What is God saying to you and me?

Isaiah 1-4 Recently, a group of men entered a submersible and set off to view the Titanic. One was a billionaire, but did he know the God of Isaiah? When the submersible imploded, what good would all of his wealth do him? Could he take that wealth into eternity?  

Isaiah, God’s prophet, is asking the Israelites and us that same question. What are we doing with the abundance of wealth God has given to us? Do we invest, hoard, share, or give it away? The nation of Judah was wealthy beyond words, but they were greedily seeking to gather more and more. Like them, we find that many of us do the same, but if God were to call us to eternity would we take that wealth with us? Remember the parable in Luke 16:19-31? The rich man discovered that all of his prosperity meant nothing in eternity. How about us?

Instead of wealth Isaiah advised them to promote justice for those oppressed, just as James reminded the early church; fulfill the royal law; love your neighbor as yourself. [James 2:8]

“Serve-Us: or Service?”

 

 

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Deut 10  Across our world, the mantra has raised its head: no more refugees; no more immigrants. Yet while on earth, our Lord and Master taught us clearly we are to love the foreigner as a neighbor. In this Deuteronomy passage, God says we are to love the resident foreigner and demonstrate that by giving them food and clothing. The reason is clear: you were once resident foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Similarly today we are confronted with those seeking our help but we find ourselves assisting at arm’s length. We do so because “the fear of man is a snare” and we feel as if we want to help but we have been faced with too many con artists. We want to obey and trust God but we fear being taken advantage of.

When confronted remember what Jesus said: I came not to be served but to serve.  Simply ask God what to do and listen to His quiet voice speaking to you. The Holy Spirit is our teacher and He will not lead you astray. A second principle when still wondering; meet the need before you and leave the results to God. Begin and end in prayer so you are doing God’s will God’s way.

The question:

Do we want to be Jesus to others by serving them or do we want them to serve us?

 

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