Ensign: What Do You Want To Hear?

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3


AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS                       24 March 2017


Moana: If there's something you want to tell me, just tell me! Is there something you wanna tell me?
[Gramma Tala looks back at Moana, smirking]
Gramma Tala: Is there something you want to hear?


Last Sunday afternoon I finally got to see the Disney Pixar movie Moana and this exchange stuck in my head. The island the main characters live on is running out of food, and Moana's father the Chief forbids sailing beyond the reef surrounding the island to find more. That sounds counterproductive, though we later learn that the reason HE forbids it was because he was Moana's age he lost his best friend or the breakers beyond the island, and he doesn't want that happening again. When we come to the exchange between Moana and her grandmother I've excerpted above, Gramma Tala takes Moana to a cave behind a waterfall where she sees a small fleet of ships that their ancestors had built to take them from one island to the next. Moana learns that her people were -- are -- voyagers.


In any voyage, we run the risk of getting lost.


And time goes on. In Paul's second letter to Timothy, we see the apostle of Christ in a Roman prison (again) warning the bishop of the church at Ephesus "in the last days perilous times shall come". From 2 Timothy 3:1-7, Paul goes into detail about men loving themselves more than God in a section I've seen called "the coming apostasy" in study Bibles or even in a sermon I once heard as "Dangerous Love Affairs". The passage about people not being willing to endure sound doctrine but rather whatever scratches their "itching ears" is one chapter away (specifically, 4:3) but it's important to notice something before we get to it. Timothy is basically given a rundown of how bad the church is going to get. But he's never told to quit. He's never told what's the use, just stop what you're doing.


Some Bible studies and teachings are depressing that way.


But there was one I read this morning (I mean it; as I finish writing this Ensign on Friday, I read it just this morning) with its central passage as Isaiah 40:27-31. You may know this as the "mount up with wings as eagles" passage from the final verse. And as I'm going back over it, I notice that there is nothing wrong with not living up to your full potential. Heh. We're in a society that encourages you to feel less about yourself if you don't fire on all eight cylinders all the time. But what was the point of God resting on the seventh day after Creation if that's the case? From the Sabbath set up seven days into Creation to its codification into Mosaic law to its fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, we get perspective.


We don't want to hear that we're doing nothing.


Far less do we want to be caught doing nothing, but it's often our questioning and our all-too-human lack of patience (wait a second, I'm the only one here who lacks patience. Right?). We just cannot let our patience become paralysis. For us to mount with wings as eagles means we eventually have to use them to fly. For us to continue to present sound doctrine -- that is, the Word of God as it is, not as we want it to be -- means we're going to have people run away from it because they (and sometimes we) don't want to hear it. And the Sabbath is a day of rest for we who believe and not a day off of trusting our Lord and our God ... at least, it shouldn't be. But that's a choice you and I have to make for ourselves, to take the voyage as God directs us.


That's what we need to hear,




David


P.S. I will continue as long as God allows me to write this devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages us too! If it's not or you want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!


And thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and in prayer and that we can count on You to provide for all our needs according to Your riches in glory, even when we don't know what they are. (This happens more often than we think.) And we come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.


Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, in authority and power, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus the Christ.


And now I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.