The Joy of Glory

Isaiah 32:1-16 (click here)
For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
(Isaiah 32:14–16)

Reflection
God’s people are in rebellion. Judgement is coming. In a little more than a year Assyria will invade (again). Cities will be deserted, and wild animals will make homes where God’s people once lived.

Can there be any salvation from such devastation?

YES! God promises that the day will come when his Spirit will be poured out upon his people! A people who were once barren will bear fruit! A people once consumed with self will now seek justice for the other. A people once dwelling in the darkness of unrighteousness will now shine with the bright righteous beams of the Spirit of God!

The good news of the Gospel is that this day has come! Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit of God has been poured out upon his people to empower them to live bearing fruit amidst the wilderness of the world!

This is how we are to live! In total dependence upon the Holy Spirit’s provision to be the people we have been recreated in Christ to be!

Today… are you depending on the Spirit’s power to bear the fruit of justice and righteousness? Are you asking him to provide all the power needed to bear fruit to the glory of God in the midst of this wilderness?

The day will come when God will bring redemption to completion and Easter will have it’s final effect! The wilderness of this world will become a fruitful forest to his glory… but until that day arrives… we live, bearing fruit by the Spirit’s power as witnesses to the fact that world is on its way… it is coming!

Can there be any salvation from devastation? Yes. There is. And God uses your fruit-bearing life to show the world where that salvation comes from… from him alone… through his son alone… by his Spirit alone.

So go today… depend on the Holy Spirit… and bear fruit for God’s glory, your good, and the spread of the Gospel.

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

John 15:18-16:4a
On Sundays there will be no written devotional as the reading for that day also serves as the sermon text for Shades Valley Community Church. If you would like to listen to this morning’s sermon on John 15:18-16:4a you may do so by clicking here.

Job 19:14–27 (click here)
My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me.

All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.

“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God…
(Job 19:14, 19, and 23-26)

Reflection
Abandoned and alone.

That was how Job felt. Everyone he had ever known and loved had turned against him and even passing strangers scoffed.

Have you ever been there? Abandoned and alone?

Job doesn’t minimize his pain… he pours it out! Reading through his words is a gut-wrenching experience if you take him seriously. You can hear his anguish and feel his agony ripple through your own nervous system as he empties his soul on page after page.

This is actually what Job wished for in the midst of his personal midnight! He longed for his words to be written down in a permanent place where they could be passed from generation to generation. He longed for others to know his painful plight… but why?

We are not left wondering… for Job tells us why he wants his words engraved in rock forever… “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God…”

Job wants you and me to be able to read his testimony, not primarily so we can hear his complaint and sympathize with his pain, but so that we might see the faithfulness of his God. Job is confident that God will be faithful to the end! He believes that even if his flesh is destroyed, his God is one of redemption who will redeem that dead flesh to live again, and he will spend forever in his redeemed flesh with his redeemer!

Job wants a permanent testimony of his pain recorded so that all may know he loves a God who is bigger than his pain, who sustains him through it, and redeems it all!

Like Job, our pain stands as a testimony to those around us. I wonder what they read? What am I inscribing with the iron pen of my life upon the rock of time and history? Especially amidst my own midnight, my painful plights… will others read in these moments of my life the story of a faithful God who is bigger than my pain, who sustains me through it, and who will one day redeem all?

When people read the stories of our lives will they read the words “I know that my Redeemer lives?”

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.