Monday, January 21,
2013, 6:26 a.m. – The Lord Jesus woke me with this song:
Have Thine Own Way, Lord / Adelaide A. Pollard, 1862-1934
George C. Stebbins,
1846-1945 / Tune: ADELAIDE ,
Meter: 54.54 D
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just
now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine
own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!
When I got up to have
my quiet time with the Lord, the Lord put another song in my mind, “My Sheep.” Speak, Lord, for your
servant is listening. I read Isaiah 8
(quoting vv. 11-22 in the NIV 1984):
The Lord spoke to me
with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people.
He said:
“Do not call
conspiracy
everything that these people call
conspiracy;
do not fear what they
fear,
and do not dread it.
The Lord Almighty is
the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread,
and he will be a
sanctuary;
but for both houses of Israel he will be
a stone that causes
men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of
Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.
Many of them will
stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured.”
Bind up the testimony
and seal up the law among my disciples.
I will wait for the
Lord,
who is hiding his face from the house of
Jacob.
I will put my trust in
him.
Here am I, and the
children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the
Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.
When men tell you to
consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people
inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law
and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no
light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when
they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse
their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only
distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter
darkness.
The Rebuke
The people of God of that time had rejected putting their
faith and trust solely in God Almighty for their support and protection, and
they sought to align themselves with Assyria. So, God rebuked them for scorning
God’s rule and reign, and for disdaining his protection and provisions by
seeking the aid of foreign nations. Because they chose to find help and
protection from Assyria instead of from God, and because they chose to reject
God’s messages and warnings given through Isaiah, God’s messenger, God was
going to use the one in whom they were placing their trust to turn against them,
and to be God’s divine instrument of judgment against them.
The people were worried that Israel (the northern kingdom)
and Aram (Syria today) were going to attack and to destroy them. God said it
would not happen, but they did not believe him. He told them to keep calm, to
not be afraid, and to not lose heart due to these reports that were coming to
them concerning Aram’s and Israel’s plots for their demise. As well, he told
them that if they did not stand firm in their faith in Almighty God, they would
not stand at all. Yet, the people of Judah did not listen to God, so God
promised to come against them in judgment – he would bring on them a time
unlike any time since the division of Israel – he would bring the king of
Assyria.
Do Not Fear!
The Lord then spoke to Isaiah, warning him to not follow the
ways of the people. The people, again, were all worried that Aram and Israel
were going to attack and destroy them, so instead of listening to God, they
sought foreign aid. Isaiah and any who listened to and who believed his
messages were not to join in with the people. They were not to be afraid of
these reports. Instead of looking to other nations to help protect them, they
were to trust God, believe what he said, and they were to trust in him to be
their protection. God’s power, authority and rule, and ability to destroy them
through judgment is all that they were to dread, and he alone was the one they
were to fear (respect; honor; reverence). If they feared (respected; trusted;
honored; and obeyed) God Almighty, he would be their sanctuary.
But, for both houses of Israel, God/Immanuel would be a
stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. For the
people of Jerusalem, he would be a trap and a snare. Many of them would fall,
be broken, snared and/or captured.
The Living Stone
This passage, or one like it, is quoted in the New Testament
in Romans 9:33 and in 1 Peter 2:6-8. The stone; rock; cornerstone is Jesus
Christ. If we put our trust in him for our salvation, deliverance, help, safety
and protection, we will never be put to shame. To those of us who believe in
Christ, the stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, he is “a stone
that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. They stumble
because they disobey the message – which is also what they are destined for.”
So, what is the message they disobeyed? In context, 1 Peter
2 speaks of ridding our lives of all evil, and craving the word of God so that
we may mature spiritually. Like living stones, we are being built into a
spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ, such as the sacrifice of our lives, holy and
pleasing to God, as found in Romans 12:1-2, and such as the denying of self and
taking up our cross daily and following Christ, as is found in Luke 9:23-25, and
such as the putting off of our old self, being transformed by the Spirit of
God, and putting on our new self, as we read about in Ephesians 4:17-24. This
is what it means to trust and to believe in Jesus Christ. If we disobey the
message of the true gospel, we will fall.
The Law and the
Testimony
We are to preserve the words of God; of Christ Jesus by
following its teachings and instructions. We should call upon the Lord in our
times of trouble, instead of seeking counsel from the ungodly or instead of
putting our trust in man to save us. We should inquire of God about everything
we hear. We should test all things against God’s word, and seek God’s face for
discernment to know what is true and what is false. There are many “conspiracy
theories” floating around these days, many of which are intended to keep people
in a continuous state of panic and fear for their future.
Some that are called such are actually true, but are called
such to keep people from discovering the truth. Others are truly just theories,
and there are many. We can’t trust anything we hear or see in the news, on
social sites, in people’s blogs or in any form of media merely at face value.
Yet, we should not immediately reject everything we hear, either, because the
Lord may be trying to open our eyes to something. So, that is why we should
inquire of our God, and not of man. And, we should carefully study the
scriptures, too, to see if what we hear adds up.
The Application
When we hear reports of disaster, we should inquire of our
God. When we read news stories about shootings, bombings, etc. and we are told
that “so and so” did this, and therefore the government must take away some of our
freedoms in order to make this a safer place for us to live, we should inquire
of our God. When we are told that our military is going into other nations to
protect our freedoms here at home, we should inquire of our God. When we are
told to worship (pledge allegiance to) the flag of the USA and its form of
government with hand over heart, we should inquire of our God. When we are told
that we have to take a certain kind of medicine in order to live or in order to
keep our jobs, we should inquire of our God. When we are told that we must
partner with the US government via a 501c3 series in order to receive
not-for-profit status so we can gather together as Christ’s church, we should
inquire of our God. And, the list goes on and on and on.
When we are told that all we have to do is pray a prayer to
receive Christ as Savior and Lord, and we now have our ticket into heaven
guaranteed and no one can take it away, and as an added bonus, God will rapture
us out before things get really bad, we should inquire of our God. When someone
tells us that we don’t have to repent of our sins and we don’t have to obey
Christ to be saved, or these truths are mysteriously absent from the
presentation of the gospel of Christ, we should inquire of our God. When the
church tells us that church service attendance and involvement in church
activities makes God happy, we should inquire of our God. When we are told that
we must use marketing techniques used by big business, and that we must use all
kinds of marketing schemes in order to attract large groups of people to our
public church meetings, we should inquire of our God. When we are told that we
must blend in with or adopt the ways of this world in order to reach the world
for Christ, we should inquire of our God, and the list goes on and on and on.
Jesus Christ/God wants our worship, our allegiance, our
praise, devotion, loyalty, steadfastness, fidelity, etc. to be for him and for
him alone, and not for any other “gods” of men. He does not want us to look to
other means or other people to solve our problems, to heal our diseases, to
comfort our sorrows, or to fight our battles for us. He wants to be the one and
only! He wants us to put our faith and trust in him and not in man. He will be
a sanctuary for those who truly trust him, but for those who disobey the
message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he will be a stumbling block. Make sure
you are putting your trust in Jesus Christ and that you are following his voice
today, and don’t follow strangers.
My
Sheep / An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John
10:1-18 NIV
My
sheep hear me. They know me.
They
listen to my voice and obey.
I
call them and lead them.
They
know my voice, so they follow me.
They
will never follow strangers.
They
will run away from them.
The
voice of a stranger they know not;
They
do not follow him.
My
sheep hear me. They know me.
They
listen to my voice and obey.
I
call them and lead them.
They
know my voice, so they follow me.
So,
I tell you the truth that
I
am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever
does enter
Will
find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless
whoever enters
Not
by the gate; other way,
He
is the thief and a robber.
Listen
not, the sheep to him.
So,
I tell you the truth that
I
am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever
does enter
Will
find forgiveness and will be saved.
Oh,
I am the Good Shepherd,
Who
laid his own life down for the sheep.
I
know them. They know me.
They
will live with me eternally.
The
thief only comes to steal and
Kill
and to destroy the church.
I
have come to give you life that
You
may have it to the full.
Oh,
I am the Good Shepherd,
Who
laid his own life down for the sheep.
I
know them. They know me.
They
will live with me eternally.
They
know my voice, so they follow me.
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