Without Vision Nations Crumble

 

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Where there is no vision, the people perish:  but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.  Proverbs 29:18^(KJV)

The reason the apostles were all willing to die for Christ (and most of them WERE martyred) is they had a clear vision of the cross.  They knew God had been crucified on Calvary, but He was alive again!  The vision of a Lord who not only ruled life but death as well, gave them the power to live and die as conquerors. 

·       It was a clear vision of living in freedom that caused a ragtag bunch of slaves to follow a former murderer named Moses out into the desert. 

·       It was a clear vision of God's holiness that caused Isaiah to fall on his knees and cry out, Woe to me...I  am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes  have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.  ^{Isaiah 6:5} 

·       It was a clear vision of an irresistible call of God that caused a young shepherd-boy named David to stand against Goliath. 

·       It was a clear vision of the need of grace in the life of each one of us that caused Jesus to set Himself towards Jerusalem, submit to  the emotional pain of Gethsemane, the evil purposes of a sham trial, and the excruciating penalty of judgment for all our sins on that old rugged cross. 

My friends, if you can get ONE CLEAR VISION of what your life is to stand for, your days will never be the same.  In Christian circles we call that finding God's will. 

I've been told so many times by sincere, seeking people, I'm certain God wants me to do SOMEthing.  I just wish I could know what His will is.   Beloved, you're no different than anyone else who's ever wanted to know God's will.  The fact is God Himself wants you to know it.  Often we are so less willing to DO God's will than He is willing to share it with us, so that we aren't in a position to hear His will if He shouted it in our ears.  There are conditions to knowing God's will, but...

YOU CAN HEAR AND UNDERSTAND GOD'S DIRECTION FOR YOUR LIFE IF YOU WANT TO; AND IT WILL OPEN YOUR EYES! ^[1]

For You Today

If knowing God’s will for your life is the most important responsibility He’s given you, isn’t it the clearest mandate you need to seek that will, above all else, until He reveals it to you?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Russell Brownworth, Learning and Doing (a sermon)

When God's Message Stings

 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.  Shout aloud!  Don’t be timid.  Tell my people Israel of their sins!  Yet they act so pious!  They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me.  They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God.  They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.  ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.  ‘Why aren’t you impressed?  We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’  “I will tell you why!” I respond.  “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.  Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.  What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling?  This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.  You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind.  You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes.  Is this what you call fasting?  Do you really think this will please the Lord?  “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:  Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you.  Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.  Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.  Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.  “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal.  Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.  Then when you call, the Lord will answer.  ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.  “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.  Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!  Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble.  Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.  The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.  Isaiah 58:1-10

Isaiah was a priest to the rich and powerful people who ran things in Jerusalem.  His voice stung like a scorpion in the wilderness as he preached a message nobody wanted to hear.  Truth be told, nobody wants to hear a prophet with a stinger-tail.

Jeremiah was a weeping prophet because Israel needed someone to weep for their sins.  Amos called the refined ladies of the king’s palace fat cows[1].  They lived lavishly while the ordinary citizens were starving.  And John the Baptist?  Well, the poor listened, but the powerful plotted…and had his head on a platter!

There is little about being a prophet that is attractive to those who value an easy life, career advancement, and perks.  Mainly, the job description calls for telling those who have those values that their whole existence stinks in God’s nostrils; and then they kill you.

And yet, Isaiah says, don’t be timid…speak the tail of the scorpion out clearly and don’t hold back!  Be like a trumpet blast…tell Israel of her sins! 

For a prophet there can be no other choice. 

·       Jonah found that out when he tried to run away from his appointment to Nineveh.  God arranged a submarine ride back to the mission field. 

·       Elijah trembled in the face of adversity, hid in a cave, and hoped to die before ever seeing Jezebel again; he didn’t die, but God’s Word prevailed, and Jezebel’s corpse was eaten by dogs. 

Considering a prophet’s calling, and that for which God always seems to employ His prophets, what would today’s prophet say of America? 

·       Would he be like Jeremiah, the weeping theatrical prophet, dressing in swaddling clothes, and hacked to pieces by an abortion provider?

·       Would he be like Isaiah or Samuel, marching into the White House and Congress with a list 7 times longer than Martin Luther’s 95 points of the sins of leaders?

·       Would she instruct like Priscilla, telling all the so-called pandering preachers, insipid messengers of prosperity and fluff, to cease their endless petting of evil, and start calling our nation to repentance?

Would to God we would see that.

For You Today

If the day of God’s prophets is ended, what hope is there for humanity and righteousness? 

None, I suppose, except, Revelation’s final message, even so, come, Lord Jesus.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Amos 4:1

 

The Humbling of Prophets and Preachers

[i][ii]

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.  He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.  Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings.  With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!  The whole earth is filled with his glory!”  Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.  Then I said, “It’s all over!  I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.  I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips.  Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”  Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.  He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips.  Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”  Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people?  Who will go for us?”  I said, “Here I am. Send me.”  Isaiah 6:1-8

One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God.  He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.  Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water.  So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.  When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”  “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing.  But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.”  And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!  A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.  When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.”  For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him.  His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.  Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid!  From now on you’ll be fishing for people!”  And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.  Luke 5:1-11

At the end of the Old Testament, looking forward to the New Testament, God has Malachi reinforce something about the way God deals with humans:

I am the Lord, and I do not change;  Malachi 3:6a (CEB)

When God was laying the groundwork in both Isaiah and Peter to prepare them to preach and teach about Jehovah, so the world would know how to get back in relationship with God, His method with the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, was no different than when Jesus schooled Peter in the New Testament.  The lesson is simple, albeit a little painful; when you’re going to be used in God’s work you’d better get used to the idea of being humbled!

Over and over in Scripture we are informed how much God detests pride.  When God is going to use someone, that person’s pride, that entry portal to the spread of all sin, is going to be touched by fire, and brought low with the majesty of the Almighty!

There are no exceptions to this!

For You Today

What’s good for the prophet or preacher is fair game for the pew.  God destroys pride wherever He finds it.  That is why the prophets and preachers of the Old and New Testaments pointed to the cornerstone[iii] as either a building block, or that which would crush.  It’s simple; if you won’t be humble enough to be a building block in God’s kingdom, the cornerstone becomes a crushing stone.  One way or another we will be made low.  After all, He’s God…and we’re not!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

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[i] Title Image:   V&A - Raphael, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1515) Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

[iii] For an example of how many of God’s servants used this concept, see this list

Rocking the Temple

[1]

Friday, January 4, 2019

It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.  He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.  Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings.  With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!  The whole earth is filled with his glory!”  Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.  Then I said, “It’s all over!  I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.  I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips.  Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”  Isaiah 6:1-5(NLT)

Every time I think of Isaiah, or read his prophecy, I cannot get that sentence I heard many years ago out of my head:

If you have never stood in the presence of Almighty God with the ground shaking under you, and your lips burning because you realize you are a sinful man, you have never really stood in the presence of Almighty God.

There are so many inadequate ideas about who God really is:

·      Some name Him as Creator, far off, and unknowable

·      Some see Him only as a judge, stern, unloving punisher of all humans

·      Some imagine He’s all warm and fuzzy, love…your best life is His only waking thoughts…He’s like a great, cosmic vending machine…pop-in a request, and you win the lottery from Heaven.

The only problem with those inadequate ideas of God is they’re inadequate. 

·      God IS the creator, and he is certainly different than us, but His deepest desire is for relationship; he want us to know him. 

·      As JUDGE, God will involve himself in our lives for the sake of righteous fairness, but only because He is just and righteous; he is the only one in the universe equipped to judge. 

·      As for that insipid Heavenly vending machine idea…leave that to the curly-haired Sunday morning Texas tv guru.  God never promised to give you everything you want, only everything that is best for you, and that which fits with His will (which, by the way, is always what’s best for you.)  When I was seven, I wanted a real horse; but we lived in an 800 square foot 4 room house, and my father got laid-off at the factory often.  Mom and Dad could not have afforded to feed a horse, much less buy one.  But they also knew their son would have trouble following through on caring for that horse, feeding, brushing, walking, exercise; their son couldn’t keep his shoes tied!  If earthly parents understand their child, certainly God doesn’t just throw the divine checkbook open to our whims and greed.

So, what do you do when you find yourself standing in the presence of an Almighty God, Creator, Sustainer, and Judge of the universe, and the place is rocking because the thunderous angels are flying back and forth before the throne, shouting Glory to God?  Do you dare speak?  Would you even be able to speak?  Should you try?  Isaiah did what we should do – he acknowledged his own sinfulness and frail nature in the presence of the power that drives every molecule of creation.  He knew he was a “goner” if he got what he deserved, so he presented himself to God as one who stood in need of mercy.

That day in the temple Isaiah was as nervous as Tennessee Ernie Ford’s long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers with the temple rocking all around him.  I’ve stood a few times at Niagara Falls, the border between New York and Canada, with the water spewing over a 167-foot drop at the rate of 85,000 cubic feet per second[2].  That’s a LOT of water, and it makes a lot of noise, shaking the ground under you, and intimidating people like me from getting too close to the ferocious activity on the other side of the protective hand-railing.  But there are also generators harnessing that power, producing 2.4 gigawatts of power, one of the largest power-producers in the world.  Dangerous if you’re careless, but able to light up several counties if approached with respect.

And, like Isaiah, what we find when we come to God is a powerful, but merciful God who always wants us to find forgiveness in His presence, and the open door to a new way that leads to eternal life, and fellowship with Him.

For You Today

God wants us near Him, so, get close – but remember Isaiah; approach on your knees.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO 

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

[2] Wikipedia.org

Hearing and Doing

[1]

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

VIDEO

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.   James 1:22^(NLT)

William Barclay said of this passage:  

In his listening to the true word a man has revealed to him that which he is and that which he ought to be.  He sees what is wrong and what must be done to put it right; but, if he is only a hearer, he remains just as he is, and all his hearing has gone for nothing….what is heard in the holy place must be lived in the market place – or there is no point in hearing at all.^[2]

A few examples:

Moses went to the burning bush.  He heard the will of God expressed from a bush that burned, but was not consumed.  Moses had some reservations, but he obeyed God and went to do business with Pharaoh.  He had many excuses and lots of doubt – but the Word of God was not something to be taken lightly…Moses was driven to go. 

The Word of God told Moses to go – Moses obeyed.

Saul was going about doing what he thought was best.  God had other ideas, and blinded him to the old way of life on the road to Damascus.  By the time the scales came off, Saul was now changed dramatically into Paul.  The enemy of the Lord became the greatest servant of the Kingdom.  He was driven out of self, onto his knees and into the service of the King. 

The Word of God told Paul to change the world – Paul obeyed.

John was snatched up from the isle of Patmos to view the splendor of heaven’s glory.  John didn’t get further than speaking to an angel before he was driven prostrate in worship. 

The Word of God told John to write – John gave us the future.

Isaiah saw the holy angels flying to and fro, praising and worshiping the Lord, high and lifted up on His throne.  Isaiah was driven to confession that he was a man of unclean lips. 

The Word of God told Isaiah to tell the world the truth – Isaiah gave us hope on the wings of eagles, running and not being weary.

Jacob was a liar and an ambitious manipulator.  It cost him his family and his home.  Running from those who would get even, Jacob lay his head down on a stone pillow one night, and caught a glimpse of heaven.  He was driven to a vow of putting his lying tongue at God’s disposal to change him.  It took many years, but Jacob was driven to come home and make everything right.

The Word of God told the Jacob his name was no longer “deceiver” the self-interested manipulator, but he was now to be Israel, God ruled.  Israel obeyed and prevailed with men and God!

When we are weak in faith, if we step towards the truth of the Word of God, God can make us strong for His purposes, and strengthen others through our service.  All of it simply requires a step toward the truth, the Word of God.

Max Lucado wrote:  

If there are a thousand steps between us and God, he will take all but one.  He will leave the final one for us.  The choice is ours.

For You Today

We would be the first to admit we are not those spiritual giants; but the Word of Truth tells us we must start. 

So, today, let’s ask that our eyes be opened.  Then we will see with the eyes of faith.  Then, we can be obedient to the Word of Truth!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Images:  Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen, U.S. Air Force, & dadblunders, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, Vol 15, (Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1976) 59.