Complete in Thee: "We Win!"

Saturday, September 5, 2009

"We Win!"

Mrs. B, Mommy, and we three girls all sat around the living room, chatting about this and that. Above us was the sound of Mrs. B's little boys banging around upstairs doing whatever little boys do! Then we heard feet on the stairs, and seven-year-old Carlton entered the room with a Bible in his hands and a puzzled look on his face. "Mom?" he said a little fretfully, approaching his mom. "Mom, do you remember how Dad said on Sunday that in Revelation, it says 'we win'?" (Carlton's dad, Mr. B, is a pastor at a Freewill Baptist church in Conneaut.)

"Yes," Mrs. B replied.

"Well, I've been looking all over Revelation and I can't find it! I can't find where it says 'We win'!"

For years I have chuckled as I remember Carlton's very sincere worry that he couldn't find the exact wording in the text, and Mrs. B's trying to explain to a little boy that the pastor meant that the idea of Revelation is that Christ and His servants will conquer over evil in the end.

I thought of that scenario quite frequently this past month as I once again read through my favorite Old Testament book: Isaiah. Each time I have read it, and this time more than ever, it has filled me with such unspeakable joy and inexpressible thrill as chapter after chapter reveals God's goodness, His holiness, His greatness, His faithfulness, and, most of all, His promise that He will conquer in the end.

We live in a scary day. Economics rise and plunge inexplicably. Politics create fear in the hearts of sensible human beings. Health care threatens the freedom of individuals and families. Technology that could help us instead seems to close in on us. Wicked men are honored, evil is promoted, the truth is twisted, God is ignored. We are reminded of the days in which Israel rebelled against God and was taken captive by Babylon and Assyria.

And yet God speaks to us, to not fear what the people fear, but to honor the LORD as holy, and to fear Him. He reminds us of His unmatchable character-- His creative power, His goodness, His faithfulness to His promises, His deity. He gives us eight oracles (chapters 14-23) to assure us that, no matter how wicked this world gets and how powerful evil seems to be, HE ALONE will conquer and reign in the end. He promises us that He will be our strength and our shelter from the storm, to keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on Him. He offers hope: "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." He fills us with courage as He reminds us that He has orchestrated all the events of life, whether it be on the national scale or in the individual lives of "unimportant" people like me, all for His glory.

Isaiah is the book which holds many of my favorite verses and passages: 1:18; 9:6,7; 25:4, 8, 9; 26:3,4; 30:15, 18, 19, 21; 40 (whole chapter!!); 41:10,13; 43:1-3, 25; 44:21-22; 49:13-17; 50:10; 51:12-13; 52:7; 54:1-10; 55 (favoritest chapter ever!); 61:1-4, 10; 62:11-12; 63:7; 66:1-2. It is a book full of hope, of promise, of forgiveness, of majesty. While reading it, I often wondered whether I was actually reading Revelation and it was just somehow stuck in the wrong place in my Bible. Several times I wanted to climb to the top of a high mountain, throw my arms open to the wind, and yell, "YAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOO! My God reigns!!!!!!!!!"

Read the book of Isaiah. Here is hope. Here is forgiveness. Here is strength. Here is the promise: "We win!"

2 comments:

Amy said...: Melanie I am SO glad you have a blog!! I'll check in often as I miss you. I happen to be reading in the middle of Isaiah right now actaually so thank you for inspiring me to dig a little deeper and love the righteous God behind it a whole lot more! :) Even in moving, with God's purpose being highest we always win.; September 7, 2009 at 7:09 PM
Teddy said...: Yahoooo!!! I'm so glad to know we win!!!!!!!!!!!!; September 8, 2009 at 11:36 AM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."