“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
– Isaiah 53:6
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you living as offensive or defensive Christ-follower kids? Did you unreservedly accept that the blood that Jesus shed as a ransom payment for all your past, present and future sins took place the moment when Jesus died after His body was cruelly hung and brutally nailed to a cross or are you consciously attempting through your own strength not to have on record unconfessed commission and/or omission sins? Is your heart forever saturated with brimming thankfulness that God is always there for you – that He is seeing you as being holy and is treating you as His most endeared kids resulting in you having an unremitting desire to please Him in every way that you can or is your mind constantly trying to analyze what the cultural and societal expectations are for you to satisfy perceived Christ-follower norms and mores? Are you being an Isaiah – who unconditionally accepted as being an absolute truth something that would not take place for another 720 years or so or are you being like guys, gals and kids who are living out their planet Earth residency tenures candidly questioning the constructs and constricts of absolute truth? Do you gravitate to humble, unassuming guys, gals and kids to identify with, learn from and relate to or do you choose charismatic, dynamic guys, gals and kids to be your exemplars, mentors and heroes as you grow older? Is your heart clamoring for you to help enable guys, gals and other kids to be able to persevere, triumph and live in hope or is your mind pressing on you to pursue hard after personal fame, public power and prestigious standing? Is it all for Jesus – which is to say that the choices that you are making are made to unabashedly, boldly articulate what Jesus – as God the Son, means to you or is it all for ‘Ego’ – which is to say that the decisions that you are making are made to blatantly promote yourselves.
You probably are wondering why your grandpaa is doing sermonizing again. During last night’s Wednesday’s ‘growth’ group’s get together that your grandmaa and grandpaa began to go to about eight months or so ago, the dialoguing between different guys and gals in the ‘growth’ group began to make your grandpaa feel uncomfortable. One of the first questions that the leader of the ‘growth’ group asked had to do with the downside of guys, gals and kids communicating having an elite faith belief that is perceived to be superior to other faith beliefs. Because your grandpaa had been reflecting for the past few day on Isaiah 53 and because the reference passage ends with Jesus replying that if a guy, gal or kid was unreservedly accepting the Mosaic Law or Torah that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai and the missives that were scribed by God’s prophet spokesmen – such as Isaiah, as being his or her belief paradigm focus, that no matter what these guys, gals or kids see, hear and/or read in the future, that none of these guys, gals and kids are going to be led by God – as God the Spirit, to make that final last step to pass through the faith/grace door as a Christ-follower guy, gal or kid. As your grandpaa was mentally ruminating on what was being said about how different religiosities – explicitly the core mores and customs of Catholics and Muslims, indoctrinate adherents with their identifying belief standards, it occurred to your grandpaa how few times that your grandpaa – let alone any of the other guys and gals who are in the ‘growth’ group that your grandmaa and grandpaa are attending, unashamedly communicate their belief and faith to others in an incarnated guy – Who is Jesus Christ, and what Jesus Christ has done for them through His sacrificial death on a cross and His resurrection from a tomb from being dead. One of the guys who is in the ‘growth’ group that your grandmaa and grandpaa are in asked your grandpaa to go golfing with him yesterday morning. Your grandpaa is pretty sure that one of the guys who Larry contacted to go golfing with him to make up a foursome is not a Christ-follower. Your grandpaa began to wonder how much your grandpaa’s words and demeanor communicated to Roger – who was one of the guys who Larry contacted to join him and your grandpaa on the golf course, that your grandpaa is a Christ-follower.
If a kid friend who is not a Christ-follower asks you to tell him or her about Jesus and why he or she would want to be a Christ-follower like you, what would you tell him or her about Jesus? Would you embellish Who Jesus was – which would make you look better, or would you use Isaiah’s words which God – as God the Spirit, breathed on him to write. Isaiah wrote that Jesus would not be seen by guys, gals and kids as being good-looking, having charisma or emanating personality and that Jesus would be hated and rejected by guys, gals and kids versus being accepted and esteemed. Isaiah wrote that Jesus would act like a defenseless sheep when it was time for Him to be fatally pierced and mortally crushed for the transgression or sins of all guys, gals and kids. Isaiah wrote that Jesus’ death on a cross would give healing and peace to the guys, gals and kids who believe that Jesus died for them on a cross. Isaiah says in verse 6 that Christ-follower guys, gals and kids are to internalize that, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Because your grandmaa and grandpaa believe in Jesus Christ as being their Lord and Savior, your grandpaa knows that he and your grandmaa are elite – that it was becoming Christ-followers that made them elite in the best way possible.
Isaiah 53 (993)