And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive... The Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.'" The holy seed is its stump.
Isaiah 6:8-9,12-13
After encountering the brilliant magnificence, and pure holiness of the living God, Isaiah responds to God's presence with honest repentance and heartfelt confession. The result? The lips of Isaiah were touched with a burning coal from off the alter, the seraphim exclaiming, "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for (Isaiah 6:7)". This is always the result of getting into the presence of the living God. His brilliance always does two things: First, it's brightness causes our hearts to break, for it reveals perfectly who we are. The result is our hearts repenting, and our mouths confessing before the Lord. Second, it also has the effect of drawing us in at the same time. It's like walking out of a dark movie theater in the late afternoon after seeing a film. As the light hits your eyes, you flinch because it is so much brighter then the environment you were in, while at the same time you turn your face toward the warmth of the sun because it feels good on your skin. After the initial shock of God's brightness, and our initial response of confession, the warmth of God's forgiveness draws us in closer to Him. When this reality is happening in the life of a true believer, there are three things that always result. The above passage illustrates the result of spending time in the presence of God.
First, our needs take a back seat to God's needs. Isaiah, hearing the Lord say, "Who shall we send," immediately responds with his availability for God's purposes. You see, when we have an encounter with the Lord, it produces in us an availability for His purposes. How does that happen? That happens when God is more real to us then our perceived needs. The second thing that God works in us is dependability. God essentially tells Isaiah to preach a message that the people will not respond to. In fact, the message will only, "Dull their hearts (V.10)". For Isaiah, the time spent in God's presence produces a dependability in the face of circumstances that are less then what Isaiah would define as successful. Isaiah's needs no longer mattered. There would be no individual fulfillment for Isaiah. He was dependable because God is what fulfilled him, not how many people listened to him, affirmed him, or complimented him. Is your fulfillment in life defined by how people receive you? Perceive you? Is your fulfillment and dependability in your walk with Jesus Christ dependent upon your own ideas of success or comfort? Those who truly spend time in God's presence are motivated by one thing: Pleasing the One who loved them so much He died in their place. Lastly, an encounter with God produces in us expectancy. Even though the stump (Israel) is burned, and even cut down (V.13), there is a holy seed in it's stump. Isaiah had a heart of expectancy. He trusted that God would bring about salvation. There was indeed a holy seed in the stump. The seed is the person of Jesus Christ that would come from a burned out, cut down nation that had been lost to idolatry. Isaiah expected God to come through.
I pray we would be those that spend time in the brilliance of God's presence, so that we can see who we really are inside. That by seeing who God is and who we are, we can repent and confess our sin. Let us then stay boldly in the warmth of God's grace and love, and respond with availability, dependability, and expectancy for God to continue to work, to move, and to accomplish His purposes for the praise of His glorious name!
Blessings!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
What is God Interested In?
...Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. "Come now, let us reason together says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." Isaiah 1:15d-18
There are a multitude of motivations within the human heart that seeks to approach God according to its own terms. God, in speaking through Isaiah, is speaking to a group of people not unlike us today. On the outside they looked good, were doing well, and had it together. They approached their relationship with God based on their outward appearance, and outward religious practices. The problem was, that God was never interested in their outward appearance, physical affluence, or religious practice. What God was interested in was their inward obedience and devotion to Him. You see, in the midst of all their outward doings, God saw something else. He saw hands that were dripping with blood. So what is it that God is truly interested in? God is interested in a heart that repents of it's attempt to approach God on its own terms. God is interested in a heart that approaches Him according to His terms. God says to you and me, "Come now, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." In other words, we come, with bloody hands stained with sin, with no ability in and of ourselves to wash it from our lives. But God, in his goodness and mercy, simply asks us to come with a repentant heart, and allow the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from the sin that so easily besets us. This is all that God is interested in. That we return to Him, and His word, which are the words of eternal life. He desires us to lay down our religious pretenses, and hold onto Him. Paul says that our sufficiency is found in Christ, and Christ alone. No amount of religious practice, or outward works can ever be sufficient. This is good news! Christ is your sufficiency! Turn to Him, rejoice in Him, listen to Him, walk in Him, and allow Him to change your motivation to do good things for Him from the inside out!
Blessings.
There are a multitude of motivations within the human heart that seeks to approach God according to its own terms. God, in speaking through Isaiah, is speaking to a group of people not unlike us today. On the outside they looked good, were doing well, and had it together. They approached their relationship with God based on their outward appearance, and outward religious practices. The problem was, that God was never interested in their outward appearance, physical affluence, or religious practice. What God was interested in was their inward obedience and devotion to Him. You see, in the midst of all their outward doings, God saw something else. He saw hands that were dripping with blood. So what is it that God is truly interested in? God is interested in a heart that repents of it's attempt to approach God on its own terms. God is interested in a heart that approaches Him according to His terms. God says to you and me, "Come now, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." In other words, we come, with bloody hands stained with sin, with no ability in and of ourselves to wash it from our lives. But God, in his goodness and mercy, simply asks us to come with a repentant heart, and allow the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from the sin that so easily besets us. This is all that God is interested in. That we return to Him, and His word, which are the words of eternal life. He desires us to lay down our religious pretenses, and hold onto Him. Paul says that our sufficiency is found in Christ, and Christ alone. No amount of religious practice, or outward works can ever be sufficient. This is good news! Christ is your sufficiency! Turn to Him, rejoice in Him, listen to Him, walk in Him, and allow Him to change your motivation to do good things for Him from the inside out!
Blessings.
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