Saturday, March 28, 2015

I AM THE LORD WHO (PART 2)



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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:

“I am the Lord, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of His servants and fulfills the predictions of His messengers.”

Isaiah 44:24a, 25-26a

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In the first of a five part series based on proclamations from the Lord as to who He is, we saw Him proclaim the fact that He made all things, something we often take for granted. When we don’t do so, we can’t help but be taken to a place of praise, marveling in the majesty and glory of His mighty works.

Today, we see how He is at the heart of truth. Look at these verses in our continued study of Isaiah 44:

This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of His servants and fulfills the predictions of His messengers.” vv. 44:24a, 25-26a

One thing I think we all crave in our relations with other and attempts to understand the world is truth. We want reliability in the things we are told and come to despise deceit when someone brings it on us.

So where do we go for truth? How can we ensure we are not being misled by someone? Who can we turn to that will always bring us perfect honesty?

Of course, there is only One who can do this for us and that is the Lord who is unerringly sincere and truthful with every word He speaks. No one else possesses perfect integrity. No one.

Look what happens when we turn to the Lord to validate whether words are true or not. For His word assures us that He foils the false prophets and makes fools of diviners. When their words are taken out of the sinful darkness they originate and are placed in the light of the Lord, then and only then are they exposed as falsehood. This goes for the things that people are telling us in our daily lives. This goes for the sermons and Sunday School teaching you are receiving at church, on television, or via the internet (to include these devotions I write every day). False teachers will always be brought out into the open and revealed for the evil sin they are attempting to manifest.

Or as you have heard said many times I am sure, “What is done in the dark will be brought to light” and the scriptures echo this as truth from the Gospel of Luke:

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Luke 8:17

The Lord of truth will ensure truth prevails when we turn to Him.

But what happens when believers turn from the wisdom of the Lord and seek to create their own truths apart from Him. That doesn’t end up working out to well either. Go back to our passage from Isaiah and you will see the Lord telling us that He overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense. How many people in life have gone along relying and leaning on their own understanding, violating these words from Proverbs:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Did you catch the key here?

It’s all about trusting the Lord with all our heart. When we do that, we fully rely on Him for all things and why wouldn’t we? Yesterday, we celebrated the fact that He made everything. Who else can do what He can do?

And yet, so many people place their trust in their own intellect or the advice of others and as a result they end up - yes, you guessed it – deceived and led astray. The Lord will make nonsense of the words coming from the mouths of those who consider themselves wise because of their own intellect. His word assures us of that and His word is always truth.

When we place our trust in the Lord, we lean on Him for everything and that includes His truth, His will, His way, and His direction and guidance. No one else will do. No one else can do what He can.

And this leads to the final part of the passage from Isaiah. For when we fully trust the Lord with all our heart, then the words we speak will be words of truth because they come from the One who is perfect truth personified. I never fear whether I am speaking the truth or not because it really isn’t me speaking but the Lord speaking through me through His word and Holy Spirit. The Lord makes good on the words of His servants and messengers because they are speaking His words. That’s why the words of the Lord’s prophets always came to be. They were simply mouthpieces through which the Lord spoke to His people and those words that were spoken were words that would come to be. Period.

Friends, what an amazing assurance the word of the Lord brings our way today. We now know the way to avoid deception and deceit in life. All we need to do is trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding but rather willfully receive His truth always.

Why would we ever do anything else?

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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