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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.
Come, all you beasts of the field,
Come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!
Israel’s watchmen are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep.
Isaiah 56:9, 10b
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Yesterday,
we looked at the first of a twelve part series on indicators of wicked living
as God tells us of things we need to refrain from doing if we are going to live
the kind of righteous lives he desires. In it, we looked at how Israel’s
leaders had failed to share God’s vision, and in doing so, we’re attempting to
shepherd His people without knowledge or understanding.
In other
words, the leaders God had entrusted His people to were leading them into
wickedness vice righteousness. When the people of nations are living in
wickedness, you can typically trace the roots of that behavior to their
leadership.
Today, we
see the Lord warning us about adopting the wicked attitudes of complacency and
lethargy. Look at these words again:
Come, all you beasts of the field, Come and devour, all you beasts of
the forest!
Israel’s watchmen are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. Isaiah 56:9, 10b
Again, we
need to remember that God despises wickedness and will render penalties for
anyone who willingly chooses to live that way. This is alluded to in verse 9 as
the beasts of the field and forest are summoned to attack and devour anyone who
chooses wickedness for a lifestyle. Note that the indicator of wicked living
God mentions today is simply laziness, calling out the leaders of Israel for
being like dogs who lie around, sleep, and dream. Any dog doing this will not
be speaking for the Lord as they should but rather mute and bark-less. But don’t
think this is just a warning for the leaders of Israel, anymore than yesterday’s
devotion was. For all of God’s people are called to share His vision and seek
His wisdom and understanding as well as live actively for Him in carrying out
His will and way.
You see,
the Lord does not call us to be passive in carrying out His work. Rather, we
are to go and make disciples of all nations, helping others to be baptized and
learn all that Christ commanded so they can enter into a relationship with Him
and His Son Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20). We can’t do this is we’re sitting around,
daydreaming and sleeping all day because the Lord’s righteous work is not going
to get done if we just sit around and do nothing.
Certainly,
as we look at the life of Jesus, He was always on the move, always seeking to
be about His Father’s business and He had His disciples along with Him almost
every step of the way.
Why?
Because
He was trying to teach them the right way to live, the way that would ever keep
them productive in carrying out the Father’s will, the way that would keep them
in His favor. And He shows us as well when we study His life in the scriptures.
It makes
sense, doesn’t it?
Jesus was
the only person to ever walk this earth and live in perfect righteousness.
There was no wickedness in Him at all. So if we are going to hope to avoid
falling into wickedness in the way we live, it only makes sense that we should
always seek to live just as Jesus did. After all, we do refer to ourselves as
Christians, right? This means we are to be like Christ in the way we live.
In the
end translation here, God does not favor complacency or lethargy or laziness.
They are all indicators of wicked living, living that takes us away from the
purposes God has for our lives, living that reflects that we have not chosen to
live like Jesus, the One from which we draw our identity as Christians.
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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