March 17, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“This is what the LORD says:

‘Maintain justice and do what is right, for My salvation is coming soon and My righteousness will be revealed. Blessed is the one who does this, and the generation that follows who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it and keeps their hand from doing any evil.’” (Isaiah 56.1-2)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

It is said that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking because doing the right thing at any time is the right thing to do because you never know when someone may be looking. The pivot point in integrity for Christ followers and God fearers is the witness that is borne knowing that God is watching at all times. He is our highest and truest accountability partner. The day is coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus has indeed been made Lord of all. I sometimes wonder how the gospel writers knew what Jesus did in secret. For example, how the snoozing disciples hear the prayer between Jesus and His Heavenly Father in the Garden as Judas of Kerioth was leading the arresting officers to the place where He could be found. It is like the proverbial “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” We know, of course, there was a sound made. We may not know what sound it was as it crashed through the limbs and branches of surrounding trees. We may not know what sound it was as it plummeted from its height to the ground below. We may not know what sound it made as it roots were leveraged out of the ground. We may not know what sound was made as nesting wildlife was suddenly displaced. What we do know from experience is that a sound was made. We can check through our mental catalogue of sounds and with eyes to see and ears to hear capture the scenarios which may have occurred. We may hear them so definitively in our memory that they become nearly real in our moment of remembering as if we were there. We would swear to it, almost, with such conviction that the story itself would seem to be true. And so it must have been for the disciples as they remembered, reviewed and rehearsed the words and deeds of Jesus. As they considered what He did in public and in the privacy of their fellowship, so He must have done in secret. We are able to do this because we know that Jesus had integrity. Even while no “one” may have been privy to those secret moments, Jesus lived before God who was with Him at all times. God was with Him at all times, even in the moment when Jesus cried out on the cross under the weight of the sins of the world, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” And how do we know this? Because we have the testimony of those before us, such as David, who testified that there was no place where God is not and no time when God is not at work for our good. Even in the darkest moments of Jesus’ life and death, God was with Him. Even in ours, God is with us. He is with us in Jesus Christ, who came to earth to bear the flesh of humankind and to experience that fullness of life in its highs, lows and in betweens. We can hear His words and listen to His thoughts. Though His ways and thoughts are higher than ours that does not mean they are unavailable to us.

Most of us remember the “WWJD” movement with its t-shirts, hats and jewelry. Reminders for many of the accountability presented to us by the gospel and the commissioning believers in Christ are under to present the truth of Christ to the world. It hearkens to the integrity of scripture and the vitality of believing that the word of God is inspired and good for our instruction, leading and guiding us in the paths of righteousness. The call to remember and consider the gospel truth as well as the challenge of the “new testament,” may need the prompting of tokens such as were present in the WWJD season or it may simply submit to the prompting of the Holy Spirit which Christ prayed for God to give to us. The seeds of truth have been planted in us regardless of the soils of our heart, mind and soul (consider the Parable of the Soils which Jesus taught with to remind the listeners of the power of the Word of God to bear fruit.) We, in turn, are called to plant the seeds of truth in the lives of others so that when the time comes and “no one” is around “someone” is always around. Just because we may feel alone does not mean there is no sound of the Word of God to be heard. The same was true for Isaiah. He believed that he could not speak a word to the people for their redemption because he was no better than them. He called himself “a man of unclean lips dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” It was a powerful conviction by which he was powerfully convicted with the grace of God. Now months and years later, God was still speaking to him and through him for the good of the people. God was speaking not only for the exiles, both foreign and domestic, but to all those who because of sin were exiles themselves regardless of race, creed, gender and sitz im leben. The moment of justification to believe in God and God alone was coming. His Kingdom would be established on earth as it was in Heaven. God was working all things together for the good of His “people.” His “people” were those who inclined their ear, believed in the word and acted upon it by faith. They decide to maintain justice and do what is right not according to the ways and wiles of the world but according to the ways and thoughts of God. It is the same call and commission for all of us to hear, listen and obey today.

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.