Wow, God is so good! Have you noticed? Are you aware of how blessed you are? Thank him for it!
Today's reading isn't warm and fuzzy like yesterday's, but we don't always need warm and fuzzy. By the way, great comments yesterday, and a powerful testimony! Thank you. Today we're listening to God speak in Isaiah 47. God had disciplined his people by raising up the Babylonians to conquer and scatter them. Now he addresses the Babylonians. . . Give it a read. Now a second time. What can you hear or gain here?
Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, "I am, and there is none besides me." (v. 10)
Wisdom and knowledge are usually qualities that are praised in Scripture, so this warning is surprising at first. Wisdom and knowledge can have a dark, insidious side. They can turn you arrogant. They can make you exclusive and superior in your own estimation. You can begin to think that you have nothing to learn or be corrected on by others. You can lose the quality of humility and teachability and a healthy recognition that you don't have it all figured out.
I need others. My circle of fellowship needs the enriching experience of learning from others. If wisdom and knowledge teach us anything, it is that very reality. Denominations have a way of having this attitude that "we alone have it right, and we're the only accurate expression of the Christian faith." Sounds a lot like, "I am, and there is none besides me."
The pursuit of God must always be carefully and humbly taken. While knowledge informs our pursuit of God, it is not the real goal. A humble, loving, grace-filled character that resembles the heart of Jesus is the goal. Anytime it is taking us another direction towards pride and devaluing others, it is a misleading kind of knowledge.
God, keep me humble, teachable and open to the value of those unlike me. Amen.
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This is great, Chris. I'm finding this to be more and more true every day.
ReplyDeleteMeredith
Chris, I'm really enjoying your musings on Isaiah. I am studying this book in Bible Study Fellowship this year, and we are just ahead of you in Isaiah 50-52 this week. It is an amazing book that I have never really studied before, and I am drinking it in. May He bless you richly as you abide in Him.
ReplyDeleteLove,Lisa
Thanks for your feedback! I'm so glad you are being blessed by this conversation with God through Isaiah.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that One Life does not have this mentally of "I am, and there is none besides me". Now that I think about this I've never been apart of a church that fully has expressed this attitude. The church I was brought up in was the First church of the Nazarene and that was all I really knew. I remember going to visit the Church of Christ with a friend while I was still in high school and I got the impression from my parents that demonation wasn't 'the right way'. When I was in college I attended few different churches; Church of Christ, Methodist and Baptist. I never felt one was more right than the other, but what kept me attending the Baptist church was the connection I had developed amgounst my college peers. We were learning out of the bible and that was enough for me.
ReplyDelete