A New Day: The Power of “With,” Part 4

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Jason

We live in a time when the nature of truth seems to be up for grabs. Every news story can be spun one way or another to say almost anything someone wants to believe. In times like these, I have to go back to what I know to be true. I have to go back to the promises of God.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:8

This is where we find true comfort, in the word of our God, the One who promises to be with His people. “God with us” means God is for us. Immanuel is a sign that God has not abandoned us. No matter how bad it gets, God promises to deliver those who put their trust in Him. He is on our side, fighting to redeem us, to restore us, to bring us back home.

Romans 8 says If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) And from that idea, Paul goes on to say that if God is for us, nothing in all creation can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. If God is with us, we’re never separated from Him or His love. What an amazing thought!

That means God is with me when I’m going to school.

When I’m at work.

When I’m dealing with anxiety.

When I’m cooking dinner.

When I’m going in for my chemotherapy.

When I’m feeling all alone.

This promise from the time of Isaiah points us to something so practical but so transformative — the idea that God is truly with us. Is there anything you can’t handle if you know God is on your side? God is with us to comfort us when we’re afraid, to shepherd us through the dark, to take away our sin. These are God’s promises — Simon Peter calls them his great and precious promises through which we can participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 1:4).

What would we do without the promises of God?

If someone asked you, “What is the first verse of the Bible?” I’m guessing a lot of you would know it: Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. It’s one of those really well-known passages. But what about the last verse of the Bible? No cheating…but do you know the last verse of the Bible? (Incidentally, if you cheat on Bible trivia, you’ve kind of missed the point.)

The last verse of the Bible is Revelation 22:21, The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. The Bible begins with God creating everything; the backdrop is cosmically huge with universes and stars and moons and suns. But the Bible ends with a simple promise, a word of hope. The grace of Jesus be with God’s people.

That’s because God with us is the promise of eternity.

The final page of the Bible contains the promise of an eternity with God.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Revelation 21:3

God says that the promise of eternity is the promise of being with Him. What a glorious thought!

This promise is for those who would put their trust in Him. Do you need to put your trust in Him today? Today can be a new day — as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6, Today is the day of salvation — if you would put your trust in Him.

If we can help you in your spiritual journey, you can reach out to us at prayer@mayfair.org. The shepherds of our church would love to hear from you and talk with you about the promises of God.

God says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Sovereign Lord who makes all things new, he who has ears, let him hear.

Posted in Devotional, Eschatology, Faith, God, Hope, Isaiah, Scripture, Theology | Leave a comment

A New Day: The Power of “With,” Part 3

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Jason

The theme of Isaiah 7 is repeated throughout the Bible: God promises to be with those who put their trust in Him. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And His promise endures in every season of life.

God promises to be present, to be with His people. That directly counters our fears. To put it differently, God’s promise is greater than my problems. We have to remember that. Fear and discouragement can be found at every turn these days. They will grind you down; they erode the foundations of our lives. But that’s one of the reasons you find God repeatedly telling His people, Do not fear. Be firm in faith. I am with you.

Ahaz had some pretty serious problems in his day. And when he heard that Syria and Israel were trying to overthrow Jerusalem, the Bible says that his heart shook like a tree. But God essentially says, “Come on, Ahaz. You have ME on your side if you’d just put your trust in Me!” Ahaz lost sight of the fact that God was greater than His problems.

And this is a practical word for us because God’s promise is greater than our problems, too. When we find ourselves shaking with fear like Ahaz, we have to choose to be firm in faith. God’s presence sustains us through the darkest of circumstances. We can truly bear up through these trials because God is with us!

The most beloved Psalm of all-time is Psalm 23. David talks about the security that comes from knowing God is with him.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 23:4

I’ve read that passage at many a graveside over the years. Everyone has to walk this path of grief at one time or another. We find ourselves grieving the loss of a friend or a family member. And that can be such a cold, lonely feeling. But it’s right there — in the valley of death’s shadow — that David feels something. He knows that he is not alone. He knows that God is with him, shepherding him through the darkness.

“Daddy, will you go with me,” David has asked.

“Yes, child,” God has replied.

So David can now say, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. We need not fear the valley when we trust in God’s promises. He calls out in the darkness, “I’m right here! I’ve got this! I will never leave you nor forsake you!” We can find our way through any darkness when we know God is with us. And like David, this brings us comfort.

Are you seeking comfort right now? If so, trust in the promises of God. Make this line your prayer; write it down so you’ll see it every day: I will fear no evil, for You are with me.

Posted in Devotional, Faith, God, Isaiah, Scripture, Theology | Leave a comment

A New Day: The Power of “With,” Part 2

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Jason

When Isaiah goes to visit Ahaz, he says things like, Do not fear and do not let your heart be faint (7:4). God knows that it is dangerous when we’re controlled by our fears, so His word to Ahaz is the same one He repeats throughout the Scriptures: do not fear. Isaiah goes on to tell Ahaz that the alliance between Israel and Syria won’t last because these two nations are like two smoldering sticks. Isaiah encourages Ahaz to put his trust in God and he closes with a line that we discussed a few weeks ago: Isaiah 7:9, If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

A couple of things are interesting about this verse. One, it’s a plural statement. If y’all are not firm in faith, y’all will not be firm at all. It’s not a statement delivered simply to King Ahaz — it’s intended for all the people of Judah. Therefore, I believe this is a word intended for us as well. God is saying to the people of Isaiah’s day: “Hold tight. I’ve got this. I won’t let Israel and Syria succeed against you. So y’all just continue to firm in your faith because without this nothing in your life is really firm at all.” This is just one of thousands of verses in the Bible that tell us that trust in God is more important than anything else.

Another interesting point is that these two lines actually rhyme in the original Hebrew — something we lose in our translation into English. This is kind of a crude translation, but the original would’ve sounded something like “trust or bust” — “In God y’all need to trust or else y’all are going to go bust.” Something like that.

And then God does something truly amazing: He tells Ahaz to ask for a sign that he might rest assured in God’s promises.

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

Isaiah 7:10-11

Think about how many people throughout history have asked God for a sign. And God gives Ahaz the green light here, essentially saying, “Ask for anything from the highest heights to the deepest depths.” But Ahaz refuses this invitation, which I think indicates that he’s not interested in trusting in God — he has his own plans for getting out of this dilemma. Nevertheless, God gives a sign. Even if Ahaz won’t have eyes to see it, God’s faithful remnant will.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

The sign God gives is a child named Immanuel — which means “God with us.”

Isaiah speaks of a young woman — we don’t know exactly to whom he is referring, but obviously Ahaz would have known her. This young woman is a virgin at the time God speaks these words through Isaiah. And this young woman will get pregnant over the course of time — not supernaturally, as in the conception of Jesus centuries later, but by natural means. And God goes on to say that before her child is very old, Israel and Syria will not be a threat to Judah any more.

This is a good place to talk about an important principle of biblical prophecy: partial fulfillment vs. ultimate fulfillment. There’s a sense in which this prophecy finds ultimate fulfillment or its greatest fulfillment in Jesus — the gospel writer of Matthew tells us as much. Jesus is God’s ultimate sign that He is with us once and for all. But there’s also a sense in which this prophecy was at least partially fulfilled by the events in Ahaz and Isaiah’s day. This young woman will become pregnant — again, not supernaturally. That kind of supernatural conception and birth is reserved only for Jesus. The unique circumstances of His birth will parallel the unique circumstances of His death. But in Isaiah’s day, while this little boy is still young, the threat of Israel and Syria will go away.

For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

Isaiah 7:16

This is the “sign” God promises — a child called Immanuel. God with us.

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A New Day: The Power of “With”, Part 1

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Jason

The word “with” is a really small word, a simple word, but it communicates a life-changing idea. The word “with” simply means, “accompanied by another person.” And sometimes that knowledge can be enough to change your life — just knowing that someone is with you.

When you’re the new kid at school and someone asks you to join in with their group or to sit at their lunch table.

When you’re grieving and your best friend drives all through the night just to show up, just to hold your hand and join you in your pain.

When your friends and family gather around to celebrate a birthday or an anniversary or just to be together.

These moments are powerful because these are the moments when we are with our people.

When my children were younger and they had to do something they didn’t want to do, they’d often ask, “Daddy, will you go with me?” And even as we grow older, we continue to find comfort in being with our people in some of those key moments in life.

So it’s only natural that we would bring this same idea into our relationship with God. At the heart of so many of our prayers, we ask God to be with the people we love: during times of great pain and loss, this is our prayer; but also in times of joy and celebration. I think I’ve prayed the same prayer at every funeral I’ve done over the last 20 years: “God, please be with this family in their hour of grief.” And I’ve prayed a version of this same prayer at every wedding ceremony over which I have officiated: “God, please be with this couple and the new family that begins here today.”

The most comforting thought we can imagine is God being with us.

In the book of Isaiah, God speaks to this expectation with a powerful promise. It is the promise that God will be with His people. God says, “I will never leave you, never forsake you. I will be with you forever.” And this is a promise that endures in every season of life.

King Ahaz, king of Judah, was being opposed by an alliance of Syria and Israel. It seems that these two nations banded together to pressure Ahaz to join their efforts to oppose the Assyrians. But God sends Isaiah to deliver a word of comfort to Ahaz: this opposition will not succeed.

In the days of Ahaz…the king of Syria and…the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

Isaiah 7:1-2

Even though Syria and Israel had not been able to score a decisive victory against Judah, Ahaz and the people were scared to death. So God sends Isaiah to go speak with the king. But God tells Isaiah to take his son with him. That’s kind of odd — the Bible’s version of “bring your child to work” day. But it’s right there in Isaiah. And although the child doesn’t really say anything, his presence is significant. Isaiah’s son was named Shear-jashub, which in Hebrew means, “a remnant will return.”

In Isaiah, the idea of a remnant is really important. Isaiah preaches quite a bit about the threats that God’s people would face: whether it’s the Assyrians or the Babylonians or even the judgment some of them would experience on the Day of the Lord, Isaiah never pulls his punches in talking about these things. But through Isaiah, God always reminds the people that a faithful remnant will endure. Even though God’s people have to persevere through some difficult days, God is always working to preserve a remnant.

No matter how bad it gets, God promises to deliver those who put their trust in Him.

Isaiah is so sure of God’s promises that, as one scholar puts it, “he made the word of God become flesh in the person of his son.” Shear-jashub’s name reflects Isaiah’s strong belief that God will do what He says He will do: He will deliver His people who trust in Him.

Posted in Faith, God, Isaiah, No Fear, Scripture, Theology | 2 Comments

Jackson’s New Blog

Posted on January 17, 2021 by Jason

So my son, Jackson, has decided to start a new blog. It’s called Everything TV and — you guessed it — he’s decided to write about some of his favorite TV shows. If you know Jackson, then you know he’s a HUGE fan of Survivor and his first post is all about the show and some of his favorite seasons.

Follow the link and check it out.

Posted in Blogging, Family, Kids, Television | Leave a comment

2020 NFL Playoffs: Week 2 Picks

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Jason

So last week, we went 5-2 with our picks. Time for our picks for Round 2 of the playoffs.

Sunny: Packers over Rams; Ravens over Bills; Chiefs over Browns; Saints over Bucs.

Jason: Packers over Rams; Ravens over Bills; Chiefs over Browns; Bucs over Saints.

Joshua: Packers over Rams; Bills over Ravens; Chiefs over Browns; Bucs over Saints.

We have some differing picks for this week, so we’ll have plenty to argue about, I guess!

Posted in Family, Football, Kids, Sports, Sunny | Leave a comment

A New Day: My Eyes Have Seen the King, Part 5

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Jason

But here is the beautiful part of this story from Isaiah 6: God makes it possible for Isaiah to be made clean. He makes it possible for the man of unclean lips to be purified. Because the most important question isn’t, “What do you do with a God so holy?” The most important question is, “What does such a holy God do with a sinful mess like me?”

And this is where we find the Good News in this story.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah 6:6-7

We see the heart of God in action here as He acts to purify Isaiah. There is an atonement that takes place as the angel takes a coal from the altar and presses it to Isaiah’s lips. I’m guessing this was somewhat painful for Isaiah. I mean, this coal is so hot that the seraphim uses tongs to remove it from the altar! It seems as if there is always pain associated with atonement. No less is true today — for dying to self can be a painful process for each one of us. And in this way, Isaiah’s experience however loosely anticipates God’s ultimate act of atonement that would come seven centuries after Isaiah.

“Your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for.” Isaiah hears these words in his vision, and we have the opportunity to hear them, too — when we put our trust in Jesus. At the cross, He takes away our guilt and atones for our sin.

Only a holy God could do this. And only a loving God would do this.

God holds holiness and love in perfect balance. His holiness still allows for forgiveness, for mercy, for grace. This is prompted by His great and enduring love.

You see, we aren’t given a glimpse of the hoy God simply so we would wallow in despair over our lack of holiness. No, we are given this image of God’s holiness so, like Isaiah, we would confess our sin in order to hear these joyful words of forgiveness!

Uzziah is an example of how the Holy God of Israel deals with pride. But Isaiah is an example of how the Holy God of Israel deals with humility. Do you need to humble yourself before the Holy God? If you would confess your sin in repentance and follow Jesus into the waters of baptism, God promises this: Your guilt will be taken away, your sin atoned for.

If you’d like to talk more about this, you can reach out to us at prayer@mayfair.org.

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Sovereign Lord who makes all things new, he who has ears, let him hear.

Posted in Devotional, Faith, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Kingdom Values, Repentance, Scripture | Leave a comment

A New Day: My Eyes Have Seen the King, Part 4

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Jason

Over 150 years ago, the great Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote a parable about two robbers who entered a jewelry store and did something very strange: they switched all the price tags. They didn’t steal anything: they just took the high-priced tags off the expensive pieces of jewelry and put them on the cheaper items. And they took the discount price tags off the costume jewelry and put them on the really expensive rings and bracelets. The next day, the jewelry store opened for business as usual. And for the next several days, no one even noticed that folks were buying $10,000 rings for just a few dollars while other were buying cheap necklaces for thousands of dollars.

Kierkegaard used this story as a way of describing the world. He said we live in a world where the price tags have been switched. You see, God (the true King) has determined what is right and what is wrong. It is His prerogative to name good and evil — to determine the “price tags,” if you will. But our enemy has come along and switched some of the price tags. Behaviors labeled by God as evil and sinful were determined to be “no big deal” in Isaiah’s day, while the things that were truly good and important in God’s eyes were minimized and treated as if they were of no importance. Like Uzziah, the people decided to switch the price tags. Instead of living according to God’s precepts of right and wrong, the people had arrogantly determined this for themselves. So God says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Woe to those who switch my price tags! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes!

And this makes Isaiah such a relevant word for us today, because we often do the same thing. We have elevated individualism to a dangerous level in our culture, to the point that we’ve switched the price tags. And freedom of expression and freedom of determination have become just a few of the idols of our day, which leads to sin becoming an accepted way of life. We have become wise in our own eyes by falsely believing we have the authority to call evil good and good evil.

You see this everywhere in our culture.

  • Our culture calls good evil every time murder is rebranded as “a woman’s right to choose.” I guess that logic holds until you realize the way countless young women never had agency over their own bodies because they were murdered in utero by a culture that has accepted abortion as the status quo.
  • Our culture calls evil good every time homosexuality is normalized as an acceptable lifestyle. When we say “love is love,” we play the part of Uzziah — we take morality into our own hands and override the instruction of God. We are rearranging the price tags. Woe to us when we do this.
  • Our culture calls good evil every time faith is privatized and prayer is pushed out of the public sector. And the recent antics out of Washington show how spiritually bereft we are when public prayer is co-opted to push an agenda by those who think the word “amen” is a statement about gender. We are so wise in our own eyes.
  • Racism and sexism and nationalism are all variations of God’s moral code being usurped and replaced with a manmade code that ascribes value to a people group on the basis of something other than being made in the image of God.
  • What would have been considered pornography a generation ago has been rebranded as “PG-13” today. But we should remember that this metric is based on Hollywood’s values, not God’s values. This is just another act of normalizing evil, another act of switching the price tags.

The enemy seeks to reverse the moral code of God by normalizing sin as an accepted way of life and we are party to this whenever we shop according to the switched price tags. And make no mistake: we’re all guilty of doing this. But we forget our place. Like Uzziah before us, we do not have the authority to rebrand evil as good and vice versa. So Isaiah speaks for all of us when he says he is unclean.

Posted in Culture, Isaiah, Scripture, Social Issues, Theology | Leave a comment

A New Day: My Eyes Have Seen the King, Part 3

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Jason

What do you do with a God so holy, so “other?”

Isaiah gives us a good example, one that is a stark contrast to the pride of Uzziah.

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Isaiah 6:5

In response to this vision of the Holy One of Israel, Isaiah confesses his sin. Rather than acting out of pride, as Uzziah did, Isaiah says, “I am a man of unclean lips.”

I remember the first time I said a curse word in front of my parents. I remember it because it was also the LAST time I said a curse word in front of my parents. We were driving over to visit my grandparents. To get to their house you had to take Highway 231 North out of my hometown of Lebanon, Tennessee and cross the Cumberland River. As a child, I was always awestruck by the view from the bridge as we crossed the river. So one day, we were headed to my grandparents’ place; my Dad was driving the car, Mom was in the passenger seat and I was in the back — not wearing a seatbelt, because it was the wild, wild West of the 1980s when you didn’t do that sort of thing. We’re going over the bridge and I’m staring out at all that water and I decided that this would be a good time to use a couple of the new words I’d recently heard on the playground at school. I had just started using some of those words anytime I wanted to express surprise or dismay — I’d learned that there were all kinds of words people used in those kinds of situations. So I just let fly with a couple of those four-letter words without thinking anything of it.

Until my mother popped me on the mouth with the lightning precision of a ninja karate chop. She popped my mouth with her bare hand — not hard enough to draw blood but hard enough to stun me into silence.

She pointed her finger and me and her eyes narrowed as she said, “We do NOT talk that way.”

And I knew I was a young man of unclean lips.

So has Isaiah been running around saying four-letter words? Is that it?

No, I don’t think so.

But in the presence of the holy God, Isaiah is struck by the profanity of his life. He realizes that he is thoroughly polluted and he must confess. Yes, he says he’s a man of unclean lips, but he could’ve just as easily said, “I’m a man with an unclean heart, with unclean thoughts, with impure motives sometimes.” And he knows that his fellow Israelites are equally polluted by sin. So in response to our question, “What do you do with a God so holy?” Isaiah gives us a good answer: you acknowledge your lack of holiness. You confess your sin.

Isaiah tells the truth when he says that he lives among a people of unclean lips. Immorality was rampant throughout the land of Israel in Isaiah’s day. Much like their King Uzziah, the people had ignored God’s commands and developed their own standards of right and wrong. Isaiah would go on to pronounce this word to the people on behalf of God:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

Isaiah 5:20-21

This is what God says to His people.

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A New Day: My Eyes Have Seen the King, Part 2

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Jason

The time stamp of Isaiah 6 is also significant. All of this occurs in the year that King Uzziah died.

Uzziah was king in Jerusalem for over 50 years. (You can read his story in 2 Chronicles 26.) By most human standards, Uzziah was a pretty good king. He subdued Israel’s longtime nemesis, the Philistines. He built up Judah’s military and expanded her economy. Most importantly, he learned the fear of the Lord from a teacher of the Law named Zechariah. And God granted the king much success; in fact, the writer of 2 Chronicles says that Uzziah’s fame spread far throughout the land. It seems that Uzziah was something of an international celebrity.

But this popularity eventually went to Uzziah’s head. 2 Chronicles 26:16, But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. Uzziah’s pride led him to do something terrible: he desecrated the temple of God. In an act of supreme arrogance, Uzziah marched into the temple to burn incense on the hoy altar. This might not seem like a big deal, but this was an affront to God, who commanded that only the priests were to burn the incense. Eugene Peterson says of Uzziah, “He decided to take charge of his own soul and put God to his own uses. He went to the holy altar of incense…and proceeded to run things according to his own tastes and desires.”

Azariah and eighty of the other priests stood up to the king and told him that this was forbidden. But this only angered Uzziah all the more. The Bible says Uzziah had a censer in his hand, presumably to make the incense offering. The way the story is told, it seems as if Uzziah had decided to completely ignore both the word of God and the rebuke of God’s servants. And that’s when Uzziah was suddenly struck with leprosy on his forehead as a visible manifestation of God’s judgment upon him.

You see, Uzziah thought he was truly sovereign, the captain of his own ship. In his pride, he thought he could make up his own rules, no matter what God had commanded. But that is sacrilegious. It’s not an exact parallel, but imagine someone entering the church with a can of spray paint and desecrating the communion table and the baptistery and the cross with the words: “There’s a new sheriff in town. We’re doing things MY way now!” That’s essentially what Uzziah has done in the temple.

And so Uzziah spends the rest of his life in isolation because of this leprosy, his life serving as a cautionary tale of the danger of sinful pride. And we would do well to heed this cautionary tale in our day.

Worship is about the life of the holy God, not the prideful preferences of sinful man.

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