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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever been invited to sit and discuss really important life issues with someone who cares very much about you? What would you do if the God who made you and knows you better than you know yourself, invited you to such an encounter? He has! Isaiah the prophet, whom we’ve met in the last few days, was led by God to write this in his first chapter: “Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD.” (Is. 1:18)
This message from God was intended for ALL the Israelite people, both those in the northern kingdom Israel and the southern kingdom Judah, around 730bc, but it applies to every people group in the world in 2020! I ask you to read the entire first chapter of Isaiah today and look closely at your part of the world through the lenses of these verses. “Hear O heavens! Listen O earth! For the LORD has spoken: I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me. …They have forsaken the LORD’ they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their back on Me… Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me… When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.
Take your evil deeds out of My sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the cause of the widow. Come, let us reason together, says the LORD.” (Isaiah 1:2,4,13,15-18)
Amazingly God’s invitation to reason with Him, to consider His holiness and our sinfulness, to consider His ways and His truth and our rebellion… has resulted, both then and now, in the rejection of God… from most of the human race. In Israel’s case, that rejection resulted in what we saw in 2 Kings 17 and their destruction. But have you noticed, the same is happening on every continent of our world in our time? In our freedom to think, freedom to reason, freedom to choose… humanity consistently chooses rejection of God, rebellion against God’s holy ways, and that choice results in self-enslavement, self-destruction, the collapse of families and organizations, and even the implosion of society. Is that what you see where you live in our world?
Today, I’m going to ask you to watch & listen to a clip from a message I gave recently which calls us to reason with God about the “Test of Freedom”. How are you and I handling the God given FREEDOM we have? It’s Isaiah chapter 1 applied to your city and mine, today, in 2020, so I invite you to read Isaiah 1 first, then watch the video clip, then spend some time praying… about your life, your family, your city, your nation!
I’d love to hear from you if you’d write to me and tell me what you sense God is saying to you as He invites us all to “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD.”
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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