Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

  I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;     I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,”     to a nation that was not called by[e] my name. Isaiah 65:1 ESV Salvation is not primarily dependant upon our asking and seeking after God. Salvation begins in the heart of the Lord. He is the One who sovereignly draws us to Himself. If it depended on us, we would never find God. Yet if God seeks us out, we will assuredly find Him. Maybe you're not asking and seeking after God, but I trust that He is looking out for you. Jesus came not simply as the Jewish Messiah, but as the Saviour of the world. Even a random Gentile like me can be grafted into spiritual Israel. God's people are all who He sovereignly chooses. We're not a homogenous ethnic unit. If God is calling you today to trust in Him, don't ignore Him. If He is telling you to trust in Jesus, then obey His command. Life for Him might be challenging, but wi

   but your iniquities have made a separation     between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you     so that he does not hear. Isaiah 59:2 ESV  Do we ever feel like God is far away? If so, the fault is with us, rather than with Him. The filthy stains of our sins are intolerable to Him.  How can we be reconciled to God from our emnity with Him? Not by our own defective attempts to earn His favour. Only through faith in the Lord Jesus can we be at peace with God.  God is holy; we are sinners. We can't simply waltz into His presence as we are. We need Him to clean us up and wash us in the blood of Jesus to enter His glorious presence.  Thankfully, through Christ's intercession, we can be made acceptable to God. We don't have to be rejected by Him. He can justify us by Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. 'O Lord our God, please help us to acknowledge our wrongdoing before You, and to find cleansing in Your Son, in whose name we pray, amen'

  “Seek the Lord while he may be found;     call upon him while he is near Isaiah 55:6 ESV What do we seek after? Money, sex or power? We should be seeking the Lord while He may be found. God will endure long after money, sex and power are gone. We can only find the Lord in this life. Eternity is too late to get to know Him. If we're not reconciled to Him now, He'll condemn us later. It doesn't matter who we are or where we're from. We can all call upon the Lord. He is near to all who call upon Him in spirit and in truth. We're promised in the new testament that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. He might feel distant, but if we genuinely cry out to Him in Jesus' name, He will come to us by His Holy Spirit. 'Lord our God, we call to You. We seek Your favour in our lives. Please exchange our sinful shame for the honour of being adopted into Your family. In Christ's name, amen'

  Thus says the Lord: “In a time of favour I have answered you;     in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you     as a covenant to the people, to establish the land,     to apportion the desolate heritages Isaiah 49:8 ESV Maybe we're hoping for a time of favour from the Lord. Perhaps we're looking for a day of salvation. The new testament confidently asserts that now is the time of favour; today is the day of salvation. How can we have such confidence that God can answer our prayers in the here and now? How is it we can know God's help in the present day? Through the Lord Jesus Christ. Theologians describe us living in a time of grace. We have the opportunity to make our peace with God, through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. The blood of animals can't save us. Only the Lamb of God's blood can do that. Christ Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life; no

  “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,     a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’     or ‘Your work has no handles’? Isaiah 45:9 ESV Us taking issue with God is like a pot taking issue with the Potter. It's a humble picture of God, but even more humbling of us! We are, after all, simply animated clay, by the breath of God. The idea of an inanimate object questioning its maker is ridiculous. Even the idea of robots rebelling against their creators is seen to be wrong. Other creatures don't rail against God, so why should we as the pinnacle of His creation? By questioning God, we demean ourselves. If we blame Him for our own defaults, we fail to see how He can use us for His glory. Some pots can be put to use for a king; others for a poor widow. We don't get to choose how God will use us. The problem is when we doubt God's good design for our lives. We might feel like a bunch of deficient pots. Yet God c

  I am the Lord, your Holy One,     the Creator of Israel, your King.” Isaiah 43:15 ESV The Lord is the self existent One, the Great 'I Am'. He was and is and is to come. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. When Jesus cast out demons, they declared that He is the Holy One. Jesus wasn't just some exorcist. He is the Holy One of God. God is the Creator of Israel. What God has created, let no one destroy. He creates His new covenant people too, a spiritual Israel, grafted into Him. Jesus is King. His message was that with His advent, the Kingdom of God arrived. We get to become part of it through faith in Him. 'O Lord, the Holy One, our Creator and King, we worship You today and ask that You would help us to honour You in our lives. For the glory of Your name we pray, amen'