Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God

Isaiah 1:16c-17a  Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!

Today’s verse was an exclamatory statement from the Lord to the Israelites.  They were religious but their lives were not lived according to what God wanted.  In fact the context of Isaiah 1 presents a picture of a people who were the antithesis of what God wanted.  In describing their religious activities, God uses the following descriptive terms: no pleasure in the blood of bulls and goats and lambs, trampling my courts, meaningless offerings, detestable incense, evil assemblies and hated festivals and feasts.

It is in this context that He issues His command to ‘Stop doing wrong, learn to do right.’  In the following verses where He instructs them how to live we find the well known promise of forgiveness, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”  The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  Rather He is pleased when they turn from their ways and live. (Ezekiel 18:23)

Later in Isaiah the Lord says, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (29:13a)  The problem is a people who think they are living right, when they’re not.  They are living in deception – deception so serious that they do not recognize the truth when they hear it. Or if they do recognize it, they don’t do anything about it.

It’s wonderful to repent like Zacchaeus did when he met Jesus (Luke 19:2-10).  But it is imperative to actively pursue with the Holy Spirit, the application of God’s word and ways to every area of our lives as the years go by.  In our culture – now more than ever – there are many temptations that we have to deal with that have cultural approval.  Among them are the following:

• situation ethics
•  there are no absolutes (except this absolute that there are no absolutes)
• if it feels good do it
• cheating
• how we dress
• white lies
• political correctness
• sexually impure content of commercials, programs, internet sites, video games and movies
• gender identity
• what we communicate and how we communicate

It’s important to recognize that all wrongdoing is sin (1 John 5:17a).  Fortunately, we are not left to ourselves as we pursue living godly lives.  We have the great promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”  May the Lord enable us to see and repent of the things in our lives that are not considered right by Him.

Isaiah 7:15 He (Jesus) will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.

Right and wrong.  What is right – and what is wrong?  For the past few days I have been aware of this topic stirring within me.  Being able to identify right from wrong is very important for us.  We must recognize that it’s a requirement of our faith.  Who determines what right and wrong are?  Is it like beauty being in the eyes of the beholder – what is wrong in one person’s view might be right in another’s?  Further, what is the implication of identifying right from wrong?  Is there something required of us?

These and a lot more questions have been swirling within me.  This morning I looked up scriptures involving this subject and found myself surprised by how many there are – and their significance.  Today’s verse speaks prophetically of Jesus growing up and learning to reject the wrong and choose the right.  That alone makes it a critical skill for us to learn.

Given the impact of culture upon our lives, and particularly upon the church, it is far more critical than many of us might think.  It is something we must all become more aware of because it is so involved in our daily lives – with a much greater frequency than we might imagine.  In Exodus 23:2a the Israelites are admonished, “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.”  What is the basis for determining the crowd is wrong?  A very important aspect of this whole process is added in Exodus 15:26, ‘He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes,”  There is an objective standard as to right and wrong.

One of the disconcerting things about this subject is the fact that an individual can be convinced he is right … and be wrong.  In Proverbs 12:15a it says, “The way of a fool seems right to him,”.  But in Proverbs 14:12 it says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  We can be foolish and/or sincere and miss it.  Fortunately, we have His word and the Holy Spirit to teach us. We simply have to respond and learn from Him.  This is more than a subject He wants us all to master – it’s a way of life.

To be continued…

1 Chronicles 16:12  Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,

Raising 4 sons is an adventure to say the least.  (We are now getting our daughters the easy way.)  One of the guiding principles of our family life has been to build memories.  We did things together and in such a way that the activity or experience became a lasting memory.  I record special things in my journals, but Donna and I recall them and we talk about them when we are together as a family.

This is particularly important when it comes to our life with our Lord.  It is too easy for special experiences with the Lord to become kind of lost in the business of life.  The Lord, through Moses, warned the children of Israel many times about this,

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” (Deuteronomy 4:9) 

Such memories sustain and build our faith – and the faith of others.  Our human tendency is to forget the memories, and to also forget the Lord who produced them.  Yesterday’s devotional about Donna’s encounter with the Lord as her Father was such a memory.

When we were living in Franklin, TN, our pastor Steve Fry, did a series on keys to healing – in our lives, our relationships and our world.  We were able to share with him about this experience where God healed the wounds in Donna due to the relationship with her earthly father. Donna became teary talking about this powerful experience with God making Himself known to her as her father.  Then she made a statement about this experience that I had forgotten.  She said, “This was the first time in my life where I felt like I was a daughter!”

While there is pain in what she lived through, it is so overshadowed by the wonder of who God is and what He did.  He settled within her the issue that she was His daughter; and that He was her Father!  This memory brought forth such a well-spring of gratitude and joy and wonder and passion.  Not just for what God did – but more importantly for who He is and who He considers us to be.

How good and important it is to remember the wonders and miracles He has done!

Habakkuk 3:19  The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

I was trying to think of words to describe the wonder and reality of what we have in Jesus – and words just don’t and can’t do it justice.  Some thoughts that come to mind: “It’s too good to be true!”, “Pinch me I must be dreaming!”, “How can this possibly be?”, “Never in a million years….”, “This can’t be real!”, “I’m blown away!”

For me, the above also usually includes tears coming down my face because what I’m experiencing is so mind-bogglingly wonderful that the sense of gratitude within me is just overwhelming.  It also helps that I can be a bit emotional, but again, it never entered my mind that this even existed.  That we, individually and corporately, as the object of God’s love, could be so incredibly swept off our feet by our Lord!  And somehow it just keeps getting better the longer we are His and walk in His ways.

In the midst of good times and bad; tough times and easy; with plenty and with need; when His presence is all around us and when we feel like He’s nowhere to be found – it makes no difference.  He never leaves us!  He never stops loving us!  He envelopes us in His love and gives us the grace, the strength, the mercy, the resources to face whatever is in front of us.  Best of all, we are His!

If it seems to you that I am describing a land where you’ve never been, let alone live; allow the Holy Spirit to have His way with you.  Allow Him to undermine your doubts and unbelief and bring you into the wonder that He has for all of us – including you!

Remember the movie The Wizard of Oz?  It starts out as a black & white movie.  Then Dorothy wakes up in Oz and is stunned – as were the audiences that saw the movie – because Oz was in living color!  What was flat and dull became stunningly bright and beautiful.  Maybe you are viewing everything around you in black & white.  Respond to the Lord and His Spirit at work in you and He will open your eyes to see your world in His “living color”!

Exodus 19:4  ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

What do we think of when we consider the historical record of the Israelites’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land?  There are so many things that catch our attention: Moses, the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, miracles, manna, grumbling and complaining, the golden calf, repeated testings, God’s dealing with their rebellion, the spies, Korah & Dathan – the list goes on.  But what is behind it all?

Today’s verse contains four words that speak volumes to us if we but have the ears to hear.  These words are the explanation that God gives to Moses of what He was doing through the whole process.  Specifically, He was speaking of all of the Israelites:  “…(I) brought you to myself.”  Do we understand how earth shaking that statement is?

God wasn’t primarily interested in having a people that would be an example to the world.  He wanted a people that were in intimate relationship with Him.  He wanted a people that would treasure the love He gave them and respond with love in return.  At best, the Israelites that left Egypt, responded with words, not love (actions).

God provided the Israelites with repeated opportunities for them to respond in faith.  Unfortunately, they repeatedly failed.  One moment they could be acknowledging Him and the next they would say or do things that revealed He was totally forgotten or irrelevant.  Do we understand that He deals with us the very same way?  Our faith – or lack of faith – is reflected daily through our thoughts, attitudes, words and actions.

Think about God’s reaching out to us.  Do we see that responding to God’s gift of Jesus is so much more than verbal or mental assent; or an outward veneer of behavior?  How far reaching is our commitment to Christ in impacting our lives?  Do we understand that this depends on our perception and understanding of what God wants from us – and becoming passionately committed to giving it to Him?

A powerful and sobering reality is revealed in Hebrews 11:16 where God is talking about His people of faith: “…Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.”  Look at the world around us.  So many claim to be Christians but their lives are inconsistent with such a claim.  Their actual lives are proclaiming that they are not followers of Jesus!

Each day, the life we live, is a living testimony of what our relationship with God is all about.  What does our testimony say?  Our new life in Christ Jesus enables us to demonstrate and reflect our genuine and growing love for Him.  We must understand that this is the mechanism that God uses to bring us to Himself.  This is why we were born-again!