Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
ISAIAH 1:17
Christians in general are getting back to basics. We are sick of endless activity that is taking us nowhere and endless sermons that are not bringing change. We want our first love, first passion, and first priority back. We are simplifying, reordering, restructuring, repenting, and going back to our first works. The book of Isaiah refers to these sorts of endless and meaningless activities when it says:
Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings — meetings, meetings, meetings — I can’t stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning. When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody. Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless. (Isaiah 1:13 – 17 MSG)
Those works that we are returning to are the works of the early church in the book of Acts: a church that was full of love, sold everything, helped anyone who had need, and shared the gospel. It was a church that “turned their world upside down.”
People are no longer content to play church; they want to be the church. We want our lives to count for something, to be committed to a cause and not a religion. We want to see a big God who can bring transformation and change by using ordinary people to do extraordinary things. That’s what I want and I believe that’s what you want.
MOMENT OF REFLECTION
Are you yearning to see God do more in and through your life?