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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 3 June 2023:
Isaiah 27:4, 5 – Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together. Or let them lay hold of my protection. Let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.
There is an old saying, “If you love flowers, you must hate weeds.” Our loving God hates sin, and sinners make themselves enemies to God. Though we all sin, God offers salvation, reconciliation, and peace through His Son, The Prince of Peace — this is the Good News of the Gospel. But the Good News is only good news to those who accept it. To everyone else, the unrepentant who reject it, it is damnation.
Isaiah 28:1, 6-7 – …and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.
God calls people to turn to Him, His Spirit, and His Justice for comfort rather than liquid spirits of alcohol. There is no escape from pain except through Jesus. People have many forms of escapism today – food, alcohol, entertainment, even exercise. Turn to Jesus.
Isaiah 28:7, 12-14, 16 – God insists that His people obey His word. This is very clear throughout the entire Bible. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments…. Why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say?
Grace frees us from the requirements of the law, which has no power to save, and gives us the Holy Spirit which not only enables us to obey but also gives us a heart to obey. Those who genuinely desire to obey do not need a law to compel them to do what they already want to do. Where you lack obedience, you don’t need a greater appreciation of the law, you need a greater appreciation for Jesus. Saul, who was driven by the law to persecute Christians, later became Paul who was compelled by the love of Christ to live for Christ, to be conformed to His image, and to obey the law of love. Focus on Jesus and follow Him.
Isaiah 28:10 — For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Religion, ritual, legalism, and self-righteous are no substitutes for a genuine relationship with God filled with faith, hope, and love. The Pharisees had the rules, but they didn’t have the relationship. Their righteousness was really no righteousness at all because they were guilty of disobeying both the First Commandment and the Greatest Commandment – Have no other gods, and love God totally. Rather, ‘self’ was both their idol and their love, and what obedience they had was driven by pride and self-righteousness. In Isaiah, God warns that there can be no rest in works of the flesh (self-righteous deeds) and no salvation. Only the Stone in Zion, the “Precious Cornerstone,” Jesus Christ, can bring peace, rest, and salvation. To those who walk by the flesh rather than the Spirit, their religion is nothing but powerless, burdensome, joyless, thankless, rules upon rules that will lead them to misery and destruction. If works-based religion has left you flat, tired, and empty, turn to God for a genuine relationship that inspires the sort of true love that makes obedience a joy.
- 1 John 5:3 — For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
- Matthew 11:28-30 — Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
The word used here for “precept” is the word that describes a command that would be given to a small child. The word “line” signifies the line a mason uses to measure layer upon layers of bricks. It appears here that God’s people had a very childish approach to God’s word and only saw it as a bunch of do’s and don’ts rather than God’s living word intended to draw them closer to God. God calls us to have a child-like faith, not a childish faith. Grow up in Christ.
Turning from a genuine love relationship with God to a legalistic religion that calls for duty rather than love is departing from God.
Isaiah 28:15 – …we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter.
Placing your hope in anything other than Jesus is to place you hope in a lie. The inevitable result is destruction.
Isaiah 28:16-18 — Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: “Whoever believes will not be in haste.” And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter. Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand….
“A precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation.” Jesus is the Precious Cornerstone who defeats death. Jesus brings grace but also justice. He will put an end to injustice. Whoever believes in Him will be saved. Whoever believes in Him will seek to live lives of justice, mercy, and grace in order to honor and glorify Him.
“I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line….” A wall which is not built aligned to the plumbline eventually collapses from its own weight. A life which is not aligned with the will of God will eventually do the same.
“…waters will overwhelm the shelter….” Drop by drop, water becomes very heavy, until shelter cannot bear the weight. Much the same way, little sins over time cause a sudden catastrophe.
Isaiah 28:21-22 – For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused;
to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work! Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.
God’s works are strange to the sinner, and He will destroy those who mock His word and ways.
Isaiah 28:23-29 – Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him.
A key life principle in the Bible is the principle of the farm: You reap what you sow, but you don’t reap when you sow, and you always reap more than you sowed, eventually. Also, God has given us the work of cultivating, but He causes the growth, and to yield a harvest, we must cultivate correctly, according to His will and design. If we don’t obey day by day, we will ruin the crop.
Psalm 64:10 — Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!
Don’t worry about your situation. Trust and obey God.
Proverbs 3:3-7 — Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.
Simple and powerful words from today’s Proverbs. Ecclesiastes 7:29 states: “This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.” Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, but we chase after folly so easily and cause so much unnecessary pain for ourselves and others. Today, recommit to being faithful with every moment, driven by love for the Lord rather than anything else. When you inevitably fall short, give thanks that you remain in a state of grace, get back up, try again, and grow in spiritual maturity (sanctification). Babies fall a lot before they learn to walk, and walking is simply controlling a continual fall forward. Learn more and more to walk with God.
Proverbs 3:5 — Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Faith is an issue of trust, and you won’t trust who you do not know. Jesus said, knowing Him was “eternal life.” (See John 17) Your faith is evidence of your relationship with Jesus. Obedience to God is evidence of your faith and love.
Proverbs 3:7 — Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
R. C. Sproul wisely said, ““The Word of God can be in the mind without being in the heart; but it cannot be in the heart without first being in the mind…. I cannot read God’s mind, however I can read God’s Word…. We need to be very careful to go to the pages of the Scripture to learn about God’s will and the leading of the Spirit, and not simply to listen to the popular teachings of the Christian subculture in which we live…. To be a Christian is to be a theologian — a student of God and his will. The church is where believers should be nurtured in the practice of correct theology. The contemporary disdain for theological content and emphasis on self-image and emotions were not shared by the apostolic church…. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones…. [However] We fail in our duty to study God’s Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work.”
We must study God’s word in order to be ready to obey God’s word. However, many use Bible ‘study’ as a form of procrastination – reading more rather than doing more. This is akin to the person who is constantly looking for a better workout or diet but never exercising or controlling their food intake. Our problems are not usually caused by a lack of knowledge; they are usually caused by disobedience and infidelity to God. Even Christians who rarely open their Bible’s understand enough about God’s demands for forgiveness, honesty, generosity, etc, to defy them. God’s commands are not hard to understand, but they require a heart that truly desires to obey them, a commitment to discipline and self-control that is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Pleasing God requires humility, a proper fear of the Lord and then consistently choosing to “turn away from evil,” and to turn closer to God. What will you choose today?
- Isaiah 45:22 — Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:9 — For they… report… how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.
Proverbs 3:7 – Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
C. S. Lewis said, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” The story of the Tower of Babel reveals that education, technology, political stability, and economic prosperity cannot overcome the sinful condition of man. Rather, it only magnifies the problem as mankind becomes more capable in sin. In Genesis, God mercifully hinders mankind’s abilities in order to limit mankind’s capacity for evil. God does the same thing in the lives of individuals, mercifully holding them back from destroying themselves. Perhaps there are things you would love to have or to be that God has prevented for your own sake. Perhaps you are not ready for more opportunity because you are not yet ready to be faithful with more opportunity. There is a principle in the Bible that states that fidelity in small things brings trust in bigger things. This is true even in our spiritual development as the Bible says, “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20) We must be faithful in our love for those around us to be ready to love God.
We often think big when God is trying to get us to think small. As someone once said, “Everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to help mom do the dishes.” What we do in the small decisions today has a tremendous impact on what God puts in front of us tomorrow. Also, as we focus on fidelity with what God has placed in our hands, one day at a time, we should also keep our eyes opened, noting that global technology is building for the world another ‘Tower of Babel’, which some believe is the “great city of Babylon” spoken of in Revelation. There is only one hope for the world, Jesus Christ. We are his Ambassadors on the mission of reconciliation. Be faithful in your mission today.
Proverbs 3:27, 28 — Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.
See a need; meet a need in the Name of Jesus. Your generosity reveals your faith.
Christians have a tendency to measure their faith, the faith of others, and the condition of their church based on ministry programs, activities, and events. They also tend to view missionary work as something that is only done in very distant lands. Many Christians feel guilty because they are not more active in church activities. However, if the Christian will be faithful with what/who God has placed in front of them (which is no coincidence), that Christian will no longer feel a ministry or missionary void. In fact, that Christian will feel that what God has asked them to do is impossible, because it is impossible without God’s miraculous power. Jesus both communicated this frontlines ministry and modeled it for us – He was focused on people rather than programmatics. He focused on the day at hand, not worrying about past or future. He made the most of the opportunity. He stopped whatever He was doing, what He had planned to respond to where He saw God working in someone’s life, much to the dismay of His disciples. Others thought He was wasting His time with nobodies when, in their minds, He should have been doing ‘big’ things. To them, He too often wasted time, energy, and resources on things that would never ‘pay off.’ However, Jesus saw EVERY person from God’s perspective, and eternal perspective, and, though He is the Son of God, He became the servant of the lowly, those ignored by everyone else, even the religious.
God has ‘salted’ you into a particular location at a particular time to be His ambassador to specific people, those you will encounter today. These people (not some group somewhere else) are your mission, your top priority, whether you would choose them or not. How you choose to interact with them depends on your perspective on your calling and reveals your faith. Don’t look somewhere else for service. The little things you do for others today may not score you any points in your congregation, but they will bring glory to God. And how many well-known, major ministries were started because one person decided to help another person, and then another, and then another…. Walk slowly through the crowd today. See where God is working in lives around you, join Him, and watch God work.
The content and quality of our character is tested, revealed, and shaped by the small decisions we make each day. Each day we are presented with countless choices and decisions, most we make while hardly considering them. However, every little decision we make affects both our environment (to include others) and our hearts, both with which God is greatly concerned. In fact, the seemingly unobservable or unnoticed decisions we make as well as the ones we make spontaneously may in fact be the most important as they tend to be the most ‘honest’ ones. If we can be faithful with the little things, we will be ready for the big things, but our character is built on little things. There seems to be a continuous cycle of character development – how we ‘see’ the world, what we believe to be true about life, affects the way we think; what we think affects what we decide to say (affirm about life) and do; what we do over time becomes habit; and our habits shape our character which in turn shapes what we ‘see’ and really believe is true. The cycle continues towards greater goodness or badness, but it is never stagnant. Each day, in our decisions, we are building our character while also impacting the world around us. With each decision, the truth of us is revealed. As Proverbs says, “Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright,” (Proverbs 20:11) Genuine humility is essential for proper introspection to assess why we do what we do with the little, revealing decisions we make every day. If, without even thinking about it, we pass by an opportunity to give or to support someone in need, what are we revealing about our hearts? How often, in an instant, do we snap at someone and then say, “I’m not really an angry person, I was just caught off guard or overwhelmed by the heat of the moment.”? The Bible would caution us to see the revealed truth of the condition of our hearts. C.S Lewis described it this way:
“We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected: I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man: it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”
The Bible calls us to build our character one day at a time, by humbly making the most of every opportunity. In that process, the guarding of our hearts, the Bible tells us to simultaneously and continuously address all aspects of the character development cycle – what we think, what we say, what we do, and our habits. This will require at times doing and saying what we really don’t want to do and say while acknowledging our internal inconsistency with the mind and heart of Jesus while praying for God to heal our hearts that we would truly desire to do His will. At first, obedience may be a chore, but without the labor, there is no harvest in the heart. Conversely, we must not be prideful farmers who believe that it is our toil that ultimately produces fruit. Life comes from Jesus; apart from Jesus, our labors can produce nothing at all. Character is not built in a day but rather a lifetime, on day at a time. Today’s Psalms say, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) Each day is another once in a lifetime opportunity to grow in the Lord. Make the most of today by endeavoring to be faithful in the little things. If it is in your power to do good, do good.
Proverbs 3:33-35 — The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous. Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor. The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.
Some receive judgment while others, also guilty, receive forgiveness, mercy, and grace. The notable difference between those who receive forgiveness and those who receive punishment is that the forgiven are humble, contrite, repentant and fear the Lord. Humility and genuine repentance involve seeing ourselves from God’s perspective, seeing the truth of ourselves, and lowering ourselves in relation to others (the greatest shall be the least), having the heart of a servant to God and mankind. St. Bernard (not the dog) defines humility as, “A virtue by which a man knowing himself as he truly is, abases himself.” Proverbs says that “humility is the fear of the Lord.” Humility is closely related to meekness and selflessness. It is impossible to have wisdom or honor without humility. A humble person cannot look down on others while he seeks to help them draw closer to God — a beggar showing another beggar where to find bread. Part of being humble is being continually self-aware, always considering the motives behind our behavior. Most importantly it is being receptive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit (impossible prior to salvation). Humility is the key to judging sin without being judgmental.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 3 June 2023: Today focuses on faithful character cultivation: Carefully plant the seeds of God’s word in your mind and heart; then be very careful to apply God’s word correctly and consistently in you thoughts, words, and deeds so you can reap a fruitfully harvest of excellence in your life. The small discomfort of doing the work each day is nothing compared to the overwhelming pain of regret which comes later from neglect. If you regret what you haven’t planted and cultivated in the past, don’t waste time lamenting your past mistakes, start planting now and cultivating now. “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is today.”
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 