The past couple of weeks, God's been really urging me to get back with Him on a regular basis and clean up a few things in my life. I've been prodded by the Spirit for quite a while, but somehow He's finally gotten me to a place where I can bow my head and say, "Not my will, Father, but Thine."
Trust me, it's not an easy journey. For me, it hasn't been fraught with major angst and turmoil in my outer life, but my spirit has been very restless, and that annoying little gerbil in my brain just wouldn't stop spinning in its wheel! That's not a good thing, you know; it's very tiring. It's also very handy for tying yourself in knots with guilt and indecision. How often will I need to go through this sort of thing until I finally, REALLY learn that it's always best to let God have His way in me?
One of the things I decided to do was to follow along in Kay Arthur's current Precepts for Life study in the book of Isaiah. I'm a bit behind (today was day 14, and I've only gotten through day 4), but that's OK; I can catch up, and am going to squeeze in two lessons a day until I do. Anyway, today and yesterday I was reading and studying Isaiah, chapter 1, where the prophet records God's charge against Israel and the consequences of sin and rebellion.
So, I actually got up early this morning and, instead of rolling over and checking e-mail and RSS feeds, I spent about an hour studying and listening to the third and fourth lessons from Kay. That was a good start to the day, and as I drove the Munchkin and a schoolmate to school, KLOVE played Michael W. Smith's new song, "A New Hallelujah." It's a lovely, uplifting song, but the line that caught my attention was
Arise!
Let the church arise!
In Isaiah 1, God is speaking to Israel. He reminds them that He has called them out of the world, and called them sons, that He has brought them up and blessed them - and yet they have turned away from Him!
In a similar manner, God has called His Church out from all the nations of the earth, to be a holy people, a priesthood of believers. Christians, the children of God, have been chosen to be presented to Christ Jesus as His pure, unspotted bride, to shine forth the glory of God-in-us. Yet, the Church these days looks far too much like the world! Our local churches teach unbiblical precepts, our divorce rate is the same as the pagans', we say one thing and do another, and simply look like we're "playing church."
How sad! How sad, and how dangerous!
God charged Israel with their corruption and apostacy. He pointed out their personal misery and the effects of their rebellion on the land. God expressed His hate for their hypocrisy, stating that He will not accept their worship because it is so corrupted.
Is the modern church - am *I* - so far removed from God's Word and His Law that we have fallen into the same situation? I fear that it is so. And God, being Who He is, is calling us back to Himself, telling us to
Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.
God calls us to repent and return to Him and His statutes. He calls us to put away all impurity and unclean things, to do as He has commanded from the beginning. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His commands do us have never changed:
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
God pleads with Israel - and also the church -
"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."
The blessings of obedience and righteous living is great - but the curse of rebellion and lawlessness is equally serious:
"If you are willing and obedient,
You shall eat the good of the land;
But if you refuse and rebel,
You shall be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
In the end, Israel continued in or returned to her rebellion, and God sent the Babylonians and Assyrians and Romans to take them away from the land He had promised. They have returned now, many centuries later, but are still in a land of turmoil and war.
We Christians, the true Church, live amid strife and conflict. Yes, in America it is not as harsh and life-threatening as in many other countries, but that is no excuse for us to be lazy and to merely mouth the words of our traditions without truly experiencing and showing God's renewal and redemption in our lives. And so it is that I come to the other song I heard on KLOVE this morning, which ties in with this topic: Jeremy Riddle's "Sweetly Broken:"
To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of it's suffering I do drink
Of it's work I do sing
For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just
Chorus:
At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered
What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified
You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled
Chorus
In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness
Are we really clinging to the Cross? Each and every day, each and every minute, we Christians need to hold fast to the Source of our salvation: Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross for us. All of our sin has been nailed to that Cross and paid for - so what sin could we possibly confess that would surprise God? He already knows the extent of our sin, the stain on His ekklesia - His "called-out ones." His Spirit within us convicts us of that sin, and draws us to the Cross to kneel and surrender to Him.
When we turn to God and bow before Him, agreeing with Him about our sin and our desperate need of Him, the Blood of Christ, shed for us on the Cross, covers us and cleanses us. We rise from our knees, clean and new -
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
God has removed the stain of sin, and Jesus' resurrection is proof: thus
... do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. [emph. mine]
Only after we have turned to God in repentance will He clean us. Only after we have recieved this cleansing can we rise in newness of life. Only then can the Church arise and have the glory of God shine through us, to be a brilliant beacon of the love of God and a strong witness to His saving grace.
Only then.
So, I'm turning to the Cross. I'm letting Jesus have His way, bringing me to my knees and breaking me - breaking me so sweetly, so gently and kindly - and remaking me anew in His image for His glory.
Not my will, Lord, but Thine.
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