Brighter Days
One Year Bible (Oct. 1)
Isaiah 62:6-65:25
Brighter Days
“We are the clay, and YOU are the POTTER.” (Isaiah 64:8)
Over and over again I have heard from our church family and people who just visit one of our worship services about our daughter and the way she worships.
Perhaps you have heard the saying, “Dance like no one is watching. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening. Live like it’s heaven on earth.” (Inspirational Quotes)
Well, that is our girl! She is one lively “Chunk of Clay” and she loves to “Praise her Potter”!
I shared with you how she went through “A Rough Patch”. This lasted for about a year and there were moments that were “touch and go”. I had a kind friend who said, “It’s going to be Okay”. I said, “And what if she’s not?” That is the question behind our anxiety and terror, isn’t it?
Speaking of anxiety, do you know why they have those slits in the back of those hospital gowns?
They don’t call it ICU for nothing!
Finding a smile and hope when “all is hanging bare” is not an easy task. Isaiah knew all about that as he had to walk around naked sharing the upcoming judgment. This was a time of TERROR and TMI for him and the people.
Out of all the things written in the book of Isaiah I have often pondered why God would ask Isaiah, the prophet, to preach naked for three years. Naked! THREE LONG YEARS!
No Wardrobe Change! No Wardrobe AT ALL! I am at a loss…
Once I accidentally went to a lookout area in the San Diego area to watch some hang gliders on a beautiful cool day. When we looked down we realized that no one below had on clothes. It was a nude beach! Some say it’s “FREEING”, but we were “FLEEING”!
So, I researched Isaiah’s ‘bare necessities’ and here is what I found, “Go and take the sackcloth off your loins, (Not even sackcloth over his loins?), and take your shoe off your foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.” (Isaiah 20:1-2)
Man, I was wishing this was just a symbolic passage! My next thought was, “Don’t they have winter there?”...The nudity of Isaiah was a sign that the Assyrians would overcome Egypt and Ethiopia. All prisoners of any age would march into captivity completely naked. (20:3-4) It is kind of like going to jail. Everyone is strip searched and then given prison clothes to wear. This is a sign of captivity!
Every day for three years, Isaiah’s bare derriere was a stark reminder of destruction! He had come to “the end of himself” and the end of their freedom was in plain sight.
Isaiah was NOT “Dressed to Impress” and he was leaving quite an impression!
In spite of all of this pain and humiliation, Isaiah knew the “real scoop”. He got it straight from the throne room of Heaven! Isaiah not only “Forthtold judgment”, he “Foretold grace”.
Impervious Isaiah knew the outcome of their suffering through the vision that God gave him.
Not only were God’s exiled people going HOME AS A REMNANT,
The Messiah was coming to declare them part of THE HOME OF THE REDEEMED!
Isaiah knew that BRIGHTER DAYS were coming!
He brought words that no prophet had ever uttered before, “Look your Savior is coming. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. They will be called ‘The Holy People’ and ‘The People Redeemed by the LORD’.”( Isaiah 62:11-12)
In what area of your life have you been "laid bare” for all the world to watch day in and day out?
That “Messy Mess” is your “Message of More”...There is more to this life for the Redeemed!
That, my friends, is your TESTIMONY…
“I know there’s gonna be some brighter days. I swear that love will find you in your pain. I feel it in me like the beating of life in my veins. I know there’s gonna be some brighter days.”
(Brighter Days, Blessing Offor)
So C’mon’ girl, google the song, “Dance like no one is watching, and Sing like nobody’s listening”…
BRIGHTER DAYS are coming!
