The Relevance of Isaiah’s Warnings in Modern Society

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Cloaked traveler walking a rocky path through mountains at sunset with a castle in the valley

“But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the Lord Almighty. So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day; the elders and dignitaries are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail.“
“Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upwards in a column of smoke.”
“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.“
“Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.”
Isaiah 9:13-15, 10:1-2, 4b NIVUK

The section of Scripture from Isaiah 9:8 to 10:4 provides some terrible verses that are difficult to read, under the heading “The Lord’s Anger against Israel”, and one sentence is repeated three times: “Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.” We read the future tense with repeated “the Lord will” throughout the prophecy, detailing terrible events coming, yet despite all the warnings, and with the benefit of hindsight, we know Israel ignored them. The worrying thing is that some of the warnings can apply to our secular society today. We read “…for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks folly”. Then there is “wickedness burns like a fire” and a reference to “those who make unjust laws” and “those who issued oppressive decrees”. There are those who “withhold justice from the oppressed of [God’s] people”. But God asks the question, one that has hung in the air over all people and all generations ever since – “What will you do on the day of reckoning”?

I would contend that God’s hand is still upraised today and will continue to be as He allows sin and wickedness to continue in the hearts, minds, and actions of human beings, all of whom will one day be required to give an account of their lives before Him. In Old Testament times, God’s judgments were applied within a few generations, but in our New Covenant times, God is holding back until the final day, when Jesus will occupy the “Great White Throne”. The Apostles’ Creed includes the words, and referring to Jesus, “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead”. One day, there will be a time of judgement because we live in a moral universe, and the scales so skewed by wickedness will be rebalanced, and God’s hand will finally be lowered. 

We pilgrims know, I’m sure, that our names are written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life” and we will escape the wrath to come. Not, I should add, by a grudging God, but because we have turned to Him and His Son, reaching out in repentance for forgiveness for our sin and wickedness. And now, as His children, we are in a privileged position, having seen a glimpse of Jesus and His love and compassion, which will follow us all the days of our lives. 

But I cannot finish this morning without returning to Isaiah 6. In the Temple, Isaiah saw the Lord “high and lifted up”, a vision so real and meaningful that he could not fail to respond positively to the Lord’s question, “Who shall I send? And who will go for us?” with a response that totally transformed his life, as the words fell from his lips, “Here am I. Send me”. Is that our pilgrim position today? I hope so, because time is short and many lost souls are heading to the wrong place. 

Dear Father God. Many years later, we, too, answer the call with our own response: “Send me.” Guide us to the right mission field, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Understanding Isaiah 6: God’s Message to a Wayward People

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Silhouette of a hiker standing on a grassy hilltop facing a bright sunrise with sun rays spreading across the sky.

“Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.” Then I said, “Lord, how long will this go on?” And he replied, “Until their towns are empty, their houses are deserted, and the whole country is a wasteland; until the Lord has sent everyone away, and the entire land of Israel lies deserted. If even a tenth—a remnant—survive, it will be invaded again and burned. But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.””
Isaiah 6:10-13 NLT

Our verses today from Isaiah 6 draw the chapter to a close. Isaiah went into the Temple because he wanted to spend some time with God, in the hope that he could make some sense out of the new season in Judah following Uzziah’s death. Uzziah was a king who ruled in Judah for over fifty years, and his reign was marked by a period of political and military stability. What was Isaiah hoping to find or gain from his Temple visit? Whatever it was, the last thing he expected, I should imagine, was a wonderful and awesome vision of the Lord, “high and lifted up”, a vision that totally transformed his life, a vision that led to forgiveness for his sins and a new commission as a messenger for God, taking a message that was to inform the people in Judah that unless they changed their ways, repented of their sins and turned from evil a disaster would happen to them and their land. 

But the Lord warned Isaiah that the people would be deaf and blind to God’s message, as they had been for a while, and Isaiah’s preaching was going to be ignored. Isaiah asked the Lord the obvious question, “How long must I preach this message for?” and the Lord told him that he could only stop when “the Lord has sent everyone away, and the entire land of Israel lies deserted”. Just to clarify, the message to “Israel” also includes the people in Judah. The future of Judah looked bleak, and the once-mighty nation ruled by King Uzziah was to become a land of desolation, depopulated except for a few survivors. But there was hope, because the chapter ends with the promise that there will be a “holy seed” remaining, a Godly remnant who would build the next generation, a people who had not fallen into the trap the rest of their fellow citizens had, of blatant sin, idolatry and evil, and who had kept themselves pure and faithful, following God’s ways.

The previous chapter in Isaiah detailed seven “woes”, warnings to the people in Judah about their sinful behaviour. But in Isaiah 6:5, we read that Isaiah included himself with his sinful brethren: “Then I said, ‘It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies””. Faced with a vision of the holy Lord, a vision bolstered by the seraphim crying out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” Isaiah became only too aware of his sinful and unholy state. He realised that in the presence of the holy God, he was “doomed” and would not survive apart from God’s grace and forgiveness. He suddenly realised how sinful his condition was.

Perhaps this is a time to pause and ask ourselves if we know our own condition. Is it sinful or sinless? The trouble with human beings is that they, by default, lapse into sin, often without realising what has happened. Even we pilgrims are not exempt. Isaiah achieved forgiveness for his sinful state through the grace of God and a burning coal that touched his lips, symbolically purging his sin. He was now able to proclaim a message from God that revealed His character of holiness. The message continues to God’s people today. Atonement is the representation of God’s holiness and what He does for His people. God wants to make His people like Him, with the same character. We, too, receive forgiveness from God, but through Jesus, who took on Himself the punishment, for our sin, that we deserved. Through God’s grace, we can stand before our Heavenly Father free from all unholiness. But do we know that we are forgiven? We find the answer in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.

Isaiah was commissioned, sent out by God to take His message to an errant people. But we note that God did not command him to be a messenger. All God did was to ask the question, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” Isaiah was not forced to put his hand up and take on the task. He volunteered, because what else could he do following the wonderful and awesome vision he received in the Temple. He realised that the Lord had forgiven him much more than he could ever have imagined, and something stirred within him. But he embarked on God’s mission in the knowledge that the Lord would not send out Isaiah totally unsupported. All God’s resources were available for him to call upon in his mission. We pilgrims should take note that in our commission of taking the Gospel to our generation, we are not alone. God is the One who does the sending, and we are not “sending” ourselves for God. Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will” (John 6:38). Jesus put aside His own desires and instead remained totally in tune with the will of His Father in Heaven. We pilgrims cannot rely on our own skills and gifts, and we note what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2-4, “For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit”. Our own words will achieve little unless it is the Holy Spirit speaking through us. 

So, dear fellow pilgrims, I ask the question, “What have we learned from Isaiah 6?” Yes, we have the facts, that explain Isaiah’s visit to the Temple, how he met the Lord there, and how he volunteered for taking God’s message to a wayward people. But what about us personally? For me, the encouragement is there that I must never take God for granted. He may show up at anytime in a way that I would never expect. It may be with a vision such as Isaiah saw, but it could be in the routine and ordinary walks of life. But however it happens, God will break through to bring us the message He wants us to hear and, consequently, to take to others. And who knows what may happen as a result. I’m sure Isaiah never imagined that day he walked through the Temple doors, that he would walk out ordained as God’s messenger to His people.

Just this morning, I met a man called Robert, who had a liver transplant about a year ago. He had a sort of awareness of God, but lost his way for a few years, descending into alcohol addiction, something that probably destroyed his own liver. But, in the past year, he has come to the realisation that someone had to die so that he could live. Someone, after death, had donated their liver so that it could be transplanted into someone dying of liver failure. That thought has transformed his life because God revealed to him the parallel of Jesus dying on the Cross so that he will inherit life, eternal life. Robert now attends a church as a born-again, Spirit-filled believer, with a new mission, that of reaching out to people with addiction problems, such as he had all the years before. He has completed the first year of a counselling course, and will graduate in a year or two. Did God bring Robert into my life this morning because he wanted me to remember all that Jesus did for me?

I didn’t expect that encounter today, but as I write this, I find myself encouraged and re-charged for my mission to reach the lost. Jesus died so that I could live, and He died for others, including you my dear friends, as well.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Jesus, for His death that brings life to all who believe in Him. Please help us to take that message of grace and hope to all those we meet. In His precious name. Amen.

Jesus in Secret

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death.”
“After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee. But after his brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view. The Jewish leaders tried to find him at the festival and kept asking if anyone had seen him.”
John 7:1, 9-11 NLT

Jesus hadn’t won Himself many friends amongst the Jewish leaders, if any at all.  The last time John records that Jesus was in Jerusalem was when He healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda, a miraculous act of healing that subsequently thrust Him directly into the firing line of the Jewish Leaders. In their eyes, His crime was twofold – He told a man to carry His sleeping mat, thus violating the Sabbath laws, and He claimed that God was His Father. We read the accounts in John 5:8, 10, 16-18, “Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” … so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” … So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God”. The conversation that Jesus had with the Jewish leaders directly confronted their authority and their religious belief system. So, in their opinion, He had to be eliminated to stop Him spreading more sedition. The Jewish leaders’ hypocrisy was breathtaking – they knew what the Law of Moses said about murder, and yet here they were plotting to kill an innocent Man, going about His Father’s business.

But Jesus still wanted to go the Feast of Tabernacles. After all, for all the Jewish people, it had a huge religious significance. In Deuteronomy 16:16 we read, “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed”. The place of choice in Jesus’ time was Jerusalem, and the hills around the city would have been covered in temporary structures. So Jesus went in private. Secretly. Keeping His head down and hoping that He wouldn’t be recognised. Earlier in His conversation with His brothers, “Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime”. But what did he mean by that?

Jesus knew that there was coming a time when He would be arrested, tried and executed in Jerusalem. But He had much to do before that happened, and he wanted to avoid a premature end to His mission. So Jesus embarked on the long walk to Jerusalem, where he mingled with the crowds, enjoying and taking part in the time of celebration, remembering with everyone else God’s continued provision for them in the current harvest and remembering His provision and protection during the forty years in the wilderness. Imagine a modern Christian conference on steroids!

Because of His humanity, Jesus needed to feed His spirit, as do we pilgrims. And we do it of course in our quiet times, and in our church services. But there are times when we should seek out and enjoy big celebration events with our fellow Christians, because sometimes God richly blesses such occasions beyond our normal experiences. At such times, God can and will speak directly to individuals, encouraging them, offering remedies to life’s problems and even directions for ministries and providing new opportunities. Perhaps that is what Jesus found at the Feast of Tabernacles and, once refreshed and encouraged, and in spite of the opposition and threats, He found Himself resourced to continue regardless with His mission and ministry.

Father God. We too have a mission in life, and we pray for the resources we need to go about Your business. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Local lad

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?””
John 6:41-42 NLT

Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God was rejected by the people around Him, because they knew His natural parents. They knew that Jesus had lived in Nazareth, growing up like any other Jewish boy in those circumstances and times. They had probably enjoyed the products He made in His carpenter’s shop, window frames, furniture, agricultural implements. But here He is, standing before them, and making the claim that He was the “bread that came down from Heaven”. So the people started to “murmur in disagreement“, as they tried to make sense of Jesus’ claims. On the one hand they had before them the indisputable facts of His miracles, and that He fed them a fish supper on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. But on the other they could not get their minds around His claim to be divine. But Jesus didn’t waver from His message and His mission, and He didn’t hold back from speaking difficult truths.

We don’t know much about the years between Jesus’ birth and closing the door for the last time on His carpenter’s shop, before the start of His public mission. Was Jesus a pious and religious young man, someone who didn’t join in with the drunken revelries, or the laddish behaviour that was probably prevalent in His days, just as it is today? Someone like John the Baptist, who from an early age set Himself apart from his peers? We do know about the episode in the Temple when the twelve-year-old Jesus was found by His parents sitting amongst the religious teachers where we read, ”All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47). But that’s about all, except for one verse at the end of Luke 2, “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and all the people”. 

Jesus was well regarded in His community, but what about His claims that He was the “bread that came down from Heaven”? He may have grown up into a well-respected young man but the Son of God? Because we pilgrims are more detached from the culture and society of Jesus’ day we perhaps have less of a problem. We find it easier to accept Jesus as the Person he claimed to be, and we have the benefit of hindsight, knowing how His ministry and mission panned out, knowing how God’s plan for the salvation of mankind came to fruition. But how would we feel if a local lad suddenly started to perform miracles and make divinity claims? 

In our Christian journeys we pilgrims will inevitably meet those who make claims. Such meetings may be in person, but more likely would be through social media posts, extolling the virtues of men and women of God. And occasionally someone will emerge and form a sect, duping their followers with supernatural claims. The Scripture warn us about such people. But Jesus was unique in that no-one else has made the claim that he was the Son of God and has gone on to prove it through astounding miracles and a death and resurrection. There is only one Jesus, and we give Him all the glory today.

Dear Jesus. You are the only One, the only Son of God. You came to this world with a plan for man’s salvation and we praise and worship You today in deep gratitude. Amen.

The Will of God

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
John 6:38-40 NLT

Jesus couldn’t have been clearer about His mission. He left His Heavenly home to “do the will of God who sent [Him]”  here on Planet Earth. And twice He said that all those who come to Him, those given Him by God, believing in Him, would be resurrected “at the last day”. The resurrected ones will then enjoy eternal life.

There are those who experience a miserable life riven by illness, deprivation, drugs, or similar, people who say that to go on experiencing such an existence for ever is the last thing that they want. But when God comes to live with His people on the new earth (Revelation 21) we read that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:4). Eternal life with God will be a wonderful, fulsome and amazing experience never to be compared with our human natural lives. The Bible clearly states that we will either spend eternity in Heaven or hell, so, at least for me, the choice is a “no-brainer”. The assurance of eternal life is, however, not a choice that can be made when people stand before God on that final and terrible day of judgement. The decision to believe in Jesus, with all that that entails, has to be made while we continue to enjoy God’s season of grace. 

Jesus’ mission was to do the will of His Father. He had no doubts as to what this was, and He set His face steadfastly towards His goal at Calvary, the culmination of His mission. And in the process He would set aside His own will, heavily influenced though it was by His humanity. The degree to which He refused to deviate from those final days in Jerusalem can be found in those moments in the Garden of Gethsemane, which we can read in Matthew 26, “He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine”” (Matthew 26:39). Such was His dilemma, that we read in Luke 22:44, “He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood”. We pilgrims can never even start to imagine what Jesus went through that day, but we bow before Him in worshipful gratitude. What a Saviour!

Are we pilgrims clear about our mission in life? Do we know what God wants us to do? Some believers are called to mission in far off places, and we can read the accounts of many who faithfully laboured for many years amongst needy people. But for most of us the will of God is worked out within our families and communities, schools and workplaces where we are beacons of light in otherwise dark places. So we make the most of every opportunity to share the love of God, and the eternal life that will be the reward for faithful believers. 

Dear Lord Jesus. Again we say before You, What a Saviour! We give You all the glory today. Amen.

Over the Sea

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.)”
John 6:1-4 NLT

As written in the previous chapter in John’s Gospel, Jesus had been in Jerusalem for one of the Jewish Feasts, and while there He had healed a paralysed man lying next to the Pool of Bethesda. Jesus’ instructions to the healed man were recorded in John 5:8, “Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”” The Jewish leaders took exception at the healed man doing work on the Sabbath (they considered that carrying a mat was “work”) and this initiated a conversation between the hostile leaders and Jesus, where He explained His authority and mission. We now move on into John chapter 6, where we find that Jesus had travelled back northward to Galilee and then across the Sea of Galilee to a more remote region on the other side. He did this because, as we find out later, He probably wanted some peaceful quality time with His disciples. But the crowds kept following Him. They were huge crowds, John wrote, made up of people wanting to see the miracles of healing that Jesus was committing. 

Jesus had become a celebrated figure to the people in Galilee. Imagine the popular music stars of today, followed around by adoring fans and the newspaper photographers, never able to get any time on their own. Followed to their gigs. Followed to their hotels. Never a let up and never any privacy. But unlike the pop stars of today, Jesus never turned anyone away. Healing the sick was not the only reason why Jesus was in the Holy Land at that time. He knew His time on earth was not going to be very long, and He was desperate to train up the young men who were His disciples. So He climbed a hill with them, and we read that he “sat down with his disciples around him”. In those days Rabbi’s sat down to teach their disciples.

Matthew 4:23,25, “Jesus travelled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. … Large crowds followed him wherever he went—people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River”. This was perhaps Matthew’s account of what John was recording in his Gospel. But Matthew continued with, “One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them” (Matthew 5:1-2). Helpfully, Matthew recorded what Jesus taught about and we can read the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7.

We pilgrims also have a mission here in our societies and nations. The Good News about Jesus and His love and saving grace, must be shared with those around us. And in the Great Commission we are told to make disciples. Not of us, or course, but of the wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ. It is unlikely that huge crowds will be following us, but it is quite likely that distractions will try and pull us away from what we should be doing. Things like extra shifts at work, or lots of emails. Perhaps it is the golf course tugging us away from our mission. But whatever it is, we must be self disciplined just as Jesus was. But Jesus never stinted having quality time with His Father in Heaven and often He arose early to go out on His own to spend time in prayer. 

Do we pilgrims prioritise spending time in prayer and reading God’s Word in the Bible? For me it has to be early in the morning as otherwise the pressures of the day invade my personal space and it becomes too late. Jesus was in constant communication with His Father, and through that received guidance and spiritual sustenance for His mission. We pilgrims need to be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit who resources us for the day ahead and leads us into all truth. and as we listen to what He has to say, perhaps the day before us will become less of a hassle than we otherwise would have expected.

Dear Father God. We thank You for all Your resources and encouragement. We pray again today for more of the life-giving water of Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Generosity of Spirit

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”
John 3:27-30 NLT

How generous John the Baptist was, in deference to the Messiah. To say “ He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less” was truly counter-cultural. John had a particular calling from God and he stuck to it, knowing that one day his ministry would decline. But he came out of the wilderness at just the right time, and with an assurance of his mission, which was “to prepare a way for Him”, the Messiah. 

Over the years I have discovered that God introduces “seasons” to His church and to His people. John the Baptist introduced a season of baptisms and people came to him, acknowledging that he was a prophet and anointed of God. In that religious culture, people were desperate for another prophet to emerge in Israel, because there had been a long prophetic silence of over 400 years. John introduced a season of revival in a moribund spiritual environment. 

But John was comfortable with his relationship with God, to the extent that he knew that whatever happened God was with him. God had called him to preach repentance and baptise the people who responded to his message. Of course, all of God’s children have a mission on life. It may be a high-profile role such as John. Or it may be something less public. Some people are called to be intercessors. Others to be evangelists. Even others to be pastors and teachers. But most of us are called to be salt and light in our working or educational environment. This is however not to say that any role is greater or lesser than another. The joy comes from knowing that what we are doing is in the will of God.

Sadly, there are those in public ministries who want to hang on to their “ministry” regardless of what God has planned for them. It is particularly hard for a pastor leading a declining congregation, to realise that perhaps that particular ministry, that season, has come to an end and God has something else in mind. The secret lies in being open to what God wants us to do.

A dangerous prayer to pray goes like this. “Dear God, what do You want me to do for You today?” The answer might be a shock or a surprise. Or it might just be “keep going – you’re doing well”. There was a man called Ananias living in Damascus, going about his everyday business, when all of a sudden he heard God say, ” … Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight” (Acts 9:11-12). God can speak to us directly, as He did to Ananias, but are we listening? What if Ananias wasn’t listening that day? Or if he said to God, “No, this man Saul is bad news and I’m not going to risk my life for him”? 

But we pilgrims are here for this season, both in the society in which we live, and in this stage in our lives. Perhaps, though, God has a different plan for us, one that involves a decline in what we are doing and a door opening somewhere else for a new season. To be a Christian is not a boring, pew-warming experience. God has exciting things for us to do and it starts with “Yes Lord, Your servant is listening”. Are we prepared to lay down what we are doing, and move over to allow someone else to take our place? John the Baptist did, and so can we – if God wishes it.

Dear Father God. You have a mission for each one of us. Please help us to relax in You, our Leader and our God. Amen.

Fading Flowers

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.”
1 Peter 1:24-25 NLT

The first chapter of 1 Peter concludes with an Old Testament scripture from Isaiah. The prophet wrote, “A voice said, “Shout!” I asked, “What should I shout?” “Shout that people are like the grass. Their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field. The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever”” (Isaiah 40:6-8). Isaiah 40 is one of the most encouraging chapters in the Bible and was delivered to a fearful and insecure people, under threat from the Babylonians. The chapter ends with one of my favourite verses, “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). 

I’m writing this in the month of August. The early Spring burst of growth in the woods near where I live has peaked and recent winds and rain have started the process of decay amongst the undergrowth. Flowers have finished blossoming and the petals mostly disappeared, leaving lonely stems and the start of seed growth. All too soon it will be autumn and the greenery will start to blacken and die away. Isaiah used this picture to describe how it is with people. The process might take a bit longer but a person’s “beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field”. Some might find this depressing. Certainly the cosmetic industry invests much to promote products designed to delay the inevitable as much as possible. But we do have a finite natural life, which is all the more reason to invest in the life that lasts forever. That process starts with the “Word of the Lord”. Peter wrote that this Word is the Good News about Jesus. The Word who became a man and who died for us, that we who believe in Him will receive eternal life.

Regardless of our age, young or old, God is with us. Isaiah 46:3-4, “Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel. I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime— until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.” We pilgrims may feel that as we get older, our usefulness diminishes. We may be able to do less, our fitness and physical abilities declining. But God’s plan for us never stops, and he promised to care for us regardless. Our petals might have fallen off. We may have started to wither in appearance. A few lines may have increased to become crazy paving. But one day we will hear the call and soon after inherit a new body, that will never decay and that will last forever. Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

That is the Good News that Peter wrote about. Perhaps one day we will have the opportunity to talk with him and find out the thinking behind his words. After all he spent over three years with Jesus, walking around Galilee and beyond. But in the meantime, we have a mission to complete. Not for us the temptation to sit back and wait for the day we hope for. There are many around us who have not made a decision to obey the “Good News”. And if they haven’t heard it, or perhaps need a reminder, that’s why we’re here.

Father God. It truly is Good News, about Jesus and His sacrifice for our sins. We worship You today. Amen.