is the highway open?
18Nov07
The paths of life, the paths of righteousness; the ancient ways, the way of holiness; the place where God walks together with those who will agree with him; the place where John the Baptizer cried out, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!” The place where the lame walk, the blind see, the mute tongue cries out in praise, where the redeemed of the Lord come with singing into Zion, where the Lord turns away their captivity and they are like men who dream, where everlasting joy is on their heads - surely this is the highway of Isaiah 35.
When do you not get to use the highway? When do you get to use it?
must take the on-ramp of Repentance!
definitely the only way on! and then - once you’re on, how does the highway work?
I think you get to use the highway all the time. The problem is that we constantly forget who we are in Christ. I need to remind myself of the gospel everyday and I also have to remind myself WHO I AM. When the Lord looks upon us, we are already pure and holy because He sees us clothed in the righteousness of Christ–a perfect creation. We need to walk in that. Do we? That’s another matter.
Exactly. In Shamgar’s day (the time of Israel’s judges) the only way to use the highway was to take an oxgoad and clear out 600 Philistines. Jesus has done all the clearing we could ever want. Repentance is your ticket onto the highway, and then - taking on the identity of the righteousness of God is how we live there, breathe there, walk there.
So then what does it mean to make straight paths for your feet?
Well, like you said, “Jesus has done all the clearing we could ever want.” In Christ, we are able to walk on a straight path living in and by the Spirit of God. He has cleared our paths for us. We are new creatures in Christ.
(Thinking) We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us, and yet we still sin constantly. We forget all the time to call upon the Spirit and instead we call upon our own thoughts and processes. We still think that we need to prove something and earn our way to the top, even when we know the deep truth of the gospel.
Why is that?
That’s the question of the hour! For way too long believers have just assumed that’s how it has to be. Give it your best shot, fall short, say sorry, try again.
The amazing thing is Father is so willing to engage us in this - even though it’s far short of the overcoming life he holds out in his Word! He is so rich in mercy. Even living as a disobedient child can work out as long as we’re sincere in repenting if we sin.
What if this generation was to really hear the call to live as obedient children? What if we didn’t try and make the crooked paths and the obstacles in our path somehow necessary and meaningful in our walk with God? Because you’re right - the highway is wide open, but very few people have the faith to really walk in it the way Jesus walked.
If we knew that God wasn’t interested in our human abilities or efforts, could we start living consistently and completely led by the Spirit of God?
look what just showed up in my email inbox….(daily bread)
Genesis 17:1 - And Abram was ninety-nine years old and Yahweh appeared unto Abram and He said, I am God Almighty walk before me and be perfect.
Most people are intimidated by the very idea that God would expect anyone to be perfect. However, if we look at this as an invitation from God to walk into a realm that His strength will supply then in fact God is honoring us with an invitation to receive from Him glory and honor. David said God girds me with strength and makes my way perfect (Psalms 18:32). He recognized that it was God who would do the perfecting through the strength that He would supply. The perfection that God desires is a perfection that He provides (Philippians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:11; Titus 2:12; Ephesians 3:16). If we were to look to ourselves then certainly we would throw our hands up in the air and say “impossible!” Yet when we trust in the Lord for the divine ability then we may say, “I will behave myself in a perfect way. O when will you come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart - ‘betom levavie” (Psalms 101:2).
To understand the perfection that God desires is to recognize that it is in the walk or the relationship that He wants us to have with Him. Later God would judge the Kings of Israel based upon whether or not their hearts were perfect towards Him. God began with David whom He described as the one whose heart was even as His (1Samuel 13:14). Even with David’s failures his heart remained true to God and God described Him as one whose heart was perfect towards Him (1 Kings 15:3). God commanded Solomon to have a perfect heart to walk in the statutes and to keep the commandments of God (1 Kings 8:61; 1 Chronicles 28:9). When Solomon turned to other gods then his heart was no more perfect towards the Lord it had become divided with other devotions (1 Kings 11:4). King Asa remained devoted to Yahweh and therefore received the report that His “heart was perfect with Yahweh all his days” ( 1 Kings 15:14). Hezekiah’s plea before the Lord was bolstered by the fact that he had walked with a perfect heart and had done that which was good in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 20:3; Isaiah 38:3). In this context a perfect heart described one who was serving God with all of their heart (levavechem shalem). In this respect it was God’s request of the whole nation of Israel (Deuteronomy 6:5). The prophet Hanani revealed that Yahweh searches throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him (2 Chronicles 16:9).
God makes the same request of us today as Jesus commands everyone of us to, “Be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Paul says in His final address to the Corinthians, “Be perfect” (2 Corinthians 13:11). He reveals to the Ephesians that the ministry is there to make them perfect so that they may all grow into a perfect man (Ephesians 4:12-13). He testified to the church at Colossae that their ministry was to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Colossians 1:28; 4:12). Both Paul and John reveal that love is the means and the realm of this perfection (Colossians 3:14; 1 John 2:5; 3:12,17-18). Love fulfills all that God has ever desired and requires. It is through divine love that we discover the means to a perfect relationship.