Tag Archives: Isaiah 33

Getting out of the valley…

Leave a reply

Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire?… Those who walk righteously and speak what is right… they are the ones who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them. 

Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar… your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved, its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken. There the Lord will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.

(Isa 33.14-17,20-22)

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.

(Ps 1.1-3)

“It is written; ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

(Matt 5.4)

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

(Jn 4.14)

In these days I am testifying with a full and grateful heart to God’s keeping and directing of me over these months; for his sustaining grace through struggle and weariness; guarding me from folly and from dishonouring him as I seemed to be walking in a maze of dead ends down in the valleys, hungry for the wide open spaces which I believed to be out there! Thanks be to God, who has led and fed, and kept company with me, through his people and through his word – provided for the feeding of his people, who have the privilege of continually being nourished and learning afresh from it. I have received a revelation of grace, experienced the unravelling of knots and been led up over the foothills to the great ‘high ways’ of God’s people.

I am rejoicing in God’s goodness – with renewed appetite for his word and confidence in its power as I see it bear fruit in my life. I am delighting in prospect of a study group with whom to share in learning, sisters in Christ with whom to grow in faith, to share the sheer joy of learning to know God better, to see Jesus more clearly and to worship him with them. A rich banquet is laid out before us on which to feast, where we will meet God and honour him. Truly, our good shepherd provides good food and clear waters for us!

There is a sense of having left behind the narrow and baffling lanes in the valley with their restricted views and lack of perspective. Now I am walking on the ridges, my vision is far-ranging; I can see where I am and where I am going within the context of God’s great plan of redemption and re-creation. The air is clean and invigorating, the prospect glorious, I have food and drink in abundance for my spirit, and lack nothing.

And by whose agency am I brought to this place? By the One whose righteousness is now my inheritance and secure possession, by Jesus Christ the one who has paid for all my sins and through whom I am adopted as God’s beloved daughter. It is all by his loving sacrifice, and thus to him belongs all my praise and thanks. I see the king in his beauty, and the glorious sight brings me such peace and hope. I see the spacious land to which I now belong, and where I will dwell with God and all the saints, and I am near to bursting point with gladness and praise!

Heavenly Father, I thank you for the lessons which you have been teaching me in the valley; and for your preservation of me in those devious and trying paths. I praise you that your grace is now more fully revealed to me, and I am reinvigorated for my journey. Let me not forget the lessons of the valley – above all let me not forget that I can trust you to be working even when I am baffled, grieved and weak. In the name and for the sake of my precious Lord and Saviour, Jesus, I pray, Amen.

It’s not rules, it’s a relationship

2 Replies

Lead me in your truth and instruct me, for you are the God of my rescue. In you do I hope every day…. whosoever the man who fears the Lord, he will guide him in the way he should choose..

Guard my life and save me. Let me not be shamed, for I shelter in you. May uprightness, wholeness, preserve me, for in you do I hope.

(Ps 25.5,12,20&21; R Alter translation)

O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress… The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

(Isa 33.2,5&6)

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.”

(Jn 14.6)

I want them to experience all the wealth of definite understanding, and to come to the knowledge of God’s mystery – the Messiah, the king! He is the place where you’ll find all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I’m saying this so that nobody will deceive you with plausible words… So, then, just as you received King Jesus as Lord, you must continue your journey in him. You must put down healthy roots in him, being built up brick by brick in him, and established strongly in the faith, just as you were taught, with overflowing thankfulness.

(Col 2.2-7, NT Wright translation)

I can’t unsee him; the king who loved me enough to die for me; the Lord of heaven’s armies who came into this pain-wracked, beautiful world as a human infant; the one and only way by which all the evil, broken, painful things are to be set right and God’s glorious kingdom established in the world which he made for us to enjoy with him.

Many things cloud my vision; so many questions and puzzles which I cannot unravel, and which are beyond human skill to unpick. And yet, in spite of these – to some people – reasons to reject Jesus and all the supposed ‘revelation’ of God, I cannot unsee him. Jesus is not some clever add-on to my armoury of ways to cope with life. Jesus is not some super spiritual experience which somehow enhances my days. Jesus is not an extra, or an optional accessory. Jesus is simply the only person who actually begins to make sense of everything, as I finally see how everything revolves around him. Knowing Jesus doesn’t take away pain, grief, confusion or loss. Knowing Jesus doesn’t mean that I can answer the deep questions about evil and suffering easily. BUT, knowing Jesus means that I have an anchor, a person whose love for me is sure and whose power to keep me for an eternal future is guaranteed.

It’s not a question of obeying rules, in order to earn favour with some capricious deity; it’s a matter of having my eyes opened to eternal realities and having seen Jesus there, being unable to look away and pretend that he doesn’t exist. He is; He was; and He will always be.. what am I doing in response to the truth of his lordship, his power, his coming kingdom? If I reject what I have seen and choose to stay away from Jesus, then I reject ultimate reality and one day will be proved to have made a catastrophic error. But I thank God that I can and do acknowledge Jesus as Lord, as the beginning and end of everything, and not only so but I can know and be known by him. It is a marvel beyond telling, that we should be invited into a loving relationship with Truth and Life, with Love and Power, yet we are, and his name is Jesus.

As I grow through life, I find Paul’s advice to be true – in every stage of my journey, what I need is more of Jesus – he must become greater in me, more glorious in my understanding, more important in my thinking, more effectively the motivation and foundation of all I do.

Christianity, says the old slogan, is Christ. Put him in the middle of your picture of the world, and the world will stop spinning in incomprehensible circles and begin to make sense…. He is, quite simply, what it’s all about.

(NT Wright: p 162, Paul for Everyone; the Prison letters: 2002, SPCK)