“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.”
~ Isaiah 55:8
Hi James and Ellen,
How would you feel if you were kids who had been displaced for one reason or another? Do you believe that you have complete control over your destiny? Even though you may really want to be able to control what will happen in your lives tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next . . ., there really is not anything that you can do to do that. There are always extenuating circumstances that will have your lives twisting and turning in God’s ‘winds of change’. God gave His specially chosen guys and gals His life and worship laws to live by each day as they lived in the land that He was giving them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . but when they compromised the kind of relationship that God expected from them – a relationship where His specially chosen guys and gals were to completely commit to living out those life and worship laws in absolute obedience to Him, God displaced His specially chosen guys and gals – and kids, who were living in Israel’s land area. God through His divine understanding of the big picture, had an enemy nation – Assyria, enter the land which He had given to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . to take away the Israelite people group of guys, gals and kids to their land and to use the Israelite people group’s guys and gals as their slaves. How would you feel if your country today – which is being blessed with all kinds of riches, opportunities and freedoms, decided to turn its back on the Creator God of the Big Picture by voting for and electing a self-promoting guy versus electing a guy who is a Christ-follower or sympathetic to Christ-followers? Your grandpaa is sure that if this ever does happen, that there will be over taxation, individual restrictions and foreign governmental influence.
God used one of His prophet spokesmen – Isaiah, to tell His specially chosen guys and gals that they would one day return to the land that He had given them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . with a renewed appreciation of the simple things in life, of having heartfelt hope and of knowing how to make the right choices. Isaiah sounds excited about the future of God’s specially chosen guys and gals when he wrote down the words that are now found in Isaiah 55. Even though God’s specially chosen guys and gals were captive slaves in a foreign country, Isaiah knew that God would have them return to the land that He had given them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . Isaiah knew that when that time happens, that God’s specially chosen guys and gals would not have a desire to pursue wealth and self-indulgence. Isaiah knew that God’s specially chosen guys and gals at that time will have internalized what having abundance, enjoyment and nourishment will really mean, what putting their complete trust in their Creator God to supply all their needs will really be like and what being spiritually refreshed and blessed will really imply.
Are you happy today in your home and life environments? Suppose for one reason or another your dad and ma had to move today from where you are living to a totally different part of the United States. Do you think that you would be okay with having to leave a place where you have lived all your lives to begin all over again in another place? During the twelve years that your grandmaa and grandpaa were missionaries on the South America Mission field missionary team in Bolivia, very little rain fell for several years in the Alton Plano region. Because of the lack of rain, the Bolivian government resettled some of the indigenous Aymara guys and gals who lived in the Alto Plano to lowland areas in Bolivia. The cool, barren elevations of the Alto Plano are at least 10,000 feet above sea level. The hot, jungle lowland elevations of Bolivia are at around 700 feet above sea level. The Bolivian government gave the displaced Aymara guys and gals areas of jungle in isolated areas in the Bolivian lowlands to always to have to live in as their very own land. The Bolivian government cleared with bulldozers these isolated places where the displaced Aymara guys and gals could live and plant crops. How do you think that an Aymara kid probably felt over twenty years ago who had to live in a place that was totally different from where he or she had been living in in the Alto Plano? Your grandpaa is sure that this had to have been a really tough time for displaced Aymara kids. A promise that was made by Bolivian government officials to the Aymara guys and gals who were being displaced was that the government would dig wells for them in the new land areas that they were giving them. When this did not happen, some of the displaced Aymara guys decided that one way to get the government’s attention so that they would move ahead with digging wells was to blockade with large tree trunks the one main gravel road that passed through the area where they were living. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were in their white C-10 Chevy pickup on their way to the rural resident Bible training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez when they were stopped at the blockade of tree trunks that guys who lived in the area had several hours earlier used to block the gravel road to stop all the traffic. Even though your grandmaa and grandpaa really wanted to continue on to Concepción and to their bed at the rural resident training center, verse 8 became a reality check for them. It says, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD.” After waiting for a few hours, your grandmaa and grandpaa returned to the Bolivia South America Mission mission base that is located in Santa Cruz. As your grandmaa and grandpaa were crossing the Rio Grande in a flat bottom boat under bright stars that lit a black night, God’s presence – as God the Spirt, gave them a sense of peace knowing that their lives were totally in God’s hands.
Isaiah 55 (536)