SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
12/8/2013 8:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Invitation to the Gentiles PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
55:6-13
Message of the
verses: We are looking at the second
sub-section of the second main section of Dr. Wiersbe’s outline, and this
second main section converses Isaiah 55:-56:8.
Seek (Isaiah 55:6-13):
“6 Seek the
LORD while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is
near. 7 Let the
wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will
have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are
not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 “For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and the snow come down
from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear
and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11 So will
My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I
desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. 12
“For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and
the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap
their hands. 13 "Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come
up, And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, And it will be a
memorial to the LORD, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.’”
I want to tell a little story that I think will help us
better understand verse six. When I was
working at my regular job that I worked at for 35 years, and after I became a
believer which happened in January of 1974 I was eating lunch with some of the
men that I worked with. I began to talk
about thing of the Lord to the men at the lunch table, telling them about the
Gospel. One of the men began to tell me
about when he was in his home town and home state, about a time when he went
into a church service where the Gospel was preached. He felt drawn to go forward after the
service, but chose not to do so. He then
stated that all the way home he seemed to be haunted by not going forward to
accept the Lord. Isaiah says that we are
to seek the Lord while He may be found, I can’t tell you whether or not this
man ever came to have a personal relationship with the Lord or not, but
according to his story it seemed that the Lord was near to Him that night at
the church. Look at the parable that
Jesus told in Luke 14:16-24 and also look at Proverbs 1:20 which says “Wisdom
calls aloud in the street; she raises her voice in the public squares.” Wisdom speaks of the Lord. Paul writes the following in 2 Cor. 6:2 “for
He says, "AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF
SALVATION I HELPED YOU." Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,"
behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION’”
Verse seven speaks of the wicked or unrighteous person
forsake his unrighteousness and wickedness, and notice that part of those
wicked things he was doing was in his thoughts.
Then Isaiah tells him to return to the Lord.
Before we get too far into these verses it would be good
to say that one of the reasons that God brought His people, Israel back to
their land was so that they could witness to the nations around them. When we look at the spiritual condition of
the Jews living in Israel when Jesus was ministering to them they wanted little
to do with other nations, for they thought that Gentiles were not good enough
to even talk too. Remember in Acts
chapter ten that Peter had to explain himself as to why he even went into a
Gentile home. Israel had many advantages
given to them by the Lord, and yet they misunderstood many of these advantages
including the privilege of having the Messiah born into their race as the son
of David.
We can see from verse eight and nine that it is not a
good idea to second guess the Lord for His thoughts are not our thoughts. One of the attributes is that He is all
knowing and also all wise. I think of
God’s holiness when looking at verse nine, for there is no one like the
Lord. Try explaining what grace is to
someone who is not a true believer and you may not get too far. Here on earth most people believe you get
what you work for, but that is not the case when it comes to the grace of God,
for it is by grace through faith that we are saved, and this is not of our own
so that no one can get to heaven and brag about how they got there.
Now let us look at verses 10-11 with this question in
mind: How does God go about calling and
saving lost sinners? “10 “For as the
rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without
watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the
sower and bread to the eater; 11 So will My word be which goes forth from My
mouth; It will not return
to Me empty, Without
accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for
which I sent it.” The answer is the
Word of God. Let us look at Hebrews 4:12
and how the author speaks about the Word of God there “For the word of God is
living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as
the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge
the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
We see here that it is the powerful Word of God that the Holy Spirit
will use to give His call to unbelievers. It may take a while when a people hear the
Word of God for them to come to know Him, but that is what the Holy Spirit will
use when saving an unsaved person. That
person may remember a verse of Scripture they learned when they were very young
that the Spirit of God will use to show him of the need for the Savior.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this sub-section by writing “Isaiah
55:12-13 describes both the joy of the exiles on their release from captivity
and the joy of Israel when they share in the ‘glorious exodus’ in the end of
the age and return to their land. When
the kingdom is established, all of nature will sing to the Lord (32:13; 35:1-2;
44:23; 52:8-9).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It has been a joy
to read these wonderful verses in the book of Isaiah today. I began this SD in the morning before I
attended church services and it was a joy to read them then, and then another
joy of reading them as I finished this SD.
One of the important things that I have been reminded of as of late was the
God uses His Word to call unbelievers to Himself. I am praying for a neighbor that I want to
begin a Bible Study after the first of the year so that I can show him from the
Word of God how he can be saved.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will see me through some
physical tests that I have to go through in the morning. Trust He will calm my heart.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Gold and Silver.”
Today’s Bible
Question: “How many of Pharaoh’s army
was destroyed in the sea?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/8/2013 9:09 PM
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