Tag Archives: Isaiah
God’s Present Will
January 18, 2016Every time I think of the challenge of actually knowing God’s will I get excited about the possibilities but apprehensive about my experiences where I didn’t hear well, interpret what I heard well, or just flat out missed it.
As you read this know that God is speaking truth and He so wants to meet you in the place where you are. Whether in total peace or total chaos, He loves you. He has a will for you, He has a will for your family, He has a will inside of your calling and your gifting.
Books have been written on this subject. Actually volumes of work on knowing God’s will. I want to focus on three categories. God’s perfect will, His permissive will and His present will. Wait, what do I mean by present will?
I set you up. Yeah sorry. Perfect and permissive will, that’s way too complicated. Let’s just focus on present will.
In this moment God has a very specific will for you. Let me say it again – IN THIS MOMENT. How much of our lives do we live either in the past or in the future? I like to call those the “two thieves.” These are regrets of the past and the anxiety of the future. They can steal our joy in the present. Thieves they are. I liken them to the thief that hung next to Jesus on the cross. Full of self-pity, judgement and piety. If we hang out in those places we’ll miss the blessing right beside us. In this case, he missed an eternity by not seeing the present as a gift from God.
Thoughts on Justice
August 12, 2014“They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.” -Thomas Jefferson – The Declaration of Independence.
In perhaps the most famous document in American history, our third president lays the foundation for an emerging free people defiant of repeated tyranny and injustice from Great Britain. All pleas having fallen on ‘deaf ears’ resulted in separation from England and the sanctification of a new nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
What is Justice?
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”- ISAIAH 1:17
According to Isaiah 1, justice has to do with defending the oppressed, advocating for the fatherless and appealing for the widow. But taken in context, these characteristics of justice are very conditional, in fact in verse 16 Isaiah calls on Judah [and the reader] to make themselves clean and to stop doing wrong. And in verses 19-20, the land and its people are called upon to be obedient and not rebellious, because their very fate revolves around their choice.