Tuesday Thought -- September 9, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“For this is what the high and lofty One says -- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.’ I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me -- the breath of man that I have created. I was enraged by his sinful greed; I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his willful ways. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him.” (Isaiah 57:15-18)

The contrast between God and man is great. God is high and lofty, eternal, and holy. Man is lowly, mortal, and sinful. There is a gap between God and man that is so great that it cannot be crossed, not by anything man can do.

But God has crossed the gap to reach man. He came Himself, God in flesh, to do it. We didn’t deserve it and we didn’t earn it, but God did it of His own initiative and out of His own heart of love for us.

He has reached out His hand, not in anger or in an accusing manner. He has reached out His hand in love and grace, extending it to man. And here’s the condition upon which He extends it: He extends it to those who know they need it! He extends His hand of grace and love to the humble, those who know they can’t do it on their own. He extends His hand of grace and love to the contrite, those who know their own wickedness and seek forgiveness from Him.

We deserve God’s anger, His rage, His punishment. He offers His grace, His love, His forgiveness. He offers these to the humble and the contrite, not to the proud and those who justify or minimize their sin.

It’s not how good you are that will help you make it to God. It’s how honest you are about your sin and your need and how willing you are to grasp God’s hand as He reaches out toward you.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Monday Thought -- September 8, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant -- these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Sovereign LORD declares – he who gathers the exiles of Israel: ‘I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.’” (Isaiah 56:6-8)

God has always had a special place in His heart for the people of Israel. From the days of Abraham, even till today, they are His special people. He watches them closely. He loves them. He works to bring them to Him.

But, the people of Israel are not the only ones on the heart of God. God announces that He will bring foreigners to His holy mountain and give them joy. Salvation would not be limited to the Jews, we Gentiles have been welcomed into His house, too. His house is one for “all nations.”

In fact, the reason God has such a special place in His heart for Israel is that His plan was to use them to bring His salvation to all people. Now, He is working to bring every tribe, tongue, people, and nation into His house. He has promised that there will be people of every one of those groups in His eternal kingdom. No group of people will be excluded. God wants them all and will have them all.

Imagine the day when we will gather for eternity, red men, white men, black men, and every shade in between will be there. Latino, African, Asian, American Indian, Arab, Anglo, and every other nationality will be represented. The most closed nation in the world will be penetrated, God has promised it. Iraq is not beyond His reach. Neither is Saudi Arabia, nor the most remote region of Africa.

God’s Word will penetrate them all. That’s His plan and His promise. And today, He’s doing it through us!

His, by Grace,

Steve

Friday Thought -- September 5, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Nature has its laws. They are principles that God established in creation that are always at work. The one Isaiah mentions here is one we talk about in nursery rhymes: “April showers bring May flowers.” When the rains come, you can count on their having an impact on the land, on what grows, and what is produced. The rain, with its moisture and its nutrients, will accomplish its purpose. There will be growth and productivity.

There are spiritual laws at work in our world, too. Just like the natural laws, these have been established by God, too. They are always at work. Here’s one: God’s Word will make an impact wherever it goes.

If we send God’s Word into the darkest land in the world, the darkness will not overcome the Word. Rather, the Word will impact the darkness and diminish it. We’ve seen it happen already in place after place around the world. Lives are changed when God’s Word is preached. It’s a spiritual law.

When you apply the Word of God to the life of one who is already a believer, things happen there, too. Growth and spiritual productivity is the natural result of the growing presence of God’s Word in our lives.

So, do you want to grow spiritually and be spiritually productive? Here’s one of the keys – the Word of God. Get into it and let it get into you and things will happen in your life. It’s a law!

His, by Grace,

Steve

Thursday Thought -- September 4, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

God thinks differently than we do.

We think short-term, usually about how something will make us feel immediately, but sometimes looking 10 to 20 years into the future. God thinks long-term. Not long-term, like 10 to 20 years, but long-term, like one to two millennia! God thinks with eternity in mind, we rarely do.

We think selfishly. Perhaps we don’t want to, but we still usually do. We think in terms of how something is going to affect us personally.  Even when we deny self, we still think about how things will affect those we know and care about. God thinks unselfishly. It’s not about Him, it’s about His people, all of them. It’s not just about His people, it’s about those who aren’t His people, too. Perhaps most about them! How will what happens affect them? How will it draw them to Him?

Those are just two ways that God’s thoughts are different from our own. I’m sure there are more. I’m sure there are ways God’s thoughts are different from ours that I will never think of.

But there is help for us. Paul wrote, “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (1 Corinthians 2:11-12)

God doesn’t keep us in the dark about what He’s thinking. He’s given us His Spirit to help us understand His thoughts and His ways. He’s put Him right inside each of His children.

Don’t trust your own thoughts! Seek to understand God’s, by listening to His Spirit.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Wednesday Thought -- September 3, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.” (Isaiah 55:1-3)

There are so many places to which people turn for satisfaction.

Many give themselves fully to their careers, believing that if they just work hard enough, get the right breaks, and are successful enough their work will fill the empty place in their lives.

Others give themselves to pleasure and seek it wherever and however they think they can find it. Sex, food, drink, drugs, you name it, if they think it will bring pleasure they’ll try it. Surely, somewhere, sometime they’ll find something that will satisfy, and last.

The accumulation of wealth is a favorite pursuit of Americans. It’s the American dream and when we look at people like Bill Gates and their marvelous possessions and seeming freedom, we think if we can just get enough money we’ll be satisfied, too. If we only knew the real emptiness in the hearts of many wealthy people.

Good causes. Family. Church activity. Art. Music. The list of places people look for satisfaction seems endless. I all of them, the end is the same. The emptiness is still there. There is no satisfaction in any of these pursuits.

“Why spend money on what is not bread?” That’s Isaiah’s question. Why seek satisfaction where it cannot be found? Instead, look in the one place where it can be found. “Come to Me,” God says, “that your soul may live.”

In God, and in God alone, there is real, lasting satisfaction! But, then, we already know that, don’t we?

His, by Grace,

Steve

Tuesday Thought -- September 2, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:6-7, 9, 12)

Sheep are dumb animals. They put their heads down into the grass and roam wherever their nose takes them. When they finally look up, they are lost and not smart enough to find their own way back to the safety of the fold.

Sheep desperately need a shepherd. They need someone who will keep watch over them. They need someone who will seek them out when they wander away and carry them back to the fold. They need someone who will protect them from the dangers that are around them. They need someone who will protect them from their own mistakes, undoing the wrong they’ve done.

We are like sheep. We get so caught up in our own needs and desires and in the things of this world, that we wander away. When we look up, we have no idea how to get home, how to get back to God. There are dangers all around and, mostly, there are dangers from within ourselves. It’s our own mistakes that lead us astray.

We have a Shepherd. One who watches over us. One who seeks us out when we stray. One who carries us back to the fold. One who protects us from the dangers around us. One who covers over our own mistakes, even at great cost to Himself, bearing our sins on His back.

We have a Shepherd. Aren’t you glad!

His, by Grace,

Steve

Monday Thought -- September 1, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:2-5)

Why do people follow Jesus?

It’s not His charm. He was blunt. He didn’t allow people to hide their sins. He pointed out their sins. He told it like it is.

It’s not His physical appearance. He was rough and simple, with no physical beauty.

It’s not His accomplishments. What did He accomplish? He gathered a few hundred followers. He had a very short teaching ministry (just three years). He built nothing, invented nothing, gathered no money, founded no empire.

Yet, there is something about Jesus that attracts people! Hundreds of years before He was even born, Isaiah would prophesy about it. It’s what He did for us that attracts us. He sacrificed Himself for us: what love! He paid the price for our sins: what mercy! He invites us to be His family: what grace!

What Jesus did is not pretty, it’s just the thing we need most in all the world. He took our sin upon Himself. He allowed Himself to be punished with the punishment we have earned and fully deserve.

That’s why people follow Him. That’s why I follow Him. Don’t you?

His, by Grace,

Steve