Isaiah 18 - Woe or Blessing

"Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers." (Isa 18:1 NIV)

Woes sometimes have the effect of bringing us around to the Worship of God.

Over the years, I've noticed that some Christians, when confronted with trouble in their lives, tend to stay away from public worship of God. I'm thinking this might be because they are embarrassed that they have not been able to control their lives in a manner that is Christ-like. They don't want others to know that they have slipped up, they have sinned. There's a little problem with this and that is that they think that they have been saved by their good works. They think that they are or were good because they had been able to keep up the appearance of morality by their own inner strength. The glory was not God's, but theirs. Consequently, because they thought their good character was attributed to themselves, so was their fall, and they are embarrassed by their fall. They failed or so they think. Hopefully, they will come to understand that the LORD can use these failures to open our eyes so that we see the way to return to Him.

Others, when their sins begin to cause them stressful living, decide that it is God's fault that their lives are spiraling downhill. They cannot acknowledge that maybe they have chosen to follow another path that the LORD would not have them follow through the wilderness. Again, the LORD can use these times of woe so that we will seek the light and turn from the path of darkness that we have been following.

Either way, both of these are symptoms of an underlying issue - a control issue. It is really hard to relinquish our whole lives into the hands of Almighty God. But, when we do, something marvelous happens, by the power of the Spirit of Christ, we will become more Christ-like. We will desire to Worship the LORD.  It needs to be understood that worship of God is not a good work credited to you. It is a natural outpouring of the love that we have for the one who first loved us.

Whoever, these tall, smooth skinned people who live between the rivers are that God sends this warning of woe to, many of them end up worshipping the LORD Almighty.

"At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty." (Isa 18:7)

Woes can be turned to blessings. Let us rejoice for God for the gifts that God has given us. Let us give all glory to God "for in him we live and move and have our being." (Act 17:28)

God's Peace - Pr. J

2 Chronicles 14 - Strange gods

Asa did what was right in the sight of God.  He got rid of all the altars that were used to worship strange gods.  And... the land had rest!

If that's all that it takes to have rest - to have peace - in the land, why can't the land be rid of strange gods.   I'm all for it!  I have to admit that these past few years out on the eastern side of Baraga County, I have known more rest, more peace, than I've known most of my life.  Although, they still are there; it seems there are relatively fewer false gods than in most places I've lived.  Well,  I guess I have to take that back.  As busy as I was, I also knew quite a bit of rest and peace when I lived in Gay, MI and in Rota, Spain, as well as Jacksonville, NC.  They were chaotic times, but there was also rest.  But, still, none of these places afforded me the opportunty, the time, to really give thanks to God and to Worship Him, as I have experienced the last few years.  It's not there is not turmoil around me.  But, the turmoil caused by the false gods around me, are not able to invade my space, my life, as they were when I was living in the midst of people who bowed to strange gods.

I am in North Carolina this morning.  I remember returning here to live many years ago and thinking, as the plane landed:  I will die in this place. It was a good thought, but probably not going to happen. It is a beautiful state and I do miss it at times. As we were driving down here this week, I was thinking what a beautiful country we live in.  Every state is so awesome!  How blessed we are.  I wonder then, if the rest I know comes with age... Has it come to me as I've grown older because with each year the strange gods have revealed to me how false they really are and I've managed to ignore or get rid of them from my life.

Don't know.... just musing...  I do know that when we keep the strange gods out of our lives, our lives go a lot smoother and the  people of the land will know rest and have peace.