February 17, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced. Therefore I have set My face like flint. I know that I will not be put to shame. The One who vindicates Me is near. Who will dare to contend with Me? Let us confront each other! Who has a case against Me? Let him approach Me! Surely the Lord GOD helps Me. Who is there to condemn Me? See, they will all wear out like a garment; the moths will devour them.” (Isaiah 50.7-9)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

From yesterday’s reflection: Let me invite you to consider this as I am praying and studying on it myself. In mentioning previously the covering of Adam and Eve with the lambskins so they would not be ashamed of their nakedness being from the lambs slain so that their sins would be forgiven by the “blood of the Lamb,” can we not also then believe that we, too, are covered? We may not bear the “Lamb’s skin,” that Lamb being Jesus. But, we do bear His likeness from the beginning of creation and are called to grow into His full measure and stature in body, mind and spirit. We are putting on the eternal so that we will not perish by death but be raised with Him after death having put on the imperishable as was Paul’s prelude to introducing the early hymn (1 Corinthians 15.53). This is no accident, mighty ones of God. This is the truth to which we are being led in the Spirit to know for ourselves. Those of the world will perish. They will not survive. They will have their day and then their day will come to an end. We, too, will have our day but it shall never end as long as we “keep the faith” and practice the covering of righteousness for God’s glory and the welfare of those around us. This is our discipleship as we follow the commands of Christ Jesus which He taught to His disciples and they through the generations which now come to us and through us to future generations until His glorious return. On that Day, the captives will be fully liberated and the people of God will be reconciled, reunited and restored. Let us live toward that Day believing today in the harmony of the gospel, the Law and the Prophets and our calling to be followers of Christ!

Follow-up for today: Sometimes, we may feel that we are not as unique and special as God knows we are. We may feel ordinary not extraordinary in terms of the world. I have always suggested that worldly extraordinary is God ‘s ordinary, His usual, His expected, His bottom line normal. If we are those who walk by faith and not by sight, then we are those who bring to light the kingdom of righteousness for His name’s sake. Wouldn’t that mean that if we are seeking to fulfill the mandate given into our lives before we were born (being fearfully and wonderfully made), then we are worldly extraordinary? What people would see in us, because of us and through us is the God of our salvation and the means of living into that blessed gift which mercy and grace provide. In the words of John the Baptizer when asked about Jesus of Nazareth being the Christ, he confirmed (John 3.30) “My time is now complete. I must decrease so that He can increase. [or…I must diminish so that He may flourish.]” What we do in our own ministry is take on the role of John the Baptizer announcing the coming of the Lord into the world. Yet, there is more that we do than John would be able to do. John saw Jesus as He was “in the beginning” of His ministry in the season of His baptism, the blessing of His ministry by the anointing of the Holy Spirit and by the calling of His disciples who would follow Him which included some of John’s own disciples as well. What John would not see was the arrest and trial of Jesus which led to His own death. In this Jesus and John were similar not simply because they were cousins but because they were brothers of the faith. On that side of the cross, John and Jesus walked paths of righteousness for the sake of God’s name. John dressed in camel skin eating locusts and wild honey. It may well have been his attire until Herod removed his head to appease the lust of others. This was his covering. It represented his commitment to serve God and how God had covered him with mercy and grace to accomplish His will to preach the coming of the good news.

I want to return to that covering. John’s introduction of Jesus was “Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.” In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were covered with lamb skins from the lamb or lambs which were sacrificed to show God’s forgiveness but not His forgottenness. God still remembered their sin. They would remember their sin as well as they “toiled in the soil” (Adam) and “experienced the pain of childbirth” (Eve). It was the consequence of living “ordinary” lives in the world. They, however, had the opportunity to live extraordinary lives in the world by maintaining that sense of “kingdom” ordinary while living in the world. It would be their opportunity to maintain their relationship with God. The difference between “in the Garden” and “out of the Garden” was they would have to be intentional in their focus to do so. It was their duty to raise up future generations to know the difference between “good and evil” as they possessed such knowledge having “eaten of the forbidden fruit” and experienced firsthand the consequence of doing so.

Mighty ones of God, we are born into that world ourselves. We, however, are born twofold into today’s world. We are firstborn into the world of sin. We are covered, or supposed to be covered, with the lambskin of God’s mercy and grace so that we would know we are sinners, but sinners forgiven and called to walk and work in the world announcing the good news that God is love. This is like the role which John the Baptizer portrayed in the desert and in captivity for doing the very thing he was called to do. He was a prisoner of his own choosing to follow the will of God for his life. Yet, this is not our only “birth.” Because of Jesus Christ we can be “born again.” As we learned from the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus, we are born again in Spirit and in truth. We will not enter our mother’s womb a second time. No, we will enter the “womb of the tomb” and by faith be brought forth in a sense of resurrection. Having died to our sins, we are born again. We are not covered with the lambskins but the blood of the Lamb who was slain. Our duty is to be those who proclaim the truth of what it takes to live with God still in the world beyond the Garden “innocence.” We will not survive it if we do not die to self and live for Him. This is where we differ from John the Baptizer. We are covered, anointed inwardly and outwardly, with the Holy Spirit. We are made to be worldly extraordinary by becoming Kingdom ordinary. We are covered by Christ who dwells in us in our heart, mind, body and soul. This is who we strive to become if we are fully committed to “walk by faith and not by sight.” This is the reality which was revealed to Isaiah which would make such an impact on the world that they would surrender the captives and bring them home to God. They would not merely allow them to go. They would bring them to God and give glory to Him for the wonder of His mercy and grace which are the gifts of God’s great love.

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

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.