Old Paths Journal

Isaiah 53:1
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?”

Have you ever felt like no one ever listens to you? That must have been how our LORD felt. He says in the verse above, “Who hath believed our report?” After everything the LORD has done for us through creation, history, and our own lives, He still doesn’t get the respect He deserves. It doesn’t matter that He wrote a Book to give us instructions on how to live, and that Book has never failed one time. It doesn’t matter that He has been there for us for time and time again when others have forsaken us. The LORD has revealed His mighty arm to us over and over again, and yet He is ignored and disrespected. The response of the Saviour to being ignored and disrespected is the response you should have when others ignore and totally disrespect you.

First, keep growing in the LORD when you are ignored and disrespected. Verse 2 says, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant…” Jesus never stopped becoming Who He was supposed to become in spite of being disrespected and ignored. You must not allow the disrespect of others to keep you from growing in the LORD. Your continued growth is what will validate your works one day even when you are being disrespected and ignored. Don’t allow the actions of others to be your excuse to quit.

Second, don’t use excuses when you are ignored and disrespected. Verse 2 continues to say, “…as a root out of a dry ground…” Excuses are the precursor to mediocrity and wasted talent. Times may be tough, but you must never allow the “dry ground” of life to keep you from continuing to do what the LORD wants you to do. The people around you may be the heat of the desert who are trying to dry up your spirit, but you must not allow their criticism, disrespect or disregard to become your crutch to give up and waste God’s blessings on your life.

Third, don’t retaliate when you are ignored and disrespected. Though Jesus was oppressed, afflicted and attacked, He never opened His mouth against them. Trying to get revenge is the worse thing you can do when others disrespect you. Retaliating will never give you the respect you desire. The only thing that happens when you retaliate is that you lose your testimony for Christ and become irrelevant. Don’t react to the actions of others; rather, keep responding by principle as this is the only thing that keeps your testimony intact.

Fourth, keep helping others when you are ignored and disrespected. In verse 11, when Jesus was disrespected and ignored He continued to “bear” the “iniquities” of others. In verse 4, Jesus carried the griefs and sorrows of others though He was disrespected. Friend, the only thing that will help you to get through the times of disrespect is to continue helping others. The reason this will get you through is because it is a selfless act that forces you to keep your eyes off others.

You will notice that all four of these actions force you to take your eyes off yourself. If you will keep your eyes on the LORD, it won’t matter what others say and think about you. It is only when you dwell on yourself that you will feel ignored and disrespected. Keep your eyes on the LORD, and what others think of you will not matter to you.

Isaiah 47:6
“I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.”

I have had the privilege of traveling abroad to preach in foreign countries. One of the main things that stands out in my mind about some of the countries is the poor quality of air. Many of these countries have smog that has polluted the air. In some of these countries, it is not safe to drink the water because of the pollutants that have contaminated their drinking water. It is sad that these people live have to this way.

In the verse above, God said that His people were polluted. These people allowed their lives to be contaminated with something that caused themselves and others harm. Four things caused these people to be polluted.

First, they were filled with self. They said in verse 7, “I shall be a lady for ever…” These people were so filled with who they were that they thought nothing would ever happen to them. Christian, you must be careful that you don’t get self-absorbed. Life does not revolve around you. Many people have allowed their successes to bring them to a point where they thought nothing would ever happen to them. It doesn’t matter what you have accomplished in life; you are still fallible, and God is capable of taking you down. Don’t forget that!

Second, they were given to pleasures. These people were all about doing what felt good. Pleasures do come to an end. If you live for pleasure, you will eventually live a broken life. There is nothing wrong with pleasures, but they must not be your goal in living. Those who live for pleasures will one day find the will of God loathsome, resulting in their departure from His will.

Third, they were careless with living. One of the main causes of our failures in the Christian life is our inattentiveness of how our actions affect others. Everything you do affects someone. You should be attentive in all that you do. Careless living leads to a second-rate effort. On the other hand, attentiveness causes you to think about how your actions affect others. Attentiveness causes you to live for excellence. Attentiveness causes you not to allow the little details of Scriptures to go unheeded. I’m not saying you should live a life of worry, but you shouldn’t be careless with your living. Don’t let carelessness pollute your Christian life.

Fourth, they never considered tomorrow’s consequences. These people said in verse 8, “…I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children…” They thought they could live any way they wanted without suffering the consequences. There are consequences to every decision you make and every action you perform. You may enjoy what you are doing today, but you will live with the consequences tomorrow. Living for today without consideration for tomorrow pollutes your life with sin.

Has your life been polluted with these contaminates? Don’t allow your life to be polluted. Live a holy life, and every time you find yourself contaminated with these pollutants, quickly confess your sin to God so that He can cleanse you from them.

Isaiah 37:3
“And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.”

Isaiah had a knack of turning bad circumstances around. He turned his kingdom around to serving the LORD. He turned back the oppression of the king of Assyria. He also turned sickness into health. Hezekiah found that the secret to turning things around was to go to the One Who could turn things around. It wasn’t that he could turn them around, but he knew the One Who could turn things around. Hezekiah knew that God was the only one who could turn things around. Whenever life dealt him bad circumstances, he quickly ran to God and asked for help. Four times Hezekiah turned to God to turn circumstance around.

First, in the “day of trouble” he turned to God for help. The word “trouble” is talking about adversity and tribulations. When your day of trouble comes, you need to learn to turn to God. It is God Who can turn away adversity. You can sit and bemoan what you are going through, or you can go to God and ask for His help. Talking to others about your day of trouble is not going to help you, but talking to God about it is the proactive way of facing it. Your “day of trouble” will become a day of opportunity when you turn to God for help.

Second, in the day of “rebuke” he turned to God. This “rebuke” was God’s correction. Israel faced these enemies because of their sin; however, Hezekiah knew that God was merciful and ready to help His children even in the time of rebuke. Your sins may have caused your problems, but God can help you through them if you turn to Him in prayer. Wishing you would not have done something doesn’t change a thing because you have already done it. The only thing you can do to turn the day of “rebuke” around is to turn to God for help.

Third, in the day of “blasphemy” he turned to God. When others falsely accused Hezekiah, he didn’t retaliate, but he turned to God. It is never easy when you hear others falsely accusing you. When the day of “blasphemy” comes, you have an advocate in God Who can help. Only God can stop the lies that are being said about you. Your best defense in the day of “blasphemy” is not to attack the other person personally, but to get God engaged to turn their attacks against them through prayer. My friend, it is tempting to want to defend yourself through retaliation, but only God can defend you when others are saying things about you that are not true.

Fourth, in the day of sickness he turned to God. In Isaiah 38:1-2, he turned and “and prayed unto the LORD” for healing. When sickness has gripped your body, your best hope is to turn to God. God knows what is going on in your body, and He can heal you if you go to Him. I’m not against you going to doctors for help, but go to God first to ask for His healing.

Your only hope to turning unwanted circumstances around is God. Christian, God has never failed. The only thing standing between turning your “day of trouble” into a day of opportunity is your lack of turning to God in prayer. Don’t wait! Turn to God now, for He alone can turn your circumstances around.

Proverbs 25:13
“As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.”

How you clothe a person often determines what others think of them. How you dress causes people to think of you differently. I could take one person and clothe them in dirty, wrinkled and unkempt attire, and many people will never notice them or even want to be around them. I could take the same person and put a fashionable suit on them and give them a sharp haircut, and that person will be recognized by many. It is the same person with different clothing, but their adorning makes the difference in how others recognize them.

Likewise, many good people have never reached their potential because they didn’t adorn their character with good habits. A person whose heart is good will never be an influence if they don’t adorn their character properly. Proverbs 25:11-13 reveals three adorning habits that will help a person to become influential if they make them a part of their character.

The first adorning habit is proper speech. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” A person who uses crude speech will often turn people away. What you say and how you say it will often overshadow the message that is being said. You can have the right message with the wrong packaging, and the message will be ignored because of the packaging. If you want to influence others for right, you had better learn how to speak properly. Dirty jokes, filthy language, crude speech and curse words will not help you to influence others. Our present society has become very crude in its language. Learn to say the right things all the time. Speak kindly and properly all the time, and don’t lower your speech to the modern day’s crudeness. You will never regret speaking properly all the time.

The second adorning habit is an obedient ear. Verse 12 says, “As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.” One of the biggest causes of misunderstandings is the lack of listening. You won’t miss what others are saying to you if you don’t allow yourself to be distracted when they are speaking. One of the greatest habits you should master with all the distractions of technology and busy schedules is a listening ear. You learn more when you give your full attention to listening. You will know better how to do things if you listen. Be careful that you don’t become passive about listening. You will have fewer misunderstandings in life if you train your ear to listen.

The third adorning habit is initiative. Verse 13 talks about how refreshing a “faithful messenger” is to his master. If you develop the character to do what you are supposed to do without being told to do it, you will find promotion will be easy to find. The person who is always having to be told what to do will never become a person who leads. People who can be trusted to do what they are supposed to do without being told to do it are often promoted to leadership.

Friend, your habits are the clothing of your character. People will never see who you really are if these three things are not a part of your character. Are you missing your potential because you lack these three habits? Make these three habits be a part of your character, and you will have a better chance of reaching God’s potential for your life.

Isaiah 17:9
“In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.”

I was sitting on the plane next to a man who used to be a professional bodybuilder, and we discussed how quickly a person loses strength. As we both talked about how often we exercise, one thing that we both concluded was how quickly you lose strength if you stop lifting weights.

The verse above discusses how the strong cities became weak. These were cities that once used to be the strongholds of Israel. These were cities everyone ran to for safety in the day of battle; yet, they became weak. These cities were no longer the cities people relied on for safety. These cities became weaklings. There were two reasons these cities lost their strength and became weak.

First, they became weak because they forgot God. No, they didn’t leave God, they forgot Him. How quickly Christians can become spiritual weaklings when they forget God. You must never get to the point in your Christian life when you think you can do God’s work alone. You must never start your day without God. The quickest way to become a spiritual weakling is to forget God.

Second, they became weak because they had “not been mindful of the rock of thy strength.” In other words, they stopped considering what God would want as they went throughout their day. Do you make decisions without asking yourself how God feels about the decision? Strong Christians become weak Christians when they make decisions without considering God’s desires. Spiritual weaklings are Christians who are not mindful or aware of God in their lives.

If these two things cause a Christian to become spiritually weak, what must we do to gain spiritual strength? First, start your day off remembering God by reading His Word and praying. Don’t get so busy with life that you forget to read God’s Word. You may not think it makes that much of a difference, but God’s Word is like a spiritual workout. God’s Word has a way of strengthening the Christian for what they are going to face that day. Likewise, prayer is just as much a part of the spiritual workout as reading the Scriptures. You gain spiritual strength by simply talking to God to start your day. I know you have a busy schedule and have to leave early in the morning to go to work, but you will gain much spiritual strength if you get up a little earlier to spend time in prayer with God.

Second, always be aware of God throughout your day if you want to stay spiritually strong. Before you look at anything, ask yourself if God would want you to look at it. Before you go somewhere, ask yourself if God would want you to be there. Before you start any projects, take thirty-seconds to whisper a prayer to God for His help. Before you enter a conversation, ask God to help you say the right things. If you want to be spiritually strong, you must be aware and mindful of God in all that you do.

Just like a person who stops working out for a short time loses strength, so the Christian becomes a spiritual weakling by missing one or two days with God. Don’t be a spiritual weakling. Pray, read God’s Word daily and be aware of God throughout your day so you can stay spiritually strong.

Isaiah 11:1
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:”

There are many models of leadership that we have to follow, but as Christians, we must be sure that our model of leadership is one that the LORD would want us to copy. There are no doubt many great leaders throughout history who had great characteristics that Christians could imitate, but there is no one in history who has the exact model that the LORD would want us to copy other than Jesus Christ. In this chapter, God shows the model of leadership that Jesus Christ gave for us to copy. There are several characteristics of Christian leadership that Jesus displayed in His ministry on this Earth.

First, Christian leadership is Spirit-led leadership. Verse 2 shows us that the “Spirit of the LORD” rested upon Jesus. Christian leadership, first and foremost, must be led by the Holy Spirit. If a Christian leader allows anything other than the Holy Spirit to influence their leadership, their leadership will not produce the results that God wants. If there is one prayer that every Christian leader should pray, it should be the prayer of yielding themselves continually to the Holy Spirit.

Second, Christian leadership is balanced. Of course, if you are Spirit led, you will be balanced and use the right attributes needed at the right time. There were several balancing attributes Jesus used in His leadership. For instance, His leadership epitomized “wisdom and understanding.” He balanced “counsel” with “might.” He kept “knowledge” in check with the “fear of the LORD.” Christian leadership will not be one-sided leadership, but it will be leadership that will have the same balancing characteristics as Jesus Christ.

Third, Christian leadership is principled leadership. Verse 3 shows that Jesus did not “judge after the sight of his eyes.” In other words, He didn’t allow His feelings to dictate what He should do, but He let godly principles dictate His decisions. I’m always amazed at how many leaders make decisions based on feelings. I often hear Christian leaders say, “I’m going to lead based off what I feel the LORD would have me do.” This may sound spiritual, but Christian leadership leads based off godly principles found in the Word of God. Too many leaders are changing things so quickly because they feel one way on one day, and another way on another day, which creates instability in their work and followers. Christian leadership modeled after Christ will make principled decisions. If you are going to be a successful leader, you must set your principles based on God’s Word, and let those principles make the decisions for you.

Fourth, Christian leadership lives righteously. Verse 5 says, “And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins…” You will never lead correctly if you are not living a righteous life. Righteous living gives leadership authority to do what they are supposed to do without the fear of someone finding out what they did in the past. Nothing substitutes for righteousness. You will never lead people down the right path if you are not living righteously.

These four characteristics should be the model for every Christian leader. These characteristics always lead to a stable atmosphere as found in verse 6. If you want your leadership to be effective, you will want to be sure these characteristics are what control you as you lead.

Song of Solomon 5:16
“His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”

This marriage relationship was divided into two relationships. This wife said that her husband was her “beloved,” but she also said that he was her “friend.” Throughout this book, you see this husband and wife talk about their love for each other, but you find the key that made this relationship sweet in this verse above. The key wasn’t that he was her “beloved,” though it is paramount that your spouse is the one you love the most. The key wasn’t that her husband was her friend, though again this is an important part of every marriage. The key was that her husband was “altogether lovely.”

What makes this the key to making this relationship great was that when she packaged her husband together, she found that he was “altogether lovely.” In other words, she could have picked him apart and focused on the negatives, but she chose to look at her husband as a whole and found that “altogether” he was a lovely person. As in any person, she could have easily focused on the negatives, but she chose to package him together, and when packaged together he was “altogether lovely.”

Every relationship is a combination of multiple relationships. For instance, your spouse should be your lover, friend, confidant, and much more. If you only have one relationship with your spouse, you have a weak marriage. One of the things I have learned the longer I am married is that my wife and I have multiple relationships built into one. This is what makes marriage such a great relationship. By having more relationships built into one, we have more than one thing to converse over.

Likewise, my daughter is more than just my daughter. What makes my relationship with my daughter unique is that we have built several relationships into one. Every time we build into our relationship another one, it allows the whole relationship to become fuller.

Furthermore, my relationship with my pastor is more than just being a pastor. One mistake that many church members make is they only let their pastor be their preacher instead of a pastor, preacher, advisor, friend and more. The closeness and fullness of any relationship will be determined by how many relationships are built into them.

Here is the key! The more relationships you have built into one, the more likelihood you have of discovering weaknesses or irritants that could destroy the relationship if you focus on them. The key to making every relationship great is to package it together and look at it as a whole. If you package together every relationship you have with a person, I believe you will be able to say that “altogether” you have a “lovely” relationship. When you package a person together as a whole with whatever relationship you have with them, you always find that the packaged deal is what makes the relationships special.

My friend, don’t make the mistake of picking a person apart. You will destroy your relationship with a person if you focus on the few negatives. If you choose to view your relationship with an individual as a packaged relationship, I believe you will find that the package deal will always be “altogether lovely.”

Ecclesiastes 9:10
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”

The verse above is the answer to verse 11 which says, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Solomon concluded that “time and chance” happen to those who do their best. He noticed that it wasn’t the fastest person who won the race, but it was the person who ran the race with all his might. It wasn’t the strongest person who won the battle, but it was the person who gave his full energy and might who won the battle. Solomon understood that the luckiest people in the world were those who did their best and did it with all their might. Three observations can be learned from the verses above.

First, you don’t have to be the best at what you do to be the best. Many times, those who end up being the winners in life are the ones who gave their best effort to what they were doing. You don’t have to be the smartest person to be the best, but to be the best you must give your fullest effort to learn so you can have the answers when faced with life’s obstacles. It is not always talent that becomes the best, but most often it is character applied that makes a person the best. You may not be the smartest, strongest, most eloquent, richest, or whatever adjective you want to use to describe yourself, but you don’t have to be to do your best so you can be the best. All you have to do is do your best at what you do, and your best will often make you the best.

Second, the best are often those who simply outlast the best. Some of the most talented people are those who quit when times get tough. My observation throughout life is that those who tend to rise to the top at what they do are those who give their best effort and never quit. My friend, if you will just keep doing what you are supposed to do, you will likely rise to the top. For instance, I don’t consider myself the best evangelist; however, I’m amazed at how many people come to me when they want advice on how to be an evangelist. It is not that I’m the best; it is likely that I’ve outlasted the best, and that is what has caused some to want my advice about evangelism. Likewise, you will most likely become the best at what you do if you will keep doing your best and never quit.

Third, the luckiest people are those who ran out of bad luck. It is amazing how “lucky” those who do their best seem to be. It is not that they were lucky, it is simply that they worked through the times when they were not so lucky; this is why they seem to be lucky. “Time and chance” are not what caused them to become successful, but giving their “might”  is what brought their success. If you do your best all the time, you will be amazed at how lucky you become.

Christian, God has given you the talents you have. Your talents may not measure up to others, but they don’t have to; you just give your best with the talent you have and you will find that God can take your best to make you the best. It’s not talent that ends up the best in life, but it is the character to do your best all the time that often causes one to rise to the top and become “lucky.”