The Everyday Prayer

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 5:1-13, 18-23 (day two)  “He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit”  (vs 2)  Everyone produces something.  Actually, no one is unfruitful.  Good or bad, all of us contribute something to history and the emotional/spiritual environment on this planet.  Sometimes the by-product of our life is criticism or strife.  Sometimes it is love and justice.  The Lord watches what we produce.  He has invested much in us.  He stays involved.  The Bible says that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. . .”  People not producing this fruit are not Spirit filled.  Flesh has different outcomes.  (see Galatians 5:19-22)  Isaiah and Paul agree on this.  Everyone produces something and what our lives produce indicates our relationship to God.  We should not be deceived.  A good heart does NOT produce bad fruit.  It’s a tragedy–people bearing bad fruit when God offers a different result.  Good news!  A good harvest is still possible.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 5:1-13, 18-23 (day one)  “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Judah. . .He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress” (vs 7)  It is the Lord’s favorite metaphor for his people.  Israel was His vineyard. ( So are we–see John 15)  They were (we are) recipients of His care, provision and protection.  He poured attention on them.  He has given us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3)  Is it unfair for Him to expect some return on investment?  Shouldn’t He expect us to bear fruit?  Vs. 7 identifies the fruit as holiness, expressed, in part,  in a social conscience, a concern for the poor, a pursuit of justice for them.  Is God disappointed if churches (evangelical, Bible believing) don’t produce this kind of passionate pursuit?  Yes!  Is He rightly disturbed if we claim the gospel but resist involvement?  Yes! It is ungrateful and unsafe to be unfruitful.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day seven) “If you are willing and obedient you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword” (vs 19-20)  My take away, thus far, from the prophets is a new understanding of God’s wrath.  It is real.  It is reasonable.  After 7 weeks of Hosea, Amos and Isaiah, God’s wrath seems less like anger to me than hope–steely determination not to give up on His purpose for humanity.  We were made to live in profound and powerful cooperation with Him–holy and happy.  No substitutions allowed!  It is a high and hard standard.  Sometimes the church fails to grasp or proclaim this truth.  The prophets remind us of a God who deserves our fear and respect, a God of real and reasonable wrath.  Great gain is promised if we can recover this accurate vision. . .  Rain or shine, I will see you in a few hours.  Pastor Don

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day six) ” ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.’ ” (vs 18)  The Hebrew word for reason is similar to the English word for argument.  It was typically a legal word, used for people “making a case” against each other in an effort to resolve a conflict.  It surprises some people that God has a case against us.  It surprise them even more that the only way forward is a painful, honest conversation.  If we are not honest with God, we never “hear” what we are really thinking.  (we stay hidden, unaccountable)  If He is not honest with us, we never have the creative, corrective power of His word.  “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.”  “Faith comes through hearing.”  Want to be well?  Want to be saved?  It will require talking and listening–a cleansing conversation with God.  “Come, let us reason. . .

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day five)  “Why should you be beaten anymore?  Why do you persist in rebellion?”  (vs 5)  One of the clinical definitions of addiction is “behavior that continues despite negative consequences”.  In some sense all sin is addiction.  It is deeper than a bad choice.  It is a bad choice that we continue to make even after it becomes clear that no good will come of it. Why do we stay loyal to such behaviors?  Why do we persist?  “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it”. We are powerless to change our inner tendencies.  Paul experienced the same defeat. “Wretched man that I am!  WHO will set me free?”  (Romans 7:24)  Like all other things, our sin teaches us that we need Christ.  I have ONE job every morning.  You have the same job.  Find the Lord!  Apart from Him and His partnership, none of us will ever be free from our addiction and all of its destructive power.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20  (day four)  “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me”  (vs 2) Most of us don’t think of ourselves as rebels.  We tend to think that 90% is an A.  We deceive ourselves that being faithful to God in some areas erases or neutralizes our resistance to Him in others.  It is not a strategy that I recommend for marriage.  If I were true to Holly sexually and socially, but dishonest with her financially, could I call myself a faithful husband?  No.  James said, “He who keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all”  (2:10)  Not a new truth, just one that we cannot escape, we are all rebels.  We need new hearts. The songs says (and rightly so) I surrender ALL.   “Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh”  (Galatians 5:16)  It is the ONLY way out!

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day three)  “The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (vs 3)  If we judge ourselves by comparison to other people we reach one conclusion.  If we judge ourselves by looking at God and His creation we reach another.  In Isaiah 1, God says that His people’s rebellion is unnatural.  An ox knows his master.  Human independence and ingratitude is, in this way, a contradiction of nature. We are dumber than donkeys!  Looking at history, however, we see a different story.  Human self-will is the NORM.  “All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6)  “All have turned aside, together they have become useless” (Romans 3:12)  It forces a decision, doesn’t it?  Is “normal” what we are or what we were mean’t to be?  Do we find “natural”in  what we have been or what we can become?

RE Verse reading–Isaiah1:1-20 (day two) “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”  (vs 18)  What color is sin?  We usually think of it as black.  God (speaking through Isaiah) describes it as red.  From eternity, God has known that sin would require the death of His Son.  Not something we easily understand–how an infinite God can see all options and outcomes before they happen.  Even so, the Bible calls Jesus “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world”.  The sins of men look red to God.   He never looks our rebellion without remembering the cost that would be required to redeem us.  Amazing love!  Even as He sees our sin, He is remembering the way that we may be saved.  This is the way for sinners to become white again.  “The blood of Jesus His son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7)

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day one)  “encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”  (vs 17)  Part of God’s assignment for the church (and for Israel before us) is to care for the helpless poor.  It is not an option for us, it is an assignment.  In Matthew 25, Jesus chides those who “saw Him hungry, thirsty, a stranger or naked” and did not care. (vs 44)  Isaiah is equally direct.  In this week’s reading, Isaiah connects the ideas of  “doing wrong” and “learning to do right”  with “the oppressed, the fatherless and the widows”.  Honest answer.  Do most Christians you know consider it part of God’s call to effectively and concretely assist people who are helpless and poor?  Do you consider it part of your own personal mission and responsibility?  Sunday night we will study When Helping Hurts–How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself.  Please come.  It is our assignment from God.

RE Verse reading–Hosea 11:1-11, 14:1-2 (day seven)  “Jesus said, ‘Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?’ ”  (John 21:16)  One of the life changing realities of the resurrection is the possiblity it gives us for meaningful repentance.  When Jesus questioned Peter, it was his opportunity to be restored to full guilt-free friendship after a shameful denial.  I can relate! What a gift it is to be able to talk with the person we have offended–to hear the forgiveness, to see the friendship return to their eyes.  It is something I never want to take for granted.  He “ever liveth to make intercession for us”, says the writer of Hebrews.  Perhaps He also “ever liveth to hear intercession from us”–particularly regarding our failures.  When Hosea tells the people of Israel to “take words and return” (14:2) he was predicting the very privilege we now have.  He is alive.  We can talk with Him and be restored.  Happy Easter, dear friends!  He is risen!