Date: Sunday July 22, 2012
Today's Chapters: Isaiah 5-8
Message Title: His Hand Is Still Stretched Out

Hello My Friend,

Every day, saved, born again Christians struggle climbing the mountains that they put in front of them. The strongest Christian can fall, our salvation does not exempt us from the sin nature that we fight with until the day we lose our flesh. However, God has not forgotten them, His hand is still stretched out to help anyone climb their mountain and reach the top. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:7-9.

The hardest part about seeking forgiveness is confessing the sin, no one wants to stand before God and tell Him all the things they are guilty of. The truth is, God already knows, He just wants us to acknowledge to Him that we know we have done wrong, confessing sin shows God that He is more important than the sin. Through Isaiah, God gives an illustration of the affliction that His people are faced with when they continue to live in sin, but reassures them that no matter what they have done, His hand is still stretched out to help them.

“Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” - Isaiah 5:1-5,25.

God takes away the hedge, allows affliction upon every soul that lives in sin, but also gives them a way to endure the affliction and overcome it by reaching for Him. No Christian is perfect and without sin, no matter how good we try to be we unknowingly sin every day and need to make things right with God every night. He hates sin, even if it is the tiniest of sin, but He loves us and always has His hand stretched out to us. “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” -1 Peter 4:16-19.

Isaiah sees a vision from God, this vision is much like the vision John had wrote about in the Book of Revelation. This amazing vision foresees the day that Jesus will one day reign as King in His Kingdom. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” - Isaiah 6:1-7.

Only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ are we able to be purged of our sins, the word seraphim means fiery ones, in reference to their burning love for Christ. They are angels standing above Jesus as He sits upon His throne, ready to minster to him. We will all stand before Christ one day and it will be a day of great fear, but those who have His blood applied to them need not fear because all of their sin has been purged away. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” - John 15:1-3.

With that assurance that does not mean we will not face consequences for living in sin while we remain here on earth. So many Christians are suffering, trying to climb their mountains with their own strength. The truth is, until they are broken, until they stop trying to do it on their own they will keep struggling. However, God still has His hand stretched out, ready to pull them up. “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” - Isaiah 8:9,10,13,20.

Until we are broken, until we having nothing more in us, but to seek God, we will keep struggling, no one has to suffer the consequences of sin. God still has His hand stretched out, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” - James 4:8-10.

Today's Prayer: God, I do not know how many times I have struggled only to realize that the reason I was struggling was because I was trying to climb my mountain by myself. Yet time and time again Your hand always reaching out to me when I humble myself before You. There is no better feeling that to be at peace and feel all the burdens come off we when I come to You. Lord, give me Your power to remain humble and keep holding on to Your hand, which helps me climb my mountain to reach the top. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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