The Simple Life

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.” Isaiah 51:1-2 (ESV)   Those who desire to seek God should look backward to gain perspective, and they should look forward to gain momentum.   "The remembrance of God's mercy in the past is helpful to us in many ways. Isaiah was led by the Spirit of God to admonish the Israelites to look back that they might be cheered and encouraged in a time of gloom and sadness, and that they might be animated with fresh confidence in God's power to bring them up again from their sad condition, as they thought of all that He had done for them in times past, when they were equally low, or when, peradventure, they were even in a worse plight than they were at present. It is a great thing for people to...

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Isaiah 50:10 (ESV)   When there is nothing, there is still something. When there is complete darkness, there is light. Trust is what makes or breaks us in this life. We cannot trust someone we do not know, and we cannot know someone with whom we have never spent time.   There is an old hymn titled "Trust and Obey," and one of its lines says this: "Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey." There is a cycle here that needs to be addressed. One can obey out of fear or out of trust. Either way, obedience is vital to our success. We might have fear, the fear of God, and that fear motivates us to obey. Yet, fear is the beginning of wisdom, whereas love is the end goal.   Fear puts us in a position to love correctly, to see that there is no other way than to trust and o...

Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. Isaiah 49:1 (ESV)   "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5   But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased…. Galatians 1:15     For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:13   Evil enjoys destroying what God has created. Those who desire to normalize the destruction of babies in the womb are the epitome of evil. The destruction of a society always begins with a disregard for legitimate authority, and God is the only legitimate authority.   The cycle throughout history is clear. First, we replace truth with lies and validate our lies by consensus. Next, we undermine our detractors' credibility through relentles...

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me." Isaiah 48:17-19 (ESV)   Hindsight is always 20/20. Those who love God, and who walk with Him in reverence and obedience, will one day be successful. Those who choose to ignore Him will regret their actions. Hearing God does not mean we obey Him, but in order to listen to Him, we need to hear Him.   I am thankful that God is willing to guide me. He alone knows what the future holds, and He alone can control every detail of life. I know not the future and can control very little, other than my attitude.   For now, the choices are mine. ...

You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have done business with you from your youth; they wander about, each in his own direction, there is no one to save you. Isaiah 47:13-15 (ESV)   We often quote the verse about the wisdom available in many counselors. We seldom quote the verse that tells us that we can become wearied by our many counsels. It matters who the counselors are and what they are saying. If the counselors love God and walk with Him, the advice will be golden. If they ignore God and walk in ignorance, their advice will be destructive.   For now, we have the choice of to whom we will listen, and ...

You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, "No one sees me"; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me." But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing. Isaiah 47:10-11 (ESV)   Feeling secure in wickedness is the most insecure security available to man. Those who are wicked will one day be found out. They will be exposed as evil, and all that they supposedly lived for will be exposed as fraudulent. There is no way for the wicked to prosper, because they can never be secure in their wickedness. Wickedness bears the fruit of anxiousness, and anxiousness eventually leads to hopelessness and depression.   If we deal with the wickedness in our lives, the anxious, hopeless depression will disappear. We need no miracle drug or activity; we n...