Isaiah 30:19-32:20
Several characteristics of the time that was ahead of Isaiah but is available to us (albeit not in its full consummated form) - a voice behind us will tell us “this is the way, walk in it” (30:21). It would be easier if the voice was in front of us and attached to a face but that is not the way that it works. We should expect to hear the voice though. We will throw away our false fancies like.. well....ahem... dirty tampons (30:22). I guess that is about as vivid an image as is necessary. We should be in a time of purity and hatred of spiritual uncleanness. The food of the land will be rich and plentiful (30:23). We should expect to enjoy the bountiful blessings of the kingdom, and not feel guilty when we do. There will be miraculous transformation of people - the blind will see, the deaf hear, the foolish will become wise and the ponderous will be authoritative (32:3-4). And, perhaps most of all, the LORD will come from afar, his breath like a rushing torrent and he will shake the nations and we will sing with heats rejoicing (30:27-29). We should expect to have our jaws on the floor and our knees aknocking - astonishment and trembling are natural responses to proximity to God. He has a majestic voice. His voice can shatter nations. And yet it beckons us to come to him. How gracious he has been.
2 Corinthians 13:1-14
The fundamental identity of a Christian is someone who has Christ Jesus in them. We need to just pause on this a while. We need to linger on this doctrine. The defining thing about us is not that we go to church. The defining thing about us is not that we try to live in step with the spirit or to obey the words of God. The defining thing about us is not even that we believe Jesus Christ was God-made-flesh reconciling the world to himself through his death and resurrection. The defining thing about is that Jesus - the one who touched the blind and they saw, the one who preached the best sermon ever given, the one who never sinned, the one who rose powerful and victorious from the grave, the one who is seated at the right hand of the Father, the one who will be crowned eternal King of every star and galaxy and planet in the universe - that He is in us. I can’t do the maths for it. I can barely begin to do the theology for it. But I sure as heck need to believe it. Believing it and knowing it would comprehensively change my who perspective on life. It would radically overhaul what I think about myself, about what is possible for me, about what the future will hold, about what I can offer to others. If Jesus is actually in me then surely he can use my lips and my fingers and my brain and my feet to do some pretty funky stuff. If Jesus is in me then I’m in a fundamentally different and fundamentally better place than most of the people around me. Wow. I need to think on this some more...
Proverbs 22:17-27
The saying of the wise really do help us. It will please us when we have them ready on our lips.
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