Please join us for…

Easter Sunday Worship

April 12, 2009 at 10:00 a.m.

St. Croix Falls High School

(Come As You Are!)

Isaiah 6:1-8 says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him were seraphs, each with six wings; With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."  At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.  "Woe to me!" I cried.  "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.  Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?"  And I said, "Here am I.  Send me!"

We want to hear the voice of God, calling us, to go and live eternally significant lives in ways that bring each person into a transforming relationship with God!

I thought I'd share some of what I've been learning from God's Word.  Recently, I have been reading the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah. As I have been reading these books, I have said many times to myself, “What am I getting out of this?” These books are filled with prophesies which are written in poetic language and can be very difficult to understand. At times my mind would wonder and I would find myself “power reading” through them just to get done. Then I realized that when I stepped back and looked at the big picture, the awesome power of God was shining through these passages. In these books, God tells Israel that He is going to discipline them because they had turned away from worshiping the true God and were worshiping idols. The way God was going to discipline them was to cause Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to travel hundreds of miles to invade their homeland. In describing King Nebuchadnezzar, God repeatedly calls him “my servant.” King Neb, as I affectionately began to call him, was the king of the world’s greatest super-power. Babylon was also home to one of the seven wonders of the world, the hanging gardens of Babylon which Neb had created. But to God, he was only a servant who God commanded as He willed. Again I was struck by the profound truths in God’s Word.

Isaiah chapter forty teaches us some wonderful things about the power and majesty of God. Here is a brief quote. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” Isaiah 40:21-26

Let's continue to read God's Word daily!

Pastor Dick