The Wages of Sin is Non-negotiable

"But [my people] also have erred through wine...For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean." Isaiah 28:7, 8

The same folly of Ephraim (vs. 3) is also the folly of God's people. They are also full of their own pleasures, their works, themselves. "The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink." (vs. 7b) Even they that should know better are caught up in it all. "They err in vision, they stumble in judgment." (vs. 7c) They are consumed with themselves, they cannot see clearly anymore, and therefore they cannot do justly. The evil of Ephraim has touched Israel, and it took no prisoners. It spread to all its corners, "for all tables are full of vomit and filthiness."

Here we see the power of choice as well as sin itself. Even after Christ's disposition replaces our old one and we become God's adopted children, we can still choose to sin. In addition, if you think that being God's child removes you from falling into sin and its consequences, you are fooling yourself. No matter who you are, "the wages of sin is death," whether temporally or ultimately. Sin can only bring about destruction and negation; it is its very nature to do so. It will do the same to us if we let it.

We can choose to let sin reign in our mortal bodies (though not in our inner man, for our inner man is Christ; see Galatians 2:20). Because we accepted the light of Christ, choosing to sin will not damn us in the life to come (see John 3:16-19), but it will damn us in the here and now, damn everything we do or touch to death and destruction, until all tables are foul with vomit and filth. Such is the doom for the life of anyone (believer or otherwise) who turns from God to self. On the other side of the grave, sin can never touch us; but it can still kill us here if we let it. The wages stay the same.

"My Flesh would drag Me

Into Me,

But I am hollow without You.

May your Spirit forever lift Me

Into Your great Love..."

-Jon Vowell

In Touch with Reality

"In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory...and for a spirit of [justice] to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate." Isaiah 28:5a, 6

That God is our crown of glory, the only thing we have to boast in, is a thought that must filter down into every aspect of our lives. That God is our all and all through Christ is a lofty idea, but it can be easily lost in the muck of the nitty-gritty of everyday life. Plans are laid, expectations are set (by you and others), circumstances go awry, problems arise, fears set in, and at every turn it is the most natural thing to look to ourselves, to "believe" in ourselves, to place ourselves as a crown upon our heads--we are our own symbol of power. Consequently, we are never strong or wise enough to meet all that comes to us, and so we sink into despair and self-pity at the sight of it all.
Those who "believe" in themselves, who set themselves as their ultimate end and trust, are truly lunatics. There is nothing more maddening than believing solely in yourself when everything around you goes to pot. You have nothing to fall on but yourself, and you have already fallen; you have nothing to count on but your own character and will, and you have already failed. To continue to believe in yourself when everything has proven you to be impotent is true madness: it is a complete disconnect with reality.
Believing solely in God makes more sense: the Bible reveals Him as more than merely another being, but as the source of all things, including strength and wisdom. He is the inspiration behind our work and the strength to do it (Philippians 2:13). To trust in God is to be in touch with reality, because God is Reality, and we are only truly sane when we are connected to Him, when He is our crown of glory and spirit of justice and strength.

"Jesus, Crown above all crowns,
Spirit of Justice,
Strength of my heart,
There is no other Hope like You..."
-Jon Vowell

Two Crowns

"The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet..."
"In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of His people..." Isaiah 28:3, 5

The glory of Ephraim was itself. It was its own height and depth, it was its own greatness, it was its own glory. What did it have to show for it? What was their crown? Behold its pride and glory: its drunkards, full of their own pleasure, full of their own works, full of themselves; they were full of themselves to the point of drunkenness. In the end, they were their sole focus, they were drunk on their own glory. Such a crown will be taken from their heads and be put under other men's feet: their world will be turned upside-down.
The glory of the children of God is Himself. What else have we to glory in? Have we saved ourselves? Have we tasted of the grave? Drank death like wine? Walked amongst the dead shades of Hades only to rise victorious? Have we laid the world's foundations or set the limits of the oceans? Have we danced in perfect triune communion and brought many sons to the same glory? What have we to boast in but our great God? What riches or power, or gifts or wisdom can we claim that He did not give and that He cannot take away? What glory have we other than God, His Incarnation, His death and resurrection? The crown of pride will be taken from men's heads to be trampled under men's feet. The crown of glory was trampled under men's feet and is now ascended as a diadem of beauty upon the heads of them that believe. Amen.

"What can I claim as my Glory?
This Christ and His Work accomplished.
Grant me, O God, my One Desire,
To Magnify Thy Name..."
-Jon Vowell

Purely Purged II: Here Comes the Pain

"In measure, when [Israel] shooteth forth [like a plant], Thou wilt [contended] with it: He [removes it by] His rough wind in the day of the east wind. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged..." Isaiah 27:8, 9a (Rev. Marg.)

Perhaps we forget that purging is painful. There are parts of you that are not of God, parts of you that are still dead; ideas, habits, and perspectives that must go. There are ways that seemed right unto us, ideas that seemed the norm. God's Spirit enters in, however, and reveals that such ways and ideas are not a part of Him and must go. Change brings pain; Christ has given us the power to change, but it will be a war between our flesh and the inner man.
Look back at the week you had: Was it rough? Were you troubled? Did you feel hammered on all sides? Now that it is over, are you exhausted and yet relieved? Now ask yourself: What did you learn? What has changed in your mind about things? Where have your perspectives and ways altered? The "rough stuff" of our lives is part of the anvil and hammer that God uses to purge out our imperfections.
"...this is all the fruits to take away sin..." This is how we know that we have been purged: that which once held sway in our lives is no more; that which held our focus away from God is gone; that which was a manifestation of our own will has been lost (Isaiah 27:9b). Drawing closer to God always means a purging of everything that is not of Him.

"Take this dead body and
Beat it with Your Life
Until it is in the Image
Of your Living Son..."
-Jon Vowell

The Vineyard of God

"In that day sing ye unto [Israel], A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Isaiah 27:2, 3

We see the nature of two things here. First is the nature of God's beloved; this includes Israel (Isaiah 5:1, 7) and the Church, since Christ has made the Church Abraham's children (Galatians 3:29). We are as a vineyard, which means:

1. We are planted. We exist by the work of another, not our own strengths.
2. We are a plant. It is our nature to grow, but only if we receive nutrients from another. By ourselves we will fade.
3. We produce fruit. We are not meant to be lifeless and barren. We are meant to produce something, again only by the care of another. By ourselves we will produce nothing.
4. Our fruit makes wine. What we produce is not meant for show, i.e., for our glory. It is meant for use by others, including the one who keeps us (for surely the farmer enjoys the fruits of his crop as well). What we produce is to be poured out to others, and what we give is not water, but wine, something that gives joy and pleasure to men's souls and sweetness to their lips.

The second nature that we see is that of the One who planted us, keeps us, and cares for us. God is our husbandman. He waters us and feeds us so that we may grow and produce fruit. Everything He puts into us produces fruit, so it is the fruit of His labor, and He partakes of its pleasures too. Left to our own way, we are nothing; we would wither and die.
What He puts into us is His very Spirit, His very presence. The fruits we produce are the fruits of His presence. It is sweetness and intoxicating joy to us as we are filled with His presence, and that presence is to be released unto others. Remember: we are the plant that brings His sweetness to men, and He is the sweetness that gives us life.

"Your Love flows in
And brings me Life.
The Fruit it makes
Is full of the same
Delight..."
-Jon Vowell

A Bit of Christian Mythos II: Dragons and Monsters

"In that day the Lord with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." Isaiah 27:1

If there is one image of total malevolence known to all cultures across time, it is that of the dragon. No monster holds such nightmarish sway over the imaginations of the world. Even the Bible identifies them as a power too great for any man to crush (see Job 42). That is why the slaying of a dragon is one story that is etched in our minds: we know that something amazing and impossible has happened, that the extraordinary has occurred.

Now, Israel has seen its fair share of dragons: from Egyptian captivity to Babylonian exile to Roman rule to Arab attacks. The Church has also had its dragons, both from without and within. The Devil himself is identified as a great and dreadful dragon (Revelation 12:1-9). Dragons are an ever present part of our history, whether they have literal scales or no. This is just one of the many mythic elements that make up our lives.

Of course, we do not catch anymore the myth that we live in. The modern world has so destroyed our sense of wonder and romantic awe that our "Christianity" today is based on timetables and quotas: put in my prayer time here, my devotions here, get this many people saved this week and this many tracts handed out this week or the boss man won't be happy, punch in and out for church, etc. Goodness! One would swear we were part of some religion. Christianity is not a religion; it is a story. A religion is something you must keep; a story is something you are swept up into, i.e., it keeps you. We are not swept up anymore. Our minds seem geared against it.

Pray to God that He gives us mythic eyes again so we can see the chariots of fire around us; see the prince of this world fall like lightning from heaven; see the Godhead charging on a white steed, coming to slay dragons, and monsters out of the earth and sea; see the knife-edge we walk between heaven and hell. Perhaps (if you will permit me to say) Captain Jack Sparrow was right: the world is not smaller than it was, there is just less in it. The modern world is a vacuum that has sucked the numinous life out of everything, until there is no life anymore, just struggles to survive. Even mediocre days would be fraught with peril if we had mythic eyes to see with.

Life is about much more than survival; it is about the tale we have fallen into. Going out your door is a dangerous business; pray that God keeps your feet so that you are swept off and up into Him. Pray that the Lord of Myth gives you eyes to see and ears to hear the story He is telling, full of dungeons and dragons, monsters and mazes, good and evil, life and death, desolation and glory.

"What songs do you sing

That we do not hear?

What pictures do you paint

That we cannot see?

What stories do you weave

That we will not read?

O Lord! Such tragedy!"

-Jon Vowell

"...but a moment..."

"...hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." Isaiah 26:20b

God's judgments are often a favorite subject of most people, especially critics of God's character, those unhappy few who cannot understand why we just can't all get along. An answer to them is for another time. Here we will note what most people miss; indeed, you could say most people miss the forest for the trees, or in this case, the mercy for the judgment, the ark for the flood. "Hide thyself...for a little moment." A little moment? That should take the wind out of your sails. All our talks about how just or vindictive God is, and yet Isaiah speaks of His judgments like they were summer rains: arising in an instant, unleashing what they have, and then disappearing in an instant. In fact, His anger appears to be almost an interjection to our lives rather than a hallmark of them.

That is the really curious thing about this whole matter, that when it comes to our lives God's anger seems to be the exception and not the rule. "His anger endureth but a moment," they are but passing storms that come and go, "in His favor is life," (Psalm 30:5a) our lives are founded on His favor, and if you need to know exactly how much God favors us, see Romans 5:8. His anger is not the norm for our lives; His love is. One almost feels like His anger is (in a sense) a necessary evil, needed because sin is rampant, and it must be dealt with. In the end, however, when sin is no longer apart of our lives, His anger will no longer be a part either.

"Weeping endures for the Night.

But at your eternal Dawn,

There will be no more tears

And no more Night..."

-Jon Vowell

The Empty Womb

"We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen." Isaiah 26:18

This verse sums up the end of man trying to save himself: nothingness. There is no victory, no peace, and all of your enemies still exist. When it comes to producing a deliverer, all wombs are empty. This is the key to earth's history: Great, noble, and wise men have risen out of the sea of humanity, and done great, noble, and wise things. In the end, however, their works fail, becoming monolithic corruptions that are overthrown by the very people they originally tried to save, and those people come under the banner of the next "big thing." What was thought to be deliverance was just the next wind blowing by.

Anything born of man is destined to fail. Everyone born of man's seed is a being whose inner nature is based on corruption and rot, and anything they touch is affected thereby. History is filled to the brim with institutions (even Christian institutions) that were solely works of man, forged and sustained by their own might and power, and they all fell into ruin. It is a truth we will see over and over again: man cannot save himself.

Now, Jesus Christ was not born of man; He was born of God, i.e., He was not born of our history, but came into it from the outside. That is what we needed: someone standing on the shore outside the water we were drowning in who could reach in and pull us out. Only one womb in earth's history ever produced deliverance, and it had never been touched by man. Christ was God stepping into this world, because this world was dead, and all born on it were spiritually stillborn. No man could save us because all men were dead. We needed a life transplant, someone outside ourselves to come and infuse their life into us. That is what Christ did: He brought us the Life of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

There was one womb, however, that Christ's presence did make empty, and that was death's womb. Whereas all other wombs bring forth life, this one takes it, swallowing it whole into darkness. All men go there, and if all men are dead, then death is a dreadful mother, for she eats her children. However, when death tried to swallow Life Himself, she found her limitless void filled to the brim with His presence, and she could not contain Him. She spat Him back up like Jonah out of the whale. The tomb was the womb of death, and on the third day she too joined the helpless ranks of man as her emptiness proved her impotence. She held nothing but the warm wind of the dawn.

"Cursed be the man that trusteth in man." (Jeremiah 17:5) All that is born of man is destined to fail. Only that which is born of God and has His life within him has hope. Those who believe it will inherit life, while those who think differently will truly inherit the wind.

Two Blights

"Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, Thou hast increased the nation: Thou art glorified: Thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth." Isaiah 26:15

"...God gave the increase." I Corinthians 3:6

American consumerism has forced an infectious blight across the Church (at least in the West), and that is the blight of results. We honestly believe that it is our duty and job to get people saved, disciple the brethren, and change the world. Consequently, if something does not produce results, if a word, action, stance, or ministry does not "come through" with anything, the it is not worthy of trying. Such a stance is completely unscriptural.

Christ never told us to "save" anybody; He told us to get the word out, to teach and preach (Matthew 28:19, 20 & Mark 16:15). Whether or not people get saved is not our concern; it is God's. Preaching the gospel (in word and deed) is our "bit," while salvation is God's. We water, we plant, but God produces results (I Corinthians 3:6).

Here's another one: nowhere does the Bible say we are to win something when we battle. Our ultimate end for armoring up is not to win, but to stand (Ephesians 6:13). So many of us do not stand up for the truth because it will not "do" anything. "I could say such-and-such to so-and-so, but it will not change him." Whether it does something our not is not our business; it is our business to stand, and God's business to win, and you never know what words or deeds He will use to win.

As a side effect, the blight of results produces what can be called the blight of quotas. Witnessing and ministries become gigantic score cards, and the more points the merrier. "If I can just save so many a week, I'll find favor with God." That Christ died is the only proof we need that God favors us to the uttermost. Witnessing and ministries are not about earning brownie points; ultimately, they are about drawing closer to God. The closer you are to Him, the more He can work through you to touch other people. Our Christian "duties" are just as beneficial to us as to others.

That, however, is what we truly miss in our service to God: we are just as much recipients of His presence as the people we touch. Results and Quota based witnessing and ministries focus solely on the self: what am I doing? How do I stack up? Consequently, they are founded on pride, and will fail; this is the source of many dried up and broken ministries. If, however, we do not see ourselves as producers of results or keepers of quotas, and instead see ourselves as receivers of God's presence just as much as those we minister, then the basis for the ministry is on God alone, and He always produces results and meets His quotas (though we may not see them at the time). With God as our base, we will not care about ourselves a bit, but instead say, "O Lord, Thou hast increased the nation: Thou art glorified."

God gives the increase, not us. Blessings and honor and glory and favor be upon Him, not us (Psalm 115:1). If we stop trying to make results, and simply walk with God through our lives, we will be amazed at the opportunities that He brings our way.

"Not from our hands, O Lord.

Not from our strength or might.

But from your throne

From You alone

Does all my increase come..."

-Jon Vowell

Last One Standing

"O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us: but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise..." Isaiah 26:13, 14

Other men have claimed peace on earth; other men have claimed to have found the solution to all ills. They have founded institutions, created organizations, started movements, and begun great works. They have rallied, protested, fasted, practised non-resistance and violence, shook hands and stabbed the backs of politicians, and been the father and tyrant of the people. They have protected and served, and punished and enslaved. They have brought crops and famine, bounty and loss, booms and depressions. The have etched their legacies of blood and iron throughout the history books. So, where are they now? Dead and buried. Their institutions and works? Dead and buried with them, or monolithic corruptions that will die when the people get sick of them. It is the key to history.

Man is easily eaten up by man. When crisis and tragedy strikes the halls of history, it is easy to be swept up in the ecstasy wrought by the opportunistic and the charismatic. Even the Church has fallen into this trap, inadvertently (or maybe advertently) placing all their hopes in the newest "answer man." Within a generation or two, all such hopes are lost. Many cultural, societal, and political fads and fashions will come and go, each one condescendingly asking God to step back a bit because it's their time now. One by one, however, these fads rise and then crash like waves against immovable rocks, and dissipate just as quickly. When the smoke clears and all the noise and confusion has past, mankind will stagger back onto their once drunken feet and stare soberly at the only thing still left standing: the Lord God Almighty, the Immovable Mountain, towering like an immortal citadel over the world. True hope and peace are still only found in the cleft of His rock, where He covers us still with His hands.

"The Lord God stands like rock undaunted

Mid the raging storm of time

His presence burns with the Truth Eternal,

And shines with a light sublime.

"The Lord God stands

Though the fashions tumble

He will surely stand

Though the fads shall crumble.

I will plant my feet on His firm foundation

For the Lord God stands."

("God is not a Fad," by Jon Vowell [adapted from "The Bible Stands"])