You know, daily life is sometimes filled with good and bad, kind of like a toy box filled with some good, functional toys and some broken, nonfunctional toys. Is that a bit too basic a graphic? Perhaps, but stay with me on this:
When I strive to share and minister to others, I try to not focus only on the bad, but also offer some constructs of good and holy things that keep one's perspective on track with the message. When one walks sentry on the wall, watching for the enemy and the wiles of that enemy to try and get in through the niches cracks in the wall, or even creating fissures through which they may try to pass and work their mayhem in lives, we soldiers at times must dodge arrows that sometimes strike someone within the city whom we are guarding. Again, does that make sense?
Ok, let's try this:
Isaiah 52:8 Your watchmen shall lift up [their] voices, With their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye When the LORD brings back Zion.
This is a good thing, and I say AMEN to this. I love speaking (singing) in unison with my fellow watchmen. We ALL endure together a culture that ebbs and flows through the decades and centuries of time, some with greater evils, and some with seemingly less evils. Given that the word of God tells us that there is nothing new under the sun, that is actually an uplifting and very revealing reality from which we can derive hope. In other words, no matter how good or how bad things may seem at any given juncture in our lives, God is still in control. There is no new evil in the world, and the good of God being in change also has not changed, even though it may seem at times that He has relinquished His control over all things. No. He is still on control, and shall always remain in control.
Isaiah 56:10 His watchmen [are] blind, They are all ignorant; They [are] all dumb dogs, They cannot bark; Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Oops. This one gives pause, and in the eyes of some, casts mud upon our garments and armor who stand watch on the wall. In the city we guard and watch over, there are those who are like the rich, young ruler who thought that he was living all the commandments to the extent that he was holy and therefore worthy of Heaven, and yet felt some lacking to the extent that He asked Jesus what he must do to go to Heaven.
Remember that Jesus did not say to simply believe upon Him, but rather to sell all that he had, and give it to the poor, and that THEN he will have delivered his soul. In other words, Jesus revealed to him that not only was he NOT living the commandments perfectly, his love for his wealth was the one thing in this life that served as the beaver dam to the river of his life in its ability to flow toward that glorious city of salvation.
Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,
Generally speaking, within the walls of any city are some who are always disgruntled, and so always negative about the messages they hear from the watchmen who speak good things pleasant to the ear, and also warnings of things they don't like hearing. Quite a number of watchmen have found themselves in the tides of backlash resulting from a warning they sent out, backlash from those who were deeply entrenched in the very sins of which the watchmen were warning against.
All this to say that, well, we share many things, all with the goal of building others up. We point out many bad things, but only using those things as foundation stones to hold up the good. That may seem a rather contradictory image in the minds of some or many, but it bears out the fact that the point we see as balanced won't appear to everyone as being...balanced.
For further illustration, I share this video to help get the point across, and also to welcome your thoughts and experiences in struggling to find a healthy balance in the realities of life.
When I strive to share and minister to others, I try to not focus only on the bad, but also offer some constructs of good and holy things that keep one's perspective on track with the message. When one walks sentry on the wall, watching for the enemy and the wiles of that enemy to try and get in through the niches cracks in the wall, or even creating fissures through which they may try to pass and work their mayhem in lives, we soldiers at times must dodge arrows that sometimes strike someone within the city whom we are guarding. Again, does that make sense?
Ok, let's try this:
Isaiah 52:8 Your watchmen shall lift up [their] voices, With their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye When the LORD brings back Zion.
This is a good thing, and I say AMEN to this. I love speaking (singing) in unison with my fellow watchmen. We ALL endure together a culture that ebbs and flows through the decades and centuries of time, some with greater evils, and some with seemingly less evils. Given that the word of God tells us that there is nothing new under the sun, that is actually an uplifting and very revealing reality from which we can derive hope. In other words, no matter how good or how bad things may seem at any given juncture in our lives, God is still in control. There is no new evil in the world, and the good of God being in change also has not changed, even though it may seem at times that He has relinquished His control over all things. No. He is still on control, and shall always remain in control.
Isaiah 56:10 His watchmen [are] blind, They are all ignorant; They [are] all dumb dogs, They cannot bark; Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Oops. This one gives pause, and in the eyes of some, casts mud upon our garments and armor who stand watch on the wall. In the city we guard and watch over, there are those who are like the rich, young ruler who thought that he was living all the commandments to the extent that he was holy and therefore worthy of Heaven, and yet felt some lacking to the extent that He asked Jesus what he must do to go to Heaven.
Remember that Jesus did not say to simply believe upon Him, but rather to sell all that he had, and give it to the poor, and that THEN he will have delivered his soul. In other words, Jesus revealed to him that not only was he NOT living the commandments perfectly, his love for his wealth was the one thing in this life that served as the beaver dam to the river of his life in its ability to flow toward that glorious city of salvation.
Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,
Generally speaking, within the walls of any city are some who are always disgruntled, and so always negative about the messages they hear from the watchmen who speak good things pleasant to the ear, and also warnings of things they don't like hearing. Quite a number of watchmen have found themselves in the tides of backlash resulting from a warning they sent out, backlash from those who were deeply entrenched in the very sins of which the watchmen were warning against.
All this to say that, well, we share many things, all with the goal of building others up. We point out many bad things, but only using those things as foundation stones to hold up the good. That may seem a rather contradictory image in the minds of some or many, but it bears out the fact that the point we see as balanced won't appear to everyone as being...balanced.
For further illustration, I share this video to help get the point across, and also to welcome your thoughts and experiences in struggling to find a healthy balance in the realities of life.