God's Wash List

June 24, 2016
Scripture: Isaiah 1:16-17 (ESV)

God's Wash List

"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."

The Lord spoke His message to the people of Israel through His prophet Isaiah. They were still following the practices of the Law given by Moses by offering up sacrifices that God commanded of them, but somewhere along the way they lost the heart behind the practice. It got so bad that God wanted them to quit it because they were offering sacrifices in vain. This goes to show that even good things done with wrong motives can be the wrong things to do. 

So what does God want? His desire for His people is for them to be washed clean inside and out; heart and actions. In this verse God gives a list of what "washed people" look like. 

1. Remove Evil: God doesn't want just an apology after getting caught. He wants compelling action to cease doing evil and remove it out of your life so that it can no longer tempt you. 

2. Learn to do Good: You don't have to teach a child how to be selfish or how to lie, but good character is built. God desires us to live a life of learning how to do good, always improving and trying to make the world a better place because of how we lived. 

3. Seek Justice: God hates injustice and we hate it too. That's why we have the court system, even if it is struggling to do what it was intended to do. Each of us should do our part and seek justice in our world. 

4. Correct Oppression: God doesn't want apathetic blank stares when we see people who are under oppression; correct it, fight it, sign a petition, do something. We can't let it slip by if we are aware. Failing to do the right thing when it's within our power to do something, can be the wrong thing to do.

5. Fight for the Fatherless: Stand for those this world ignores. In that culture the father of the house would be the provider, but without him, the family would be left to fend for themselves, who were essentially invisible to the people of that culture. Who is the world ignoring in your world today?

6. Speak for the Widows: Be the voice for those who cannot speak for themselves. The women sadly in that culture were essentially the property of the men and had no rights to speak out or be independent of her husband. When the husband died, the widow still had no rights, but fell into the cracks of society, voiceless. Many women are still today, in a lot of ways, property of men, through prostitution and drug dependence. Speak up people of God.

These are the things the Lord looks for in His people. 

Looking at this list is convicting. How many more children must go into sex-trafficking before I contribute to the fight against it? How many convicts get to walk free due to the lack of pursuing justice in my life? How many people will fail to see Jesus in me because of the evils I refuse to remove out of my life? 

"Lord Jesus, I thank You that I can be washed clean by Your blood. Help me in my pursuit to live a life free from evil, seeking justice, and defending those who can't defend themselves. Please reveal to me what I can do in my everyday life to do this better. I give You my heart and my actions. Amen."

Culture Snares

June 8 2016
Scripture: Psalm 106:34-36 (ESV)

Culture Snares

"They did not destroy the peoples, as the Lord commanded them, but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them."

The Psalmist gives an overarching view of the history of Israel, from leaving Egypt to entering the Promised Land. The Lord commanded that they should destroy all the inhabitants of the land, but they failed to do so and mixed cultures. They adopted the idols of Canaan and started to worship as they did with horrible sinful acts. They would sacrifice their children to these idols by throwing their first born into the mouth of a furnace, believing they would somehow be blessed for doing so. The innocent's blood poured out over the land. 

When culture demands me to compromise in areas of my faith, it becomes a snare that limits the freedom I can have in Christ. Maybe culture isn't asking me to sacrifice my children to a statue of a god. Yet, look again, hundreds of thousands of children die by the will of their parents every year due to abortion. If we were abhorred at these ancient people for killing their own children, what about today? It's genocide. 

We must unlearn what culture has deemed acceptable, and free ourselves from the snares we hold onto as normal. God's word gives us true insight and exposes culture's snares. He has mapped out the best way to live in this life and the next.

"Lord Jesus, please free me from any snares that make me stumble. I know true freedom is found in the Name of Jesus. Amen." 

Itching Ears and Honest Lips

May 30 2016
Scripture: 2 Chronicles 18:13 (ESV)

Itching Ears and Honest Lips

"But Micaiah said, 'As the Lord lives, what my God says, that I will speak.'"

Nearly all the prophets were prophesying that the wicked Ahab, king of Israel, should go up to fight his enemies, for God would surely bless his conquest. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, must have had an uneasy feeling, for he asked if there were any other prophets left. Ahab crossed his arms and replied, "There is one, but I hate him, because he always prophesies bad things for me, never good."

Nonetheless, a messenger was sent to Micaiah, who told him to just cave in and agree with the other prophets, whether it was true or not. Micaiah boldly said that he would only speak what God says, nothing else. Yet as he approached the king of Israel, in a moment of weakness, he muttered what the king wanted to hear. But God gave Micaiah a second chance, as Ahab did not believe him and urged him to tell the truth. He did and the king did not like it and had him thrown into prison until he supposedly would return from his conquest. 

In this world today, people are not as interested in hearing the truth, as they are listening to what they want to hear. I am, along with all the other Christians, Christ's ambassador. But just like Micaiah, sooner or later, I am going to have to make a choice: Do I stand speaking God's word, even when it's not popular, or am I going to say whatever this generation is itching to hear (2 Tim 4:3)? 

When that day comes, I pray that my response will be like Micaiah's; "What my God says, that I will speak." It may cost me, it did for Micaiah, who was struck in the face and thrown into prison for relaying God's message to Ahab. But I can cling to the truth that Jesus spoke, "So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven" (Matt 10:32).

"Lord Jesus, I thank You for the bold example I see in Your servant Micaiah. As the world drifts from You, let me speak Your words, even when it costs me. Amen."

Striking & Healing

April 27 2016
Scripture: Isaiah 19:22 (ESV)

Striking & Healing

"And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and He will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them."

Egypt was a "green isle" amongst a sea of sand. They had a lot to put their hope in. The Nile River provided a fishing economy, while the ground was fertile giving vegetation, flax, and cotton. Egypt had it made, and they were secure or so they thought. Here Isaiah prophesies how the Lord will strike Egypt; drying up The Nile, and knocking their flimsy pillars from under their feet. All they hoped in was gone. But some would return to the Lord, and He would listen and bring them to a much better place than they were. 

In my life, there are plenty of things I could set up as a pillar in which I could place my hope. I could hope in my career, or my bank account, or my friends and family, which are not bad things to have. But what if they all fell away? I would have nothing, no where to go. Maybe I would blame God for allowing them to be taken away. Or would I realize that He can be my hope when all else fails? I should not place my hope in anything less than God Himself, for all the other pillars are as sturdy as a Teeter-totter. 

So maybe you feel God is striking you, but what he really wants to do is heal you. If you lost a relationship, maybe you put too much dependency in a person. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, maybe God wants you to trust in His provision alone. I don't know the circumstances that each person faces, but I do know this for sure. If I trust in God, He won't be shaken, like all the other flimsy pillars, and He will bring healing in my life. 

"Lord Jesus, please help me to place my hope in You alone, and to step down from these unstable pillars in my life. Thank You that You are a rock in hard times, and for the healing that You give. Amen."

Shear-jashub

April 16 2016
Scripture: Isaiah 8:17-18 (ESV)

Shear-jashub

"I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in Him. Behold, I and my children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion."

Isaiah and his sons must have felt very alone in their faith, for Israel had turned from the Lord and God Himself hid His face from those people. But what does Isaiah do? He holds on to his faith, "I will wait, I will hope." One of Isaiah's sons he named Shear-jashub, which means, "A remnant shall return." Many names given in the Old Testament were tied to a characteristic or purpose that person would display in his or her lifetime. Jacob means, "the deceiver", thus he later deceived his father, brother, and others in his life. Adam means, "Man", because he was the first of mankind. 

God planned to give Israel what they desired, independence from God, and in result they would be conquered and brought low, scattered, and only a remnant would remain. Isaiah used the word picture of a great oak tree, cut down and only a stump remaining. So will it be for the great nation of Israel, for they exchanged the true God for false ones, knowing full well the consequences. 

My grandfather, very much must have felt like Isaiah, within his family. The Wilson family just three generations ago had a reputation, but not a good one. They were bootleggers in the time of The Prohibition, and would use alcohol to enter into drunken rages, beating each other. During that time my grandfather when he was a boy found Jesus and dedicated his life to preach The Word. As a result, no alcohol was allowed in my grandfather's home, and my father never had to deal with the evils drunkenness brings to a family growing up. My dad became a preacher, like his dad, and I followed both their footsteps and am myself in the ministry all because "a remnant returned to the Lord."

Maybe you are the only Christian in your home. Or maybe you feel that you are the only one around who takes their faith seriously. Do not give up hoping and waiting in the Lord. Just like Isaiah and my grandfather, you can be the remnant generation that turns the tide and whole course of the generations to come after you. I'm living proof of my grandfather's legacy. God can take a dead stump and bring new life into it again, and He can in your life as well.

"Lord Jesus, thank You for the faith of my grandfather who changed the reputation of the Wilson family. I pray that You will use his story to encourage others to never give up. Thank You for new life out of a dead stump; let me be a remnant in this generation that returns to You."

Don't Let Caesar Seize Your Soul

April 4th 2016

Scripture: Luke 20:25 (ESV)

Don't Let Caesar Seize Your Soul

"Then He said to them, 'Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'"

The religious leaders sent spies to Jesus, attempting to catch Him saying something against the Roman government so they could arrest Him as a rebel. They asked if it was lawful to give taxes to Caesar. It would be equivalent today as asking, "Do I have to pay taxes to the President and the government, since we are part of God's kingdom?" Jesus ingeniously asks for a coin, saying to those around Him, "Who's face is on the side? Caesar's? Then if they made it, give them what's theirs, and God, what belongs to God. The truth is God really doesn't care much for little green pieces of paper. He would much rather have your soul than your salary. If taxes got extremely high and you had to pay the government to the point you couldn't give God more than your last two pennies, would He value those any less than the ten percent most churches expect now?

As long as it doesn't require us to break our allegiance to God, we must live in the world and its systems and rules, but not of it's passions and desires. Now there are times when the world will try to demand our worship, loyalty, and heart, to other things apart from God. There are many stories in The Bible when God's people had to stand up against culture and give God what belonged to Him. Just ask Danial, or Esther, or Moses. I must ask myself, "Am I giving the right things to the right owners?" I need not complain about my government, but rather pray for them. 

"Lord Jesus, thank You that I have freedom to give You my heart and soul. Help those in authority of this country to fear and respect You. As I live in this world help me to reserve all that is Yours, while I am still subject to the worldly authorities. I pledge my allegiance to You. Amen."

The Empowered Witness

March 31 2016
Scripture: Luke 24:48-49 (ESV)

The Empowered Witness

"You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

After Jesus' death on the cross, He rose again and appeared to many of His disciples. This encounter He appeared to the twelve apostles and He gave them a mission: that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to the whole world. He wanted the disciples to grasp two co-existing truths. 

The first, that we are witnesses, to testify to the truth. We get to share a part in the great mission of Jesus' Gospel. God loves to and wants to use us to fulfill His mission.

The second, that He will help us. The promise of the power from on high is the promise of the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit who clothes Jesus' followers.

Stand Up

March 30th 2016
Scripture: Luke 23:23-24 (ESV)

Stand Up

"But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that He should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted."

After ceasing Jesus from the garden, the religious leaders took Him to Pilate for only one reason. He was the only one allowed to grant the "death penalty". But Pilate saw right through the lies and didn't find and fault in Jesus, and even tried to release Him. But the crowd was urgent, demanding death in thunderous roars. Pilate was not a believer, but he was fighting a battle between two voices; the inner voice, telling him the right thing to do, and the voice of the crowd, demanding so heavily. "And their voices prevailed".

Pilate faced the same battle that all of us have to face; Do I Stand Up for the truth, or Stand Aside to appease the crowd? In my life, as a Christian, there are times when some non-believing friends of mine will "crucify Jesus" with their words and call Christians not so nice names for believing in the Bible. My first tendency is to shy away to avoid controversy, but Jesus says in Matthew 10:32, "Stand up for God, and I'll stand up for you in Heaven" (paraphrased). when I choose to stand up for God, maybe I won't be the popular vote, but at least I can know I didn't compromise my morals, and my non-believing friends may respect me more for it. But the question still remains, "Will I stand up?"

"Lord Jesus, Help me to stand up for You in the tough situations. and not stand aside to appease the crowd. I know You will be glad to stand for me in Heaven. So give me courage to say, "No" to the demands of the crowd and the world. Your name be forever praised. Amen."