Month: May 2012

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 30:1-17, 31:1 (day five)  “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help” (vs 31:1)  Hezekiah was a good king.  Very good compared to some.  The Bible reports with respect the instances of his faith, prayer and courage.  (read 2 Kings 19 as an example)  Most scholars believe, however, that Hezekiah supported the alliance with Egypt as a protection from Assyria.  It would have devastating results for his nation.  Can a good man make a bad decision?  Yes.  Nothing in our faith teaches us to become careless or over-confident.  “Let him who thinks he stand, take heed lest he fall”  (1 Corinthians 10:12)  Wise carpenters use to say “measure twice, cut once”.  Followers of Christ say “pray twice, decide once”.  May the Lord give us a healthy humility as we seek to stay in step with the Spirit.  “We should say, ‘If the Lord wills. . .we shall do this or that’ ” (James 4:15)  Careful, friends!  Even good men can make mistakes.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 30:1-17, 31:1 (day five)  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”  (Proverbs 3:5)  It was a terrifying, disorienting, liberating moment–the day I realized that what I felt and thought was not necessarily true.  I could not trust me!  I knew Proverbs 3, but I had never considered why I was to distrust my own understanding–because it was wrong!  Isaiah observed this mistake being made.  In vs 15, God lays out His plan for salvation but the people would “have none of it”.  Hearing the wisdom of God, they decided it was a foolish, unworkable plan and trusted themselves.  Talk about trading down!  Hmmmm, where have I seen this before?  It is the path of spiritual growth for all of us–learning to distrust ourselves and to deliberately trust the One who knows the way.  “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”  (Romans 8:6)

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 30:1-17, 31:1 (day three)  “Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”  (Galatians 3:3)  With Stephen Carrell’s departure, I am confronted with one of my most characteristic sins–overwork.  So much to do!  I am tempted to try in the power of the flesh what can only be accomplished by the Spirit of God.  It is the opposite of trust and therefore the opposite of power.  Will you pray for me?  Without the Spirit’s help (and a repentance that He has been teaching me for years) I will end up like the people of Isaiah’s day.  I will have plans that are not God’s and solutions that are not of the Spirit. ( See vs 1-2 in today’s reading)  Maybe you know something of this same struggle.  If so, I appreciate your prayers and promise mine for you as we follow the Mark 1:35- Savior into a busy and lost world.  Blessings, dear friends.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 30:1-17, 31:1 (day two)  “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help. . . and do not. . .seek help from the Lord”  (31:1)  Why are we often reluctant to seek the Lord’s solutions to our problems?  Is it PRIDE?– a loyalty to self, a determination to “lean on our own understanding” even though the Scripture says we shouldn’t.  Is the problem a lack of PATIENCE? Agreed, waiting on the Lord is time consuming and stressful to the flesh.  But it is a “death to self” that leads to life!  Is the problem a PREFERENCE  we all  have for things that can be seen?  (horses, chariots, people and their approval)  What is it about the human heart that makes us slow to look for spiritual solutions to physical, relational, societal problems?  The answer goes to the very heart of our sin nature.  “All we like sheep have gone astray.  Each has turned to his own way”(Isaiah 53:6)  But why?

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 30:1-17, 31:1 (day one)  “Woe to the obstinate children. . .who go down to Egypt without consulting me”  (vs 1-2)  One of my favorite King David stories is found in 2 Samuel 5.  After he was proclaimed king, David was attacked by the Philistine army.  His spiritual wisdom was to inquire of the Lord. (vs 19)  Following the Lord’s instruction, the armies of Israel were successful in battle.  Weeks later, the Philistines attacked again.  David inquired of the Lord again. (vs 23) This time the answer was different but the outcome the same. In Isaiah’s day, the nation Judah had lost the wisdom of their ancestor–the commitment and patience to wait on the Lord.  Trusting their own solutions, they were defeated and ruined.  How foolish they were to not consult with the Lord!  “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men generously. . .and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith. . .”  (James 1:5-6)

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 10:5-27, 11:1-10 (day seven)  “The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him–the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding . . . of counsel and of power. . . of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord”  (11:2)  As Isaiah peers ahead and sees the coming Messiah, he notices something unique.  The Spirit of the Lord will REST on Him.  Unlike us who grieve and quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:18), Jesus would be a permanent home to the Spirit.  Being at home, the Spirit would bear in Christ the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).  Did Jesus need the Spirit?  Yes!  He was fully man!  Like us, He had to be led by the Spirit (Mark 1:12) Like us, He had to be filled. (Ephesians 5:18)  “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him.” (John 14:23) Friends, is the Spirit of God at home in our hearts?

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 10:5-27, 11:1-10 (day six)  Happy Cinco de Mayo!  “Very soon. . . my wrath will be directed to their destruction”  (vs 10:25)  It is the beginning of wisdom–a lesson we learn that leads to wise choices.  God disciplines everyone who sins.  No favorites.  No exceptions.  Christian and non-Christian, rich and poor.  The Assyrians would have been well served to remember.  A time of prosperity made them arrogant.  Little did they know their pride was being noted for later correction. (cf vs 12)  The New Testament teaches the same fear.  “Therefore let him who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)  May the Lord give all of us this healthy fear of His discipline.  When we see others in a time of trouble, may we remember that apart from His help we will be next.  “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked.  What we sow, we will reap.” (Galatians 6:7)  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”  (Proverbs 1:7)

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 10:5-27, 11:1-10 (day five)  “The wolf will live with the lamb. . .for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (vs6,9)  No one should ever say that we have small dreams.  We should never be unclear about this.  We dream of a restored, healed world.  We pray for the Kingdom to come!  We believe it will. We pray for the earth to be full of the knowledge of the Lord (the word means a knowledge that is like intimacy).  We hope for the end of violence in all its forms.  Maybe Isaiah was using symbolism.  Maybe he was describing a change so revolutionary that it literally affects the animal kingdom.  Either way, none of us are fully developed followers until we embrace a dream bigger than our own personal safety and success.  Our prayer is for joy that comes to the whole world.  Read Isaiah 49:6.  Love to you all.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 10:5-27, 11:1-10 (day four)  “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse”  (11:1)  It is a characteristic strength of Isaiah’s life.  In moments of despair he saw the Lord and found hope.  In happened in Isaiah 6 (last week’s Re verse reading).  It happens again in Isaiah 11.  In chapter 6, Isaiah sees God the Father, God on the throne of Heaven.  In chapter 11, he sees God the Son, coming at some point in the future.  Isaiah calls Him ” a shoot out of a stump”–a beautiful word picture of Christ’s life rising up out of the spiritual deadness of Israel.  In Hebrews 12, the Bible tells us that we are to ” run with perseverance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus” (12:1-2)  Friends, do you see the Lord today?  When, like Peter, we can look through the waves and see the Lord, the pressures and their powers fade away.  May the Lord teach this lesson to every weary heart.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 10:5-27, 11:1-10 (day three)  “What then?  Are we better than they?  Not at all. . .as it is written, ‘there is none righteous, not even one’ ” (Romans 3:9-10)  It is an insight that helps me forgive others.  None are righteous.  Including me.  The reason I can, I should, I must forgive is that God holds me accountable for my attitude and actions, even in times when I feel that I have been mistreated.  I do NOT want to be found resisting God because I am angry with others  who have resisted me.  The full circle of His wrath, the fairness of it, is strange comfort.  God will judge Judah.  He then will judge Assyria. See today’s lesson–vs 12.  ALL of us must finally surrender and receive a mercy we did not earn or deserve, a righteousness in Christ.   It is not just the “bad guys” who need to hear the warning of His love.  There are none righteous.