The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save.

This past week, our church held Neighborhood Bible Time. A verse God reminded me of during the week was Isaiah 59:1, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear.” Even in the day and age in which we live, with people constantly bemoaning the difficulties of reaching a hardened, pluralistic society, we need to remember that God is the One who glories to bring salvation to sinful men. If we feel that the only way people today will receive Christ as their only hope of eternal life is through coercion or gimmicks, we are in effect calling God a liar. We are saying that the Lord’s arm is too short to save in this hardened generation. As the next verse in Isaiah states, those who hear the gospel must come face to face with what has separated them from God. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear.” I understand the immediate context that Isaiah was writing about concerning Israel’s national deliverance from impending doom, but we see that sin is the root cause of man’s separation from God displaying his need for cleansing first in salvation. After salvation we have the joy to have fellowship with a pure and perfect God based solely on the righteousness and obedience of Christ. When sin again comes and disrupts that fellowship, we have the Spirit who convicts us of our sin, and an advocate who is willing to stand on our side, based not on our righteousness, but on His own.

Having said all that, I praise the Lord that through the week, we were able to see 26 young people come and trust Christ. Most came from the community in which we minister. I had the privilege of leading a teen and a fourth grade young man to Jesus Christ. Many Christians’ first response would be, “I wonder how many of those truly meant it?” This type of response comes from a heart that underestimates the power of God. If the gospel is not the power of God to salvation to every one who believes, then we need to hang things up and get out and enjoy life. But if the gospel is truly as powerful as God has promised it to be, then we need to have eyes of faith to see that God’s arm is not shortened in these “last days,” and His desire remains to bring glory to Himself through people receiving Jesus as their Savior. I praise the Lord for reminding me this past week that He still desires to change people’s lives by His very own power. Although salvation is of the Lord, sometimes we use that as an excuse to step aside and do nothing. He uses Christians, like you and me, to make that impact in our community, job, family and workplace. May God give us a hunger to be used to spread the glorious and transforming gospel of Jesus Christ to this lost and dying world.

Here is the picture from this past week’s Neighborhood Bible Time.