Third word

In addition to the verses in Ezekiel that the Lord highlighted yesterday, I was already focusing a bit on Isaiah 58 - the well know "fasting" teaching from the Lord.

Two particular parts of that chapter really came into sharp focus for me:

1 “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and he house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness.....“ In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers. 4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high......

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard

Then this morning I received the "verse of the day" from Biblegateway.com and this is what it said:

Philippians 2:14-16 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the skyas you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

In these versus, twice we read, "that you may become blameless and pure" or in Isaiah, "then your righteousness shall go before you."

There is this small yet very troublesome word that sort of pops out when you would rather not hear it.

"THEN"

So often in the kingdom of God the plans of God for our lives, our homes, our churches, is conditional. It's not that God's plan is going to fail if we fail. The word of God and the plan of God will always succeed. BUT we are invited to be active partners with. God invites us to put our hand into his and walk next to Him in what He is doing. We can choose through these little annoying words like "then" to be a light, a source of strength, a blessing to all those around us because of the righteousness shinging out of us. We can't "hold out the word of life" if people have not been able to deduce our Christianity before we opened our mouths. Or rather, in the well known quote, "preach the gospel everywhere....and if necessary, use words."

We are promised in these verses that our righteousness will go before us. The glory of the Lord will be our rear guard (so that we can focus solely on what's in front, not worry about what's coming from behind).

What would happen if we, the church, listened to "THEN" and became a people that did what comes before that little word and thereby received the promise of God and appropriated what comes after. What would it be like if the media had great trouble finding enough scandals and negative issues to report on in the church and they could only find righteousness instead?