God Causes Righteousness To Spring Up.

 

Isaiah 61:10-11

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;

my soul shall exult in my God,

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,

and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,

so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise

to sprout up before all the nations.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that God really does love me like this. In fact, my faith in God's love toward me probably wavers more than any other area. I see my own unworthiness instead of His glory. That is why I need to focus on Him and let my life be a reflection of His righteousness and His salvation. If I have anything it is because He has clothed me. He is the one who causes righteousness and praise to spring up. 

Lord may your righteousness grow in me to your glory!

Pour Yourself Out

 Isaiah 58:6-12 

“Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you;

the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;

you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst,

the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

if you pour yourself out for the hungry

and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noonday.

And the LORD will guide you continually

and satisfy your desire in scorched places

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters do not fail.

And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to dwell in.

I was reading this passage this morning and the phrase "if you pour yourself out" stood out to me. Earlier in the passage, Isaiah had just talked about false religious practice, and now it is contrasted with true righteousness which is pouring yourself out sacrificially for others. He makes the claim that if we do that then God will satisfy us, and we will become stronger. This seems counter-intuitive from an earthly perspective, because it seems like we should try to get as much as we can and keep as much as we can for ourselves if we want to grow stronger and more powerful. But in God's economy, when we pour ourselves out for His sake by loving others well, He builds us up in ways that we would not do for ourselves.

This is a lesson that I am trying to continue to remind myself, and that I am trying to teach my kids and other whom I disciple. If you really want to be strong in an eternal sense then you will pour yourself out in service to others. Learn to love others well. Learn to receive God's love and give it away. 

I pray that the Lord will give me opportunities to express true sacrificial love today.

A perfect day in Nebraska

 

Lord thank you for . . .

The blue sky, the light clouds,

The rich green of corn and bean fields.

The sun on my back and the wind in my face.

The various birds singing.

The sound of the wind in the trees.

A small lake with the wind rushing over it.

The sun on my back.

My muscles working as I pedal my bike.

Your great creation!

 

 

 

Our True Home

Hebrews 11:13-16 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

I love the beauty of this world. I was on a kayak in the middle of a river by myself yesterday. The water, the bald eagles, the trees, the peace just being alone with God and His creation was fantastic. That being said, I also am so saddened by the brokenness in our world. I long for a world unadulterated by sin. A world where the immediacy of God's presence can be seen and felt everywhere.

What are the treasures in heaven?

Luke 18:29-30 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

So what is this reward in heaven? Is it stuff? I mean heaven is still a physical place and the stuff will be great. We are told about a feast and a place with many rooms, but I am convinced that is not the primary treasure we receive. I think the primary treasure will be the close and clear relationship with the giver of all good things, namely Jesus. 1 Corinthians 13 says, "now we see as through a mirror darkly, then we shall see face to face, now we know in part, then we shall know fully even as we are fully known." It is this clear intimate relationship with our Lord that is the main treasure that I look forward to. Nothing separating us from God, like Adam and Eve in the garden again. No shame, no guilt, and no distance.

This also leads to the treasure of similar relationships with other Christ followers. I met a guy in Panera the other day, and on his name tag it said his passion was, "The gospel of Jesus Christ." I commented on it and told him that was my passion to. We had no time to get to know one another, but I look forward to hearing his story of getting to know Jesus when we get to heaven.

The treasures in heaven are not primarily stuff, but rather Jesus and His followers and those relationships will keep getting better and better.

The Lord is on my Side?

Psalms 118:5-7 

Out of my distress I called on the LORD;

the LORD answered me and set me free.

The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

The LORD is on my side as my helper;

I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

I really identify with the first verse here. I do cry out to the Lord in my distress, but most of my distress is more internal than external. Therefore, the second verse it a little harder for me to say, because I don't think in terms of "my side" or of God being my helper. Instead, I think in terms of whether I am on God's side (think of the angelic warrior from Joshua 5). But this passage is here, so I need to deal with the reality of it.

I don't want to think of this like normal times when I am having a dispute over preferences or playing a ballgame against the rival school. Rather, at times people are legitimately facing injustice and are crying out to God for help. In those times it is good to remember that God loves us and is for us. I praise God that I have not faced too many times personally where someone has treated me openly unjustly, but I can see many places and circumstances where it does happen, so I can see the need for a passage like this to help the sufferer remember that they are loved.

It is also a good truth to embed in my own heart because in a fallen world we never know when someone might seriously sin against us and we might face they same feelings of injustice and loss and wondering if anyone really cares about us.

Where did this man get these things?

Mark 6:2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?

Reading through Mark this morning and I had this thought? If you don't believe Jesus is the Messiah, God with us, then where do you think He came from? Apparently, the people in his hometown had the same question. When Jesus began to reveal himself they could not figure out where this power and wisdom came from. Jesus did not come from a place of earthly power and did not display nature power or wisdom. He sprang on to the scene from a backwater and came with a supernatural power and message. If He is not from God how would you explain Him? I am convinced that if someone will seriously consider the person of Jesus, then Jesus will reveal himself in power to them.

I read a Ricky Gervais' (an atheist comedian) quote where he said that Christians just want other to consider Jesus unique among thousands of other gods, and of course his point was that belief in any god was ridiculous. But that is exactly what the Bible proposes we do with Jesus, namely compare Him to other gods and see that that He is different. That He is real. We don't have to shy away from such challenges. Jesus invites people to consider who He is, but if you start with a closed mind like an atheist who is dismissive before he has considered the evidence or the people in Jesus' hometown who only saw Him as the local boy, then you will stay blind.

As CS Lewis and GK Chesterton suggested, if you who Jesus is, then you have to come to the conclusion that He is either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. Many people in the modern day would add perhaps a legend, but the Biblical and historical evidence is just too compelling to believe that He is just a legend. He must have lived and taught and gathered a following to have have had such an impact within just a few years. So if He is real, then who is He? Where did He come from? I think the primary reason so many people don't want to examine Jesus closely is that if He is who he claims to be then their lives should change in response.

In reading the story of Jesus, He is so compelling that I cannot help but believe. I desire to know Him more, and to be know by Him.