159 Monday June 8, 2009

159 Isaiah 044 – 045; Luke 015

I know we can't have a great architecture while it is only for the landlord, was Frank Lloyd Wright's assessment of the day in which he lived. Most landlords want money as their primary goal and Wright wanted great architecture. I think Isaiah would say you can't have great theology while it is only for the religious. On pg 777 Isaiah addresses the idol worship of that day. Israel had been given the very precepts of God and yet they still wanted their puppet gods. Idol worship puts the people in control; idol worship is for you, not God or a god. Unless the “god” happens to be you.

Isaiah continues with these sobering words, "Take it seriously, Israel, that you're my servant. I made you, shaped you: You're my servant." Sobering words? Yes, but so encouraging for those who know the Lord. Yahweh has designed you and me for a purpose. God has shaped us for a purpose, mainly to serve Him…so? Serve Him!

The one sheep was a lost sheep, not a sheep who had been saved, then came back. Jesus says "...there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue." That is the point for the lost coin and the lost son. These stories are about those who do not know the Lord. Read them again in the light of lostness and not the backslider. I say all of this to let you know that I was taught that these stories were about the believer who had strayed and not the lost. These pastors who taught this way saw most of everything in scripture as relating to the church and not those outside the promises of God. God's intention is to bring the good news to those who do not know! We must not corrupt His mission in any way.