Month: April 2012

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 5:1-13, 18-23 (day five)  “I will sing . . . a song about HIS vineyard” (vs 1)  Many of you have heard by now that Stephen Carrell is resigning from First Baptist Church to take a similar position with a church in Dallas. (Park Cities Baptist)  When I heard this news on Tuesday, my emotions were “all over the map”.  Disappointed.  Afraid.  Angry.  Hopeful.  Calm.  Deciding which feeling to follow was confusing.  I found solid footing late the next day (it was a process of prayer) when I began to ask this question, “What does God deserve in this moment?”  Not “what do I want?”  (or anyone else for that matter)   What do I owe Him?  What attitude of heart  will please Him and proclaim His Kingdom?  It is an Isaiah question.  We are God’s vineyard.  He expects and deserves to receive certain things from us.  Right feelings and right fruit.  I am praying for you today.  See you Sunday.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 5:1-13, 18-23 (day four)  “I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard” (vs 1)  One of the most obvious things about faith is that it sings.  It sings for the love of God.  It is nearly impossible for passionate love not to be expressed in song or verse.  Fall in love and some song on your radio/ipod will get you singing along.  For 150 years (and almost 150 ways) people at First Baptist Church have been singing TO the Lord, FOR the Lord.  It is part of who we are and always will be.  I got an email yesterday from a friend who is “re searching”the place of faith in his life.  He writes, “one of my most vivid memories from childhood is the hymn Just As I Am. . .as long as I have my mind, this song will be firmly lodged therein”  It is the same with all of us.  When we believe we sing.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 5:1-13, 18-23 (day three)  “I looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”  (vs 7)  I hate feeling disappointed.  I have several strategies for avoiding it.  I think God hates it too.  He hates looking at us (His people) expecting to find a just and socially conscious society where poor people are coached and cared for, only to find the bloodshed of gang/drug violence and tears of distress from people who are trapped and lost.  It is disappointing!  Especially when He has intentionally and richly blessed some so that they (we) will become agents of salvation, channels of blessing.  Even allowing for His patience, God’s disappointment will eventually lead to destruction.  He will not give up on the dream of a restored earth/ fair society!  Even if it means removing His protection so that our opportunity can come to an end.  Then, He can give the job to people who will not disappoint Him.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 5:1-13, 18-23 (day two)  “He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit”  (vs 2)  Everyone produces something.  Actually, no one is unfruitful.  Good or bad, all of us contribute something to history and the emotional/spiritual environment on this planet.  Sometimes the by-product of our life is criticism or strife.  Sometimes it is love and justice.  The Lord watches what we produce.  He has invested much in us.  He stays involved.  The Bible says that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. . .”  People not producing this fruit are not Spirit filled.  Flesh has different outcomes.  (see Galatians 5:19-22)  Isaiah and Paul agree on this.  Everyone produces something and what our lives produce indicates our relationship to God.  We should not be deceived.  A good heart does NOT produce bad fruit.  It’s a tragedy–people bearing bad fruit when God offers a different result.  Good news!  A good harvest is still possible.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 5:1-13, 18-23 (day one)  “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Judah. . .He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress” (vs 7)  It is the Lord’s favorite metaphor for his people.  Israel was His vineyard. ( So are we–see John 15)  They were (we are) recipients of His care, provision and protection.  He poured attention on them.  He has given us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3)  Is it unfair for Him to expect some return on investment?  Shouldn’t He expect us to bear fruit?  Vs. 7 identifies the fruit as holiness, expressed, in part,  in a social conscience, a concern for the poor, a pursuit of justice for them.  Is God disappointed if churches (evangelical, Bible believing) don’t produce this kind of passionate pursuit?  Yes!  Is He rightly disturbed if we claim the gospel but resist involvement?  Yes! It is ungrateful and unsafe to be unfruitful.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day seven) “If you are willing and obedient you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword” (vs 19-20)  My take away, thus far, from the prophets is a new understanding of God’s wrath.  It is real.  It is reasonable.  After 7 weeks of Hosea, Amos and Isaiah, God’s wrath seems less like anger to me than hope–steely determination not to give up on His purpose for humanity.  We were made to live in profound and powerful cooperation with Him–holy and happy.  No substitutions allowed!  It is a high and hard standard.  Sometimes the church fails to grasp or proclaim this truth.  The prophets remind us of a God who deserves our fear and respect, a God of real and reasonable wrath.  Great gain is promised if we can recover this accurate vision. . .  Rain or shine, I will see you in a few hours.  Pastor Don

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day six) ” ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.’ ” (vs 18)  The Hebrew word for reason is similar to the English word for argument.  It was typically a legal word, used for people “making a case” against each other in an effort to resolve a conflict.  It surprises some people that God has a case against us.  It surprise them even more that the only way forward is a painful, honest conversation.  If we are not honest with God, we never “hear” what we are really thinking.  (we stay hidden, unaccountable)  If He is not honest with us, we never have the creative, corrective power of His word.  “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.”  “Faith comes through hearing.”  Want to be well?  Want to be saved?  It will require talking and listening–a cleansing conversation with God.  “Come, let us reason. . .

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day five)  “Why should you be beaten anymore?  Why do you persist in rebellion?”  (vs 5)  One of the clinical definitions of addiction is “behavior that continues despite negative consequences”.  In some sense all sin is addiction.  It is deeper than a bad choice.  It is a bad choice that we continue to make even after it becomes clear that no good will come of it. Why do we stay loyal to such behaviors?  Why do we persist?  “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it”. We are powerless to change our inner tendencies.  Paul experienced the same defeat. “Wretched man that I am!  WHO will set me free?”  (Romans 7:24)  Like all other things, our sin teaches us that we need Christ.  I have ONE job every morning.  You have the same job.  Find the Lord!  Apart from Him and His partnership, none of us will ever be free from our addiction and all of its destructive power.

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20  (day four)  “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me”  (vs 2) Most of us don’t think of ourselves as rebels.  We tend to think that 90% is an A.  We deceive ourselves that being faithful to God in some areas erases or neutralizes our resistance to Him in others.  It is not a strategy that I recommend for marriage.  If I were true to Holly sexually and socially, but dishonest with her financially, could I call myself a faithful husband?  No.  James said, “He who keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all”  (2:10)  Not a new truth, just one that we cannot escape, we are all rebels.  We need new hearts. The songs says (and rightly so) I surrender ALL.   “Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh”  (Galatians 5:16)  It is the ONLY way out!

RE Verse reading–Isaiah 1:1-20 (day three)  “The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (vs 3)  If we judge ourselves by comparison to other people we reach one conclusion.  If we judge ourselves by looking at God and His creation we reach another.  In Isaiah 1, God says that His people’s rebellion is unnatural.  An ox knows his master.  Human independence and ingratitude is, in this way, a contradiction of nature. We are dumber than donkeys!  Looking at history, however, we see a different story.  Human self-will is the NORM.  “All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6)  “All have turned aside, together they have become useless” (Romans 3:12)  It forces a decision, doesn’t it?  Is “normal” what we are or what we were mean’t to be?  Do we find “natural”in  what we have been or what we can become?