I am the Lord; No One is like Me

Our lecture at Bible study today was awesome. I'm not sure that I can accurately explain all that the Lord impressed upon my heart, but here it goes. Father, I pray you use these words to make clear to any reading hearts Your Truth. You see them where they are, you know their needs, and you can use these truths to teach, challenge, and encourage them. Have Your way.

Isaiah is constantly speaking out against false prophets and false idols of his day. Perhaps as in no time since then, we are now living in a society that has returned to Babylonian religion. More people than ever are visiting fortune tellers, palm readers, tarot card readers, horoscopes, angel readers....you name it, people will pay to hear "prophecy" of where their life is headed. However, God's point in much of chapters 42-45 of Isaiah is that the idols of the people have made no prophecies that have actually come true; in contrast, every word God has spoken has thus far come to pass. So:

Fortune tellers predict what will happen. God promises what will happen.

"You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed." Deuteronomy 18:21-22

This message is so applicable to our world. Wow.

Now, in the particular passage we read this last week, God calls Cyrus, King of Persia, to be the contemporary savior of His people from their captivity in Babylon......only he calls this king by name 150 years before he was born!

"This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I take hold of...
For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me." Isaiah 45:1,4

As they say up here in Canada, "Cool, eh?" This calling of Cyrus was a hard pill for the Israelites to swallow. They were looking for a savior much like Moses, the prince-turned-shepherd. Yet here was God, telling them they would be saved by a Gentile, pagan king! The lecturer's point here was that we must let God work through unexpected people in our lives. Don't assume you know either his ways or his vessels as you walk through trials and struggles.

The last real point of this section of scripture dealt with the concept of questioning God. We've all been there at one time or another...why did this happen? What are you doing, God? What's going on?! The people in Isaiah's time were not questioning God out of a spirit of need, desire for his will, or even simply a desire for understanding? They were "quarreling" with their Maker; the hebrew word for quarrel here indicates rage-filled, accusatory questioning. Ultimately, we are welcomed to be open with our Heavenly Father. We are welcome to bring our questions and our needs before him. However, we are not to question his character. We can, though, question his purpose; these questions actually indicate our faith when we ask, believing that we serve a God who is capable of answering!

Regardless of whom you depend on and spend your time on in this world, even with good purpose: serving your husband, teaching your children, getting to know a boyfriend or girlfriend....our lecturer said: "The greatest children, husbands, and boyfriends still make very poor gods." Serve and honor the One and Only, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He will take your hand and guide you until at last you arrive at his throne in the eternal Kingdom. Praise be to our God!

Laundry

I am thoroughly enjoying being a stay-at-home wife. For two years, I have loved Rob from a distance, longing to serve and help him and being so completely unable to do so. Now, at last, I share his home, and I can use my time, energy, and skills to make his life easier.

One thing I've never been super great at is laundry. By not super great, I don't mean that I can't do laundry. Mostly, it's always been an issue of remembering that it's in the machine. You know, you remember six hours later that you started a load. Well, I now have a husband, meaning we now generate twice as much laundry as I used to alone. I have done quite a bit of laundry just in the week and a half I've been here. I have learned two things.

1) My forgetfulness can be wholly contributed to the machines I've always used. We now have front loaders that literally sing a victory song when your load is done, effectively helping me to remember that I need to go switch it out! I think this is about as great as pumpkin pie...it's the little things in life.

2) One slight incident with some white T-shirts (Rob's wardrobe staple) and a pair of yellow underwear (*sigh*) started me thinking about the verse in Isaiah that talks about our being as filthy rags:

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags... (64:6a)

Long story short, I "took out a whole fleet" of Rob's white shirts. Yes, those were his words :D. We bleached them, and some/most of the bright yellow stains came out. As I was folding the load, I laid one shirt to the side. I glanced back at it and realized that, laying there alone, it looked fine. Not brilliantly white by any means, but sufficiently clean. However, I laid one of his brand new shirts down next to it and I realized just how dingy, dirty, and ready for the rag pile this shirt was.

Our lives can be like this. If we ignore the standards of Christ and choose to live on our own, we can often make a fairly good go of it. We get the "good person" syndrome. In the eyes of ourselves and the world, we're doin' alright.

But the moment we set ourselves up next to Christ, we "become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags". In the brilliant radiance of His holiness and purity, we realize how dirty and unholy we are. Yet there is hope! Isaiah 1:18 declares God's promise for those who allow Him to cleanse them of sin:

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Amen! Thank you, Father, for your overwhelming mercy to us who sin against you! Jesus, your sacrifice allows us to stand in the presence of the Almighty, washed as white as snow. Thank you! Spirit, teach us more each day and open our eyes to areas of sin that we have not surrendered to Your cleansing flood. Thank you, God!!
Amen.

May the deaf ears hear

I love thickly sliced, buttered, cinnamon-raisin toast. That has nothing to do with what else I have to say here, but I wanted to let you know.

In other news, I had an interesting experience at the grocery store yesterday that the Lord used to open my eyes. I love it when He does that! May I take His lesson to heart, apply it to my life, and walk in ever closer communion with Him!

I was wandering my new grocery store, looking for all the things on my list. I wasn't there to buy, just to price--things are quite a bit more expensive here, it would seem. As I made my way along the back wall of the store, the theft alarm at the front door started going off. Now they must be serious about shoplifting in Canada....this was no piddly alarm. The thing sounded a bit reminiscent of a fog horn on steroids. As it droned on, I was at first a little put out that it was disrupting my nice, quiet, solitary trip down the aisles. Up one, down the next, jot on the list, repeat. Easy. Comfortable. Familiar.

It wasn't 2 minutes later that I looked up from my list, startled to realize that, yes, the fog horn still echoed through the tiled, high-ceilinged room.....but I had totally blocked it out as I went about my business. How quickly I adapted and began to ignore that which I did not want to hear!

All too often, I do this with the Lord. He sends me a wake up call, sometimes through a verse or chapter, sometimes through a friend or a gentle rebuke from my husband. I am perturbed at the disruption to my normalcy, so I listen for a short second, grumble a bit, then move on with life, effectively ignoring that still, small voice echoing repetitiously in my spirit.

As I recognized this situation standing there amongst the shredded, block, and sliced cheeses, God showed me a bit more...a few minutes later, as I made my way up toward the canned peas, I was struck by the silence emanating from the alarm. I had been totally unaware of the moment of its end. I thought, God, please don't ever allow my heart to become so callous that I am unaware of the moment I can no longer hear your voice.

In our study of Isaiah, we just finished chapters 42-44. In these chapters, God the Creator and King is speaking of both Israel, his servant nation, and Jesus, his Servant King. Israel is once again rebuked for their blindness and deafness, their unfaithfulness to their faithful God.

^42:18 “Hear, you deaf;
look, you blind, and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant,
and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
blind like the servant of the LORD?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
your ears are open, but you do not listen.”

It is so easy to become this way, blinded by laziness, selfishness, callousness. We constantly forget the Lord in our day-to-day operations, "going through the motions" as Matthew West so aptly sings. Yet, there is hope!

^43:1 But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
³ For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.
⁴ Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.
⁵ Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
⁶ I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
⁷ everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”

^44:22 I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you.”
²³ Sing for joy, you heavens, for the LORD has done this;
shout aloud, you earth beneath.
Burst into song, you mountains,
you forests and all your trees,
for the LORD has redeemed Jacob,
he displays his glory in Israel.

Amen! Father, thank You for Your redeeming love for a people so in need of redemption! We cannot survive a moment without You, who gives us breath. Open our blinded eyes to see our idols in order that we might tear them down and give You Your rightful place in our hearts. You are sovereign, holy, altogether righteous! To You be all glory, honor, majesty, and praise!
Thank You, Jesus.
Thank You, Spirit.
Thank You, Father.
Amen.