This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed, cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The GOD of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, GOD will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, “Here I am.”
Isaiah 58 6-9a
I usually need help making it throught the day without stepping in my own slop. Sometimes I wonder how to best talk to God. Tonight I sat in the hot tub, looking up at the stars with a fresh cigar in hand wondering what tomorrow will bring. The winds were again beginning to blow. The moon is new, the stars are bright, and I felt as if I were at the edge of the world. For me, chatting with the creator is often stirred by seeing His creation. It is a reminder that He is as close as the heart that beats within me. His love stretches beyond those stars I saw.
I love Isaiah chapter 58 in the Bible. Isaiah saw a people that was religious. They had a form of godliness, but denied its power ( 2 Timothy 3:5 ). There is a lot of that going on in the church today. I sometimes see it in myself. I really want to take a stand as live the life I say I believe (“doing over believing”). Isaiah records a conversation he had with the Lord. God told him what he wanted to see him do. I think that even today, the church needs to rise up and open our homes (and churches) to the poor, the needy, the disenfranchised, the ragamuffins, the fringe, the houseless, the beautiful ugly people in our streets. But we are too scared to let them into our churches, so why would we bring them to share a meal in our own house? The church says “It is not safe to let them near our children”. “All they want is money”. “They are loosers”. If you want the Lord to hear our cries for help… re-read Isaiah 58 and judge for yourself why it seems our prayers are bouncing off the celing.
Recent Comments