1 Corinthians 3:18-20 (The Message)

18-20Don't fool yourself. Don't think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God's fool—that's the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It's written in Scripture,

He exposes the chicanery of the chic.
The Master sees through the smoke screens
of the know-it-alls.

I'm not even sure what to say right now. My heart is torn. I feel so bad for things going on in my family. My brother who wants to become like the prodigal son an flee home with as much cash as he can and party his life away. My aunt who has become addicted to cocaine and heroine.

A family in my church loosing a father and a brother within weeks of each other.

Then I read a passage like this....
Any words I have to offer are ones of stupidity. Why? Because they are of myself...my wisdom is nothing.

Also...what people see for themselves as wisdom is also fruitless. Mere stupidity, but because this is what the world tells them is good...they believe it. Or even if they don't believe it initially, they trick themselves into believing their own smoke screen.

God expose our own futile attempts for wisdom in our lives. There is so much pain and suffering, so much torn apart. Things that can only be healed with your wisdom, mercy and grace.

Please hold my tongue and shine your light to expose our own smoke screen.

Send Me

To be completely honest...I haven't cracked the word in a while.

Don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you, more out of selfishness of my own time i suppose. Lately though God has been impressing on me prayer, and through prayer he has begun to redirect my mind...it truly is amazing once you start redirecting some things in your life what you begin to see happen.

Something I gleaned in church a few weeks ago has stuck with me, and this has begun to be my prayer, the position, passion and peace of Christ.

Position - That I would see where and for what reason God has me in each situation.

Passion - That God would instill in me a passion for him, and that it would become evident in my life.

Peace - That no matter what I am dealing with, struggling with, frustrated with, that the peace of Christ would come over me.

Tonight I read these things...and once again...applies to my prayer.

Isaiah 6 (English Standard Version)

3And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"4And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" 6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." 8And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

Sometimes you just have to sit before the Lord of Glory and revel in his majesty. To realize how unclean you truly are. Isaiah was not just talking about 'saying things he shouldn't' here when the angel touched his lips with coal. He was talking about the status of his heart, and the heart of the people of Israel.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

So this was such an internal issue that Isaiah saw himself as totally unclean before the Lord, which we all are...and yet he has cleansed us.

Our response should be...send us.

I certainly don't live a 'sent' life.

But after this week of emboldened prayer...I'm ready to go again.

1 Corinthians 1 (English Standard Version)

26For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 sanctification andAnd because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and redemption, 31so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

Let's face it because of sin we're all stupid. It's just that some of us recognize it sooner than others. The secular humanists of this world have their accolades and that pat on the back and piece of paper hung above their desk is about all of the congratulations they're going to get in light of eternity.

The low in Christ are those that are raised up, redeemed, and able to boast in something greater than himself.

So going back to Isaiah, is your heart clean? are you ready to be sent? What is your calling? Are you boasting in the Lord rather than yourself?

I pray I am.

I pray for position, passion and peace.

God here am I send me.