The Best Guide We Have

I found driving in Europe a challenge. The UK uses the other side of the street and German street names are so long I have difficulty translating them as I drive by. And don’t get me started about France….

The driving paradigm is different in Europe. Instead of looking for specific roads along the way, you rather need to know the villages you will be passing through to your destination. The direction to the next village is well marked; individual streets not so much.

 

It is quite easy to think you are on the right road, headed in the right direction, only to find you have been lost for the last 45 minutes and did not know it. It is bad enough to be lost and know it. It is even worse to be lost and not know it.

 

It took me a couple of trips, but I learned, with the help of a "driver’s guide”, how to get around in an automobile in Europe.

A German Street Name I Understood

Today’s reading is Isaiah 64:8-65:4. Isaiah is reciting a tale of two monologues. The first monologue, 64:8-12, a prayer actually, is an example of faithful people calling on the Lord during their time of trouble. Of course, their turning away from the Lord caused their trouble. Nonetheless, they demonstrated their faith by relying on God to get them out of their predicament.

 

Isaiah was articulating a story of people who are lost, but fortunately know it.

 

The second monologue is God’s Judgment and is included in 65:1-4. God is angry at the Israelites. He revealed himself to them as an act of grace, yet they persisted in doing things God forbid, like eating the flesh of pigs and worshipping false gods. God is about to unleash his judgment on them.

 

The Israelites are lost, and they do not know it! Sadly for them, they will not know it until God’s judgment comes.

 

So how do we keep from straying from God and, more importantly, know we have strayed when we do? Our Bible is better than a “driver’s guide”. It tells us what not to do, but just as important, what we are to do.

 

The Bible. The best guide we have!

In His Steps - 1 Peter 2:13 - 3:7

As a child, I remember using tracing paper over a pattern or picture. Sometimes I would miss an important part or veer off a line making the copy incomplete. When I carefully followed every line, I was rewarded with a perfect reproduction of the original.

In today’s text, Peter tells me I am to trace my life along the same path as Jesus' life.

Jesus never did anything wrong. I clearly see His suffering on the cross and all the incidents surrounding His trials and death. I hear the pain, undeserved condemnation, and insults; yet He never lied, retaliated when hurt and bullied, nor did He threaten others. Jesus never sinned.

Jesus is the perfect person to show me how to respond to the hurts, problems and unjust treatment in my life. I am to "walk in His steps". I can't literally walk in His steps, but I can be guided by his example.

“For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.” (v 19) I know that my path in life will not be straight, nor will it be without pain; but I am called to go forward with my eyes and heart focused on Christ. As He is an example to me, God wants me to be an example to others.

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