Dipping a teaspoon into the ocean is how I feel about my morning devotions. Even a tiny sip of the greatness of God refreshes! Better than that, it leaves you thirsting for more. The chapters I read in Isaiah this morning began pulling many thought threads together. I fear this may be still too tangled to bless but I offer it you in love and faith and welcome your thoughts, questions and even disagreements.
The message I heard was 'Trust me. Open your arms and embrace lives. Allow the souls around you room in your own heart and life...let go of the walls you trust in.'
This isn't the same message the world gives of 'tolerance and unity.' God's 'merge' message begins with our emptiness and His glory. Tolerance is a politically correct word that promotes a sweet-sounding message of 'let's all get along.' That's a cheap imitation based on lies and it breaks down in the real world. God's call to unity replaces weak things with stronger, more beautiful things. It replaces our efforts with His plans completed by Himself!
Life has a way of revealing our lacks--of stripping us of pretense. It is the process that helps us understand Isaiah's words that our best is just a filthy rag. No matter how much we desire to do good, on our own, we are helpless. Yet when we come to Him empty of ourselves, His light begins to rise. That light is a beacon in this dark world. It guides us and draws others! Just as Christ's arms are open-wide, our lives are to be open for others to enjoy the Light God bestows. We are to be a candle lighting the candles around us...so that the circle of His Light expands. That totally precludes a melting pot mush, it is Glory shared.
As people begin to come, the walls we have erected in our lives need to come down so we can receive them as the gifts God intended. So they can enter into His light. Our walls are built in the days when we trust in ourselves instead of God. The materials are faulty and sometimes ugly: pride--confidence in our abilities and our perspectives; fear and grief. When we protect ourselves, we shut out blessings God intends, and we block His light from others. The walls God puts around us are salvation--and the gates are praise! We enter into that protection praising HIM...and our praise leads others to Him.
The message I heard was 'Trust me. Open your arms and embrace lives. Allow the souls around you room in your own heart and life...let go of the walls you trust in.'
This isn't the same message the world gives of 'tolerance and unity.' God's 'merge' message begins with our emptiness and His glory. Tolerance is a politically correct word that promotes a sweet-sounding message of 'let's all get along.' That's a cheap imitation based on lies and it breaks down in the real world. God's call to unity replaces weak things with stronger, more beautiful things. It replaces our efforts with His plans completed by Himself!
Life has a way of revealing our lacks--of stripping us of pretense. It is the process that helps us understand Isaiah's words that our best is just a filthy rag. No matter how much we desire to do good, on our own, we are helpless. Yet when we come to Him empty of ourselves, His light begins to rise. That light is a beacon in this dark world. It guides us and draws others! Just as Christ's arms are open-wide, our lives are to be open for others to enjoy the Light God bestows. We are to be a candle lighting the candles around us...so that the circle of His Light expands. That totally precludes a melting pot mush, it is Glory shared.
As people begin to come, the walls we have erected in our lives need to come down so we can receive them as the gifts God intended. So they can enter into His light. Our walls are built in the days when we trust in ourselves instead of God. The materials are faulty and sometimes ugly: pride--confidence in our abilities and our perspectives; fear and grief. When we protect ourselves, we shut out blessings God intends, and we block His light from others. The walls God puts around us are salvation--and the gates are praise! We enter into that protection praising HIM...and our praise leads others to Him.
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