Trusting God’s Provision; November 10, 2024

Posted on November 11, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 60:19 The sun will no more be your light by day,
    nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.

Verse 1 of this chapter is justly famous, and indeed, we have it on a banner hanging in our sanctuary. However, this verse to me speaks of no more depending on the physical universe, but rather on God alone. We are residents of the physical universe and are accountable for how we interact with it, but God is the ultimate reality, and the better we are attuned to Him, the better off we will be. We need to remember that He is the ultimate source of everything we need, all the way down to something so fundamental as light. The story of God guiding the Israelites out of Egypt with “a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night” is well known, but there are also many testimonies of people having been guided by supernatural light even now. And of course, that doesn’t touch on the countless stories of God’s supernatural provision of just about anything you could imagine. We aren’t to ignore the world around us, but we need to remember that God is before, above, and beyond it all. If you have a need, tell Him. He already knows it anyway! (Matthew 6:8) We get anxious about all sorts of things, forgetting that the God who created every atom in us loves us and cares about us. (1 Peter 5:7) Everything is fulfilled in Him!

This is something I have known on some level since childhood, growing up in a missionary family. However, there have been times in my life when I have effectively forgotten it, to my distress and loss. The better I have trusted my Creator, the more peace, and yes, abundance, I have enjoyed. Right now I am collecting a Japanese government pension, as well as a low level of US Social Security. We couldn’t live on either by itself, but together, we get along fine, particularly since at our age our co-pay for Japanese National Health Insurance is just 10%. The church has a major maintenance cost coming up, since the roof and exterior need to be painted. Some in the church are very anxious about that, but I’m not at all! God is indeed Adonai Ireh (Jehovah Jireh), the Lord our Provider. That is true now, and it will be true throughout eternity. One of my tasks as a pastor is to lead the flock in trusting that fully. I can’t force them to do it, but I can encourage them and pray for them, so I do.

Father, thank You for Your provision of absolutely everything we need. Help me not only trust You myself but be a joyful channel of Your provision to others, leading them to trust You fully themselves, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Descendants; November 9, 2024

Posted on November 10, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 59:21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.

The life of a genuine prophet, one who perceives what is going on in the spiritual world, is not an easy one. From the beginning of the chapter Isaiah describes his perception of society as he sees it, and it certainly isn’t pretty. Then from the middle of verse 15 he describes the Lord’s response to all that, culminating in a marvelous promise of the Messiah in verses 19 and 20, but here the Lord turns personally to Isaiah, affirming him in a way that must have thrilled the depths of his soul. In the first place, He confirms that it is His Spirit that is on Isaiah, and His words that He has Isaiah speak. That in itself had to be incredible for Isaiah to hear, making his struggles with the society around him worthwhile, but then the Lord speaks of his children and grandchildren, and I have a feeling that Isaiah was a blubbering mess of grateful tears after this. What father who loves the Lord wouldn’t be thrilled to receive such a word? We all reach a point where we know our lives are limited, but we have hopes and dreams for our descendants. Isaiah probably remembered this promise of God to him to the day he died a martyr, and it enabled him to get through it all. Not everyone has physical descendants, but everyone has the potential for spiritual children, and the same principle should apply. As John wrote to a friend of his, not all of our children, physical or spiritual, will stay as close to the Lord as we would like, but it is a huge blessing when some do. (2 John 1:4) we all need to take this Word to Isaiah to heart, and allow the Lord to pour His Spirit and His words through us to our children of both kinds, for their blessing and His glory.

As a father and grandfather, this resonates very strongly with me. At 76, I am quite aware of my own mortality, but I certainly care about my physical and spiritual descendants. I’m definitely not on the level of Isaiah, but I am aware that God does speak through me at times. I am quite aware of the joy of His Spirit being on and in me, and I desire that above anything else for my descendants as well. I strive to lay a foundation in those the Lord has given me so that the storms of life will not shake them, but they will stand strong and victorious. (Matthew 7:24-27) They do bear personal responsibility for what they do with the truth I convey to them, but God is faithful, and He can guide and protect them as He has me, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all You have done and are doing in and through my children, of both kinds. I pray that they would press in to You more and more, allowing You to flow into and through them, for in turn, the salvation of many more, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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True Religion; November 8, 2024

Posted on November 9, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 58:6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?”

From here through the end of the chapter God is getting very specific about what true religion looks like. I get the impression James was very familiar with this chapter! Just before this the Lord has been talking about the rituals of formal religion, saying that they were largely meaningless. We tend to like religion as long as it doesn’t interfere with our lifestyle and make too many demands on how we relate to the people around us. God is here placing the focus precisely on how we relate to the people around us, saying that how we relate to them is how we relate to Him. This is what Jesus was talking about in His famous teaching on the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. In verses 40 and 45 of that chapter He expressly says that how we treat the weak among us is how we treat Him. We aren’t very good religionists if we mistreat our deity! The Bible is remarkably consistent in saying this, from Genesis to Revelation. When we reduce our religion to ideas and ceremonies, we’ve lost the whole thing. It’s not that rules and activities aren’t important, but rather that our hearts, and the souls of the people around us, are far more important. No father is going to like you if you mistreat his children, and our heavenly Father is certainly no different. When we turn a blind eye to suffering, God is hardly pleased. That said, there will always be suffering around us. Even Jesus said, “The poor are always with you.” (Matthew 26:11) Our first focus must always be on our Lord, and then on the people with whom He gives us contact. There is no way we can meet every need, so we need to seek the Lord for which needs He wants to meet through us.

This is something I have known for a long time, but I do need reminders of it occasionally. I am presented with needs of various sorts all the time, and the Internet has greatly expanded my awareness of such needs. I do support an organization that works with persecuted Christians, but I am also confronted with emotional and spiritual needs in the people right around me. I am to look to Jesus first of all, so that I may then see the people around me accurately. I am not to react to every need the same, but rather let the Lord give me wisdom as to what He wants me to do. Sometimes that will be my direct action, sometimes it will be in referring the individual to someone else, and sometimes it will simply be prayer. The point is not to retreat into “ivory tower” religion, but be willing to get involved and get dirty, so to speak. That said, referral is indeed sometimes God’s plan. The apostles in Jerusalem instituted the office of deacon for precisely that reason, recognizing the importance of physical needs but at the same time knowing they weren’t the ones to meet those needs directly. Recently I’ve been contacted repeatedly by someone with whom I had a lot of contact for a period several years ago. His needs are emotional and spiritual, and I am not to draw back from being a channel of God’s grace and love to him – even if I find him irritating at times! I am to love God by loving the people around me. That is true religion!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all You are doing in and through me. May my religion be genuine in Your eyes, for Your pleasure and glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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The Messiah; November 7, 2024

Posted on November 8, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

This chapter is one of the most remarkable, and most important, in the Old Testament, and indeed, in the whole Bible. Only God knows how many people have come to repentance and faith through reading it, starting with the Ethiopian Eunuch that Philip encountered. (Acts 8) Today, organizations like One for Israel and Jews for Jesus consider it their most important Scripture, because it lays out, in remarkable detail, the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross, as well as His burial and even resurrection. It is not mere chance that Isaiah is the one book of the Old Testament that was found in its entirety, and not just fragments, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, because that proves that this and the many other Messianic prophecies in it were not written “after the fact,” but were God letting His people know what He was going to do to save them. That, in and of itself, is a powerful testimony of the love and omniscience of God, who is outside of time and so knows the end from the beginning of everything, and He loves us anyway. If that doesn’t blow your mind, then you don’t understand it! However, without the New Testament, this chapter seems cryptic and hard to grasp, which is why Philip had to explain it to the Ethiopian. The man believed that the God of the Jews was indeed the Creator, but he didn’t have the specifics of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Today, the general outlines of Christmas and Easter are well enough known in Western countries, at least, that Jews in Israel, upon having this chapter pointed out to them, often enough exclaim, “That’s Jesus!” There are plenty of videos on the Internet, posted by organizations like I mentioned, that show that happening, and they aren’t staged. The question, for both Jews and Gentiles, becomes, what are you going to do about it? Knowing that God loved us so much as to send His Son to die for us, just as John 3:16 proclaims, demands a response. God has provided salvation, and it is our responsibility to receive it in obedient gratitude.

Verse 6 of this chapter is one of the first verses I remember memorizing as a child, and I’m grateful. I have loved Isaiah, and am deeply blessed by many passages in it. I have long said that of all the characters in the Old Testament, Isaiah is the one I would most like to be, even though tradition tells us he was eventually sawed in two as punishment for speaking truth to power. I know his reward in heaven was absolutely magnificent! My task today is telling others about the Messiah that Isaiah knew only by faith – but then, that’s how I know Him too! I at least have the New Testament record to flesh it all out, but I minister to people who have no Biblical foundation in their lives at all, and that is a major challenge. However, God is up to it, even though I’m totally inadequate! It is a joy to introduce people to the only individual in history who has fulfilled Isaiah 53, and I pray to keep doing it for as long as I am on this earth.

Father, thank You for this glorious reminder. Help me indeed be more and more effective in sharing the Good News of salvation with those who don’t yet know it, and in helping those who know it apply it effectively in their lives, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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People’s Opinions; November 6, 2024

Posted on November 7, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 51:7 “Hear me, you who know what is right,
    you people who have taken my instruction to heart:
Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals
    or be terrified by their insults.”

This is extremely important, yet extremely difficult for some people. It tends to depend on personality and on how we are raised, but we all depend on other people’s opinions of us rather too much. We aren’t to be totally self-centered, uncaring what anyone thinks, but really, the only opinion of us that really matters is God’s. We should definitely be focused on pleasing Him, but other people, not so much. For most people, this issue kicks into overdrive around puberty, when we and our response to the world around us are changing at a great rate. Anxiety and uncertainty at this point are almost a rite of passage, but some people seem to get stuck in that mind frame. If we focus on our Creator and store His Word up in our hearts, we are far better insulated against such pressures than those who don’t know God. In this verse God is addressing those who do know Him, who have taken in His Word not just as information but as spiritual nourishment. To them He says, “Relax! You’ve got nothing to worry about.” We will indeed encounter difficulties for as long as we live on this earth, (John 16:33) and some of those difficulties will come directly from people who oppose us, but God is reminding us that He’s got us, and as He says in the next verse, He is forever.

I have not been immune to the opinions of others, but I have generally had a degree of self-assurance that has carried me through. Sometimes that self-assurance has veered into conceit, and that’s never good. The longer I’ve walked with God, however, the more peace I have gained. Just yesterday I ran across a video on YouTube that is about “9 Things to Let Go of Once You Hit 70,” or something of the sort. One of the things mentioned is the opinions of others. I do want people to think well of me, but that’s particularly because for many people I am a representative of God, or at least of Christian faith. How they see me influences how they respond to the Gospel, so I want that to be as favorable as possible. Other than that, however, I really don’t care much. I know full well that I am fallible and foolish, and I don’t mind admitting it. My focus is on my Lord, who loved me enough to die for me, and I want others to know Him too.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the assurance of Your love, that far outweighs any negative opinion anyone could have of me. May I respond to Your love in full gratitude and obedience, so that those who see me may know that You love them, too, and so open their heart to You in repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Being a Disciple; November 5, 2024

Posted on November 6, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 50:4 The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,
    to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
    wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

I know I’ve written on this verse before, but I feel it applies to me so strongly that I can’t help but write on it again. Going through it, for starters, rather than saying “an instructed tongue,” or “those who are taught,” the Japanese says, “the tongue of a disciple.” The Japanese term for “disciple” also means “apprentice,” as in a craftsman’s apprentice, so this seems very appropriate. If we aren’t willing to learn, then we aren’t disciples! Then it goes on to tell us what to do with our discipled tongues: encourage the weary. Someone who is always putting others down with their words has a lot to learn! Our words are to correct and admonish, but ultimately they are to lift people up and not put them down. Then it speaks of how that attitude of discipleship is maintained: by starting every morning listening to God. Again, the Japanese says. “to hear as a disciple.” We can hear things and say, “Oh, that’s good,” without the commitment to follow through and do whatever we were told. That’s not being a disciple! Sometimes an apprentice will misunderstand what they were told, and sometimes they won’t have the skill to do a task perfectly, but the important thing is the commitment to obedience. Without that, we are placing ourselves on the level of the Master, and that is the absolute height of stupidity. (Sometimes an apprentice is going to come up with a better way to do something than their human master, but that is certainly never going to happen between us and God.)

As I said, I feel this applies to me very directly. My major motivational gifting is Teacher, and a teacher has to learn in order to be able to teach! It is a truism, but sometimes the best way to learn something is indeed to teach it. That said, the intellect involved in that process can be a real snare, leading to stupid, and indeed blind, conceit. My focus has got to be on being a disciple, fully and instantly obedient to my Lord. If I fail in that, I disqualify myself, just as Paul said. (1 Corinthians 9:27) I am deeply grateful that the Lord has instilled in me the strong habit of morning devotions, and that He does speak to me in this way every morning. Sometimes He awakens me in the night, to tell me something or to have me pray, as He did this morning to pray for the US election. I am not to resent that for a moment, but rejoice that He has counted me worthy to do something for Him. I am to listen to Him and then use the words He gives me to lift up the people around me, for their blessing and His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for Your calling on my life. May I be fully obedient on every level, so that all of Your purposes for me may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Discouragement; November 4, 2024

Posted on November 5, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 49:4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.”

Even Christ got discouraged! It is perhaps debatable whether this is actually a prophetic quote from the Messiah, or whether it is more personal to Isaiah himself, but discouragement is something everyone, and specifically every servant of God, faces. The first part of this is something the devil loves to whisper in our ears, disguising it as our own thoughts. However, we need to respond in line with the second half of this verse, trusting God not only with ourselves, but also with the results of our labors. Again it is a matter of perspective. We don’t see the ripples that will go down through the years, through the centuries, even, so we don’t know what will be credited to us in eternity. In a sense it’s like multilevel marketing: the person at the top of the chain gets a portion of the profit from everyone down the chain, no matter how many levels down. I can’t forget the example of the evangelist who preached his heart out at evangelistic meetings in rural North Carolina many years ago, only to have just one young man come forward to commit to Christ. That evangelist probably felt this verse in spades, but that one young man was Billy Graham. We simply do not know the results of our labors, so we need to yield everything to God and focus on being faithfully obedient, whether we see any results or not.

This is certainly applicable to me, as it was to my parents. My father once prostrated himself before the Lord and cried out, “God, if I am standing in the way of revival in Japan, then take me out of the way!” As a young single missionary he had visited the Shantung Revival in China, so he knew what revival looked like (so he thought) and he didn’t see it in Japan. As it was, the Lord took him home at 64 with a hearty, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Only God can count all the people my father drew to salvation and discipleship, both personally and by extension. I’ve had a taste of that myself, with a successful pastor saying to me, “You said something to me X years ago that completely changed the direction of my ministry.” To be honest, I didn’t remember having met him! Our congregation here certainly isn’t large, but several active ministers have gone out from here, and I have spiritual children literally around the world. Right now I have about 1,000 people subscribed to my blog, and I have no idea who most of them are – but God knows! I am not to seek to “be successful,” but rather to be faithfully obedient, leaving all the consequences up to my Lord.

Father, thank You for this encouraging reminder. Thank You for all the spiritual children You have given me. Thank You for the group from Taiwan that was here yesterday. Some of them had been here before, and they specifically wanted to come back. I never expected to have spiritual children in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, but I have all that, and more. May all of Your purposes for me be fulfilled, on Your schedule, for Your kingdom and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Purpose; November 3, 2024

Posted on November 4, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 45:8 “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness;
    let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
    let salvation spring up,
let righteousness flourish with it;
    I, the Lord, have created it.”

This chapter is famous for naming Cyrus the Persian, a man who knew nothing of Yahweh, and saying that God was going to use him to rebuild Israel, which is indeed what happened. In recent years quite a few people have connected this to Donald Trump, though others have reacted strongly against that idea. In any case, this verse expresses the purpose of it all, that salvation and righteousness might bear abundant fruit. That is certainly desirable, and righteousness is in pretty short supply in the US at this point. God does indeed use individuals, and often pretty unlikely individuals, to accomplish His purposes, and it can be pretty shocking – even when we are those individuals! In a couple of days the US will be having a highly momentous election. God’s children need to stand up and act as God’s instruments, that the active forces of evil may be blocked so that this verse may be fulfilled. To say that the characters in the drama are unlikely is quite an understatement, but if God can use those people, flawed as they are, then He can use us, too. And that starts with casting our vote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are to pray for justice and righteousness to be poured out. The whole concept of justice seems to have gone by the wayside in recent years. Calling it a “two-tiered justice system” is a major understatement! We need to pray and act in obedience to God’s Spirit, so that evil and falsehood may be exposed and God’s salvation and righteousness bear abundant fruit. Many things will happen simultaneously, and we are not to get confused or despair, but rather know that our Creator is God, and He is perfectly holy, loving, and just.

I don’t think I have ever been as emotionally involved in an election as I am right now, but I see the forces at work. I am not to think it “depends on me,” but at the same time I am not to run from being one of God’s instruments in bringing about His will. I have voted, and I am to pray. Located in Japan, that marks the limits of what I can do, but God desires that of me and He will use it. My ballot was in the mail weeks ago, but prayer is ongoing. I am not to pray with desperation, but I am to pray with urgency. This morning I am to be preaching on God’s governing authority, and I am to rest in the assurance that it is His, and His alone. I am also to be sure that I am submissive and obedient to that authority! I see so many people around me, even people I love and respect, react almost violently against the very idea of submission. I am not to be one of them, but at the same time be careful that I submit only to my Lord, and not to the lying forces that assault me. Jesus is Lord, and I am to be an instrument of His Lordship.

Father, You know how wrapped up I am in all that is going on. Thank You for Your plans for right here, today. Help me rest, relax, and rejoice in You so that I may be fully available and useful to You for however You want to use me, for Your glory alone. Thank You. Praise God!

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Prophecy; November 2, 2024

Posted on November 3, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 42:9 “See, the former things have taken place,
    and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
    I announce them to you.”

This chapter is certifiably Messianic, because Matthew quoted it about Jesus in Matthew 12:20. There are Messianic prophecies throughout the Old Testament, but Isaiah is so rich in them that many have called it “The Gospel According to Isaiah.” It has been instrumental in leading many Jews to recognize that Jesus was and is the Messiah God had promised to their ancestors. That makes this verse particularly meaningful, because Jesus had not been born physically at the point Isaiah recorded this, so this was quite literally true. The thing is, not every Biblical prophecy has been fulfilled yet, so we have more to look forward to! Recently many people have been feeling that we are indeed in another time of prophetic fulfillment, even the Last Days, and some people have been popping off about exactly when Christ will return, but we can be confident that they are misled at best, and are actively demonic at worst, because Jesus said the exact timeline is not for us to know. (Matthew 24:36; 25:13) However, that’s not to say that all modern prophecy is invalid by any means. God still confirms His sovereignty, and His servants, by doing what this verse says. We are not to be obsessed with prophecy about coming events, but rather be focused on what God wants us to do right now. For example, failing to vote in the coming election because you are convinced Christ will return “any day now” is both foolish and irresponsible. We are to recognize fulfilled prophecy and let it strengthen our faith, but keep our personal focus on faithfulness.

This is close to home for me because of an experience of being used in predictive prophecy that was rather dramatic. I was in a small prayer meeting, and in obedience to the Lord I went to a couple who were dating but not yet married, and told them they would have a child. I was not sure it would be genetically the man’s child, but I was sure it would be genetically the woman’s. They responded politely, but thought I was completely off base, because the woman had had a hysterectomy! As it turned out, though, not only did they get married, the woman’s daughter from a previous marriage had a child but was on drugs and was completely unable to raise the child, so this couple adopted what was actually the woman’s grandchild, thus fulfilling what I had said to them. We weren’t even in the country when this happened, but they told my wife about it on a later visit, and how they realized I had been a true prophet to them. That incident proved to me that God can and does speak through me, but I’m never to think it’s because I’m so wonderful, but rather be grateful that God would use even such a one as I am.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I hadn’t thought about that experience in a long time. Help me be available for whatever You want to say through me, whenever You want to speak. Thank You for Your faithfulness to speak through me each Sunday, and even in casual conversations when I’m not “feeling prophetic” at all! May all Your plans be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory, whether we have understood what You’ve told us about them or not. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Music; November 1, 2024

Posted on November 2, 2024 by jgarrott

Isaiah 30:29 And you will sing
    as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;
your hearts will rejoice
    as when people playing pipes go up
to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the Rock of Israel.

This chapter is head-spinning in its contrasts. Isaiah describes the ferocity of the Lord’s retribution against His enemies, but then drops in things like this, describing the peace and joy of those who are true to Him. The description of His guidance, in verses 19-21, is probably the most famous part of this chapter, but the whole chapter is quite a combination of describing Israel’s sins, the inevitable consequences of those sins, and then the Lord’s grace and mercy in it all. This verse stands out to me because it is a description of the “peace that passes understanding” (Philippians 4:7) that Paul talked about. It describes an inner life that is independent of outer circumstances. I keep coming back to it, but Jesus’ statement just before His arrest is of vital importance: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) We experience all sorts of unpleasant things. Sometimes they are our own fault, and sometimes they have nothing to do with us, but when we are firmly grounded in Christ Jesus our Lord, we have peace and even joy in the middle of it all.

Having grown up in a very musical family, I particularly like the references to music in this verse. I never wear ear buds and I don’t subscribe to Spotify or anything of the sort, but I’ve got songs running through my heart and mind – and occasionally my mouth – a significant part of every day. This morning I got up to find a conversation on my computer initiated by my older daughter, who was writing about her participation in the Knoxville Choral Society, responded to by my younger daughter, who is the Minister of Music at her church. It runs in the family! As much as I love music, however, I can see clearly that music by itself is relatively neutral. The music in this verse is blessed and is a blessing because it is focused on drawing closer to God. I am to use music as an expression of who God is, drawing others, not to mention my own heart, closer to Him. And of course, the music in my heart is not to be dependent on my circumstances, but rather on the One to whom I sing.

Father, thank You for this. I had no idea where I was going when I started writing! Thank You for all You have brought me through, and for the “songs in the night” (Psalm 42:8, etc.) that have sustained me. Thank You for the privilege of sharing Your love and Your truth with others, in music and in every other way. May I be Your instrument to cause others to sing Your Song, that transcends all others, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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