The Call to Promise, 11/30/09

I wonder at the lack of faith in a man's heart. It is so easy when we are cast down to doubt our future. Also, to look upon others in desperate straits and to have no hope, even gloom imagined for them. That phrase "misery loves company" comes to mind. What a miserable lot we creatures are.

When I read the Word or converse with God, I run into a direct confrontation with a truth that opposes this spirit within me. To those who know not God this appears a vain optimism. To those in the know it is the everlasting arms reaching below your troubles to raise you to your promise.

Israel at the time of Isaiah was in terrible shape. They were pummeled on every side and without an inner hope. To this heart God speaks in Isaiah 51 six calls with their corresponding comforts. The underlying theme being, "I formed you out of a miracle (Isaac's birth), can I not restore?"

I know my call from death to a new birth was no less a miracle. Can I not be restored? Even if I were the evil man portrayed by my critics would by hope in Christ be in vain? Consider the evils Israel practiced for generations before they were destroyed by their lusts. What contempt they showed upon their beloved. Still with shameless love, He calls and reveals the blessings of a relationship with Him. Your ridicule seems to defy the character truth about the God you claim to know. Wouldn't my restoration to God be the best hope of justice? I know with me that Alsup's coming to know Christ and His character and to become subject to Him as master holds the most promise for me being restored out of his injustice. It truly makes sense to love our enemies and to pray for them. Hatred and desires for vengeance only show a lack of God's power and grace.

I am getting to an age where people I love are dying and going into eternal damnation. This is a sobering time. All the diversions and waste of time in one's life quickly add up into a taunt and rebuke. Nothing in this life has the value of one soul and yet souls are perishing all around us.

Dorean on the surface can be about economics, fraud and truth, or even hope, or vanity. But to me I find myself bound to a course of action that I envision having eternal import. Showing by my life the character of Christ by following His lead will be a revelation to some that changes the direction of their soul. It is a mystery why Christ can be so openly displayed and yet remain veiled to the majority. But to those to whom He reveals Himself, what a fountain of life! For you, for your soul, Christ makes his demands upon me. Am I injured by the cost of your witness? Most certainly not! Christ is a debtor to no man. He gives me Himself which is the comfort promised throughout the scriptures, including our text. It is the example with countless others that the promise made to your souls are true. God can and will restore to you more than you could ever lose. Do you hear the call to the promise?