My Redeemer Lives

By Natalie Swagger

“Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink because there is no water, and they die of thirst.” Isaiah 50:2

Your Redeemer lives. It’s the message throughout Isaiah and I can almost sense God’s frustration at their lack of belief. Repeatedly He asks why they are afraid of man when God is on their side.

“[The Lord God says] And the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. I, even I, am He Who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of man, who shall die, and of a son of man, who shall be made [as destructible] as grass, That you should forget the Lord your Maker, Who stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and fear continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy or even though he did so? And where is the fury of the oppressor?” Isaiah 51:11-13

When I read Isaiah I can sense God’s heart grieved and pleading for His children to turn to Him in obedience and trust, I can feel His passion, His love and jealousy for them, and the longing He has for them to enter into all He has provided, His longing for them to accept and return His love.

“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way that you should go. Oh, that you had hearkened to My commandments! Then your peace and prosperity would have been like a flowing river, and your righteousness [the holiness and purity of the nation] like the [abundant] waves of the sea.” Isaiah 48:17-18

I certainly never have faced anything as terrifying as what Israel faced in those days and yet still when problems come panic will try to rise in my heart and mind. Why? Why should God have to remind us that He is much mightier than our problems? Usually, because we spend so much more time thinking about the problem than on how mighty God is and oh how much He loves us! “You forget the Lord your Maker” Isaiah says, and how often have I been guilty of that charge?  We can so easily forget how powerful our God is.

If I hold on to two truths then panic has no place in my heart, fear has no ground on which to lay hold. #1. God is all powerful. #2 He passionately loves me.

No matter what I face or what blunders I may make God’s hand is not shortened that He can’t redeem. Even when Israel had betrayed God, when they had hardened their hearts and turned away from Him, His heart still longed to redeem them, if only they would turn back to Him. He wanted them to know, your Redeemer lives!

God is all powerful and He passionately loves me. That is the truth; all the whispers the enemy whispers to my mind about lack, destruction, or loss are lies. God is all powerful and He passionately loves me!

My Redeemer lives!!

And my challenge is to never forget that. To meditate on it until it becomes a truth so deeply ingrained into my way of thinking that the next time I face a problem, the next time the enemy whispers his lies to me, immediately the truth will rise up, “God is all powerful, He loves me passionately, and His hand is not shortened that He can’t redeem!”  My Redeemer lives!

Set Apart

“External religious worship [religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world.” James 1:27 (emphasis mine)

“And now [brethren], I commit you to God [I deposit you in His charge, entrusting you to His protection and care]. And I commend you to the Word of His grace [to the commands and counsels and promises of His unmerited favor]. It is able to build you up and to give you [your rightful] inheritance among all God’s set-apart ones (those consecrated, purified, and transformed of soul).” Acts 20:32

We are called "God's set-apart ones". Set apart from what? From the world is the obvious answer we are given in James 1, but in practical terms what does that look like?

I have heard, and would agree, that it is Jesus Christ who separates us and sets us apart, that the work is not ours and while yes, once again I would agree that is true, it is not the whole truth. When Jesus was talking about forgiveness He said this,

“In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.” Matthew 6:14 The Message

I cannot afford to be passive and simply say that God has set me apart and I have no responsibility for anything else.  James would obviously disagree as in the above scripture he implies responsibility on our part. 

Now , unspotted to me speaks of purity. To be pure you must keep yourself from anything that would contaminate you.  It goes way beyond religious observance straight to the heart. Jesus says to his disciples when they asked him the meaning of a parable:

“But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that’s neither here nor there.” Matthew 15:17 The Message

The real question is, “What corrupts you?”  I believe prayerful study of the Word and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit are a crucial part of our responsibility to discovering all of the varied contaminating influences.  And how do we separate ourselves from them? Jesus put it this way:

“Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.” Matthew 5:29 The Message

I cannot afford to be passive; I have to be aggressive against corruption. As an example if I want to guard against lust then the moment I have a lustful thought I must cast it down, the moment I see lust on tv I must shut if off, I must be aggressive and vigilant against that corrupting influence.  As Jesus says, it’s not easy, and I definitely cannot do it alone, but I must do my part and I know that God is faithful to do His. For I surely do not want to be educated above my obedience level.

And that is my challenge, to cooperate with God to keep myself unspotted from the world. I must prayerfully go before the Father and ask Him to reveal what is corrupting me and then aggressively and diligently guard against it.