FWD: Morning Manna (Apr. 4); BP: Is. 53; RBTTY: Lk. 8:1-25; Ruth 1-4

 
Samuel D. High
sdhigh@aristotle.net

 

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-----Original Message-----
From: "Apostle Tom" <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:23:52 -0500
To: pressingon@hotmail.com
Subject: Morning Manna (Apr. 4); BP: Is. 53; RBTTY: Lk. 8:1-25; Ruth 1-4
 
 
April 4 “Our Suffering Shepherd”  
 
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own  
way—and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  
Isaiah 53:6  
In spite of our waywardness, He continues to seek us with loving  
faithfulness.  
Incorrigible. Uncooperative. Stiff-necked. Rebellious. Disloyal.  
Powerful words of indictment, aren’t they? Yet, in reality they  
describe every one of us according to today’s Manna—for it clearly says “ALL  
we like sheep have gone astray (Heb. ‘ta ‘ah’—‘to vacillate, reel or stray,  
deceive, seduce, err, etc.’); we have turned to his own way (Heb. ‘derek’—‘a  
road, a course of life or mode of action, custom, journey, etc.’).”  
 
Simply put, Isaiah describes one who, by his own volition, has CHOSEN  
“to go astray” and “WILLINGLY turned to his/her own way.” Now, we don’t  
like to hear those words, for they are offensive and threaten our own  
preconceived ideas of ourselves. We inwardly envision ourselves as “not  
THAT bad of a sinner.” And, we’re certainly “not as bad as so-and-so.”  
 
Hmm. . .pride certainly has a way of blinding us to the truth, doesn’t  
it?  
That’s why we look in a mirror, suck in our midsection, smile and say  
“Well, I’m not THAT much overweight.” Or, in the same mirror we see the  
wrinkles and call them “character marks”. . .the gray hair and call it  
“signs of maturity” (unless we’ve already hidden them by coloring  
solutions). . .the sagging eyelids and jowls and think, “Maybe I should get  
a facelift.”  
 
Ouch again.  
“Okay, Preacher, enough already. You’ve gone from preaching to  
meddlin’ now.”  
Hmm. . .maybe we ought to sing that children’s song a little  
differently: “Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any sin? Yes sir, yes sir,  
three bags full. One for my mind to think what I want. One for my heart  
that wants what I want. And, one for my mouth that professes to be what I’m  
not.”  
 
“Stop it!” someone screams. “Enough already!!”  
Is that right?  
Well, dear Pilgrim, until we quit pretending and protesting we’ll never  
understand what it meant for “the Lord to lay on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of  
us all.” He didn’t die for lilly-white, slightly-soiled sheep that only  
occasionally slip off the “strait-and-narrow.” No, our “iniquity—our sins  
of omission and commission—was laid on Him” by a loving Heavenly Father  
Whose heart has been torn out by its roots by us.  
 
In reality, we don’t like this picture or these words, for they’re so.  
. .so. . .what’s the right word. . .so “convicting”. . .so “piercing”. .  
.stripping away the veneer of our pretenses and exposing us for what we  
really are: Stinking, sinful, straying sheep. But, thankfully our  
Suffering Shepherd has a way of cleaning us up by His blood and changing our  
hearts where we never want to stray again. Thank you, Jesus.  
 
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