Isaiah the oracle says: Vs. 4 "Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people."
Isaiah asks only that he be allowed to grieve for what he sees as the coming death of his people being brought by the hand of God. God is asking for obedience and all he is getting is joyful disrespect. "Let's eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." His chosen people are looking only at the now, and seem to have no respect for God and the life He has given them.
The Old Testament lessons are hard to accept coming from the loving God we know through His Son. We look around today at the world we live in and can see the work God needs us to do, yet find it hard to get away from the reality of our daily struggles. We all need to satisfy the demand on our time of our families, our friends and our employers. Our culture stresses that we need to provide for ourselves and our families, money makes the world go round they say. Are we seeing some of what Isaiah saw in his people today in the callus actions of others around us?
Maybe we should simply paying attention and recognize what God really needs us to do; He has a way of placing his work right in front of us, on a daily basis, never making it more than we can handle. All we need to do is love boldly and take action, which is can be easy to say and hard to do.
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Love boldly and take action. I like that.
ReplyDeleteHere's the verse that stopped me in my tracks:
"You looked and looked and looked, but you never looked to him who gave you this city, never once consulted the One who has long had plans for this city."
Through the hands of Laura's great, great, great grandfather and many other quarry workers who were on strike, God's work on the church on the rock began. We were blessed with a sacred space to worship and connect with God.
Let's look to him who gave us this church, placed us in this city. Let's consult the One who has long had plans for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future filled with promise.
Jordan, thanks for the heads up about cantata rehearsal. We will now be crafting Faith's purpose statement on May 8th and our guiding principles on May 22nd. Please pray not only for Barbara's health, but also that God would speak to us, that he would provide us with a strategy direction, one that is all his in the making.
I have to say that loving boldly and taking action really stands out to me too. We are so blessed to have our beautiful church to worship in and with that blessing comes the opportunity to serve!
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