"I can't hear you"

Is. 58:1 "Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
3 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the LORD?

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you know that this is a passage I spend a lot of time in. A few months ago I posted "Is. 58 Vacation", but this is not really a follow up on that post, though there is room for that later.

The first 5 verses of this chapter are an indictment from God, through Isaiah, to God's people. I think we would do good to learn from this passage, by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, that these verses may be talking directly to us today.

"Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God."-There is nothing wrong and many things right about the things they were doing in this verse.

They were required to fast, "'Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'", but why did God not have any knowledge of it? Isaiah gives the answer and it is not pretty, but again I think it may hit pretty close to home in our churches in America.
"Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist."

Is this God telling them that doing is not nearly as important as being?
"Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high."

Can you imagine what they must have been thinking? Maybe something like, "You mean to tell me we have been doing all these things, that He told us to do, and now He is saying He won't even listen to us when we cry out?" I would think they would have been mad, but whom would they be mad at? They only had themselves to blame for their Pharisaical processions and outward religiosity.

God calls us to "be" much more than He calls us to "do", and this is where they were stuck and this is where we are often stuck. I don't want to be stuck on the "performance treadmill" trying to earn my way to Heaven, because I can't even get on that treadmill.

Many of our churches in America today are big buildings, with lots of programs and lots of projects going on to make those buildings more appealing to the masses, but what about our heart for the things that are in God's heart?

I am no "big-wig" anywhere, but maybe there should be a balance between our missions/outreach budget and our remodeling budget. Maybe there should be as much emphasis on helping the needy, poor and homeless as there is on making the sounds system better. Maybe we should be sending our dollars that we make at the "in church" latte stand to help those who couldn't dream of having $4 for a cup of coffee, because that same $4 would feed their family for a week.

I want God to listen to me when I pray. I want Him to be guiding me continually and give me my desires-which I hope are changing to His desires- in times when there is nothing else to hang on to but Him. I want to be a watered garden where others can come and be refreshed. He promises those things when we spend ourselves on the things that He wants us to be spent on, and that is not ourselves.

Am I pointing fingers this morning? I am not your second Holy Spirit, but if this has application in your life/body then don't just brush it off, do something.

If you are a pastor and this is hitting close to home, have a meeting today and start to change. The Bible doesn't have examples of people knowing the truth and then taking another 6 months to have committee meetings and make a decision. When God said something there was an expectation of immediate obedience.

If you are just a member like me what should we do? Be what God wants us to be. Pray that God would change our own hearts to be conformed to His will and then pray for our leaders that they would see and obey. We are responsible to be loving others towards love and good deeds and that may involve talking to the pastor/s so they know your concern with the direction your local body is going. We must live out the joy of following Christ in front of them but also point out where there needs to be change.

You might say "in these economic times there is no budget to change things up". Well, who owns everything? If God wants your church, or your family, to have an abundance right now, He can certainly bring that to you. If your local body gets excited about missions-orphans-widows-homeless-needy people right now, what is to say that no one will be ale to give one more penny then they currently are, but does not God have the resources to bring another 100 people to your congregation next Sunday? Don't try to figure out how God is going to work, just obey and let Him take control of the rest. He is the One who is responsible to keep all His promises to us and He will keep them. I have no idea how or what He will do, but that's not my job to figure out. My job is to obey His Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I hope this is encouraging and does not coming over like I am chewing anyone out. I want my church and the church of America to be obedient to the Word and growing in Christ so that we can have an impact for the Kingdom through out the world. It starts with just one and moves out from there. Are you in?