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Saturday, August 7, 2010

August 7 ... Isaiah 45 - 48 "Hate my Unholiness More Than Pain"

A couple of thoughts linger as I read today's readings. 

Isaiah 45---STIRRED BY MY CALLING OR BY MY PAIN?
 "I've singled you out, called you by name, and given you this privileged work."  Am I more stirred this day by my high calling or by the pain in my life?  Verse 11: "Do you question who or what I'm making? Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?"  Radical Repentance needed to respond to the truth of the Gospel to advance His Kingdom.

Isaiah 46:  3 - 6. GOD WILL NEVER STOP DOING ME GOD                                                        I've been carrying you on my back from the day you were born, And I'll keep on carrying you when you're old. I've done it and will keep on doing it.  So why do I act like the center of the universe is me, sometimes?

Isaiah 48 -  AM I LISTENING TO GOD WHAT IT MEANS TO "MOVE IN" TO LOVE TO THOSE DIFFICULT PEOPLE IN MY LIFE?   
You claim to be citizens of the Holy City; you act as though you lean on the God of Israel, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies. You've never been good listeners to me. You have a history of ignoring me,    I've refined you, but not without fire. I've tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction.  Come close, listen carefully:   I've always been present with you."

In 66 LL, the author writes about a friend of his who thinks God's Love is all about the spiritual highs he sometimes expreriences when he sobs over how empty he feels.  But those "Divine Encounters" with Your Love don't seem to be freeing him to better love his difficult wife.  He backs away from her so he can experience Your Love without interruption.  As I stood on the beach as daybreak, and watched the Morning Star open its corridor, there was the sprinkle of rain and the surreal experience of singing the Doxology alone on a pristine island beach. Just happened to be the next song on the Ipod.  In the midst of my pain, I could have burst open, I was so "taken" with the God of the Universe Who walked with me on the succulent sultry sparkling saturated sand!  What is most alive in me this day?  Am I more alive with other people who are "safe" and backing away from those closest to me?  Heaven forbid.  What does love look like today toward those in my life who are difficult to read and dismissive in actions toward me?  "Only those who know they are unholy, who hate their unholiness more than their pain and emptiness, experience the transforming power of My Love!"  66 LL.  That's what God is saying to me this day.  
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2 comments:

  1. twinkleAugust 7, 2010 at 6:33 AM

    Bev, what you write is so touching to me. I would join you there priaising our God in the middle of our new thing. The rain has fallen in the night. Flashing lightning and booming thunder. This morning is dawning a new day. God is convicting me to open my hand to Him. He cannot fill a fist. And all I want is His Hand.

    God is near. He is not hidden. He does things right out in the open. Cyrus, who didn't even know Him, was known by God and called by God.

    And we know Him. He calls us, too.

    God, I do not want a wood idol. Sitting on a shelf. You carry me. I have many needs today that need Your Hand. Lord, fill me and my needs with Your Power. Overshadow me until no one sees me...they see Christ. Bless my Pearls sojourning through these days. May our eyes see Spirit things and not flesh things. May our ears Hear Spirit and not flesh.
    Adam...flesh.
    Jesus...Spirit.
    Cain...flesh.
    Abel...Spirit.
    Esau...flesh.
    Jacob...Spirit.
    Jacob's Leah and children...flesh.
    Jacob's Rachel and children...Spirit

    Israel...flesh?
    The Church...Spirit?

    May flesh be put down and give Spirit dominion over me.

    In Jesus Name. Amen.

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  2. annetteAugust 7, 2010 at 9:12 AM

    Isaiah 46:5 Can you picture me without reducing me?

    Isaiah 46:12 Now listen to me: You're a hardheaded bunch and hard to help. I'm ready to help you right now. Deliverance is not a long-range plan!

    Isaiah 48:1-11 I have a lot more to tell you, things you never knew existed. This isn't a variation on the same old thing. This is new, brand-new, something you'd never guess or dream up.

    Deborah, I’m struck too, by God loving Cyrus and using him to do what He wanted to accomplish, despite Cyrus not knowing God. He is at work behind the scenes and out in the open.

    And Bev, "just happened" that your song was the Doxology as the vast beauty of the sky bursts out over the water and sand crystals sparkle. The rocks cry out…

    Something kind of amazing to me—again no coincidence but a small miracle I see of our God of order and intricate detail: Today, we are going to a party to celebrate the pastor’s 80th birthday who married us in 1980. He was 50 in 1980 and today I am 50 on his 80th birthday year.

    God is on the move in each of your hearts, Pearls.

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