Seek the Lord and Live

For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it. Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground! The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name, who makes destruction flash out against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress. They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate. Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time. (Amos 5:4-13, NRSV)

God is a jealous God and wants us to follow Him.

God seeks us and follows after us when we do not follow Him or seek Him. That is why Amos tells us that God wants us to seek after Him. If we seek after God and try to follow Him then we will be on the path He has for us.

We will not stray to places that He doesn’t need us to be. We will follow and walk humbly with God in the ways He has prepared for us to walk.

So seek the Lord and follow in His ways, so that you may share His love with all of the world.

God’s Judgement on Israel

Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed. Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was as strong as oaks; I destroyed his fruit above, and his roots beneath. Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up some of your children to be prophets and some of your youths to be nazirites. Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel? says the Lord. But you made the nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, “You shall not prophesy.” So, I will press you down in your place, just as a cart presses down when it is full of sheaves. Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain their strength, nor shall the mighty save their lives; those who handle the bow shall not stand, and those who are swift of foot shall not save themselves, nor shall those who ride horses save their lives; and those who are stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, says the Lord. (Amos 2:6-16, NRSV)

We think that we do not need to take care of those in need as the church. But Jesus nor God never said to allow the government to create a program to take care of the poor and the needy, God over and over again tells us that we need to take care of the poor and needy.

If we push off those who need our help we are not walking as God has called us to walk. If we turn away those who need our help aren’t we actually turning away the person of God before us? God created everyone and is a part of everything he created. So by turning away someone in need, we are turning away God.

How do we serve God, and do what He has sent us here to do?

Mercy, Justice, and Peace

[ For lo, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. Then the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will burst open, like wax near the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?] But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace. If the Assyrians come into our land and tread upon our soil, we will raise against them seven shepherds and eight installed as rulers. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah [1:3-5] 5:2-5a; 6:6-8, NRSV)

What do we need to do for God?

What do we need to do to follow God?

The good Lutheran answer is nothing. There is nothing I can do to earn God’s grace, but then the question wasn’t about God’s grace, it was about what we need to do for God and to follow God.

You see there is something those of us who are followers of Christ must do, and that is go where He leads us. Follow Christ everywhere. We need to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.

How do we do justice?

When we see something that is wrong, we say something or do something about it. Whether it affects us or not we need to work for justice in the world.

How do we love kindness?

We love everyone as we wish to be loved and seek to share the kindness that we have been given.

And how do we walk humbly with God?

Do what God has asked us to do, which is do justice and love kindness without asking for anything in return. To not let the world know who did it, but just follow God and know that He has blessed us beyond all award we could ever earn here.

Follow God everywhere and share the blessing with which you have been blessed, because that is what God needs us to do…

 

A Promised Hope, part 2

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious. On that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, the hostility of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not be hostile towards Ephraim. But they shall swoop down on the backs of the Philistines in the west, together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put forth their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them. And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt; and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching wind; and will split it into seven channels, and make a way to cross on foot; so there shall be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that is left of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt. (Isaiah 11:10-16, NRSV)

Our hope is that in the final day when the Messiah has come in power He will call all people to Him, from the four corners of the world. All peoples will be brought to Him and peace will reign. That is our Hope.

That God will never leave us nor forsake us and will pursue us for all of our lives.

No one will stand against the Lord and His chosen one to bring us together.

Hope in the fact that God will always bring us to him.

A Promised Hope, part 1

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:1-9, NRSV)

Have you ever seen a new tree growing out of a dead stump? It is the miraculous way that life finds a way…

And in that life, there will be the spirit of the Lord. And it shall bring wisdom and understanding, might and counsel, knowledge and awe.

The awe of the Lord will be the best part of it. And you may now be saying why are you saying awe when the reading says fear?

Well fear carries a connotation of being afraid. And that is not always what biblical fear means. Fear in the bible can mean awe. Like I want my children to like me, but respect me, I want them to fear me but not be afraid of me, I want them to understand that I am their father and love them, but that there will be consequences for unwanted actions. So awe not fear…

And this shoot will judge without using their eyes or their ears. They will judge as God does by looking beyond what we can see and what we can hear to understanding the internal motivations of a person. That is our hope. That the king will be like God and see us as God sees us.

So do you have awe for God and Jesus?

Do you wonder at the love God has for you and share that with the world?

A Song of Hope for the City

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.”
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. (Psalm 46, NRSV)

When times of trouble surround me, I know that God is my refuge, my hiding place.

I know that no matter what is going on I can stop and sit in the silence and breath and feel the life that God has given me flow through my body. You see the breath, the wind, it is the Spirit. And that is God with me.

No matter what is happening in my life, God will never leave me nor forsake me. He is my help when I am in trouble and my rest every day.

Know this and trust it. It is true for you!

Isaiah’s Message to Ahaz

In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack against it. When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram—with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and cut off Jerusalem and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it; therefore thus says the Lord God: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.) The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all. Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.” (Isaiah 7:1-17, NRSV)

This is the great passage about Jesus! The one my Old Testament Professor said that if it is only about Jesus, Isaiah is telling Ahaz to hold out about 750 years until the siege will be done. Now that isn’t to say that it isn’t about Jesus, but the question my professor asked us was how many times does a prophecy come true before it ceases to be prophecy?

Maybe this passage is more than this prophecy though. You see Ahaz was asked to ask for a sign from God that what Isaiah told him was true and Ahaz wouldn’t. Ahaz was told that he had to stand firm in his faith, and he said he wouldn’t test the Lord. But God wanted to give him a sign, so Isaiah did. So maybe this is about Jesus saying to Ahaz you need to be strong and firm in your faith for 750 years. But how many of us could do that. Plus the baby eating curd and honey is about 2 years. So which would you rather wait, about 3 years (the woman is with child, so the baby isn’t born yet) or 750ish years?

Standing firm in our faith for 3 years would be hard enough. But that is truly the test. We need to trust God and do what He asks of us and hold fast to His promises because God is always true to His word.

The Reign of Ahaz

In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, King Ahaz son of Jotham of Judah began to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. He sacrificed and made offerings on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. Then King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel came up to wage war on Jerusalem; they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. At that time the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom, and drove the Judeans from Elath; and the Edomites came to Elath, where they live to this day. Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up, and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria listened to him; the king of Assyria marched up against Damascus, and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir; then he killed Rezin. When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. King Ahaz sent to the priest Uriah a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. The priest Uriah built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, just so did the priest Uriah build it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. When the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar, went up on it, and offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured his drink offering, and dashed the blood of his offerings of well-being against the altar. The bronze altar that was before the Lord he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar. King Ahaz commanded the priest Uriah, saying, “Upon the great altar offer the morning burnt offering, and the evening grain offering, and the king’s burnt offering, and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offering; then dash against it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” The priest Uriah did everything that King Ahaz commanded. Then King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands, and removed the laver from them; he removed the sea from the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pediment of stone. The covered portal for use on the sabbath that had been built inside the palace, and the outer entrance for the king he removed from the house of the Lord. He did this because of the king of Assyria. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? Ahaz slept with his ancestors, and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David; his son Hezekiah succeeded him. (2 Kings 16:1-20, NRSV)

What will you be remembered for?

I read this account of King Ahaz and have to think, what will people read about me or remember about me?

And Ahaz thought about himself. So he wanted a big write up and wanted people to know all the things he had done.

But I have to say that I am taken by the new song by Casting Crowns called Only Jesus.

You see it isn’t about me being remembered. It is about me letting the world know who God is. Who Jesus is. And how much Jesus loves me and the world. You see it is more important for me that you know Jesus than me. I want you to see Jesus.

Elisha and the Axe Head

Now the company of prophets said to Elisha, “As you see, the place where we live under your charge is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan, and let us collect logs there, one for each of us, and build a place there for us to live.” He answered, “Do so.” Then one of them said, “Please come with your servants.” And he answered, “I will.” So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was felling a log, his ax head fell into the water; he cried out, “Alas, master! It was borrowed.” Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, and threw it in there, and made the iron float. He said, “Pick it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it. (2 Kings 6:1-7, NRSV)

Can an iron ax head float in water?

Or better question, have you ever been near the water or on the water and dropped something into or overboard? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to drop a stick in and make the item float to the top?

This is what I posted about yesterday. We want to see the miracle. The big thing.

These are the things we read about and ask, why don’t they happen today? Maybe they do and we just can’t see them because we can’t believe it if we did.

Maybe God is working all around us and we just overlook it because it is too simple.

What would you honestly do if you saw this? Would you believe without a doubt from then forward?

How would this affect your faith?

Elisha Heals Naaman

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; (2 Kings 5:1-15a, NRSV)

Why is it when we ask God to do something or want to do something for God it has to be a big production?

We want flashes and grandeur and pomp. It has to have booms and loud noises and it has to be the hardest thing we have ever done.

We think we have to do something big in order for it to make a difference. We have to change the world when really all we have to do is give what we have been given to give. We do not have to change the world, but we have to do what we are called to do.

Naaman expected there to be flashes and the prophet to come to him. He complained about the easy washing because it wasn’t enough. And the rivers in my homeland are better than this water!

We think it has to be the biggest and best thing that ever happened. When all we really have to do to change the world is trust God and give what He has given us to give.