SELF
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
“the serpent
beguiled me” Genesis chapter 3
Isaiah [GW] 64:1-9
If only you would split open the heavens and come down! The mountains would
quake at your presence. Be like the fire that kindles brushwood and makes water
boil. Come down to make your name known to your enemies. The nations will
tremble in your presence. When you did awe-inspiring things that we didn't
expect, you came down and the mountains quaked in your presence. No one has
ever heard, no one has paid attention, and no one has seen any god except you.
You help those who wait for you. You greeted the one who gladly does right and
remembers your ways. You showed your anger, because we've sinned. We've
continued to sin for a long time. Can we still be saved? We've all become
unclean, and all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags. All of
us shrivel like leaves, and our sins carry us away like the wind. No one calls
on your name or tries to hold on to you. You have hidden your face from us. You
have let us be ruined by our sins. But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are
the clay, and you are our potter. We are the work of your hands. Don't be too
angry, LORD. Don't remember our sin forever. Now look, we are all your people.
Like Eve, we much
prefer blaming Satan for our selfish acts, but as the word itself designates,
the problem is self. This I well know.
Janie B. Chaney,
in her March WORLD magazine essay Us Against Ourselves presents an
understandable experienced list.
·
Self against tradition.
·
Self against absolute rule. (Sovereign Jehovah
God Almighty being at the top of the list.)
·
Self against society.
·
Self against family.
·
Self against the other.
·
Self against self.
Beginning with
Satan (Isa.14; Ez.28), Adam and Eve, and then with other stories and
exhortations God’s Word tells us of this common self-against. Beyond the
Biblical record we continue to struggle naturally. Let us instead be clay being
reshaped by the Potter’s hands.
EBB4
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