Our old friend Isaiah

I'm quite moved by our old friend Isaiah. His hard hitting straight forward no holds barred right out of the box approach to rebuke is fresh nearly three thousand years later. Isaiah 1:27 NLT. I'd encourage you to read the whole chapter again. I love that verse three already insults us and says essentially we are dummer than a jackass. But by verse 27 we are given the hope that revival comes from repentance.

I believe that is a fair formula for God's child.

Want Revival? Repent of your stubborn pride. We're so often right (informed by the Lord and his word) that we forgot we are usually wrong (in and of ourselves).  We are not so clever. We are stupider than a jackass. We need to repent.

So there's your revival tip. Repent of pride. Look for God's leading in his word and obey.
Have faith He is in control.

Isaiah 1:3-6, 27 NLT

Even an ox knows its owner, and a donkey recognizes its master’s care— but Israel doesn’t know its master. My people don’t recognize my care for them.” 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. Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick. You are battered from head to foot— covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds— without any soothing ointments or bandages. Zion will be restored by justice; those who repent will be revived by righteousness.

Dirtbags?

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Jeremiah 18:1-10 NIV

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord : “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.  Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord . “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

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unknown metal item found in Derbyshire near Stanage Edge.

unknown metal item found in Derbyshire near Stanage Edge.

The first book of the Bible, Genesis,  tells us God made man. It says God took a bit of the dirt and made man. Sounds a bit like a potter making a bit of pottery. So Jeremiah's illustration is more reality than analogy.

God as our creator has all the creative copyrights reserved.

And can not God match us to our purpose and his need. Who are we to talk back to our maker?

Before the final firing potter’s clay is able to be reworked, and completely repurposed. So isn't God saying that he's still not finished with us.

Here are some thoughts about the implications of God as our maker.

• God has complete say over our purpose.
• God has the right to judge our performance in light of his purpose for us.
• God has no obligation to the one he created.
• There is no higher law, rule, say or purpose than God's.
• God is not working for someone, he had made us for himself.
• No other thing made by God is in a position to judge God's purposes for something he made for himself.
• Usefulness, beauty, functionality, durability are some of the possible values that God may have for his creation but ultimately it is for God alone to determine.
• Works in progress before the firing can be remade.
• God is Sovereign.

God is the first and final word over his own creation. 

We are God's creation. 

Therefore God is the first and final word over us.

Our role is to do what we were made for.

Do you know what you were made for?
Do you know why God has made you?
Does he look at you and see a product he'd be happy to fire in the kiln?
Are you going around in circles? Spinning around?
Let God mold you to his will. Recognise his superior position.

_____ _____ _____ _____ _____

Isaiah 29:16 NIV

You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?

Isaiah 45:9 NIV

“Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’?

Isaiah 64:8 NIV

Yet you, Lord , are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Romans 9:21 NIV

Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

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Plea for a forgetful God?

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Isaiah 63:17, 19; 64:5-9 NLT

Lord, why have you allowed us to turn from your path? Why have you given us stubborn hearts so we no longer fear you? Return and help us, for we are your servants, the tribes that are your special possession...

Sometimes it seems as though we never belonged to you, as though we had never been known as your people.

You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways. But you have been very angry with us, for we are not godly. We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved?

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.

And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.

Don’t be so angry with us, Lord . Please don’t remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people.

__________________________

Runaways, Returnable? repent, reflection,  related?

Righteous?
Ridiculous!

Rescue required.

Rage.
Rut.
Rags.

Regret.
Reason.

Repentance

Remembrance removed.

Received?

Reunited!

____

On behalf of God's people Isaiah pleads for God to rescue them.

I picked out these verses in chapters 63 and 64 of Isaiah because they serve as a model. You and I can look at this plea as a pattern for our own repentance.

Recognising our need for God to rescue us from ourselves will lead to change.

The restoration that God has planned for you and me is begun in us by repentance.

Repentance is a recognition that we're on the wrong road. We're going the wrong way. We look at the horizon and we admit we're lost. We notice an increasing loneliness; we recoil at the repugnant odor of our rebellion.

Repentance is seeing what we're missing. Repentance is longing to be home. Repentance is the prodigal ready to serve. Rehearsing apologies. Readying the heart for welcome.

Run to Jesus.

Rejoice!

https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following-plea

Simon, Satan, Sifting, and Strengthening (ver. 1)

Luke 22:31-34 NLT

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.  But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.” But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”
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Satan wants to have a go with Jesus disciples. Satan requires Jesus' permission. The image Jesus used to describe Satan's goal and method, is the sifting of wheat to separate the kernel from the chaff. This processes reminds me of Psalm 1(pasted below the Matthew Henry's Luke commentary passage). In Psalm 1 the contrast is between the fruitful vibrant tree planted by a stream and the worthless waste product of life, chaff blown away so they get to the thing of value.
Satan wanted to show that Jesus' ministry was fruitless. Satan had been allowed to have Judas and apparently thought he might have all of Jesus' disciples. Jesus knows the disciples are fruitful or at least will be. So he allows Satan to 'sift' all the disciples. Strangely some versions of the Bible do not translate the object of Satan's sifting as plural. But the original language is indeed plural and Jesus is referring to all the disciples. And I believe it is important because of Jesus intent for Peter.

Jesus pleads in prayer for Simon's faith.

And Jesus prays Simon's faith will not fail when Satan 'sifts' him. Although Satan's goal is to show Jesus as fruitless, it is interesting that the process not only will show fruit (faith) but will also get rid of chaff.

Might Jesus allow you to be sifted? Will your faith remain?

So Jesus prays faith will remain and that faith will bring repentance and a turning back to Jesus.

This is not the end goal of Jesus. And neither should it be ours.
Listen now!
The purpose of allowing Satan to sift, the purpose of Jesus' pleading in prayer for faith to remain, and the purpose of Simon's repentance and return to Jesus, was to strengthen the other disciples; Presumably, so they too would repent, turn to Jesus, and have faith that remains. And so all the disciples could strengthen others who would have faith, repent and turn to Jesus.

We can not do it on our own. Like Peter, we'll deny Jesus. Like Peter we may be sifted. But like Peter, Jesus is praying for us.

John 17:20“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. (NLT)

I'm not sure why you thought it would be easy. It will not be easy. I'm not sure why you thought you'd always win, stand strong, and never deny Jesus. I'm not sure why you thought Satan could not try and uncover your fruitless faithlessness. Probably God will allow you to face temptations and trials. Jesus did. You are following Jesus! Aren't you? Satan tried to get Jesus to worship him. The Holy Spirit led him to face Satan. Jesus let Satan have a go at his disciples.
Aren't you in the same rank and file? Aren't you following Jesus and God disciples?

Then believe me this will happen to you. And Jesus prays for you. And Jesus wants your faith to remain. He wants you to repent. He wants you to strengthen others.
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Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

Luke 22:21-38 How unbecoming is the worldly ambition of being the greatest, to the character of a follower of Jesus, who took upon him the form of a servant, and humbled himself to the death of the cross! In the way to eternal happiness, we must expect to be assaulted and sifted by Satan. If he cannot destroy, he will try to disgrace or distress us. Nothing more certainly forebodes a fall, in a professed follower of Christ, than self-confidence, with disregard to warnings, and contempt of danger. Unless we watch and pray always, we may be drawn in the course of the day into those sins which we were in the morning most resolved against. If believers were left to themselves, they would fall; but they are kept by the power of God, and the prayer of Christ. Our Lord gave notice of a very great change of circumstances now approaching. The disciples must not expect that their friends would be kind to them as they had been. Therefore, he that has a purse, let him take it, for he may need it. They must now expect that their enemies would be more fierce than they had been, and they would need weapons. At the time the apostles understood Christ to mean real weapons, but he spake only of the weapons of the spiritual warfare. The sword of the Spirit is the sword with which the disciples of Christ must furnish themselves.

Book One (Psalms 1–41)
psalm 1
1 Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
2 But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.
3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
and they prosper in all they do.
4 But not the wicked!
They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment.
Sinners will have no place among the godly.
6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly,
but the path of the wicked leads to destruction. (NLT)