Showing posts with label filthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label filthy. Show all posts

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Monday, August 16, 2021

Help Us To Help

Photo by Judy Mattson

PSALM 14 KJV

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.

There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.

Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.

Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

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Is there any understanding of the good will of God for all people? The Psalmist doesn't seem to think so. Indeed, we are all sinners. We look out for our own welfare while eating up our neighbors (next door and around the world). We desert those in need for our own welfare and prosperity. What a shameful world it can be!

May God grant us all eyes to see; ears to hear; and open hearts so that we might come to the aid of others according to the good will of our Father in heaven.

God's Peace - Pr. J.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Come Down!



Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!
 As when fire sets twigs ablaze
    and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
    and cause the nations to quake before you!
                                                      Isaiah 64:1-2 NIV
                          
I know this prayer from Isaiah. No, I haven't memorized it. But, I know it. From the depths of my heart, I have prayed it on many occasions. And, I have a feeling that I'm probably not alone in having prayed a prayer similar to this one from time to time; when things get rough; when you feel persecuted or alone. Is there anyone among us who has never thought or prayed: "This is enough. Please, make your presence known to all people so the world; the whole world could live in peace already!"

Yet, Isaiah reminds us that we have all become like one who is unclean and all of our righteous deeds are like filthy cloth. It's not just everyone else. We are all guilty and our iniquities; our sins, just as the wind, have taken us away out of God's presence.


But, we're not out of God's presence. He is with us. In spite of the fact that we often do not hear nor do we see the answer, the prayer has been answered. For God did indeed come down to us. The great God Almighty; the creator of heaven and earth, came down to earth to meet humankind right where we are. As we drifted further and further away from God's good will for us, He, Himself, broke open the heavens and came down, as a little child, to be one of us.


The one who formed us with his own hands, who breathed his breath of life into us, took on the form of man in order that he might live with us that we might be reconciled to Him and live whole and abundant lives in Him.


There may be and probably will be days when we will think: "Oh, Lord God, break down the heavens already and come down quickly. Show us your majesty. Show us your greatness. Make the mountains quake so that all of the nations will tremble and fall down to honor you." Then may God bring to your remembrance that He, in fact has already broken through and come down to earth; to us. He assumed the very nature of His created humankind and came down, not to destroy His or our enemies; but, to save us all. He came to reconcile us to Himself and to one another through Jesus Christ, our Lord.


God's Peace – Pr. J