The Heavenly Vision (The Gospel According to Isaiah, Part 1)

"...I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up...." Is. 6:1

No man comes unto God unless He draws him unto Himself by His own revelation and disclosure (John 6:44-45; Rom. 10:14-17); and whereas in the past He revealed Himself by the prophets, to us He is revealed through His Son (Heb. 1:1-3; Col.1:15; John 14:6-7). By the word and the Word we hear and see and know God. This is the only route, the only way home. Salvation does not begin with good deeds or good intentions towards good deeds. It does not begin with preparation on our part but rather revelation on God's part. He opens our eyes to see the truth of Himself, for only that truth can set us free.

And this is His truth: Who is a God like unto Thee? Who pardons iniquity...[and] delights in mercy? [He is] merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin [but] will by no means clear the guilty. Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so [that] iniquity shall not be your ruin, for God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Come now and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. For He is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness (Micah 7:18; Ex. 34:6-7; Ezek. 18:30-32; Is. 1:18; Jonah 4:2).

Salvation does not begin with us, nor does it come from us, for cursed is the man who trusts in man; rather, salvation comes from without, from beyond, from the Lord most holy, for blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord (Jer.17:5-8). We could never know this truth, these truths of God, on our own. The religions of men are full of retribution and legalism, and retributive and legalistic gods. It is based solely on the worldly-wise system of the merits of the adherents. Such things can only degraded into the oppression of the Pharisee or the skepticism of the Sadducee. It takes a revelation, a heavenly vision, a single gleam from the Empyrean Prime, to awaken our senses and clear out the dust and darkness. We have a revelation. We have the Word who came, and the word that has been "written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and by believing you might have life through His name" (John 20:31).

-Jon Vowell (c) 2012

 

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 6: Our Weapon (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"...lead us not into temptation...." Luke 11:4b

"And though this world with devils filled

Should threaten to undo us...." -Martin Luther

The continual provision of God's "daily bread" is not merely a physical provision, for it is not merely physical things that threaten us. That we "wrestle not against flesh and blood" (Eph. 6:12) is a truth that we take too lightly, having been saturated by our skeptical-secularized age. As far as we're concerned, all of our demons are flesh and blood: people and circumstances and mistakes by our own hands. We can't see the plague for the flies, and we ask that God would deliver us from this world with such people in it. In contrast, Jesus said, "I pray not that Thou should take them out of the world, but that Thou should keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). We subconsciously scoff at notions of "the evil one," trusting instead only what the eyes in our head can see. "Yes, yes, 'the evil one'. Now how about helping me out in my actual present circumstance?" Is there fear in your present circumstance? Doubt? Pride? Anger? All of the above? If so, then you have greater problems than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

When you pray, acknowledge your need of this spiritual safeguarding. The truths of God are a light for the darkness, especially the living darkness that stalks you in the night (Ps. 91:4-6). The wilderness that you wander through is not void of threats, and God's pillar of fire is not merely for show. Its shafts of light will pierce the dark like a rain of a thousand arrows. As they fall into the inky black there will be roars and gnashing of teeth, for the darkness hides a multitude of evils. Our enemy lives by the power of stealth, of blindness and deception. So pray daily that the Lord of Hosts would give to you His truth to wield, so that you will not be lead into temptation, away from the light of God and into the outer dark.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 4: His Truth (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"Give us day-by-day our daily bread...." Luke 11:3

"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" Matt. 4:4

There are many provisions that God gives to His children, but none is more precious than the truths of His word. If there is one thing that we are in continual need of, it is a continual dose of reality. Everyday our hearts and minds are pulled apart by a million different distractions, overclouded with terrible fogs and distortions of the world. Our fears would slay us and our anger consume us and our doubts paralyze us. Left to our own meager wit and wisdom, we will get along fine for a few steps; but once the way becomes shrouded in a horror of great darkness, we will long for the joy of the psalmist: "Thy word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path" (Ps. 119:105). The way is dark, but there is light given to us day-by-day if we will but ask for it.

When you pray, ask often and always for the daily bread of God's word, a regular dose of His truth and reality. The living word is the voice of God that speaks order into our chaos, and whether we are on great journeys or taking small steps, there will be light. When the sun fades, there will be the moon; when the moon fades, there will be the stars; and when every star fades behind dark clouds, there will be flashes of lightning with every storm. Furthermore, at all times God Himself will be your every-present fireside in the wilderness, speaking His truth to the darkness without and within. There is no escaping this provision. Every sentence, phrase, and word that you take from Him will sit in your soul like an undying ember, whose fire the Spirit will ignite in due time.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011