gossip about others and forget that they are God's responsibility and not mine, it is also possible to be His spokesperson to address sin in His people, not to others but to those needing it.

The words of the OT prophets express their love for God and for His people. He wants holiness and when they strayed into sin and idolatry, the Lord did not pat them on the head and look the other way. At the same time, I’m not to have or even think a ‘holier than thou’ attitude about myself. So what options are okay?

The entire Bible tells me to love God and honor Him, and to love His people who are my neighbors as myself. This love most certainly includes empathy for any harsh discipline they are experiencing. Isaiah specifically tells his critics to leave him alone and not try to make him feel better about the harsh discipline of God in the lives of others.

But his tears are not pity or sympathy as if that discipline should not be happening. I know that tears can be shed that this discipline is necessary. We have a God who gives us fullness of life and all that we need to live for Him in peace and joy, and yet we do things our way and fall into sin? This is like being in a banqueting room and starving to death. He offers everything we need and we complain and feel poor and mistreated? He offers love, peace, joy, goodness, self-control and all godliness — and we gossip, worry, complain, and live in the opposites of what He wants — without realizing that what we crave could be so easily ours? Not to glorify ourselves, but to bring glory to Him.

This is why prophets weep. I don’t consider myself a prophet, but I understand that too many of God's children live as if He is not all we need and are not happy with that, yet refuse His will so we can live our own way. How sad indeed.

Jesus, my pastor is praying for revival. I am praying for revival. Each day You show me how much I need it, and I am willing to change and to fully obey You. Pour out Your power. Help me have the attitudes You want me to have for those who are suffering under discipline. I know You are concerned about their sin and self-effort. May none of us ask You to give us what we crave but then refuse to give up those things that keep it from happening.

 

Who can know what God will do?

 

Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished. (Isaiah 13:6–16)

Prophecy in the OT is not easy to understand. Historians often figure them out by their fulfillment. The average reader will see glimpses of how God worked to draw His people away from their sinful disobedience back into line with His will. In this passage, the prophet was able to note the following ways of God's working:

The Lord summoned mighty people to minister His anger. They were not willingly or knowingly yielded to Him, but came from a far land to destroy those disobedient to Him. This shocked His people and their land became desolate. His people were feeble in their dismay as God puts an end to their arrogance and pride. Even the earth and heavens tremble as the people become homeless and without leaders. Many die as homes are plundered and families broken with their enemies having no pity for even little children.

This very general summary could be said of much that happens even today when His people live in worldly sin. While we are oblivious to how God uses evil people for good in the lives of His children, His actions at the time do not seem to be good. However, it is through spiritual and physical trials that He builds maturity and Christ-like character. We cannot grow in patience without trials just as the OT people of God would not return to faith in Him without harsh circumstances and realizing how helpless they were without Him.

Jesus, I am glad Your remedies to correct sin in our lives (sin that we do after salvation) is less harsh than it was centuries ago, but sad that we still fall into disobedience just like they did. You are always the gracious Savior that died for each sin. I’m also glad that once I agree with You about what I’ve done, You are faithful to cleanse it from me and restore my joy! 

Faith is in Him, not in my requests…

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:10–14)

This passage goes on and is for a specific situation, but God's Spirit stopped me here to remind me that when I pray, my motivation is that God can do anything. His power is not me putting Him to the test, as if to say, “If You can…” nor even if He will. I can ask because of a sense of need, but faith trusts Him to do what is best, not a test to see if He cares or if He can. Both are assumed, yet not in relation to my request. I pray because I trust Him to listen and do what is best for me and for the situation.

One person on my prayer list cries out for healing. Do I know that her pain is going to draw her closer to Jesus? If it is, and God did what I asked, could it be interfering with His plan? Perhaps a “no” or a “wait” answer is to build my patience, never mind hers. Do I really know the will of God or how to pray?

Ahaz may have often prayed to test God. If he refused to do that but also refused to pray at all, then God was teaching this man a thing or two about his own sinfulness and wanting him to see that his motivations were off kilter.

Last week I did something that looked good on the surface. However, I used it to ask this: “Did I ask this because I cared about the other person? Or did I do it for my own benefit?” I knew right away that I can easily do right things with wrong motives, and when God looks at what I do, He considers both deeds and motives:

“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:10)
“. . . . And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.” (Revelation 2:23)

This is why the NT speaks of the Bema judgment of Christians and says some of what we do is merely useless, even if if wasn’t considered sinful.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11–15)

I’m aware that my motivation is important, for it does not fit with what Jesus said about prayer: “May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That is, praying what I want and do should match what He wants or it will not pass the ‘wood, hay, straw’ test of fire. This sort of sin will not rob me of the free gift of eternal life in Christ, but I will suffer loss.

Lord Jesus, one way I know when I’m in error is that the fruit of the Spirit vanishes when I’m doing or even selfishly. Without that fruit of love, joy, peace, and other spiritual attitudes that come only from You. If I’m upset, worried, unhappy, or mean — even in my thoughts, I’m filled with me and not walking in the Spirit. Thank you for clearly warning me when flesh moves in and I need to confess and ask You to again fill me and change my heart. Your words to Ahaz tell me that the sign always given is that You came. You are “God with me” — my Immanuel — and You are all that I need.

Don’t ruin the soup…

Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them. Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. (Isaiah 1:23–26)

The psalmist describes the leadership of God's people as corrupt, doing things that make the needy totally unwilling to come to them. Widows and orphans know that they will not get relief so why bother?

God speaks to this by promising to remove that which has corrupted them and restore their righteousness so that these faithless people will be as they once were.

In our modern times, this activity by God would be called a revival, a restoration to the changes He had done earlier. The sad part is that even today, God's people backslide. Life becomes comfortable, and although Christians grow in trials, our prayers are often “remove the trial” rather than asking Him to use it and make us more like Jesus.

This week I made chicken soup from one earlier roasted bird. After a few hours in a slow-cooker, the broth was strained and any pieces of meat added to it. Then it went into the fridge overnight. Why? So the fat would float to the top and be skimmed off. ln my thinking, all that fat would ruin the soup.

In God's thinking, any injustice and unrighteous ruins His people. He therefore said He would turn His hand against them and remove the problem. In other words, He would bring trials, not to punish but to revive:

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right! Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. (Isaiah 5:22–25)

Yet even today, along with the trials comes grumbling and pleading to make them stop, to restore our comfort. We want godly leaders but not the work of God to make them godly. We may want godliness for ourselves, but not the trials that produce spiritual maturity.

Oh God, I see the need for revival, not because our leaders are unjust or sinful in ruinous ways, but because too many of Your people are more interested in seven-day Sabbaths than doing what work that God tells us we should be doing. Oblivious? Some are. Some make excuses. All need skimming off the dross. All need to keep short accounts and forgiveness and renewal. Me too.

The deepest, purest love…

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine; your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you. Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you. (Song of Solomon 1:2–4)

While the debates continue, this book of the OT endures as part of God's Word to His people. Whatever He intends, it seems obvious that this describes the love relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ to His people by comparing it to human love and intimacy. It is not for those who take their faith as mere personal belief, but as a close relationship like that of lovers.

“Therefore virgins love you” suggest this is about ‘one and only’ love. There is nothing or no one else so important and vital to the life of those beloved by Him. He brings us close to Him and gives us every reason to have a deep response to Him. This attitude goes beyond that ‘honeymoon’ phase that is soon challenged by trials and doubts. Jesus is the preoccupation of a loved one’s heart.

One Christian course has the line; “He grows sweeter and sweeter as the days go by” suggesting that not only faith increases through testing and hardship, but so does affection. At my age, it reminds me of the emotions of trust and joy that go with loving and being loved by my spouse. It takes time to become deep, solid, and at the same time comfortable and accepting, without selfish demands and without room for doubt and suspicions.

When I think how much God loves me in these terms, I sometimes find my mind dancing with Jesus in a field of flowers, laughing in the purest of joy. Not often. Life can be not only distracting but seem cruel with all sorts of events and issues that try to convince me that I’m alone, defeated, not loved at all — but He isn’t like that and pulls me back, sometimes with little hints and clues, and sometimes with gifts of great surprise. And my heart is blessed.

Lord Jesus, it is right to love You and to be loved by You. In this world gone wrong, Your love is the anchor, the stronghold in the storms of uncertainty and unkind people who whine about being loveless without realizing that Your great love is the only reason they are allowed to live and breathe. Deepen this in our relationship. And enable me to share it with the host of love-starved people around me.

One mouth, two ears…

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear. (Ecclesiastes 5:1–7)

Any effort in life to be prosperous (a dream) requires much business (or busyness) which this writer compares to the hasty and prolific words of a fool who talks too much. Another writer compares this thought this way:

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:22)

This is like those who busily do what they think is serving God without actually listening to or obeying Him. They go through the motions and appear to be devout, but their actions are mere ritual. This was condemned then, and by Jesus, and today often goes undetected or sometimes applauded. 

Those who “serve God” in this manner perhaps have vowed to do so, yet when doing so, are doing what they assume is wanted rather than what God accepts. As one writer says, the truth that it is more acceptable to God is that one should go to Him to hear the Law taught and expounded, than to offer a formal sacrifice of ‘good’ works. This is the offering of a godless man and in proverbial language called “the sacrifice of fools” (Proverbs 21:27).

This same writer also says that the “fools” who offer unacceptable sacrifices do not know how to worship God heartily and properly. Thinking to please Him with their formal acts of devotion, they fall into a grievous sin. 

In my thinking, this is a failure to recognize the difference between walking in the Spirit and walking in the flesh. Instead of glorifying God who uses us like a hand in a glove, the glove gets credit for cooperating with the hand instead of moving with it in obedience and with the recognition of its own helplessness. 

. . . .  though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:6–10)

Paul knew the glory of few words and obedience because he knew his own helplessness and the foolishness of talking too much. He sought the will of God and was told his power was in helplessness, not in the many good things that God's hand did with him. His ‘dreams’ were successful because he feared God and listened. 

Lord Jesus, every day something happens requiring Your instruction. In my response to these events, I talk big about what I will do, but You urge me to shut up and listen. Then You surprise me with Your solutions. These are lessons in what it means to fear You and listen. You are the most amazing God and I am blessed to be weak and listen, rather than be ‘strong’ and do what I think is best.

 

Guard my conversations. . . .

Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler. (Proverbs 20:19)
Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered. (Proverbs 11:13)
Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. (Proverbs 13:3)

Yesterday I met with two others for prayer and sharing our thoughts. We have learned that some subjects bless us, but not gossip. Sharing our thoughts can build us up, but not if our words are tearing someone down. We have also learned that each of us has wisdom to share. I’m learning the value of listening…

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. (Ecclesiastes 5:1–3)

Not gossiping yet being watchful regarding those who do, or those who cause other problems is not easy, for if we speak evil of them, we become guilty of the same thing they do. This is a challenge:

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. (Romans 16:17–19)

The answer to this came in a discussion about current political issues. Rather than be critical or correcting policies that we have no control over, this passage came to mind:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Timothy 2:1–2)

Then this thought: it is impossible to hate someone that I continually pray for, so is it possible that God commands us to pray for our politicians so we do not hate them and instead give them prayer support? If our hearts are not filled with malice or personal preferences, perhaps with anger too, the Lord will soon give us productive prayer requests.

This command is not so those leaders will make my life peaceful and godly, but so I will be behaving that way rather than worrying and complaining about the behaviors I do not like, as if I know how to run the world better than they do — or better than God does.

Lord Jesus, the media and many others constantly criticize those in leadership. This is disobedience. We are to pray. It may be appropriate to voice our concerns, but not to each other. Your Word says to take criticism or rebukes directly to the person who is not doing right, not to gossip about them. That is unfruitful and sin. If I pray, You give me the right course of action, or may even tell me to keep my mouth shut because You are in charge. Thank You. I will be praying for those in high positions more often — without talking or complaining about them instead of listening to You. 

Getting older? Or Getting better?

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. (Proverbs 6:9–15)

This is a discouraging passage for a person who has always been industrious and is now aging and wants to nap more than be busy. But there is a difference between the sluggard and the octogenarian. The older person is tired, not lazy, still wants to be doing things, is not trying to trick others into doing everything for him.

Yet those sluggard ideas pop up. My old nature would shirk responsibilities and complain about the work anyone else did for me. I’d never be satisfied and never take on hard challenges.

It is a challenging season. I had an older friend who used to say, “I don’t know how to be ninety.” At the time, I didn’t understand, but now realize the conflict. My body and my mind do not agree with each other. Had I been a sluggard all my life, this would not be an issue. 

New friends are helpful. One of my neighbors is ninety and going strong. Her mind is sharp and she is busy with family and happy all the time. It is possible to know how to be ninety. I’m not there yet, but should the Lord grant me that many birthdays, He has already given me a few role-models, but most of all, Himself:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:1–8)

This is such a far cry from being a sluggard who stirs up trouble and cares for no one but herself. 

Lord Jesus, it is okay to have a nap, but not to avoid responsibilities. Sleep is okay for those who are tired from labor. You bless those who think good thoughts, and who are not always stirring up trouble. Your goal for me is even better than being “a sweet little old lady” — You want me to be to be like You.

Danger of not paying attention…

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” (Proverbs 1:22–33)

Before reading this, I had a discussion with someone about a medical problem I’ve had for years. It has been diagnosed, treated, but has no cure. All that can be done is easing the symptoms. As I age, those symptom treatments are not working well and I’m wondering if there are any other ways to deal with them.

However this other person thinks I should go to a doctor who can identify the cause and treat the symptoms, seeming to think that I’ve not ‘been there, done that.’ This section from Proverbs reminds me that those who will not listen to other people are very unlikely to listen to God either.

Being a ‘know it all’ is a dangerous self-view. I know because I’ve ‘been there, done that’ also. It is pride when I’m right, but mostly a foolish way to think because it puts me and my ideas above the wisdom of God. How foolish is that? 

Job said some wise things, yet he was not like God, and the Lord challenged his so-called ideas. He started with this then essentially challenged this man to compare himself with God:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. (Job 40:6–14)

In other words, if he could do even this much that God can do, then God would agree with him.

I have no doubt that God can cure my medical problem, yet I also have no doubt that He has His reasons for not doing so. I trust His wisdom, not mine nor that of the critic who told me I’m not going to the right doctor. 

Jesus, this conversation and those verses could be directed to the ‘know it all’ who gives medical advice without listening, but instead You use them to tell me not to be a smarty that thinks I’ve got all things figured out. You are a constant surprise, and one of them is the peace You give as I accept that I’m not going to live forever, and perhaps not even be comfortable in the last years of life. Your peace surpasses all understanding, and it will guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) There is no doctor or treatment that can do that!

Count my blessings…

Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah Answer me quickly, O Lord! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble! And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul, for I am your servant. (Psalm 143:1–12)

The psalmist is in trouble and calling for help. It seems a regular occurring situation, particularly after a meaningful act of serving the Lord. However, He gave me the solution before this reminder of the problem.

Each morning I warm up by walking and singing worship songs using lyrics printed on pages in a binder. This morning the last one in my list was “Count Your Blessings.” As I personalized it to ‘count my blessings’ the Spirit filled my mind with recent bright spots and any thoughts of “poor me” vanished.

This does not mean the challenges of the day went with them. I still have too much to do and wonder if the hours available will be long enough. My studio looks like a bomb hit it. Upstairs, the dust is thick. The blessings of Mother’s Day have not faded, yet neither has the fatigue that showed up after the fun and after three days at a very full quilt retreat. 

I’m blessed that I could sleep all day if my conscience would let me. Yet I’m blessed with this promise: 

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29–31)

I may cry out to God like the psalmist, but God has already said what I need to hear.  

Jesus, my memorizing skills are not great, but Your are able to remind me of verses that have been read and relied on — and even though they are known, each come as a lovely surprise. You do the same with songs, putting them in my mind and giving me joy and a sense of renewal with their melody. Truly You lead me on level ground and often to higher ground, preserving my life and granting me all that is needed when that level ground becomes a seemingly insurmountable steep place. Thank You. 

Thoughts on Memorization

Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love, and teach me your statutes. I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies! It is time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken. Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right; I hate every false way. Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:124–130)

Yesterday’s sermon was about hiding God's Word in my heart. I’ve never been able to do rote memorization. I struggle with focus and being easily distracted. However, the guest speaker memorized the entire NT so I listened carefully for ways to overcome that problem.

He was clear in all he said and gave tips, like go somewhere with no distractions. That is my challenge. My mind can come up with many distractions, even in a dark room without anything in it. Yet one tip helped: he said to attach memory practice to something I already do without prompting. It could be brushing my teeth, but better yet, I spend ten minutes each morning walking and singing worship songs. I can add memory practice to that.

The other problem is being pragmatic. He said it helped when tempted as verses needed would more quickly come to mind. Yet doesn’t the Holy Spirit do that? If I’m relying on my memory, that is one thing, but relying on the Lord is amazing. He answers my need with His thoughts. I am not certain memorization is the best way to rely on for resisting temptation. Desiring to obey seems more important than retention. I could be wrong, yet relying on the Lord seems less about what I know and more about what and who I am trusting.

The passage above elevates understanding before knowing, and loving God's commands above keeping them. Knowing them by memorization can happen without doing what they say. Doing what they say means I have them in my heart far deeper than just being able to recite them.

All that said, at the end of the sermon, two men stood up and after three months of memory work, they said the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) from memory. It was not only motivational, but mesmerizing, better than if they had read it.

Jesus, I am so in agreement with the psalmist. I love Your Word and challenged daily to do what You tell me through its pages. It makes me realize what I do not know and how wise You are. Thank You for the Holy Spirit who is an enduring and powerful gift to my memory.

Single-minded

I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope! Hold me up, that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually! You spurn all who go astray from your statutes, for their cunning is in vain. All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross, therefore I love your testimonies. My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments. (Psalm 119:113–120)

This reading is much like yesterday, and therefore God must be telling me to give it more attention! The first thing I notice is that double-minded warning. Biblically, and in personal experience as a Christian, this is about wavering between my way and God's way. He wants a certain way of thinking and behaving, but I want another.

Most of this is invisible to others. For instance, I can tell a story or say words that seem to be uplifting, but in my heart, I’m doing it to show off how much I know. Or I can do a kindness with my teeth gritted because I’d rather be nasty. In other words, not being double-minded is having the godly reaction to people without even thinking of my self-centered one. It is hidden in Him, shielded by His Word and His love.

Doing the right thing is not because I am terrified by what will happen or what God with do to me if I do the wrong thing. It is more like being so in awe of the goodness of God that I do not want to do anything that God has judged harmful for me and for others.

For example, in wanting to be like Jesus, He has shown me how it feels when I tell someone about a struggle in my life and they immediately tell me of their struggles — not to empathize, but as if their problem is worse or more important. Motive is easy to discern. I’ve done it too. Because of ‘been there, done that’ I realize that it can hurt a deeply troubled person when I turn the conversation from their problem to ‘poor me’ and dismiss caring for them. Double-minded stunts like that do not gain God's approval.

Jesus, keep me from being like the things I hate. May your law of loving You and others be the place to not just hide or shield me, but where Your attitudes reign. I know that being in Your Word is a vital part of having Your attitudes and actions come out of my life in a spontaneous way and with honest y and without thought about myself — because You are the focus of my life, not me.

What the Word of God does…

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. (Psalm 119:97–104)

These few verses are a bit like a book review. The psalmist describes what happens in his life when he reads Scripture, but not just reading it — for one thing, he thinks about what he has read.

The books we read do have an effect on us. If I spent all my spare time in the newspaper, my emotions would change. If my reading were romance novels, or mystery, or only war stories, my thoughts would not be the same as reading children’s books, and if I read only cookbooks, that could affect my waistline.

However, as the psalmist says, the Bible has an effect on more than thoughts and emotions. Right away, he makes clear that thinking about what he is reading is important. I know that is true. I have a touch of attention deficit. That tends to mess with keeping my mind on what needs attention and leading to ignoring it. Not that what I read is unimportant, just that distraction interferes with application.

No excuse. Meditation is vital. As the psalmist says, God’s Word imparts wisdom — if it is taken to heart, considered thoughtfully. It can make the reader wiser than any opposition, even give that reader understanding beyond mentors and teachers, even those older (although there are not many of those left in my list of friends). 

Yet I note that this wisdom comes from obeying what I read. It is not for information alone but for transformation. 

Add to meditation and application is avoiding anything contrary to what God says. When He tells me to be kind to my enemies, I will not gain wisdom or be transformed if I gossip about them or am unkind in other ways. Not only that, the more I read and do what God says, the more His ways make sense to me and the better I am at seeing what is not good and what to avoid.

Jesus, how amazing that You are called the Word of God. Not only is all of God's goodness and wisdom written for us in Your Book, it is present in a living Person. You are God's example for me to follow, and my enablement to actually do it. Your Book is no ordinary book for it speaks to me. It is Your voice written so I can hear it and do Your will. I am with the writer of those words who says “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” How wonderful that You use written words to tell me how to live and then enable me to do what You say!!

The Adventure of Aging…

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 116:1–9)

Every day brings a new test. At the same time, the Lord is merciful. Yesterday at a sewing retreat, each story brought out the goodness of the Lord. One woman had tests that put away her fears that she had experienced a medical episode. She was so joyful that I hardly recognized her! While she did not quote this psalm, she express gratitude to be alive and healthy. 

Most of the people in our little community are over 70, yet many of them are healthy and alert, busy doing things and enjoying their latter years. It is an encouraging place to be, even with the tests to my faith. Most of them involve: Will I trust Jesus with this or will I bail out in annoyance, anger, self-pity, or complaining?

The Holy Spirit often reminds me that doctors told my parents I would not live beyond sixteen years. God said otherwise. I’m eighty-five, can still see to thread a needle first try, cook a decent meal, make quilts, stand on one leg more than 10 seconds, and keep my house clean. 

Because of You, Jesus, I can return my soul to that precious rest. You are utterly generous, and have put me where You want me. Then You enable me to see what’s next and how much I need You to confess and repent of old bad habits. Some say old age is scary or lonely, but for me, it is never boring!

 

C-O-W does not spell God

They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. Therefore he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them. Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise. They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the Lord. Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness, and would make their offspring fall among the nations, scattering them among the lands. Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed. And that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever. (Psalm 106:19–31)

Cattle are considered sacred in the religions of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, as well as in some Chinese folk religion and in traditional African religions. Cattle played other major roles in many religions, including those of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Israel and ancient Rome.

As for Israel, cattle were sacrificed for sin pointing to the need declared in God’s law:

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17:11)

The NT says the same:

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:22) 

However, this sacrifice of a calf or a lamb does not mean God's people were supposed to worship the animal being sacrificed, or decide it was special and not slay it, or make images of it and worship the images.

Instead of such idolatry, or even scorning it as total ignorance, like Moses and Phinehas, I am supposed to intervene in prayer that God would not only spare them but transform them to know Him and know the truth. Those who are in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ are told to abandon idolatry and worship only God. We are also told to pray for others who are not there yet.

Jesus, for me consistent formal prayer is a challenge. Instead it is easier to converse with You as needs come to my attention, especially because You so often make me aware of Your presence in ordinary life. And because You make me aware of how much other people need to know You too.

Resting in the Lord

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.” (Psalm 95:6–11)

There are two kinds of spiritual rest hinted here, the rest of being eternally with Jesus in heaven and the rest that He describes in the NT. 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

Biblically, the word ‘rest’ can mean a physical rest, but also spiritual. Compared to this OT verse, it refers to resting from my own labors, and in both passages, it means just that — working in the strength of the Holy Spirit and not doing my own thing.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

In plain words, the Lord wants me to do His will which will be marked by the fruit of His Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If that fruit is missing, then I am not resting in Christ and as long as I insist on doing things my way, I cannot enter His rest.

Examples of my way: resenting people, wanting always to win, worry, thinking unkind thoughts, withholding when some is in a need that I could help, not keeping my promises, harshly rebuking others, no self-control at the dinner table, boasting, taking credit that belongs to God… need I go on?

A larger description of His rest starts in Hebrews 4:

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” (Hebrews 4:1–5)

For unbelievers, this is about no faith in Christ at all, but Christians can wobble in and out of trusting the Lord, in and out of walking in the Spirit, in and out of rest. I see it often when trust says “God can do it…” and the response beings with, “Yea, but…”

I have problems at times with His timing, and even His methods. I’m thinking “right now” or “this way” instead of trusting His timing and letting Him surprise me. Like a child, I want my way and right now. This is not faith.

Jesus, children are not noted for their ability to wait, but even a child knows who is trustworthy. They also understand the logic of trust for those who have proved themselves. I’m humbled when You tell me to grow up, yet blessed when Your grace enables the wonder of resting in You. Life is full of outer events and inner attitudes that test to see if I will trust You or if You will need to say “grow up” to me again.

God’s Commitment to His people…

In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. . . . Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob; his anger rose against Israel, because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power. Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. Man ate of the bread of the angels; he sent them food in abundance. He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind; he rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas; he let them fall in the midst of their camp, all around their dwellings. And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved. But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them, and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel. In spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe. So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror. When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again. (Psalm 78:12–39)

This OT passage says it all. We are sinners and if it were not for the wonder of God's compassion, not one person would live. He atoned (pardoned by sacrifice) for our iniquity and did not destroy us. This is repeated in the next psalm:

Do not remember against us our former iniquities; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! (Psalm 79:8–9)

And again in the NT, the final and full forever pardon: 

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)

While the death sin deserves is illustrated often in OT history, so is the life that is not earned or deserved, yet given by our merciful God.

Jesus, I am justified by Your death and alive because of Your life. You live in me, giving me eternal life and the ability to obey You, not by my doing, but by the power of Your life. Amazing joy. Amazing redeemer. 

 

Genuine Prosperity

Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. (Psalm 73:1–17)

The news is on. Two ‘experts’ discuss the events of these days and despair at the prosperity of the wicked. Some watch their presentation with great concern on their faces. These have no faith in God, yet even many who profess faith are often troubled by seeing evil people in palaces and good health, rolling in dough and using their wealth to gain more wealth.

This seems related to a person’s value system. God has blessed us with prosperity, but also with the realization that our joy does not come from money or anything it can buy. Jesus grants the sense of His amazing grace and mercy to the degree that I have learned to rejoice in Him. Yes, the answers to prayer and other kindnesses are pleasures, yet joy is ours because of Him, not His gifts.

The psalmist learned this too. Even as he felt envy, he also saw the truth. Sometimes the life of an evil person ends suddenly, such as Saul, Jezebel, Athaliah, Herod Agrippa, likewise Nero, Galerius, Julian and the first and second Napoleonic empires. Can we say that of today’s despots? Not yet, but God was able to bring down quickly the successes of all past Hitlers, Stalins and Maos. Not only that, no one can boast of their evil deeds when they stand before their Maker in judgment.

The psalmist gave his observations more thought and then realized the eternal picture. He wrote:

Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. (Psalm 73:23–28)

This portion contains a verse I have pasted on my desk and magnetized to my refrigerator. “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Out of context, it speaks to my thoughts about my literal heart issues (I have a pacemaker) and reminds me where my strength comes from, certainly not from political power, or wealth, or even money and prosperity.

Lord Jesus, You are my hiding place, my song of deliverance when thoughts of any kind of envy or fears and insecurities try to rob me of the wonder of being loved and blessed by You, my Almighty God. The joy of thanking and praising You is far beyond any success that an evil person might have. 

Be still. . . .

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah (Psalm 46:1–3, 10–11)

As I read this, the upstairs television features a podcast with a few people discussing world events with strong opinions of what is happening and how to fix it. They are anxious and worried. 

Downstairs my Bible features a song of faith that initially fixes the fear then gives solutions such as: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.” (Vs. 4–5)
He can do this because He is “the Lord of hosts” and “with us” and “our fortress.” “He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.” (Vs. 9)

On a Sunday morning, the sun is shining, trees leaf out, birds sing. They know nothing of the wars and struggles or the major problems that plague the human mind. The cosmos, even the sparrows and trees thrive in the care of their Maker. They know how to be still in the knowledge of God. And we humans are supposed to be made in His image and rated as the highest in His creation?

What fools we are to create strife and problems because of our own selfishness and then argue and even scream at each other trying to fix it, still with our own selfish ideas and goals. Instead of being still and trusting God.

Lord Jesus, we need a revival of renewed faith, of awareness and conviction of such sinfulness, of repentance that is deeply serious and able to be still and know You, the One who can make all things right and at peace. Visit us and be exalted in this twisted up place called earth.