365 Days with God - Day 97: Tragic Beauty

I'm giving myself a challenge. Read the Bible each day for a whole year, following the ESV Study Guide 1-year plan. Each day, I will post whatever God has revealed to me in His Word, and how it is changing me. A friend of mine once said that nothing has changed her life as much as reading the bible each day - and I'm excited for how this will change me. Join me on an adventure into the heart of God - and day by day, we can learn more about who He is and what that means to us!

- Andy Catts

Day 97, March 27, 2014

Readings: Psalm 97, Leviticus 3, Isaiah 1, 1 Corinthians 15

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers, I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil, learn to do good;
seek justice, correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isaiah 1:14-20)

Don't miss the heart of God for His people in Isaiah's opening salvo: Despite everything, despite the sin and evil, God still longs to be reunited with His people. He wants them to come to him, humbly and honestly seeking to do His will. He doesn't want rituals. He doesn't want "religion." He wants repentant hearts.

God's love for Israel, God's love for us, is amazing. He knows that we're screwups! He knows we don't deserve it! And he knows that it's our tendency to try and fix it through ritualistic traditions - that we have turned the worship traditions God designed as reminders into the thing we look to for salvation. As if they could save us. As if that's the only thing we need to be free from death. To be free from separation from God.

God longs for a relationship with us that is untainted by our sin and rebellion. He has taken the first step, He has offered reconciliation if only we are willing. If we can lay down our pride. If we can give up our desire to be "god" - in control of our own destiny (as if we have any control at all!)

This is what God asks of us. How can you begin to repent and seek Him?

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil, learn to do good;
seek justice, correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.