March 24, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way and they seek their own gain. ‘Come,’ each one cries, ‘let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.’” (Isaiah 56.11-12)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

The delusion of “sin” is the lie that tomorrow will be like today or even better. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that all believers in Christ Jesus hold on to the hope of a better tomorrow. Our tomorrow, however, is in Christ alone our cornerstone. He is the solid rock of faith upon which we stand and build. Placing our faith in Him brings us to the salvation of our souls which nothing in this world can provide or guarantee. In that culture and climate of salvation, we are living in the already and not yet. That already and not yet speaks to us of “the Kingdom of God” manifesting itself on earth as it is manifested in Heaven. There is always a tomorrow as long as we are on earth. As mighty ones of God, we are living for that one last tomorrow which will become an eternal day with the Lord. By contrast, those who are not living by faith with hope in love of God are heading toward on last tomorrow which will become an eternity without God. Eternity with God is filled with the full fruit of the Spirit. Eternity without God is filled with torment and the knowledge that the hungering and thirsting will never end. In the story of “Lazarus and the Rich Man,” we hear this descriptor loud and clear. The Rich Man has died and finds himself consciously aware of his hunger and thirst. He also is aware that there is no resource where he is that can satisfy it. In fact, it would seem that there is nothing there that is available to attempt to satisfy it. It would seem to be a place of nothing but hungering and thirsting that never will go away. This is the legacy of spiritual death. The question may be phrased in this way: “Which tomorrow do we want to live in forever?”

Now the illusion of “sin” can be better understood and the folly of such an illusion. It is played out every day. The heart, mind, body and soul of a person seeks to quiet the hunger and thirst. It is ultimately a spiritual issue and thereby a spiritual battle. Sin masks the truth that this hungering and thirsting is a spiritual issue and battle. Sin desires to create the illusion it is all about the flesh. The hope is to separate the flesh from the spirit with the intent of promoting the flesh and setting aside the spirit. Here is the real issue of truth: without the Spirit we are nothing. This has been the truth from before the beginning. It existed by definition in Genesis 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth out of the nothing.” How did God do it? He infused His Holy Spirit into the chaos. The very nature of the Spirit, which is order and truth, began to align the resources following God’s very design. Go ahead and continue reading Genesis from and you will quickly find “…and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep.” God directed the Spirit, the Spirit obeyed and conveyed the instruction of God and what happens next is “history.” It is our history. It is an impossible history without the Spirit of God. But sin would have people believe this is not the case and not the truth. What sin can never deny is the Spirit as it is unavoidably the essence of truth. Look to the Gospel of John and reread the “creation story” according to the gospel. Another word for gospel is “truth.” The word “gospel” is a generic term. There are many “gospels.” Ultimately there is only one gospel and one truth. That gospel is the “Gospel of Jesus Christ.” According to John, the beloved disciple, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God because the Word was God. The Word was with God from the beginning. Through Him, the Word, all things were made that have been made.” Take away “the Spirit” and what is left? The answer now is simple: nothing is left.

That is all there would be if there was no “Spirit.” It would be returned to darkness, void, deep, chaos and clutter. The Spirit would yearn to put things right. It would cry out to God to be released to do its work. This is the angst which God must deal with. There will be a day when the illusion will be so complete in people that they will no longer hear the desire of the Spirit asking for permission to make things right. They will live in a day convinced that the flesh is all that is needed. They will not be able to surrender the desires of the flesh because to do so would leave them with nothing. It will also mean they will have no hope because they are so convinced that without the flesh they would be nothing. In the midst of the pain, suffering and insatiable belief that there is an answer which they can create “tomorrow will be as good as today and quite possibly better.” How can that be if there is no true Spirit, true Word and Christ alone? On the cross, Jesus surrendered His flesh for our flesh, His blood for our blood and His Spirit for our Spirit. Jesus surrendered it all into the very hands of God. He did not surrender to the ways and wiles of humankind. They were devoid of the the Spirit of God because the Truth no longer lived in them. The Truth opposed them as much as they opposed the Truth. So opposed to the Truth were they that the “Spirit of the Law [and the Prophets]” was not within their grasp. They held on to “their” belief so much that there was no room for the Spirit. They actually believed that if they eliminated “the Son of God,” their tomorrow would be better. Sin had made them “perverse dogs” and “blind shepherds.” They might have well said, in contradiction to scripture, “If God is not for us, then we must fend for ourselves.” God reveals the folly of such belief in The Book of Revelation. Eventually the battle is recognized as lost. The last bastion of hope for them which is Satan will surrender in defeat and put in his, and their, rightful place: chaotic darkness where no resource for light and life can ever exist. Mighty ones of God, this is the battle for truth which we are commissioned to fight. We must fight it until our very last breath surrenders our all as did Jesus into the very hands of God who alone has created resurrection as our hope and stay.

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.