Playing In The Dark Is No Fun!

“Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.” (Isa 51:4 AV)

The dark can be fun.  There is hide and seek.  One person is put in the dark while the others run and hide.  There are fun houses where scary things jump out at you.  And who hasn’t dreamt up the idea of turning the lights out while playing tag.  That used to be a favorite as a child.  My siblings and I had a few dark places in the house and we would turn the lights out while randomly running around.  It was funny when we would bump into one another and someone was falling on their rear.  It was fun until someone got hurt.  Which is always the case while having fun in the dark.  The dark may be fun for a time, but eventually, the lack of light causes great harm.

One of the scariest times of my life happened at summer camp.  I had stayed rather late in the Mess Hall after all other campers had gone to their tents.  It was pitch black outside and I forget a flashlight. Not even the light of a flickering star.   I didn’t even have any matches.  No means of artificial light of any kind. All campers had gone to bed so there were no artificial lights either.  I had to walk a quarter mile in a blackness that was so thick, I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.  I felt along the dirt road, looking for the entrance to my site.  It was so frightening.  I would have given anything for a flashlight! The dark was no fun at all!

God knows this.  So, He has provided the light of His law to guide us through life.  This light is a guide.  A guide that gives to us the greatest source of blessings we can possibly enjoy.  The law is a means in which to glorify the LORD. YES.  But more than that, the law are principles that gives us the maximum amount of enjoyment from life with the least amount of bad consequences.  I am astounded at the immature thinking of a lot of God’s people.  They raise their children with rules and principles of the home designed to keep their children safe while setting them up for success in the future.  All the while, they turn their backs on the laws of God’s word as though God is trying to rob them of life.  They use the same argument their child does.  God knows what is best.  He is the one who created us.  He wants us to enjoy the life He gave!  The law is the means by which we do this!

Plainly Speaking, God Speaks Plainly!

“Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there [am] I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.” (Isa 48:16 AV)

Plainly stated, God speaks plainly!  A good friend of mine and former pastor once told me, “God is more infinitely concerned you find His will than you are!”  His point was, when we struggle to determine what the LORD would have us to do, it is not because God is playing a game.  He is not hiding His will on us to torture us.  His will is always plainly before our faces.  It is not the LORD who hides it from us, it is our own heart.

There was this activity we used to do with our teens, years ago.  We would download stereograms.  Stereograms used to be printed in the Sunday comics.   Usually they were a half page on the back of the funnies.  Do you remember?  Hidden is this complex patter of shapes and colors was an object.  The goal of the stereogram was to see the image and in some cases, enter one’s answer for a chance at a prize.  The directions said to place the picture at the tip of your nose.  Then slowly pull the page away from one’s face until an image appears.  The page would get about six inches from your nose and like magic, an image would all of a sudden ‘pop’ out of the page.  It would be in 3D.  The more experienced one got with these stereograms, the more one didn’t have to start with the page at the tip of one’s nose.  The trick was to relax one’s eyes and focus way beyond the six inches.  As though you were looking miles away.  What one had to do is see beyond the most obvious.  The cluttered ‘noise’ of the near.  Look down the road to project what was already there.

This is also true with God’s will and truth. Our perception gets confused with so much noise that is right in front of us.  Emotions like fear and pride keep us from seeing it.  Or, like ignoring the ‘hint’ printed with the stereogram, we do not consider the truth we already know from the word of God and make the answer far more complicated than it needed to be.  The bottom line is, God desire for us to know Him, His will, and His truth.  He is not hiding it from us.  It is our perception that is making it difficult to see.

The Pleasure of Godly Values

“The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make [it] honourable.” (Isa 42:21 AV)

A father can be pleased at many things.  Especially when it concerns his children.  He can be pleased at how healthy they are.  He can be pleased with their personality.  He can be pleased with their accomplishments; their scholastic achievements, their athletic feats, or their success in career.  But there is one thing a godly father is more pleased with than anything else.  He is pleased when his children reflect the values which he has taught them all his life.  Not for ego’s sake.  But because these values are right.  As he sits around the dining room table and just listens to his adult children and their spouses speak of life, he is struck with how much they have learned and how deeply they value the truth of God’s word.  Even if dear old dad may not agree in every minor point, or he has learned himself that he can learn from his own children, righteousness is the currency of joy, pleasure, and satisfaction.

This is the meaning of the verse.  Not that God is some person of egotistical motives that wishes to be right and all others wrong.  Not that He wants, or even needs to be, proven right.  That is why He is well pleased.  He is not well pleased because, in some insignificant way, magnifies Himself at the expense of others.  He rejoices because righteousness and the law are a beautiful thing!  It is perfection!  It is blessing!  It is riches greater than material things.  The reason why righteousness above is a personal possessive is that righteousness and God are one in the same.  God and truth are the same.  Things are righteous because God is righteous.  Things are honorable because God is honorable.  Righteousness is God and God is righteousness.

Which brings us back to our example above.  When those who learn mirror the righteous values of their mentor, it validates his ministry to them.  He has accomplished something.  Even though those values do not belong to him, he is still pleased that these values will live on in one more generation!  When the righteousness of God and the law continue, God is pleased that His creation has internalized what is good and right!  What a thrill!

Grace Beyond Tomorrow for Today

“Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” (Isa 38:4-5 AV)

Have you ever stopped to think when the LORD forgives or answers prayer, He also knows where, when, and how you will fail him again in the future?  He even knows if the favor He grants in the present will be appreciated or protected in the future.  Yet, He chooses to bless anyway.

Such was the case with Hezekiah.  Hezekiah was given a death sentence.  The LORD sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah to set his house in order, for he would soon die of an illness.  Hezekiah had no heir to the throne.  That does not mean that in the short time he had left, the LORD might allow Hezekiah to father a male child.  Yes, he would have died before the child was born, but the throne would continue through his seed.  Hezekiah wanted an heir.  But he also wanted the blessing of a relationship with that heir.  So, the LORD was gracious and granted Hezekiah another 15 years of life.  Manasseh would be born two year later.  Upon his recovery, what Hezekiah did, caused more damage than his death would have caused.  The LORD granted Hezekiah his wish, but had he not, then Hezekiah would not have been the king responsible for God’s judgment.  God blessed Hezekiah and showed mercy to him, even though He knew Hezekiah would abuse this grace and squander the gift.

Which brings us to our point.  God’s grace not only considers our desperate need of the present, but also look beyond our failures of the future.  God knows that I will mess up in the future.  Perhaps even really badly.   However, He does not hold it against me in the present.  He knows, for certainty, if I will squander His grace.  Yet, He does not hold it back.  He knows whether I will appreciate His grace and gifts, or consume them with no regard to His glory.  He knows all this.  But His grace is greater than my failures.  Past, present, and specially, future!  Oh, what grace!

When Losing is Winning

“But if thou say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: [is it] not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar? Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.” (Isa 36:7-8 AV)

One thing’s for sure.  If and when revival hits, the world will never recognize it as such! In fact, the world will assume it just the opposite.  What Assyria is saying here is Hezekiah took away the God of Judah when he destroyed all the altars and groves in high places wherein the people of Judah worshiped rather than where they were supposed to – the temple at Jerusalem.  Assyria saw the cleansing of the nation as a loss of religion.  It was just the opposite.

Which brings us to a thought.  As we pray for revival, let us understand what that means.  When people pray for revival, what they are praying for is an increase.  More salvation decisions.  More baptisms.  More memberships.  Bigger buildings.  More programs.  More exciting music.  Etc.  This is not Biblical revival.  Biblical revival is a reduction.  Not an explosion.  It is a reduction of that which is hindering spiritual growth in God’s people.  It is the putting away of idols.  It is the putting away of individual standards of worship that elevates man’s emotions rather than true doctrinal based worship.  True revival is not an increase.  It is a decrease.  When true revival hits, the world will see it as a loss.  A good thing for them.  What they will not realize is when revival hits, the true power of God comes to God’s people.  The result of the revival is growth.  But growth is not revival.

If the world is happy, it just might be that God is bringing revival!  If the world sees God’s people as abandoning their religion, that would be a good thing.  If they see us as dying, then perhaps what God is really doing is purging us from our sin so that we can begin again a spiritual growth experience.  Perhaps if the world is happy in persecuting God’s people because they perceive it to be a loss for us, maybe the LORD is bringing true revival to His people!

"Never A Good Time" is the Best Time

“Blessed [are] ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth [thither] the feet of the ox and the ass.” (Isa 32:20 AV)

The context here is the restoration of Israel following their captivity, two thousand years of persecution, and eventual reclamation under the Messiah.  The message here is to continuously sow among all waters the nation might find themselves among and send forth the ox and ass to plow the fields.  The point is, those that sow in hard times will be far more blessed then those who only sow in good times.

This morning’s devotions were wonderful.  Chapter 29-32 largely deal with the reclamation of Israel following thousands of years of disobedience.  It is such a blessing to read how the LORD will come back, restore Israel, save the Gentile world, and set things up as intended from the time of the garden of Eden.  What a wonderful world it will be when Christ reigns in righteousness.  Nothing can be compared to it.  Not one time in the history of the world was righteousness the characteristic of man’s reign.  Not one time.  This will be new.  In the meantime, there is still a need to till the fields and plant the harvest.  There is still a need to work!  There is still a need to sow the seed in hope of a future harvest.

Something I have noticed about farming.  The time of sowing is often not the best time of weather.   Summer time is gorgeous.  But if the farmer waits until summer time to plant, it will be too late.  Spring time, although things are coming to life, is still gray and damp.  Muddy and wet is the condition of the fields.  Weeds have popped up during the winter time that have to be sprayed or tilled under.  Fall time is a beautiful tan color.  But it too is wet and messy.  It seems as though the LORD is teaching us that sowing a reaping is often done in the less than best circumstances.  It is cold, damp, uncomfortable, and darker days are ahead.  But sowing and reaping we must!  The harvest is the blessing of disciplined husbandry!

Grace is the Only Difference

“LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” (Isa 26:12 AV)

It is important to remember there is no moral difference between the righteous and the wicked.  That is, in our human nature.  Reading Isaiah, and books like it, one might be tempted to believe the righteous are so because they have done something to make them such.  Yet, as we see in our passage, we are righteous because God makes us so.  It is He that works in us.  It is He that produces the fruits of righteousness.  If it were not for the grace of God which shown in our hearts when we humbly repented of our wickedness, trusting in Jesus Christ to save us and change us, there would be absolutely no difference between us and the wicked.

The other day, I was watching program called Live PD.  It is a program that follows different police and sheriff departments across the country, and as the name implies, it is done so live.  I began to muse on the criminal psyche.  One stop involved a car which was idling in the parking lot of a motel which had problems with armed robbery in the past.  The young man sitting in the passenger seat was a juvenile offender.  He was on probation for armed robbery.  As the inspected the car, they found a loaded pistol under the passenger’s seat.  Right where the probie was sitting.  Along came all the sad stories of how it wasn’t his car and he just came out of his room to sit with his mother’s boyfriend.  Yada Yada.  But them my mind went to the officer.  And I tried to understand what made their psyches so different.  What would make a policeman’s thinking different than a criminal’s.  The world wants to blame it on environmental factors.  But the truth is, we are all born sinners.  Even the cop was in rebellion against God.

Which brings me to my point.  If it wasn’t for the grace of God, there would be no righteousness.  I am no different than that criminal.  In the core of who and what I am, without Christ, I am no different.  The only thing that makes me different is salvation in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  That is all!  God have mercy on us all!