Isaiah 12:1 NIV

Dear ICB family,

On Sunday Pastor Neil said that the anger of God is not a demonstration of his malice but rather a feature of his love.

That is not how the world around us defines love. The world says if you love someone, you will let that person do whatever he or she wants. Likewise, the world says that love and anger cannot coexist since love would never make a person feel bad.

Yet anyone who has truly loved someone knows that that is categorically untrue on both counts. The father who loves his daughter will not let her eat jelly beans for supper even though she wants to, and the woman who has a dear friend who is about to make a decision that will ruin her life knows exactly what it means both to love a person deeply and be extremely angry with her at the same time.
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​In fact, exactly as Pastor Neil said, love is the motivation up and out of which God's anger grows. Only the father who didn't truly love his daughter would not feel upset at the babysitter who let the daughter eat jelly beans for supper. Only the woman who didn't truly really love her friend would react with a shrug at a decision that would bring disaster upon her.

The Bible paints love as a deep desire for the good of another person accompanied by any and all self-sacrifice needed to achieve that good. What happens when obstacles arise to a beloved one's good? Love produces anger. What happens when what a person wants and what is actually good for that person stand in conflict? Love roots for the person's good. And what happens when achieving another person's good means I must take a hit? Love subjects itself to the hit. Behold the angry, good-seeking, hit-taking love of God. 

And when the obstacles that once stood in the way of the beloved's good are removed, anger is turned away (Isaiah 12:1) while love keeps right on flowing. So it is with God. When God achieves the forgiveness of his people's sins and thereby achieves their good, his love for them no longer requires his anger. His love that produced his anger, however, never ceases.

You're invited to know this love. And, following God's own example, you're invited to take whatever hits might be required so that others might come to know this love too.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric

Isaiah 9:6 KJV

Dear ICB family,

​Human beings were created for wonder. Just like we were designed to hunger for food, we were designed with an insatiable itch to behold greatness. It's what causes people to pack 100,000 strong into mega sports stadiums and watch elite athletes compete against one another. It's what drives others to concerts to hear fine orchestras or to see their favorite group in person. 

Our urge to behold wonder causes some to climb mountains, some to design faster race cars, and others to watch ice skating competitions. We pile into theaters to take in the latest, greatest, most expensive blockbusters with the most mind-bending CGI and the most well-known actors, and we take vacations to the Grand Canyon to simply stare at the beauty of it all.
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​In short, we love to stand in awe of amazing things outside ourselves. In fact, it seems we just can't get enough.

And in those moments in which we forget about ourselves completely, in which all our attention is off ourselves and riveted on the beauty and greatness that exists outside the confines of our own beings, we feel most alive. 

God is the biggest, greatest, most awesome being that exists. Imagine the power that can call matter and energy into being from nothing. Imagine the creativity that can think up every form of life on the planet. Imagine the mind that can organize and manage the collision of every atom in the universe so that his will is done on both the smallest and the most expansive scale.

There is no one like him. And this great God of ours—truly a God of wonder—has called us to behold him. In other words, he's called us to feel the most alive that a human being is capable of feeling. The question is, Are we looking?
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​Imagine you were bedridden in a room with a single window overlooking the Alps. On three sides of the room there are solid walls, but on one side there's a window that allows you to look out and behold wonder. Wouldn't you be thankful for that window? Maybe you'd really like to be able to leave the room, go outside, and see the Alps for yourself. Maybe from the window there are views that lie outside your field of vision, and you long to see more. Nevertheless, would you change that window for anything?
 
We have just such a window. It's called the Bible. Through it we catch glimpses of the greatest wonder in existence. It's there in its pages that the God of the universe has revealed himself for to behold him. But are we looking?

Come, press your nose up against the glass, and let your heart take its fill of wonder.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric

Behold our God!

God is our wonder.
He is our counselor. 
He is our mighty God.
He is our everlasting Father.
He is our prince of peace.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion:

1. When was the last time you stood in awe of God? What caused that sense of awe?
2. Which of these descriptions of the coming Messiah do you most need to hear right now in your life? Why?
3. In light of the broader context of Isaiah, how do we know that the person about whom Isaiah was writing in Isaiah 9

Isaiah 6:7 NIV

Dear ICB family,

In Isaiah 59 the prophet swings from judgment to salvation, from the bad news to the good news of the gospel, from accusation to redemption.
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What happens to a person who has a vision of God high and exalted? That person is immediately made aware of his own uncleanness. That was what happened with Isaiah. God's response to that uncleanness was to make Isaiah clean and then commission him into his service. This is the great God we serve, and we invite you to worship him with us.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. How does Isaiah's reaction to his vision of God compare with other biblical characters' reactions to their visions of God?
2. Where do we see the hope of the gospel in Isaiah 6?
3. What do you make of God's commission to Isaiah, especially of how he commands Isaiah to tell the people to hear but not understand and to see but not perceive?

This week's text from Isaiah acts as a brutally honest spiritual diagnosis of our state before God as human beings.

Life of greedy self-indulgence is detestable to our God, and there are both short- and long-term consequences for living in such a way.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. ​Out of the seven woe statements in Isaiah 5 and 6, were there any ones that especially stood out to you? Why?
2. What is the essence of the sinful behavior that Isaiah describes in these two chapters?
   
3. What hope do we find in these two chapters despite Isaiah's scathing accusations? 

Isaiah 6:5 ESV

Dear ICB family,

The silver tongued poet-prophet had denounced the state of the nation in no uncertain terms. Personal and private sins along with systemic corruption and oppression all came under his fire and thunder. ‘Woe to you!’ he cried out six times. He had given a full 359º survey of every thing that was wrong with his own nation but now the final 1º remained as he looked into what Pastor Kanat called ‘the mirror of the soul’ and cried out, “Woe is me!” Words and speech and poetry were his forte, but now he cries out that even his strong points are impure, “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.” In the consuming holiness of God, any human claims of purity shrivel to nothing.
 
Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and John all saw a vision of the glory of God, and an overwhelming dread or a warning of imminent disaster came on each of them. On Abraham a deep and dreadful darkness descended (Genesis 15:12). To Moses the Lord gave this warning (Exodus 33:20), “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” When Joshua came face to face with the ‘Commander of the Lord’s armies’ he fell down on his face (Joshua 5:14) and similar accounts are given in Ezekiel 1:28, Daniel 10:8-9 and Revelation 1:12. When Peter realised who it was that was sitting in his boat, that he knew what was under the surface of the waves and under the surface of his soul, he cried out, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8). In the consuming holiness of God, any human claims of purity shrivel to nothing.
 
Only Jesus had the right to utter all seven woes, because he in himself is the holiness of God. To summarise Matthew 23:13-39, Jesus said to the scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites:
 
Woe to you, teachers of the law
You turn the key in heaven’s door
Woe to you, wretched sons of hell
The harm you’ve done no-one can tell
Woe to you, fools with blinded eyes
You do not know what God supplies
Woe to you, when you give a tithe
And swagger in conceited pride
 
Woe to you, acting out a part
With deep corruption in your heart
Woe to you, slayers of the just
You will depart and bite the dust
Woe to you, spawn of ancient snake
How do you think you might escape?
Your destiny in hell is plain
For all my prophets you have slain
 
In the consuming holiness of God, any human claims of purity shrivel to nothing. Complete and final judgment. Or is it?
 
For then comes Acts 9 and a murderous Pharisee comes face to face with the glory of God, the risen Lord Jesus. In his pride, he falls to the ground. He is struck blind, so that he can see. The persecutor of the church becomes the preacher of the gospel. The hypocrite becomes the champion of truth.
 
The sinner becomes a saint. The murderer becomes a martyr. ‘Woe is me!’ then becomes ‘Worthy are you, O Lord!’

Grace and peace,

​Pastor Neil

Isaiah 5:2 NIV

Dear ICB family,
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The Hebrew word for ‘bad fruit’ is be'ushim—‘stinkers’—over-ripe, maggot-ridden, mouldy, rotten fruit. All the hard work had been put in by the singing gardener: he found a fertile space, cleared the land, dug it and prepared the soil, planted choice vines, built a watch tower, planted a hedge, built a wall, dug a wine-press. But then when he came looking for fruit he found just little stinkers. They looked bad, tasted bad and smelled bad.
 
But this is not the only place we find God looking for fruit. His first command was, ‘be fruitful and multiply!’ But more often we read about unacceptable fruit being offered to God. The whole creation turned sour underneath a fruit tree when humankind decided that living according to the manufacturer’s instructions was not the way to go. Our ancestors chose to eat the forbidden fruit and were sent out of Eden into exile.

​Cain offered ‘fruit of the ground’ but that was unacceptable to the Lord for reasons that are not entirely clear. What is clear, however, is that Cain was not in a good place and his sour grapes turned to anger and his anger to murder and his murder to exile.
 
Noah planted a vineyard, brewed wine, got drunk and for more reasons that are not entirely clear, something evil happened in the tent during his drunken stupor. Nevertheless, what is clear is that Noah was very angry and his anger turned to cursing and his cursing turned his son into a slave and cut him off, effectively in exile.
 
Isaiah sang this song about a vineyard, but the vineyard produced only little stinkers. The disappointed singing gardener pronounces judgment on the ‘finest vine’ with seven woes in which culminate in Isaiah 6:12 with the people of God being sent ‘far away’ into exile.

John the Baptist preached that people should ‘produce the fruit of repentance’ and not rely on their ethnic group or any other superficial badge of identity. “The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Which would be like being sent into exile.
 
Jesus told many stories and parables about planting things and expecting a harvest. Jesus talked about good trees producing good fruit and bad trees yielding bad fruit. Jesus came to a fig tree looking for fruit, but found none and cursed it. Jesus said he was the vine, his Father was the vine-dresser (gardener), and that his followers are the branches. He is looking for fruit, and the only way his followers can produce fruit is by staying connected to the Vine: ‘Abide in me!’. Those branches that bear no fruit are cut off, like being sent into exile.

Paul in Romans 9-11 picks up the same theme about us gentiles being grafted onto the olive tree (just to vary the tree in the metaphor) of Israel, but to hold faithfully to the Lord and avoid being ‘cut off’ which would be like exile.
 
Are we seeing a pattern here? Goodness, it appears that the last seven paragraphs all end with the word ‘exile’—now how did that happen? The good news is that there is a way home from ‘exile’ and that there is a way to stay ‘grafted in’ and connected to the Vine, abiding in Christ. For without him we can do nothing. As Pastor Sasha Kim said, “We need to take responsibility for our walk with God, otherwise there are going to be consequences.”
 
Like the fruitless, prodigal son, wallowing in a stinking pig-sty in self-imposed exile, let us come to our senses and start heading towards home. Before we get there with our prepared speeches and explanations and bargaining positions, we shall find the Father waiting for us, running towards us, then sweeping us up in his arms, lavishing on us kisses and honour and welcome. He will put on us a robe in place of those stinking rags from the pig-sty, a ring for our stinking fingers and sandals for our stinking feet.
 
Dear stinking brothers and sisters, let us come home from exile.
 
Let us be joined to Christ!
 
Let us bear much fruit!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Neil

​John 15:16-17
Jesus said: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

II Peter 1:5-9
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 

Jesus desires fruitful lives among those who follow him and Peter gives his list of fruit which is similar to Paul’s in Galatians 5.

Questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion

1. In Isaiah 5 what were the fruits that stink?
2. What is the primary fruit Jesus is looking for? (John 15:17)
3. What does that look like in the life of ICB
4. How can we be more fruitful?
5. How can we abide in Christ?