Bourland Family Blog

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 ->me: Verse 8 has wide application canceling the useless and debilitating question “Why?” in the face of life’s difficulties. The Lord is thinking His own thoughts and pursuing His own road when He meets the moral and spiritual need. Thank goodness I don’t know what He knows. I am thankful for and just need to remind myself that God holds the details of every individual at the same time as the whole of all events of every consequence across the entire world every millisecond. As a child of the King, I can rest confidently in His promises and trust that everything that happens is needed to the eventual completion of His plan for eternity.

“Seek, inquire for, and require [need] the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have love, pity, and mercy for him, and to our God, for He will multiply to him His abundant pardon.” Isaiah 55:6-7 ->me: Verse 6 is one I have heard a lot in my life but followed by verse 7 it is so impactful. Verse 6 points to a recognition of urgency while the day of opportunity lasts; this is an acknowledgement and renunciation of sin and a return to the God of compassion and pardon – In short a submission of WHATEVER we think or do to what the Lord thinks and does. SEEK -> Not to look for something lost but to come with purpose and diligence to where the Lord is to be found. Speaks to commitment, determination, persistence, in spiritual concern and in longing for the Lords presence and fellowship. CALL -> at one and the same time to acknowledge God in worship and appeal to Him in need. FORSAKE & TURN -> these are the two sides of true repentance; turning from sin and your own way and turning to God and His way. When I do this (SEEK, CALL, FORSAKE, and TURN) God will have love, pity, and mercy on me; He will make His pardon abundant many times over.

“Incline your ear [submit and consent to the divine will] and come to Me; hear, and your soul will revive; and I will make an everlasting covenant or league with you, even the sure mercy (kindness, goodwill, and compassion) promised to David.” Isaiah 55:3 ->me: Incline your ear…a deliberate listening and receiving of what you hear and in response running to the Almighty God. What is promised to those who hear and come (which is all they need to do)? -> True life; the opposite of thirst, hunger, and lack of satisfaction! Jesus said this Himself in John 5:24 – “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life.” Do you hear that?? When I ‘hear’ my soul is woken up and God says He WILL make an everlasting covenant with me…to include the same promises made to King David! Listening is active – I cannot daydream about earthly exploits – I must focus intently as I wait and listen to my God through His word and prayer EVERY day.

“WAIT and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy [priceless, spiritual] wine and milk without money and without price” Isaiah 55:1 ->me: WAIT and LISTEN…not good enough to do one or the other. The call is to those who want more, who are searching to for the water that quenches. God says – “Come to the waters”; water…both a necessity and in abundance. Better to approach with no money, broke in your own ability, coming as a beggar who will accept. It may be free but there is a price, however, that price has been paid. What do you need to do to get the water, wine, and milk? Simply the self-surrender accepts the blessing.

“But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that which I impart to them as their justification], says the Lord.” Isaiah 54:17 ->me: What a fabulous verse! First, God tells us that He is not just involved in the ‘nice’ things of life; if He were then how grim would out plight be in this menacing world. Then, He goes on to say that this peace in knowing that He will never against take His wrath out on His people is a ‘Heritage’ received straight from His presence; through the saving work of His Servant. In chapters 40 and following Isaiah uses Servant as singular but moving forward through the rest of his book, ‘servants’ is plural. This harkens back to Isaiah 53:11 ‘my righteous Servant’ provides righteousness for the ‘many’. The Servant, by His saving work, creates servants…IN Him. So again, way back here in the old testament (Isaiah) we are told of our justification through the work of Jesus. Additionally, when we reproduce Him in ourselves by FOLLOWING Him, righteousness is made complete in us. The whole message of the new testament is right here!

“You shall establish yourself in righteousness (rightness, in conformity with God’s will and order): you shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.” Isaiah 54:14 ->me: What a wonderful picture of God keeping His people safe in His dwelling, keeping them hidden in His sacred tent, and setting them high on a rock for all to see (Psalms 27:5). These things happen when we establish ourselves in righteousness. Yesterday, in church, Pastor Steve outlined what establishing ourselves in righteousness looks like. Here are a couple – Love what God loves, Hate what God hates, mourn over sin, fear God more than man, and worship Jesus with our life not just our singing. There are several more but these ones spoke out to me. I will lean into these this week; searching God’s word to find His clear stance in these topics.

“For though the mountains should depart and the hills be shaken or removed, yet My love and kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace and completeness be removed, says the Lord, Who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10 ->me: Just on the heels of yesterday’s quiet-time where it is understood that we are the ones who hide from God – Isaiah reinforces that the Father’s malice and anger are gone through a sworn oath just like His oath to never cover the earth with the waters of Noah. The verse here says “My love and kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace and completeness be removed”. This is proof that when I sin, He is there facing me in love, arms open with compassion. It is I who move away from Him when I follow my flesh and in my guilt and shame continue to walk away from Him. STOP!!! SWALLOW YOUR STINKING PRIDE AND GO TO HIM!! He is waiting for you with expectation and with only love and kindness in His heart and peace and completeness in His hand to give.

“For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion and mercy I will gather you [to Me] again. In a little burst of wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with age-enduring love and kindness I will have compassion and mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.” Isaiah 54:7-8 ->me: Reading this makes me ponder on how thankful I am of the price Jesus paid on the cross for me. My God never turns His face from me because the ultimate sacrifice has been made. However, my sin still separates me from Him. This is the reason why sin is like bereavement and desertion, because it alienates the Holy One and there is a sense of loss. I usually pray in my car on my way home from work; on days where I know I went against the nudging of the Holy Spirit, I will sit in my car silent and not engage My Father, because of my shame and guilt; feeling unworthy. But because of the work of Jesus, My God does not see my sin, He sees His Son, and it is only me at that point hiding my face from His. He patiently waits until I spring from my place of hiding into His cloak like a little child sorry for disappointing their parent…and He is there ready to pull me in as I blurt out my true repentance.

“SING, O barren one, you who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child! For the [spiritual] children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married wife, says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes,” Isaiah 54:1-2 ->me: There is so much here! The barren one is Israel under Babylonian exile and its current dispersion. Isaiah is speaking of the adopted ones (Gentiles) into the family through the saving work of the Servant (Jesus) [Paul even quotes this verse in Gal 4:27]. Then verse 2 in regards to tent life which pictures the ideal relationship between the Lord and His people. (Jer 2:1-3) Isaiah paints a picture of vigorous growth. The work of the Servant fulfills both the Abrahamic and Davidic promises. I need to respond to this call on the church to expand. Am I putting all of my God given resources to expanding the tent to accommodate the new arrivals? Am I doing my part to witness effectively to bring more souls in? Am I reinforcing the tent stakes of the existing church by strengthening the faith of those already in the body so that they can support the impact of the new believers?