I was headed somewhere tonight, debating whether or not I should actually go. Finally I turned to Holy Spirit and asked what He thought. I heard nothing, until I worked to quiet my flesh and humble myself to receive what He was saying to me. In stillness I turned around and drove back home.
After a few minutes I heard Him say, “Thank you.”
I was like, “What?? I should be thanking YOU.”
He is the One who saves me, protects me, keeps me in perfect peace, satisfies me, gives me joy, gives me companionship and friendship. He is the One who brings healing to my family and brings life to my dead heart. He is the One who causes me to desire to fast and read the Bible. He is the One who gives me strength to pray. Thank me? Whatever haha.
Then He reminded me that iniquity separates us from God; sin causes Him to hide his face from us (Is 59:2). God even hid His face from His own son when Jesus took on the sin of the world.
Then He said, “I just want to be with you.”
I just got thanked by the Eternal Beautiful God for not choosing sin because HE WANTS TO BE WITH ME AND NOT SEPARATED FROM ME WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
So today I was sitting on the floor as usual, playing guitar and singing weird songs to Jesus, as usual. Not reading Isaiah, as usual. You see, I’ve been trying to motivate myself to read though Isaiah because I know snippets of beautiful descriptions of Jesus and mind blowing prophecies from the book, but I’ve never read through the whole thing.
Well, I was done playing and singing so I went to open my bible to read from wherever I had opened it to read from, when an uncharacteristically forceful wind of my air conditioner flipped the page to Isaiah. Hahaha, very funny Jesus.
I started reading some notes I had written on the page and this is what I started talking to the Lord about:
Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool…”
Come and let us reason together? What kind of bargain is this, that God Almighty, Creator of Everything, all-powerful and perfect and holy, would offer us so much?
“Though your sins are numerous and blatant and you are unable to hide them or clean them yourself, though your sin is disgusting to me and it hinders you from reaching me, though it is unavoidable in my sight…”
He says “let us reason together.”
He has this deal in the back of His mind. He says “come and let us make sense of this… I have the power and authority to make you white. I can make you clean. I can make you pure and spotless.”
He has had this plan from the beginning of time – to send Jesus to reveal Himself. We know that as a piece of the Trinity bore the eternal weight of sin, the Trinity was separated and the Son was crushed, and the wrath within God’s heart towards the sins of the world from the beginning to the end of time was satisfied.
What struck me was that God says to His people in Isaiah 1, “let us reason together.” God is saying, “let us reason together. You have sins that keep you from my glory and I have a plan to bring you to me.”
This is the heart of God – He thought of it as no sacrifice to send Jesus. It pleased the Father to bruise the Son. As for Jesus’ opinion? It was the joy set before Him. The JOY of His life was to be utterly destroyed so that I could be made clean by His blood, so that the Father could have justice on the sin that blasphemed Him without destroying me.
“Come let us reason together” is such a loaded statement…it’s the Father saying to His children that He wants them near, but He doesn’t tell them that He has something up His sleeve. He offers them peace and purity and Presence. But He doesn’t tell them that He is giving His own Son to be destroyed for their sake.
What a humble God and Father. And what a humble Son! They are ridiculous. The love they have for us is so much that they offer us the greatest proposal of all time and don’t even think twice about the sacrifice they must make in order to have us with them.
That’s all for now.
Either you wage war on your sin now or Jesus will wage war on it when He returns. This is a war, there is no getting around that fact. We were born into a world which sits on the battlefield between the fallen and the Holy. There is unending accusation from Satan spewing deception at a murky, clogged filter called the mind, which is expected to decipher that which is thrown its way and destroy anything that does not agree with the Word.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed in the presence of many witnesses.
This violence…this bloodshed is what my life is created to encounter. This is my part in the fray. My job is to know Truth; to know Love and to know Light so that in the moment of deception, when I cannot see past the pressures of the moment, I will be able to stand my ground because of the knowledge of a higher hope: the hope of my calling.
My job is to recognize that the momentary light affliction is truly momentary and is truly light, in respect to the greatness of eternity for which I am suffering. There is so much temptation to wallow in self pity and celebrate the fact that something has caught my attention enough to cure my boredom, however useless and destructive it may be. My duty in this epic battle is to press on toward victory.
Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God.
In the moment of testing I will remember that it is a test and not a picture of my life being discarded by the Father. I will remember that without training, no soldier is put on the front lines. Without repetitions of uphill sprints, no runner gains significant speed in the race. Without hours spent studying, no student makes the grade.
The testing of your faith produces perseverance
The fight of faith requires endurance. To stand your ground as a lifetime of failures, pains, rejections and lies are forced back into your face requires a deep interlaced knowledge of the Truth. There is no other battle in which the enemy knows every piece of weakness in his adversary’s history, but there is hope in the fact that the Truth of God’s Word is a solid rock that will never change. Onto this rock will I fall when my human frame fails to endure against the accusations.
The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
I will be the violent one who takes the kingdom of Heaven. I will beat my flesh, tame my tongue, bring my body into submission so that my spirit can go up the mountain with clean hands and a pure heart. I will forcefully take that yoke which is easier than any other yoke. I will convince my body that the reward of discomfort in the natural is the fullness of all joy in the spiritual. I will go up the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense, remembering always that beautiful sacrifice on the cross which allowed me to have friendship with the Father.
I will fight, because I know that one day the sky will recede as a scroll being rolled up, and every dark corner of the earth will be filled with light. Every hidden and sinful place will be exposed as the glory of God fills the earth like a raging sea. Jesus will come! With eyes filled with fiery jealousy. Wearing clothes dripping with blood from the battles He has fought in His passion for us. He will have many crowns upon His head, proving that He has conquered the nations.
He was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
Jesus is the true King. Jesus is the reason that I fight. As He fights for me, I will fight for His kingdom. As He stains His robe and wins crowns, I will join in the sufferings of the cross and deny my flesh, lose this life, in order to find the life which He promises. This momentary light affliction will no longer be a roadblock but will be the catapult that sends me into a fiercer lifestyle of holiness. There is nothing that can stop me from warring. King Jesus is worthy.
“…and I will know you.
Because when you speak, I will be reminded of Solomon’s wisdom.
Your ability to lead will remind me of Moses.
Your faith will remind me of Abraham.
Your confidence in God’s Word will remind me of Daniel,
Your inspiration will remind me of Paul.
Your heart for God will remind of David,
Your attention to detail will remind me of Noah.
Your integrity will remind me of Joseph,
And your ability to abandon your own will will remind me of the disciples.
But your ability to love selflessly and unconditionally will remind me of Christ.”
-Janette, P4CM poet.
(Source: youtu.be)
