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Is there blood on your hands as you worship?

Sunday morning, and off to church we go.

But what if, when we arrive at the door, instead of being greeted by a friendly outstretched hand, there is a grim figure who checks the list on a clipboard and tells you, “No. God will not hear your prayers today. Your offerings are meaningless, He’s sick of your worship, and He wants no more of your pious posturing. What made you think you were welcome this morning? Leave. You’re not invited.”

Such a rebuff would shock most of us. Jolt us out of the mindless manner in which we sometimes attend church. Stun us enough to wonder why we have been rejected.

Although I’ve read these denunciations in Scripture before, the last reading of Isaiah 1:10-20 stunned me with the strong language, so much so that it has stayed with me for almost two weeks. These are exactly God’s words to the people of Judah, the ones who have forgotten who raised and cared for them and who have rejected God and turned their backs on Him (verses 3-4).

Yet apparently they were still going through the rituals of worship. God addresses them as “Sodom and Gomorrah,” and says the ceremonies, the prayers, the offerings all disgust Him. “I want no more of your pious meetings … I cannot stand them!”

Maybe it wasn’t just the vehemence of God’s rejection that bothered me. Maybe I cannot get the passage out of my mind because it is something we need to pay attention to today. God gives His reason for refusing to listen to prayers, tells Judah why He is sick of their worship:

…for your hands are covered with the
    blood of innocent victims.
Wash yourselves and be clean!
    Get your sins out of my sight.
    Give up your evil ways.
Learn to do good.
    Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
    Defend the cause of orphans.
    Fight for the rights of widows.

God says all their worship is sinful and false (v. 13) because their dealings with others have not been good and just.

The indictment against them is based on how they have treated others!

Ouch. How have I treated others this week? Do I go to church this morning with any victim’s blood on my hands? And for disciples of Christ, that is not only the blood of innocent victims, that would include my enemy’s blood! Have I sought to do good? Have I helped my neighbor — anyone I see who needs help?

My slate from this past week is not clean.

How do I wash myself, be clean enough to appear in God’s presence, get my sins out of His sight?

The good news comes immediately. God says though my sins are like scarlet, [He] will make them as white as snow. Now this is a statement for another, and maybe multiple, discussions; because how red is scarlet, and how white is snow? Think about that contrast, and thank God that He can take your scarlet and make it snow-white.

That is what Christ did for us. Because of the sacrifice He made of Himself, our scarlet is snow-white, our sins are removed from God’s sight, and we can enter into His presence completely washed and clean.

When you go to worship, remember this and bring your thankful and humble heart.

Yet God still hates our sins of mistreating others. Christ says we must treat others as well as we treat ourselves. We must forgive others as God has forgiven us. If God has made your neighbor’s scarlet as white as snow, have you also forgotten his sins, as far as the east is from the west?  

How have I treated others this week? Is there any chance that when I get to church this morning, God will say, “Who asked you to come worship me? … I want no more of your [piety] … though you offer many prayers, I will not listen.” 

Because of Christ, I am confident I will not be turned away as I go to worship this morning. But also because I am a follower of Christ, I need to make a sober assessment of how I’ve treated others this week.

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Transforming Light

“The whole earth is full of his glory.” That song of the seraphim has come to mind almost daily in the last week, as I watch the world turn red and gold.

I remember this day in the woods with a friend as a walk through golden air.

Today is gray and rainy, and I’m reminded again how light can change everything, even when darkness is threatening and clouds hang over us.

Yesterday my almost-three-year-old grandson visited me. He looked around and said, “There are lights shining everywhere.”

Yes, I am a lamp freak. Some women can’t resist a sale on shoes; I like to shop for lamps. The right lighting, in my opinion, can transform a room.

And this is what I want: the glory of the Lord filling my heart-house, shining its light everywhere, transforming me.

This old commandment — to love one another — is the same message you heard before. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you are also living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.

Love is the basis of so much of Jesus’ teaching. Loving God. Loving one another. Loving even your enemies. But how hard that is to actually live out!

This verse is a comfort to me. It assures me that the Spirit is working in me to banish dark places of my heart, to shine the true Light that transforms me and makes me more and more like Christ Himself.

That is one of the hopes we have as Christians. The Light changes us! We learn to live the truth of Jesus’ commands, especially that all-important-but-really-tough command to love one another.

And as we are changed, the Light shines more brightly, transforms situations and relationships, brings God’s truth to the corner of the world where we spend our days.

Yes, Lord, this is what I want: the darkness disappearing, the true Light shining!

And I believe that verse refers not just to each disciple of Christ, but also to His church as a body. His kingdom is now. His light transforms now. He fills us with His glory and transforms us — and the world around us — with His light, as His church lives the truth of His commandment to love one another.

　

Scripture: Isaiah 6:3 (NIV); 1 John 1:7-8 (NLT)

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Ban the teaspoons!

Is there anything that fills you? Yes, I know. We talk about being filled with love for someone. Filled with compassion. Filled with anger. But are we speaking perhaps more of floodings than fillings? A span of time when the feeling or motivation floods through us but later ebbs? Even food fills us physically only for a time.

Can we say there is anything that truly fills us?

Our women’s Bible study is looking at Scriptures on joy. Jesus said He intends to fill us with His joy. Fill. Not just a wave of joy here and there, an hour or so of God-bequeathed happiness once a week, a drop or two on a cloudy day. No, He wants to fill us with joy.

Someone in the Bible study group suggested that there are buckets and barrels of joy available. “But,” another woman pointed out, “we just go to God with little teaspoons.”

God says He will supply and bestow overwhelming abundance, buckets and barrels of gifts and mercies and grace, but we arrive at His throne with just a teaspoon in hand.

I propose that we ban all teaspoons from the Kingdom.

When God tells us what He has for His children, he uses words with meanings of enormous and unlimited proportions. Here’s a sampling. Many of these passages we can rattle off by memory, but do we understand the extravagance, completeness, and perfection they detail? Try hard to grasp the beyond-measurement of the words I’ve bolded in these familiar phrases.

… that your joy may be complete

hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace … so that you may overflow with hope …

the God who gives life to the dead

The earth is filled with your love, O Lord

to know this love that surpasses knowledge

the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds

he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion

Grace and peace be yours in abundance

with God all things are possible

him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine

rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us generously

this all-surpassing power is from God

out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness

He is able to save completely those who come to God through him

the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time

ask God, who gives generously to all

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

And this is what he promised us — even eternal life.

he who promised is faithful

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches

I am come that they may have life, and have it to the full

God’s abundant provision of grace … brings life for all men

How priceless is your unfailing love!

They feast on the abundance of your house.

the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him

his incomparably great power for us who believe

How our lives would be changed if we understood the depth and breadth of these statements!

God apparently does not deal in drops or smidges or smatterings or pinches or trickles or dabs or teaspoons. Not even in buckets and barrels. He pours and fills; He promises and is faithful and completes.

God’s vocabulary of abundance saturates Scripture. What if we start looking for the hugeness of His promises, start thinking in His dimensions … start believing and living in God proportions?

That’s impossible, of course. As long as we dwell in these human tents, we can never fully understand the reservoirs of God. But we can ask the Spirit for a glimpse … and then we can begin to believe-live.

Let us go to Him with more than teaspoons.

　

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Scriptures taken from: John 15:11; Romans 5:5; Romans 15:13; Romans 4:17; Psalm 119:64; Ephesians 3:19; Philippians 4:7; Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:2; Matthew 19:26; Ephesians 3:20; Titus 3:5-6; 2 Corinthians 4:7; Ephesians 3:16; 2 Peter 1:3; Hebrews 7:25; Titus 1:2; James 1:5; Isaiah 1:18; Psalm 103:12; 1 John 2:25; Hebrews 10:23; Philippians 4:19; John 10:10; Romans 5:17-18; from Psalm 36:5-10; Psalm 32:10; Ephesians 1:19 (All NIV)

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Armor Inventory and Training for Battle

So the battle was lost yesterday. Mourning the loss, I look for the chink in my armor. What part of God’s armor had I failed to put on? Why had I not stood firm? Why was my resistance so weak and ineffective?

I’ve been reading Watership Down, a story in which the main characters are rabbits. The rabbits have distinct personalities and think and converse among themselves … and as a reader, you will pretty much swallow the whole story. (You gotta read it to believe it.)

On a long journey searching for a new home, the rabbits are caught in a storm. They try to take refuge in several old rabbit holes and runs, but the shelter is not adequate. “There is nothing like bad weather to reveal the shortcomings of a dwelling…”

When I read that sentence, I thought of the Ephesians 6 passage about putting on the armor of God to withstand attacks from the powers of darkness. There is nothing like a fierce battle to reveal the shortcomings of our armor.

God does not provide inadequate armor; rather, it is our failure to take on all of God’s armor that leaves us open to attack and sometimes defeat. And when those battles come, then we see where we still need to shore up or take on more of the defenses and weapons God gives us.

Our battle is against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. We need ALL of God’s armor! Why wait until a battle reveals our weak spots, the chinks in the armor, the places we have failed to prepare and arm ourselves?

You can be sure that your enemy knows exactly where your weaknesses lie and where you are most vulnerable. 

So I went to Ephesians 6, read it again and again. Why did the battle go so badly? What armor was I lacking? What must I take on to stand firm in the next battle?

May I recommend this exercise? Read Ephesians 6:10-18. Take inventory of your armor and ask the Spirit to teach you to do battle. I found my answer this morning, and it was one more lesson I needed to learn.

I must amend my opening statement. The battle was not lost yesterday. No, Christ has already defeated all the powers of hell itself; the end of this conflict is already decided.

I just lost a small skirmish, and God continues to train me for combat.

Psalm 18 is David’s blog on his own battle, his distress, his cries for help. God rescues him. And then comes the passage in verses 30-45 that describes how God not only protects us but arms us with strength, trains us for battle, and gives us a shield of victory. 

Until, well-trained and armored, we can also say,

I chased my enemies and caught them;
    I did not stop until they were conquered.
I struck them down so they could not get up;
    they fell beneath my feet…
I ground them as fine as dust in the wind;
    I swept them into the gutter like dirt.

Ah! Victory! Such a different picture than ambush and distress and defeat.

Would that all my battles end in this way. Until then, I’ll keep checking my armor and training with the Spirit.

 

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-18; Psalm 18

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Recognize God’s Care

The children of Israel are trapped. They’ve left the slavery of Egypt and started for a land God promised to give them as their own. Now they are camped on the seashore, with no way to cross the water, and the alarm goes up: the Egyptians are coming after them. They have nowhere to go. They’ll be captured or slaughtered. Panic and despair run through the millions of people.

Moses tells them to be calm. “Just stand still and watch how God will fight for you.” So they watched, and they moved when God said to move. And they saw their pursuers swept away in the sea. The people were filled with awe of what God had done, and they put their faith in Him.

But you know what happens to these people. Time and again, they forget the awe they felt that day. They forget the rescue. They grumble about what God gives them and the plans He has for them. They even decide to seek other gods that might be more to their liking.

That cycle is repeated again and again. God rescues and provides. His people forget and turn away from Him. Until, generations later, God sends a messenger to the people He had chosen and called His own, and He says to them, “You don’t see what I have done for you, what I am doing for you. And you rebel against me and despise me.”

Oh, what a sinful nation they are —
    loaded down with a burden of guilt.
They are evil people,
    corrupt children who have rejected the LORD.
They have despised the Holy One of Israel
    and turned their backs on him.

These were the people who had a unique relationship with God, the ones He had chosen to bless with special favor. He had protected and directed and blessed them. Now they despise Him and rebel.

What a sad story. How did people chosen for great blessings and great destiny wind up an evil people, corrupt, loaded with guilt?

And how can we keep that story from becoming ours? How do we — who also have been chosen, rescued from slavery and given a promise of a rich land — how do we make certain we do not fail in the same way?

Perhaps the key is in the verse just before this. God says, “My people don’t recognize my care for them.”

Is recognizing God’s care for us the key to living in relationship with Him?

Letting our days gallop by and living blind to God’s care opens the door to violating our covenant with Him and turning our backs on the Holy One. Evil. Corrupt. Despising God. Harsh words, but if we fail to recognize what God does for us, the path can easily lead to such a life.

 When I fail to look for God’s care and gifts, when I cannot stand still and see how He fights for me, then I become frantic or gloomy or defeated or frustrated or …. I’m sure you can add a few more words of your own. And when I do not look for, do not see God, then all too easily other gods slip in.

But when we can see how He cares for us, when we see His gifts in every day, then we also see His heart for us. God does still care for and fight for His children. Jesus says the Heavenly Father is far more benevolent with good gifts than any earthly parent, and Paul says God is always working for our good. Do we recognize this in every day?

Once we see our Father’s care, there can be only gratitude for:

      * what God has done to bring us out of slavery and into a free life
      * what He has given us by adopting us as His own children
      * the battles He fights for us
      * the power He plants within each of us
      * His daily gifts to sustain and encourage and delight

Ann Voskamp says that “…gratitude is not only the memories of our heart; gratitude is a memory of God’s heart and to thank is to remember God.”*

Come, let us worship and bow down,
    Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,
    for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
    the flock under his care.

Let us worship and bow down.
Amen.

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Scripture: from Exodus 14; Isaiah 1:3-4 (NLT), Psalm 95:6 (NLT)

*from One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp