November 11, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“’Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken [and this is what He has said]’: I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know; [yes] My people do not understand.‘” (Isaiah 1.2-3)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Have you ever been at that point in life when everything just seems to run together? There was that day when you were very young with an entire Crayola Crayon box at your disposal. What did you do? The likelihood was you picked out some of the brightest colors and began to scribble on a piece of paper. Maybe you had a page from a coloring book and you enjoyed green sky, blue trees and purple grass. Strange how we saw the world when we were younger. Then, in an exercise of opportunity and curiosity, one color was added to another. Before long there was a vortex of colors filling the page ever swirling into, what appeared to some, a muddled mess. You held the page up for someone who cared to see and declared “Pretty!” That someone affirmed your declaration and posted it on the door of the refrigerator for all too see. It quite possibly was the Thanksgiving viewing centerpiece. What did the apostle Paul say “When I was a child, I thought as a child, I acted like a child, I spoke as a child; then I came to a point where I wasn’t a child any longer. Childish things didn’t work well any longer. So I had to give up childish ways and consider what it meant to be grown up.” (1 Corinthians 13.11)? Do you still feel like that sometimes, except you don’t post it on the refrigerator? You may post it on Facebook or Instagram but never the refrigerator because you are a child anymore. You get the idea, right? When we just let everything run together in our lives, we not only look like a mess, but we are a mess. We seem to have lost our understanding of who and what we are.

I will admit the image that caused me to think about this came several days back. I took a picture of it but I didn’t really think much more about it than how sad it was. Then I read Isaiah 1.2-3 (printed above which I reflected upon yesterday), and I couldn’t ignore it. Driving home from work, I saw a Jeep spare tire cover that was fully illustrated. I depicted “Happy Hallowthankmas” with images you would see from those of the Day of the Dead images. It muddled all three holidays traditionally celebrated in this country into one picture of death “coming to life.” We have, or are becoming rapidly, a nation that celebrates death with a moment of life in it. That life seems to be fleeting at best and our attention is drawn to the images of death which surround it. To say the least, it is a very “dark” presentation. We see it every day, don’t we? There are the tragedies of natural disasters, the horrors of war, the indecency of pornography, the ravages of diseases, the desperation of poverty, the angst of hatred, the brutality of prejudice and the pits of despair. But that is not all of the picture, is it? There is the illusion of power, the fool’s gold of fame, the promotion of self-righteousness, the banner of success and the tagging of false wisdom. There are other expressions in the box which can be added to the montage. I want to believe you get the picture. I would also want to believe you would want to trash that picture. Take it off the refrigerator. Take it down from your social media. Discard it with the weeds in your life and allow it to be consumed by the fire of God’s love which reduces the wrong to ashes and the right to gold. Remember, all that glitters is not gold.

So now you have a different way of looking at what was being told to Isaiah from the very beginning of prophetic and evangelistic ministry. Maybe seeing it in more modern terms, this “lack of understanding” may be seen with more understanding. In it, we may be able to see the disaster which was waiting just around their corner and ours. The only hope for survival was not survival at all. Too many people “survive” life but their scars only speak of the outwardness of their experience and the false image of hope and healing they present. We are called as mighty ones of God to be more than conquerors, survivors. (see Romans 8.31-39) If we are to be more than conquerors and survivors, then what shall we be? It may sound counterintuitive, but we are first supposed to be conquered and challenged. Weightlifters know this truth: in order to build up muscle, it must be broken down. How sad that in the beginning, we were created just as we were meant to be. Growing up with a focus solely on God would produce a harvest life that would be soul-ly of God. I, too, still wrestle with “Did God allow the serpent in the Garden in order to break us down to be stronger in the world so that we would not be of the world? If we see ourselves as only a part of creation, then we do lose sight of the crowning glory of creation we were truly meant to be? Are we not supposed to find ourselves in Christ to be like Christ in whose image we were first made? Isn’t this what God wanted us to be the whole time? Isn’t it His desire and shouldn’t it be ours? Imagine to live in the world as Christ did. Even death, hatred and doubt could not contain Him nor control Him. He was and is and will always be more than a conqueror and survivor. Yes, He conquered death but with life. His life was faith and faithfulness to the Word of God. Yes, He survived His tenure in the graves and the severity of crucifixion. Again, His survival included His passage through death by putting His whole faith in God. You remember “this God,” right? He is the God of creation who made the beauty of life out of the ugliness and muddledness of chaos where all the colors swirled together and drew the light of our eye to it. Swirling in the vortex of meaninglessness, our attention is drawn until it is just a part of the whole problem. That was the picture until “there was God” in the midst of it. He was, is and will always be more than a conqueror (though He will conquer) and a survivor (though He lives on.) What is He? Does “God” even meet the measure of describing who “He” is? And what then of us? What describes and colors us as “more than conquered and conquerors” and “more than surviving and survivors”? I believe Jesus Christ does best. So let’s take this Isaiah journey into becoming more than conquerors and give thanks to God for the validity and veracity of His creation.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.