Shouted....

Shouted… How do you feel about being shouted at?

I suppose it depends on the message of the shout. A shout-out ‘Hi!!’ from a friend compared to a shouted ‘Get out of my way!’ from a stranger… ?

Ever think about God shouting?


"Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back--a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what's wrong with their lives, face my family ……. with their sins! They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people-- law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' and love having me on their side. But…………” (Isaiah 58:1-2 The Message)

You drive your employees much too hard. v.3
You bicker and fight v.4
You aren’t sharing your food with the hungry,
You aren’t inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
You aren’t putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
You aren’t being available to your own families.v.7

Your hands are drenched in blood,
Your fingers dripping with guilt,
Your lips smeared with lies,
Your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.
No one speaks up for the right,
No one deals fairly.
They trust in illusion,
They tell lies..(ch.59:3,4)

You fast, (religious activity)…..but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, (religious activity)…but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting (religious activity) you do won't get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day (religious activity) I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? (Isa. 58:4-5)


God shouted thru His prophet and servant Isaiah. And we would all do well to listen as He tells us what is wrong. We would be wise to examine our hearts, our attitudes, our intentions. I’ve heard His shout, and have been faced with His questions.

What is at the core of my religious activity?

Is it based on ritual?

Or is in based on an intimate relationship?

Does my religion have any effect on anyone but me? Does it go beyond my personal growth?

Or is it just all about me after all? (…which would in fact be idolatry…the worship of ME.)

The purpose of a shout is to get attention.

He got mine.

What about you?

Suddenly...

Suddenly…. Unexpected. Ever had a ‘suddenly’ moment?

The TV program is interrupted with a news flash….

The doctor says, ‘it’s a tumor’…

The phone rings, the news is bad….

Someone nearby collapses…

He/She says ‘I want out’…

Suddenly moments. Suddenly your perspective and your world is changed.

Suddenly, security is gone. And we are faced with what was in fact true all along…there is no security. We are incapable of securing anything.



“While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly…”
(1 Thes. 5:3)

“….If he comes suddenly…do not let him find you sleeping…” (Mark 13:36)


Don’t wait until your suddenly moment to think about Him. Don’t wait until a suddenly moment to pray, to consider what He has said to us, what He has done for us.

“…. I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD…”(Jer. 29:11-14)

Rejected...

Rejected…. Well, I was warned that I would be…

“….you will be hated.” (Matt. 24:9)


“Count yourself blessed every time someone cuts you down or throws you out, every time someone smears or blackens your name …….. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and that that person is uncomfortable.” ( Luke 6:22 The Message)

Speaking God’s truth is confrontational. It shines His Light into dark corners, and none of us like to see what hides in our corners.

Yet, we are called to speak His truth and share His Message…His Good News. We are sent. "Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God's good news to one and all. (Mark 16:15 The Message)

It is difficult.

But rejection can not stop us.

It didn’t stop Jesus.


“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. He was despised, and we esteemed Him not…..He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

He was pierced for MY transgressions,
He was crushed for MY iniquities
The punishment that brought ME peace was upon Him,

…..and by His wounds I am healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5)

Worth...

Worth…. I was reminded this morning of the old hair color commercial where the woman says ‘I’m worth it!’…..

You remember the one…she’s bought this certain brand of hair color..(I guess it is more expensive than some of the others…) She’s colored her hair at home and it turned out great. (…which is not great for my job security!)

Then she declares that she’s ‘worth it’.

Just what is she worth? And who decides ? How do you measure that worth? Is it the price of the hair color? Does she decide what she’s worth? Is it measured in simple dollars and cents? (…then why is she not ‘worth’ a trip to the salon? Just wondering…)

It was a good marketing tactic. The slogan caught on and it’s still repeated when we want to justify something.

But are we worth anything? To whom? For what? And what causes us to be valued?

This could be joked about easily …I’m having to refrain from going there myself. Lots of cliché’s come to mind.

But I look seriously at myself and ask. ‘What of myself is of value’


“I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.” (Acts 20:24)


That He values me is beyond my comprehension.

And value He did…enough to leave heaven, enter the flesh of a human infant, be dismissed as an adult as unimportant, and executed on a trumped up charge in an illegal court.

All of it just to enter humanity to restore what was horribly wrong.

“Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”
(Ps. 145:3)

Strength...

Strength… Is it strong muscles? Physical power?

Is it emotional toughness? An ability to resist?

I’ve never had much physical strength, although I once thought I was pretty tough. The older I get, the more I realize my weakness, the more I come to understand the Source of any strength whatsoever. And I don’t have it.

Jesus said that His grace is all I need. He says that His power is strongest when I am weak. (2Cor. 12:9) What does that mean?

To me, it means that I can choose my own ‘strength’ or I can choose to lay that aside and trust His way. I can choose to stay away from the knowledge that He has forbidden. (..the knowledge of evil.)

I can depend on my human tendency to choose and act poorly, or I can choose to follow what He has said. Simply because He said so…

(By the way, His way sure doesn’t make sense sometimes, and is seldom what I ‘want’. It’s the enemy’s same Garden of Eden tactic…. take a ‘look’, then question God. )



“…the serpent said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'? ……..When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. " (Gen. 3:1,6)

Yes, God did really say….and if she had forgotten or not paid attention….she could have asked HIM for clarification.

Instead, she fell for the enemy’s twist on what God had said, and the tactic that encouraged her to doubt God’s motives.

Instead of simply doing what God said …simply because He had said it. Instead of trusting that He had a very good reason for His instruction.

You see, God is not mean and nasty. He doesn’t say stuff just to take the fun out of life. He has said what He has said for a single purpose. To protect me. And you.

To protect us from evil.
To protect us from choosing the knowledge of it…from experiencing it.

Once that happens, the consequences fall. And strength is not something we gain from it.

Wisdom. Yes.


We are so foolish to believe we are strong enough to dabble in what God has forbidden and come away unharmed. That is another devil’s lie.

Only God can repair, restore, redeem and produce good from our wrong choices.

Only God can clean up the mess we make and restore purity.

But He wants to.

Will you take your brokeness to Him?

Will you just trust what He says?

He is always and only ...good.

Perfect...

Perfect… Wouldn’t you love to be perfect? Have a perfect life?

What would it take for you personally? Less temper and more patience? Skinnier and prettier? Smarter? Richer? Well mannered children? Doting spouse?

Is it even feasible? Is it possible to attain?

I think not. Enough is never enough. People will always be humans who fail. There is only One Who will never fail. Only One Who provides security and sure foundation.

Jesus told this story: "The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop….
I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones…. and I'll say to myself, Self, you've done well! …. Take it easy and have the time of your life!'

But then… you die. And your barnful of goods--who gets it?'

"That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God."

Jesus continued, "Don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes …or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion.

There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.”

"Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?

"…. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things.

Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Get yourselves a bank that can't go bankrupt, …The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
(Luke 12 asst. verses from The Message)



Again Jesus speaks….“These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on….work the words into your life…

But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss." (Luke 6:47-49 The Message)

Lord Jesus, thank You for chiseling away at me….for the perfecting work of Your Spirit.

I continue to be a work in progress.

Joined....

Joined… 37 years ago, the preacher said something about ‘what God has joined together…’

Joined. Connected. Fastened together.

Yep. That would be me and my man. I can’t fathom life without the extension of my self. After that ceremony 37 years ago, we were pronounced ‘joined in holy matrimony’. We now begin the 38th year of marriage.

But that ceremony isn’t what did it. The ceremony and following physical events had little to do with it. All of those things could not and would not have joined us together as we are today. But it was the beginning…

To our culture, I became his wife on that day, because of a legal document and ceremony.

To me, I became his wife on that day because of the choice I made to trust his love and commit myself to him.

I have joined few other things in my life.

I joined a sorority, for about a month. ( I was young and ignorant. )

I joined a network of pyramid sales, for about 3 months. ( I was young and ignorant )

I joined a gym, for a year. ( I had a son who wanted to work out…and the contract called for a year or I surely would have quit sooner! )

But God didn’t join me to those things. My checkbook joined me to them for the most part.

God did join me to my husband, and He did not do it through a legal document or a physical act. Only He can do that, only He can really join..…and it’s a pity that so many people don’t include Him and experience the power and influence of His Holy Spirit in their lives.

God has also joined me to Himself and to His children.

“There is one body and one Spirit………one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph. 4:4-6)


If you wear the Name of Jesus the Christ, our Father has joined me to you, together with our Savior, in His One Body. Not by some ceremony, not by some legal document, not by the power of some state….

But by the power of the cross.

“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity ………… in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross.”(Eph. 2:15-16)