Created With Purpose

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” - Isaiah 22:13b

Most of society as Americans is built around hobbies, the next big thing, careers, education, and mostly self. The American dream was at least for my parent's time and grandparents, to get an education, and career, then marry and have kids, buy the house, and get a dog. That doesn't seem the case now in this current generation of multiculturalism in America. Most are living for themselves, looking for some niche thing to find their identity in, and not being bothered. It isn’t all that different from the time of Isaiah. 

When Isaiah began his long career it was during a time of prosperity that spanned 4 kings. It was a time of peace and everyone was carrying on. But the text we see above is from a pronouncement against Jerusalem. Although they were financially well off God saw a spiritual decline in the hearts of the people. In their prosperity and times of peace, they had forgotten the things of the Lord. They forgot their purpose they forgot their calling. God chose the nation of Israel to be a light to all the other nations. He gave them His Word (Law of Moses) to show the world the path to Him. They got caught up in hobbies, careers, and their comforts. None of those things are evil in and of themselves; however in pursuing those things they abandoned the Lord. It eventually led them to spiritual harlotry (Idolatry of foreign gods).

They lost their purpose, they forgot their calling. The people began to say, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die”. Life became mundane. Today many in our world, country, society, and all around us say the same thing. There is an incredible lie that the enemy of mankind has sold to the people; there is no real meaning to life, so just make one up as you go. The truth of God's Word is “The LORD has prepared everything for His purpose” Proverbs 16:4 csb. You have been created on purpose and for a purpose. The Apostle Paul tells us what that purpose is in his letter to the Ephesian church, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 csb

Before you and I were created, fashioned formed in our mother's womb, God had a plan and purpose for our lives. One of the very first things the god of this world does is attempt to keep you from God and His calling. The enemy does a great job by distracting us from Him with the things of this world. Like in Isaiah's time, the enemy distracts people through financial burdens, self-care, and will. The enemy rips people off from what they were created for. Instead, we are told there is no real purpose or meaning to this one life we have to live. When we come to Christ in repentance of our sins, we are forgiven and cleansed. We are then told the truth, you have a purpose, and calling, and created for good works. You are special, you are loved, and your life was created on purpose for a purpose! Have you asked the Lord lately to reveal that to you? Have you sought Him out on what He has planned for you? If you haven’t I suggest you ask, and then sit back and let Him reveal it to you. I leave you with the words of Jesus, “I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” John 10:10b

Agape,

Frank

Purposed Heart

“For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.” Ezra 7:10 nkjv

The nation of Israel are back in the land after spending 70 years in captivity at Babylon. God had promised that they would eventually come back home once the land rested from their idolatry. It was during this span of time we get Esther, Daniel, Zecharaiah, Haggai and Ezra and others. Ezra was a scribe, a sort of lawyer of Judisim, he was highly educated. It was said of Ezra that he was a “priest” who had God-given wisdom in the Law of the God of heaven” (Ezra 7:21). He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of King Artaxerxes of Persia.

When Ezra was in Babylon, in the world, in captivity, he was busy. He wasnt busy with toys and hobbies and wasted time in vein imaginations. Ezra was purposful, intentional with the time and privledges that he had. Just like Daniel it said that he “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the kings delicacies.” (Daniel 1:8) Ezra had resolved and purposed his heart to seek the Word of God. He studied it, meditated on upon it, searched it out. Like the prophet Jeremiah it says, “Your Words were found and I ate them. And Your Word was to me the joy and the rejoicing of mine heart.” Jeremiah 15:16 These mighty men were mighty because they took the Word of God seriously and made it an important part of their lives. Ezra had spent years in Gods Word and one day God was going to use him for a mighty purpose.

But it isn't enough just to read the Word of God. Reading will serve no purpose for the reader if the Word of God is not applied to their lives. Not only did Ezra know the Word, but he also practiced it. He put all that God had to say pertaining to life into real-life practical application. Without application, there is no growth. Without application, the Word of God serves no purpose for the individual. The practice of God's Word and obedience to it is what made these men mighty in the Lord. So many Christians can quote verses and draw them out like a gun. But do they practice it? We say in the church that the church has lost its effectiveness in the world. It is not that the Word is of no effect, it is that those proclaiming it are not applying it first to themselves. Not Ezra, he knew God's Law and obeyed God's Law. Jesus would later declare in John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” If we profess to love the Lord then we should obey the Word of the Lord. The religious elite of Jesus day knew God's Word like Ezra but He found that their hearts were far from God. He said again in John 5:39, “You search (study) the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they (scriptures) which testify of Me.” It’s not enough to know His Word, you have to know Him and obey Him.

Ezra was a man who knew God's Word, obeyed God's Word, and desired as the verse says, “to teach” God's Word. The Lord told us in what is called the Great Commission “Therefore go and make disciples…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20) This commission is still applicable today to the church as it was. Ezra purposed in his heart that he would teach his people all that he learned from God's Word. He would show them how God blesses His children when they obey Him. With obedience comes incredible blessing, something that their ancestors failed to do and caused their captivity in Babylon all these past 70 years. Any future judgment would be stopped if they heard the Word, obeyed the Word, and taught their children the Word. God sets before us life and death as Duet. says, if we read, and obey we will find life. I pray we would all be like Ezra, like Daniel, to learn the Word, Obey the Word and Teach the Word, so that we too can find life.

Agape

Frank