Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Do you feel lucky?

Now we get serious. For those of you who have travelled this Isaiah road with me since the first of the year or so, we get serious. I'm not sure I've ever read scripture that so reminds me of the era in which we live.

God told Isaiah this: "So, go now and write all this down. Put it in a book so that the record will be there
to instruct the coming generations, because this is a rebel generation, a people who lie, a people unwilling to listen to anything God tells them. They tell their spiritual leaders, 'don't bother us with irrelevancies.' They tell their preachers, 'don't waste our time on impracticalities. Tell us what makes us feel better. Don't bore us with obsolete religion. That stuff means nothing to us. Quit hounding us with The Holy of Israel."

Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this: "because you scorn this Message, preferring to live by injustice
and shape your lives on lies, this perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall that slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses— smashed to bits like a piece of pottery,
smashed beyond recognition or repair, useless, a pile of debris to be swept up and thrown in the trash."

I won't go on and on about how separation of church and state and loss of God in our schools and in the public place. I won't go on and on.

Except to say this: God adds later in the 30th chapter of Isaiah, these incredible words, "But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right—everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones."

So, to quote that philosopher Dirty Harry, "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

Have you waited on the Lord, or have you decided He no longer matters? Have you waited on the Lord, or have you tried to build your house on shifting economic sands? Have you waited on the Lord, or do you feel that there is nothing there for you?

His mercy is new, fresh, wonderful every morning. It truly is. He wants to be gracious. He wants to be loving.

We simply have to decide that we have been pushed to the edge of the cliff and we will no longer back up. Who is with me?

A reminder that you can purchase God's Calling: Discerning His Claim On Your Life at http://www.crossbooks.com/BookStore/BookStoreBookDetails.aspx?bookid=61239

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