Category Archives: Growth/Pursuit

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

God will not be domesticated or manipulated by our religious systems

“Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.  He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.”” (Isaiah 66:1–4 ESV)

God seems to be constantly reminding us that He cannot be pinned in, domesticated or manipulated by the systems, institutions and laws that He has given us.  All of the ceremonies, laws, worship, covenants and military victories were (and still) are designed to point to the glory of God and the worship of the Creator.  Instead the people regularly attempted to use these religious things in an attempt to manipulate God in to getting what they wanted.  The problem is that what they wanted was His benevolent blessings more than they wanted Him.  God looks favorably on the dependent, lowly & contrite spirit that recognize their spiritual bankruptcy and throw himself on the grace and mercy of God. (Matthew 5)

God views our worship that is not accompanied by a trembling, contrite heart is wicked as murder or idolatry.  God is not interested in external compliance to His laws – God is after heart level transformation and increasing affection for Him.  The people were using compliance to their Levitical worship in an attempt to control God and get Him to bless and protect them.  We, too, often times, believe that God “owes” us protection, blessing or prosperity because of our morally clean lives or ability to keep God’s commands.  This is idolatry that reveals a heart that is more interested in God’s blessings and gifts than is in knowing or walking with Him – this is the default mode of the human heart, but even Christians must carefully guard their hearts and ask what their true motivations are – what their desire is for and where their real treasures are.  Our affections matter, they are the central component in the battle for our faith.

Growth/Pursuit

Hope in Hard Times

Despite difficulty, oppression and injustice, victory is sure as Isaiah paints the picture of a God who is mighty to save, deliver and redeem.  Judgement, ultimate justice and redemption is at hand, but our God delivers those who are His (Isaiah 63:1-4).  Judgement is a reality.  All injustices will be made right by the One who is able to judge – the Creator of the cosmos.  We don’t like to wait for justice, we want vengeance now, especially when we are the ones that are being unjustly treated.  Yes, we should always fight for justice and truth, but ultimately we must remember that the Creator is the One that will make all things new and reward those on His earth for their deeds – good and bad.  verses 5-6.

It is hard to hope in God and His ultimate deliverance when all that surrounds us is difficulty, injustice and oppression.  We are so prone to walk by what we can see instead of what is unseen.  How do we have hope when this is the case?
1.  Recount, recall and remember God’s steadfast love towards you.  This is often times difficult, but we must strive to reflect on the fact that we have nothing that we have not received from His hand according to His bountiful mercy.  Do you have a home, friends, family, a job, leisure time, freedoms, food, clothes?  Are you His?  Reflect on the fact that you deserve none of these things and it was not by your own efforts that you have received them.  You could have just as easily been born without your intellect in a 3rd world country where the gospel is not preached.  You were not, you were placed in the home you were placed in with the natural abilities that you possess, were afforded the opportunities that you have had and are a child of God according to His sovereign rule and reign, not according to randomness and your hard work (or failures). verse 7.
2.  You are His child.  Despite your failures and shortcomings (like Israel’s), He determined before He formed the world to set His affections upon you and call you to Himself.  Despite the health or dysfunction of your earthly family, God has called you His – you are kin to the King, a child of the Creator.  He will make all things new, restore the brokenness, and redeem you and this fallen creation.  verse 8.
3.  God is with you, even in the darkest points of life.  God is sorrowful over the sufferings, hardships and difficulties of His children – even when they are brought on by their own sinful actions.  He is not far from His children, He acts personally and directly to comfort and deliver in His time.  verse 9.
4.  Despite our failures, rebellion and short comings, there is hope in the future.  Just as God delivered the people in Egypt, He will deliver His children.  We must walk by faith, not by what we can see – our sight is limited, skewed and dim.  Despite the things that seem to be around us, the all powerful, all orchestrating Architect of all things is working and redeeming.  This hope is not fixed on us, our worth or performance, but in God’s ultimate goal of glorifying Himself.  It is liberating to see the promises of scripture through the lens of God’s glory rather than through the lens of our performance or worth – one is burdensome, the other is freeing.  v10-14.

Growth/Pursuit, Meditations

God is never absent, incapable or tardy in acting.

God is never absent, incapable or tardy in acting.  He is unchallenged, always present and sovereign in nature – you can bank on that truth, even when your heart is not feeling it!  “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;” (Isaiah 59:1 ESV)
SIn separates us from God (59:2), but The Ultimate Redeemer will satisfy justice and secure true salvation for His children; He will give us His Spirit and put His words in our mouths and sustain us (59:19-21).  The people of Israel wanted  justice & salvation, but they don’t want the God of that salvation (11-13).  Do we want God or do we just want His blessings?
Growth/Pursuit

Dependence, Doing & Delight

““If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”” (Isaiah 58:13–14 ESV)

“The Sabbath is a covenant sign that represents a lifestyle of devotion to the Lord, for it requires the practical reorganization of every week around him.”1    God’s call to His people is not one primarily of doing, but of dependance upon Him.  This pursuit and dependance is manifested by observing the Sabbath rightly with delight,  When this happens our delight is found in God.  God’s grace and mercy is abundant in this passage to a religious, hard hearted, rebellious people; people like us.

1 Lane T. Dennis and Wayne Grudem, eds., The ESV Study Bible (Accordance electronic ed. Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2008), n.p.  Note on Isaiah 56:2.

Growth/Pursuit

Personal piety is not about pomp and circumstance

““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.” (Isaiah 58:6–11 ESV)

Personal piety is not about pomp and circumstance.  Personal piety always results in tangible acts of compassion and mercy (6-7).  True fasting is met by the God of all creation with tangible, true blessings.  But, true fasting is not a tool that is deployed to manipulate God in to getting what we want.  True fasting involves singular pursuit and devotion to God in an attempt to see Him more clearly, know him more fully and experience Him more deeply.  The discipline of fasting places us in proximity to the waterfall of God’s grace, but we still are in desperate need for His intervening power in our lives (8-9).

True faith and the natural outflow of that faith are inextricably linked.  True, dependent faith, is always met with blessings by the benevolent Creator.  The faithful will look like watered gardens in the desert with cool bubbling brooks to satiate their parched souls.  This is indeed supernatural, not something that we are able to manufacture on our own.  v10-11

Growth/Pursuit

The passive wrath of God; Faith is revealed by what we fear

The people found hope, strength and identity in chasing an endless array of political alliances.  To say that there is no hope, surface level identity or strength in worldly pursuits is not true.  They do, however lack that capacity to provide true, deep soul satiating satisfaction that is sustainable.  Their endless pursuit of idols and alliances kept them energized.  “You were wearied with the length of your way, but you did not say, “It is hopeless”; you found new life for your strength, and so you were not faint.” (Isaiah 57:10 ESV).  It is frightening that God would allow man to find satisfaction – even if it is fleeting – apart from Him.  This is the Passive Wrath of God.  The people’s faith was revealed but what caused them to fear – man.  Though they had outward signs of allegiance to God – their hearts were revealed by what they feared, what they wanted and what they looked to to provide them with protection, significance & salvation.  God said, “let your idols deliver you.”.

“You journeyed to the king with oil and multiplied your perfumes; you sent your envoys far off, and sent down even to Sheol. You were wearied with the length of your way, but you did not say, “It is hopeless”; you found new life for your strength, and so you were not faint.
Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not lay it to heart? Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and you do not fear me? I will declare your righteousness and your deeds, but they will not profit you. When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them all off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.” (Isaiah 57:9–13 ESV)

Depravity, Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit, Quotes/Lyrics

Dependent

“Now, when a man has learned through the commandments to recognize his helplessness and is distressed about how he might satisfy the law–being truly humbled and reduced to nothing in his own eyes–he finds in himself nothing whereby he may be justified and saved.
Here the second part of Scripture comes to our aid, namely the promises of God which declare the glory of God, saying, “If you wish to fulfill the law, come believe in Christ in whom grace, righteousness, peace, liberty, and all things are promised to you. If you believe, you shall have all things; if you do not believe, you shall lack all things.” -Martin Luther, On Christian Liberty

Growth/Pursuit

The triumphal Grace of God will set ultimately set all things right

““For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”” (Isaiah 55:12–13 ESV)

Isaiah closes chapters 40-55 with a picture of the triumphal grace of God that ultimately sets all things right.  He paints a picture of the consummation of all things – a time when joy and peace reign; a time when the curse is removed and arid, unproductive land becomes fruitful; a time of eternal peace and prosperity in the presence of God!!!