Isaiah :1-4 "I will sing for the One I love, a song about His vineyard: My loved One had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it?
Dear friends, this passage in the Word is entitled The Song of the Vineyard in one of my Bibles, but I was touched by the Lord's heart this morning and realized it was rather "The Heartbreak of the Vineyard". Go with me for a moment and picture this in your spirit. The Lord clearing out all the debris of our lives, from every crooked path we had walked, the sin in our life, and yes...what some of you might consider big sin....little sin...but dear friends, sin is sin....so consider all the sin in your life; the Lord cleaning us up, washing us gently.....I see Him using the finest, softest cloth as you might use on a baby's face to dry their tears......He dried our tears of shame, heartbreak, disappointment with His soft, gentle hand, and made us into the finest vineyard imaginable. Have you been to a vineyard, have you noticed so many have those beautiful rose bushes, trained up into small trees at the ends of the rows, it's fragrance enhancing the sweet smell of the ripening grapes? That is what I see. His fragrance lingering over the vineyard of our hearts, of our souls, of our spirits. The watchtower.....in the vineyard, here is the Holy Spirit, placed in us to guide, to minister, and to administer His presence with us. The winepress, used I feel by the Holy Spirit to squeeze and press us into the perfected, one day, saint of the Lord. How beautiful this view from our spirits, don't you agree? What plans the Lord had, all the preparation, all the pricks and cuts in His hands as he trimmed away the thorns, as He cleared the brambles each day, pruning and caring for us, each so special to Him......I tell you, friends, right here, my heart just cries out to my Living God thanks and gratitude for His caring for me, for His gentleness in His handling of me each day.....and....my heart cries as I feel His disappointment, His hurt as He looks down at His vineyard today......as He looks for that harvest of good grapes.....I see this as the worship of His children, to whom He has given so much care....as He looks for that harvest of how we show His love and mercy to others......See how many look upon the vineyard of the Lord and criticize us, thus criticizing Him....looking at so many in the church....backbiters, judgers, those too busy about their plans to allow Him to work through them.....judging what the Lord has done....proclaiming to have a better way that His way....
What more could He have done than He has not done? How could He do more, He certainly could not have loved more....He gave everything of Himself to us and asked so little.
I will worship my Lord each moment of my life....I will dedicate my life to glorifying my Lord at all times. There is not a place I know to go but to Him. I want Him to look down on the vineyard He has planted in me and see a good harvest. Yes, I will fail at times, but His watchtower is within me to press me back into that place where I love to be, in the arms of my Lord. Friends, let the vineyard the Lord has planted in you become the fragrant, overwhelming production of good grapes, of resounding sounds of thanksgiving and worship to the One who has kept us and longs to keep us close always. Let the heartbreak of the vineyard become what it was intended "The Song of the vineyard" a rising, beautiful, song of worship to our God.
Patspennings
04-17-13
No comments:
Post a Comment