Good morning Lord Jesus, I pulled off my covers and climbed out of bed and now sit and in prayer and reading Your Word to come under Your covering of protection and grace.
“This is what the Lord says to his chosen one,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold
in order to subdue nations before him,
and disarm kings,
to open doors before him,
so gates remain unclosed.” 45:1
In the midst of the challenges of our lives: pandemics, social upheavals, war, chaos, mass shootings, overt sin, and all the uncertainty we find our selves in, instead of turning to “Facebook Prophets” for direction I have been turning to Scriptures and reading how Prophets of God spoke into a nation that was experiencing these same issues. For Lent I have been reading through passages in The Book of the Prophet Isaiah. In chapter 45, the great issue Isaiah addresses in this section is convincing God’s own people that He can deliver them, and He will, but it will be in his own way, not theirs. Those who heard Isaiah’s words were shocked at Cyrus being called a shepherd, And they must have been even more outraged when Isaiah called him His chosen and anointed one. This title had previously been reserved for priests, prophets and kings of Israel. Surely God could only use persons from His own people, His own elect to accomplish his purpose. Isaiah’s point that shocked them was that God is not the Lord of Israel alone, He is the God of the world. Israel was not God’s chosen people because of anything in themselves, and neither will their deliverance be because of anything in themselves. Their deliverance, then, as with ours today, occurred not only outside of themselves, but in spite of themselves. It is God who chooses, God who delivers, and He will by the means God desires.
God can choose anybody for a time, including all today, to be a type of “messiah” to a people, situation, a community, or even a nation. God can choose anyone to be an instrument through whom God’s gracious purposes will be accomplished and revealed to the world. Messiahs do not only come from the “good crowd,” nice neighborhoods, your “clicks.” your church or denomination, or those with “religion”. Messiahs do not have to look like you, talk like you, dress like you, smell like you, They don’t have to listen to Casting Crowns, attend church on Sunday’s and drink sweet tea. John the Baptist was a type of messiah, a God chosen instrument through whom God’s gracious purposes were accomplished and revealed to the world, and he was way outside societies acceptability and church conduct or dress codes. David was the runt of his family. who they all looked down on. Those in the church were shocked at the thought of Jesus being THE Messiah. They smirked and sarcastically said to each other in their church click,, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?! (and we in the church today would say the same thing, just add, “Bless his heart!”) You, as hard as it may be for some people to believe with all your quirks and short comings, through your baptism into a new creation of Christ and being filled with and indwelled with the iHoly Spirit, are also anointed and called to be a type of messiah, a God chosen instrument through whom God’s gracious purposes are to be accomplished and revealed to the world,
Deliverance is from God and He can and will deliver you, but in his own way, not yours.
“Does clay talk back to the potter:
‘What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!’
Would a sperm say to a father,
‘Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?’
Or a fetus to a mother,
‘Why have you cooped me up in this belly?’”
Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel’s Maker, says:
“Do you question who or what I’m making?
Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?
I made earth, and I created man and woman to live on it.
I handcrafted the skies and direct all the constellations in their turnings.
And now I’ve got Cyrus on the move.
I’ve rolled out the red carpet before him.
He will build my city.
He will bring home my exiles.
I didn’t hire him to do this. I told him.
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.” (Isaiah 45:9-13 The Message Bible.)
My family, I pray you will not put God into “Your box” of those He can use to speak light, truth, and grace into our nation, including you, I pray during this time of Lent you will re-claim your anointing of your baptism and hear your call to be an anointed one in your community, In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Resolve to Help in 2024
I want to ask you to resolve this year in partnering with my wife, myself, and One Direction Community by supporting our ministries! We begin a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this. If you click on the link below you can easily set up a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly auto donations in the amount you desire. . We would be so grateful for your help. You can also give a one-time donation on the same link. Thank you!
You can mail your donation to One Direction Community P.O. Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758
Discipleship Training.
One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
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