Today in the Word for January 6-10
Today in The Word
Monday Jan 6, 2020
Do you look but not see? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Isaiah 42:18-19, 21-22 reads:
“Hear, you deaf, look, you blind, and see...Who is blind like the one in covenant with me, blind like the servant of the Lord...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 …hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot…”
Isaiah explains that God has given his people a glorious law. They have holy scripture. But the people are blind to it. Their eyes work, but they do not see.
I can look for something in my briefcase 2 or 3 times, and come up empty. My wife can find the item in there in 20 seconds. What is the difference between us? I may have looked, but she was seeing. This is the same spiritually with the Word of God. We can look at God’s Law. Our eyes travel over the words, but do we really see?
And if we only look and not see, we become loot. We become the plunder of the enemy, like the Israelites of Isaiah’s day became the loot of the Babylonian Empire.
Is it about time we do more than look? Is it time we see?
And that’s The Word from Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in The Word
Tuesday Jan 7, 2020
Is it enough to sit in the church service on Sunday and keep from nodding off? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Isaiah 42:18-23 reads in part:
“Hear, you deaf, look, you blind, and see...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…Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to come?”
Isaiah is saying it is not enough to simply be present when God’s Word is read. Many of his servants do that, but it does not constitute listening. We can be like the teenager that is just waiting for mom to finish her lecture so he can get on with his day. Listening to God’s Word requires more. It requires us to pay attention. We have got to give it our focus.
In fact, I would contend that God’s definition of listening is to do more than hear, it is to pay attention. Distracted listening to God is about as helpful as distracted driving. The Bible demands our full attention if we are to gain from it.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Wednesday Jan 8, 2020
Would you like to know what God is up to? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Isaiah 43:16-19 reads:
“This is what the Lord says—he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again…Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
God refers to one of the greatest miracles of all of Jewish history—the escape from Pharaoh’s army through the Red Sea. God made a dry path through a wet place and destroyed Pharaoh’s army in the process. Yet here he says to forget that. He is doing something new that will involve a river in the desert. He will make a wet path through a dry place.
God is creative. He is constantly doing something new. He doesn’t always do things the same way. If we only focus on how he has done things before, we run the risk of missing ‘God’s Next.’ We fail to perceive. We are blind to his present work. We don’t see. If you want to ‘see’ what God is up to, I suggest we watch out for the myopia of nostalgia.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly. Join our Wednesday adult Bible Study at 6:30 for more of the Word.
Today in the Word
Thursday Jan 9, 2020
Do we have an influence on ‘seeing what God is up to? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Isaiah 43:19-23 reads:
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland…I provide water in the wilderness…to give drink to my people…I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel. You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices…”
God is announcing the new thing he is doing, but the people do not perceive it. Why? He designed them to praise him, but they have not been doing so. They have gotten careless in their worship. He asks if they have worked at their honor of the Lord and answers himself. ‘No.’
If we want to be privy to the new thing God is doing, we need to press in to him now. We need to honor and praise his Name now. That is what he designed us to do. We can’t expect to perceive what God is doing the world today, if we are careless about spending time honoring him.
That just makes sense. And that is our part to play in discovering what God is doing.
And that is the Word from Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Friday Jan 10, 2020
How do we deal with our mistakes? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Isaiah 43: 24-27 reads:
“…you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence. Your first father sinned; those I sent to teach you rebelled against me.”
God explains that he is the great God of forgiveness. He blots out and then remembers our sin no more. When we ask to be forgiven, he does so by the work of Jesus Christ. But if we want to argue for our innocence, if we want to explain that our behavior is not as bad as it seems, God has an answer for that. He states that from Adam to the latest Christian teacher, everybody sins.
So, do we want to ask for free forgiveness or do we want to excuse our behavior? I realize explaining why our behavior is excusable is in vogue, and it might work on some humans, but it will never work on God. He has provided for our sin. Take the forgiveness. It is the only way to go.
And that’s the Word. You can enjoy more of the Word this Sunday at 10:45 at Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.