new things.

"Behold, the former things have come to pass.  Now I declare new things; before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."  Isaiah 42:9

Am I the only one who's immediately transported back to circa 1993 when reading this verse?  Come on, don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.  If you were in any kind of youth group back then, you know everyone was all over dcTalk and sang "Nu Thang" with reckless abandon.  Or maybe that cassette was released before 1993, and I was just very slow with that trend.  Who knows.  Guess that's why I said "circa."  But I digress.  :o)

The first part of Isaiah 42 is a really awesome prophecy about Jesus (another reason why I love my New American Standard Bible; this version capitalizes pronouns attributed to the Trinity, so there's no confusion about who the writer is talking about!).  Jesus is described as God's chosen one (verse 1) who will "faithfully bring forth justice" (verse 3).

And how will he bring forth justice?  By opening the eyes of the blind and releasing captives from prisons (verse 7).  I used to read this in a literal way, but God has shown me lately that there are more ways to be blind than in a physical fashion, and there are myriad of internal or spiritual prisons that can hold us captive.

Really, until we find Jesus and trust Him with our lives, we are all blind to the fact that we need a Savior.  We can be blind to the needs of the poor or blind to patterns of sin in our lives.  Jesus came to open our eyes to these "spiritual cataracts" so nothing will blur our focus on Him and what He wants to do with us.  He trades our blind eyes for new eyes, in a way.

And we might find ourselves trapped in prisons of addiction, temptation, out-of-control emotions, or those same patterns of sin mentioned before.  I know one of my main "prisons" is depression.  God has had to release me from that prison again and again, and really it's only because of Him that I'm walking free of that today.  Jesus came to give us abundant life (John 10:10); a life in prison does not allow for any kind of abundance, unless it's an abundance of pain and regret.   With our release from prison comes a new lease on an abundant life, and the realization that as long as we're walking in-step with Jesus, there's no reason that we have to go back to our prison again. 

The best part is, God declares the "new things" He has in store for us before they even happen (check out verse 9 again)!.  Meaning He won't wait until your eyes have been opened or the prison door swings open to show you the promise He has planned out for you.  That's His blessing for us.  He may not reveal specifics, but He does offer the promise of new things again and again.  In the midst of our pain and darkness, He peels back the curtain just a bit to reveal the light on the other side, which illuminates the new things He wants to do in our lives if only we ask Him to help us see with new eyes and walk in new freedom.

Trust in Him.  He holds the salve for your blinded eyes and the keys to your prison cell.  He wants to do a new thing for you!

chosen.

"You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you."  ~ Isaiah 41:9

Those are some pretty strong verbs, aren't they?  So many times I'm guilty of viewing God as more passive than active.  Does He really just leave us to stumble around in the dark with groping hands until we happen upon Him by chance?

I don't think so.

And according to this prophecy by Isaiah, God doesn't think so either.

My bible has a footnote next to the word "taken" in verse 9 that says "or taken hold of."  I keep envisioning God's mighty hand literally scooping His children up and keeping them at His side.  That's a very comforting thought to me.

But He has also called the ones He takes hold of.  He calls His children to a more abundant life through the saving knowledge that His Son Jesus died for the sins of the world. After the Holy Spirit fell on Peter and the other apostles, a crowd of people gathered and became repentant as a result of the words God spoke through Peter.  He told the people that "the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself" (Acts 2:39).  Whether He uses a still, small voice or a blasting shofar, God calls His children to Himself.  He is also willing to go to the most "remotest parts" for those of us who are "far off."  That's also comforting to me; no matter how far you've run from God, you're never too far away to hear His voice, and you're just one step away from His promise.

Perhaps the most comforting part of verse 9 is the fact that we are chosen as God's children.  This is not a random process, there are no "stowaways" that sneak into His kingdom, and He has chosen you for a purpose:  to be "His possession" (Deuteronomy 7:6).  He loves you so much that He wants to keep you and show you off!  When you answer God's call and fulfill your destiny as one of His chosen ones, you're not just a citizen of His kingdom.  Think about that.  Basically all you have to do to be a citizen of a country is to be born there, yet just because you're a citizen of the United States does not mean that you know the President and all him your friend.  Being God's chosen means that He desires an intimate relationship with you, a nurturing and loving one where He molds and shapes you into who He wants you to be within His kingdom.  He chooses us because He loves us that much.

As I close today, let me drive this point home:  we also have an active part in being chosen.  God chooses us, but we must choose Him as well.  Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14).  This statement concludes a parable in which a king, after finding that all of his wealthy guests ignored his invitation to a feast, chose the poor people in his kingdom to attend his feast instead.  The king called the wealthy guests to himself, but they "paid no attention and went on their way" (verse 5).  It was the poor people, the "second string" of invites, that made it to the feast, because they chose to accept the king's invitation.  Have you chosen God?  Even if you feel poor in spirit, He still wants you and longs to take hold of you.

two years ago today...

....I lost someone very precious to me.
....I realized that it is very possible to love someone without ever seeing their face.
....I learned that someone very small can leave a very big legacy.
....I heard God whisper, "I'm crying with you, beloved, but I have a plan."
....I began to see that I didn't need to know all the answers.
....I gave up my pain and confusion to God, and learned to love and trust Him even in the midst of the WHY.

Thank You, Father.  I still don't fully understand, but thank You for sticking with me anyway.  :o)

behind His back

"...It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, 

for You have cast all my sins behind Your back."

~Isaiah 38:17

Have you ever tried to pass off some ridiculous statement (like "Thou shalt not eat thy vegetables") as Scripture by saying it's found in the book of Hezekiah?  Maybe that's just my husband.  And if you have known us for any length of time, odds are you've heard that joke already!

While Hezekiah didn't write a book of the Bible, he was a king who received prophecies from Isaiah starting in Chapter 37.  In this chapter, Hezekiah's prayers and reliance on God resulted in the ultimate defeat of the invading Assyrians.  In the next chapter, we find Hezekiah on his deathbed.  Desperate, he prays to God asking Him to remember how he has walked before Him "in truth and with a whole heart" (verse 3).  God then decides to heals him, and also adds fifteen years to his life (verse 5).

Hezekiah's writing of his illness and healing makes up the rest of the chapter.  It describes both despair and thanksgiving.  One verse in particular stood out of me as I read it today:

"It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,

for You have cast all my sins behind Your back" (verse 17).

Check out the word "cast."  It immediately brought me to 1 Peter 5:7, which instructs us to "cast" all our cares or anxiety on Him because He cares for us.  I'm not sure if the word "cast" is translated exactly the same in Isaiah as it is in 1 Peter, but to me the mental picture is the same; throwing something with all our might toward another source, as a fisherman would cast a net into the sea.

That's what God did with Hezekiah's sin, and what He does with all of our sins when we accept His son and ask for forgiveness.  He throws our sin with all of his might behind Him.  When He said "Get behind me, Satan!" (Matthew 16:23 and Mark 8:33) He was putting Peter's wrong thinking where it belonged...behind Him.  When something is behind you, it's not in your line of vision.  It is impossible to focus on it, or even see it, unless you look behind you.  When it comes to our sin, God is not one for looking behind, and He doesn't expect us to do that either.  If we ask His forgiveness, He forgets our sin and only looks ahead to what we could be in Him.

The point is, whether we're casting our sin or our anxieties on Him, God will greet us with open arms.  Throw that struggle, stronghold, worry, or temptation into His hand with all your might, and He will smile and throw it over His shoulder.  Remember, if God cared at all about keeping tabs on our sin even after He forgives us, He would never throw them behind Him.  He would keep them in front of Him or beside Him.  He throws them behind His back to not only put them where they belong, but to also restore us to the position where we belong.   He is able to hold us and look into our eyes because our sin isn't in front of Him, and He is able to walk with and guide us because our sin isn't beside Him.

So cast your cares and sin upon Him, and He will cast them behind Him so you can move on, powerful at His side and safe in His arms.

New feature!

Insomnia's getting the best of me tonight, so I decided to take the time to add labels to all of my posts according to subject matter and main Scriptural references.  Hopefully that will make it a little easier if you are trying to find a post on a particular subject or from a particular book of the Bible.  If you find that I left out an important tag, let me know!

At ease?

"Rise up, you women who are at ease, and hear my voice; give ear to my word, you complacent daughters."  Isaiah 32:9

I've been struggling with a spirit of complacency lately.  I look at my life, I see things that need to change, and I know in my heart what I need to do to change, but I don't always make the effort.  Or sometimes God tells me to pray for someone or a situation, and discouragement takes over.  "Why try?  I might mess it up."  And often, too often, things stay the same.

These "women at ease" who are warned in Isaiah 32 seem to have the same problem.  Trouble is coming in the form of an Assyrian invasion, and rather than ready themselves for it, they remain complacent and do nothing.  Instead of trembling and trading their clothes for sackcloth (verse 11), they maintain the status quo.  How many times have I done the same when a troubling world event or another clear sign of the end times comes across my radar?  I don't always take it seriously; I make silly excuses ("I'm just not into politics," "Someone else can take care of that," "I have too much going on to think about that right now") instead of allowing the fear of the Lord take over and pray.

Which is what I think these complacent women are supposed to do.  The culture and the time in which they lived prevented them from doing much else than maintaining a household, supporting their husbands if they were married, and praying and serving the Lord.  Granted, most of us ladies have a lot more on our plate in the here and now, but it should really always come back to these basic duties.  And if I devote myself to praying for anything and everything He instructs me to, all three of those excuses I named earlier are rendered null and void.

• "I'm just not into politics" -- Well, guess what?  Even if I'm not that knowledgeable about this particular matter I can still pray that His will will be done.  
• "Someone else can take care of that." -- But I should still pray in case everyone else gives that same excuse.  And since when is it a negative thing for more than one person to pray for something anyway?
• "I have too much going on to think about that right now." -- We can't all live in a house of prayer and focus only on intercession day in and day out, but we can certainly pray in the midst of our daily lives.  Even a quick prayer is heard by the Lord if it's a heartfelt one.

Believe me, this post is mostly serving to just nail me.  I think it's something I needed to write for myself since these verses seemed to jump off the page when I read them earlier today.  As we go further and further into these end times, more and more "Assyrian invasions" are going to happen; things like war, famine, persecution, disease, and death may jump off my radar and into my own backyard, and I don't want to be caught with a complacent spirit.  With times as serious as these, complacency could easily lead to unpreparedness, timidity, and ultimately, a hardened heart.  We may not always know what or how to pray, but if we yield to His Spirit He will intercede for us (Romans 8:26-27).  

And speaking of the Holy Spirit, check out verses 15 through 18 of Isaiah 32.  It describes the wilderness becoming a "fertile field," and righteousness and peace pervading the "peaceful habitation" God's people will find themselves in when "the Spirit is poured out upon [us] from on high."  He saves His people through divine intervention, but He also pours out His Spirit in order to usher in a period of righteousness and security.

Because this chapter is all prophecy and no narrative, we don't really know if these women stayed complacent or if they rose up and interceded for themselves and for their people.  But I know this serves as a reminder for myself.  Whether a particular hardship is imminent or everything looks comfy on the horizon, I had better make my prayerlife a top priority.  Even if a situation is complex or unclear, even if my day is packed with errands and to-do lists, even if I simply don't feel like it, I know I need to get on my knees and pray.  We all do.  If you can't find the words to pray, ask for the Holy Spirit to help you; God gives His Spirit without measure (John 3:34) so I'm pretty certain He never tires of us asking!  And pray that the same Spirit who is interceding for you will also move in a powerful way over the subject of your prayer.  So rise up and say good-bye to complacency.  Maybe a fertile field will rise out of those briars and thorns.

Being real.

I like to think I'm an open person. But sometimes I lean more toward being private. This is why it's SO hard for me to share this, but I feel like God wants me to. I attend a Tuesday morning Bible study, and this morning someone quoted, "Sometimes your greatest message is the mess of your life." Meaning that God can take the messy parts of our lives and use them to minister to others.

Not too long ago I did a guest post on the blog "Or So She Says" that chronicled one particular messy part of my life. I feel like God wants me to share it on my own blog too. I don't know who this is supposed to speak to, or why He wants me to do it, except maybe to help me finally get over the shame and guilt I still sometimes feel when I think back to this time in my life. You can find the link to my guest post here.

I hope it ministers to you! God Bless.