THE PRICE OF VISION
"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord." Isaiah 6:1
Our soul's history with God is frequently the history of the "passing of the hero." Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged. Take it personally: In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was, died - I gave up everything? I became ill? I got disheartened? or - I saw the Lord?
My vision of God depends upon the state of my character. Character determines revelation. Before I can say "I saw also the Lord," there must be something corresponding to God in my character. Until I am born again and begin to see the Kingdom of God, I see along the line of my prejudices only; I need the surgical operation of external events and an internal purification.
It must be God first, God second, and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatever. "In all the world there is none but thee, my God, there is none but thee." Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.
"no one else is of any account whatever"...really?
ReplyDeleteFor my next trick, I will make the words of God appear before your very eyes:
ReplyDelete"I am the Lord, your God ...
You shall have no other gods before me."
Exodus 20:3-4
Yes, but... People can be "of account," and not be idols.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with so many things that are "of any account" is that the issue of primacy must be settled. If and until a person has God as God first in their life can they then faithfully prioritize the rest of the items, responsibilities and relationships in their life. Thus Abraham was asked to offer his son Isaac to God. But the knife was stopped on its way down by God's offer of a substitute. And so when Jesus was offered " for the sins of the world" god finally paid up on the deal he made with mankind in the covenant with Abraham. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. " Chambers says that "Until I am born again and begin to see the Kingdom of God, I see along the line of my prejudices only." The only way to who and what is "of account" is to have God's mind and heart in the matter.
ReplyDelete