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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“Hear, you deaf; look, you blind,
and see! 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? You
have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do
not listen.”
It pleased the Lord for the sake of His righteousness to make His law great and glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, “Send them back.”
Which of you will listen to this or
pay close attention in time to come? Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and
Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned?
For they would not follow His ways;
they did not obey His law. So He poured out on them His burning anger, the
violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it
consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.
Isaiah
42:18-25
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The Lord is in evidence all around
us, as close to us as the creation He made. He is not hidden and yet so many
people live as if they do not know Him and even will go as far to confess they
don’t
The Lord is ever trying to
communicate with us, speaking through our consciousness via the Holy Spirit,
through the scriptures as we read and study them, through words spoken by
others who serve as a mouthpiece through which the Lord speaks, and through
songs consisting of beautiful words or music or both that reach down into our
very souls to bring us encouragement, peace, comfort, and a spirit of praise.
And yet, so many fail to hear Him, whether they choose not to listen or they
simply are too distracted by other matters of life to receive His guidance.
I have to think it frustrates the
Lord God Almighty a great deal and we get a sense of this as we look at the
opening verses of our passage from Isaiah 42 as God expresses His
disappointment in His people:
“Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! 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? You have seen many things, but you pay
no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen.” Isaiah 42:18-20
Is there anything more troubling
than the Lord telling us that we are blind and deaf to Him, that we are failing
to pay attention to the glorious ways He is revealing Himself every day, that
our ears are open but refusing to listen to what He has to say?
Friends, I can say this with full
confidence. If we fail to see the Lord at work in, through, and around us and
couple that with a purposed refusal to listen to Him in the many ways He tries
to communicate with us, we will not be walking in His ways of righteousness and
instead be opting for disobedience and the sinful results it brings.
And the Lord is not going to stand
for that. We know because of these verses from our passage:
For they would not follow His ways; they did not obey His law. So He
poured out on them His burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in
flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it
to heart. Isaiah 42:24b-25
Choose to ignore the Lord and He
will bring His judgment on you in such a way that you will not be able to
ignore Him anymore. That’s just not an idle threat from the scriptures today.
It’s a promise.
God will not, and He shouldn’t,
have to tolerate our blatant disrespect and disregard, not after all He has
done for us. He gave us life and an opportunity to learn and love within it. He
has blessed us with opportunities to work and make a difference in the lives of
others. He has provided for our needs and protected us from any number of
troubles and difficulties and infirmities that could come upon us. And He loved
us so much that He wished that we would not perish but have a chance to live
with Him forever, giving His only Son to pay the penalty for the sins we
committed.
Yes, when we really sit down and
take account of things, the Lord has blessed us all abundantly and far more
than we ever deserve.
Don’t you think the least we could
do is give Him our all, just as He has given us His?
We could take the first step in the
right direction by opening our eyes to all that He has been, all that He is,
and all that He is yet to be, with fully focused ears ready to receive every
single thing He wants to say to us, through whatever medium He so chooses.
In closing, this question is posed
within our passage:
Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to
come? Isaiah 42:23
I pray after seeing and listening
to this message from the Lord, we are all holding up our hands in response to
the question.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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