What captivates your imagination? Is there something that has just taken hold of your heart and won't let go? Something deeper and more profound than you ever expected to experience?

In Isaiah chapter six we learn about something that captured the imagination of Isaiah, a prophet of God. It radically altered his world and set his heart on fire with a love and passion for God that rocked his world. What was it that captured his imagination? It was a sense of the presence of God he experienced in a moment when he said, "I saw the Lord" (Is. 6:1).

Isaiah got a glimpse of God in His glory and infinite sovereignty. In the spirit of worship he saw God "sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted" (Is. 6:1). What He saw began a conversation with God that led to a conversion, a God-initiated conversion where Isaiah reaches deep down inside his heart and finds the courage to say to God, "I will live for You. I will do what You want me to do. I will go where You call me to go, and I will be Your prophet."

I have wondered if God doesn't want to give His church today that kind of earth shattering moment where decisions are made and lives are changed and futures are rewritten. I have wondered if in some way in worship the people of God ought to become so aware of the presence of God that it shakes the foundation of their world and changes their outlook and draws them into the very presence of God, setting their hearts on fire with a love and passion for God that rocks their world.

Is this asking too much? Taking into consideration the fact that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, I think not.

One of my favorite devotional writers is John Henry Jowett. His book, My Daily Meditation has touched my heart numerous times over the years. May I share his May 16 reading. I hope it touches you as deeply as it touched me. He calls it, THE DETAILS OF PROVIDENCE and bases it on Matthew 10:30. “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
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“PROVIDENCE goes into details. Sometimes, in our human intercourse, we cannot see the trees for the wood. We cannot see the individual sheep for the flock. We cannot see the personal soul for the masses. We are blinded by the bigness of things; we cannot see the individual blades of grass because of the field.

“Now God’s vision is not general, it is particular. There are no “masses” to the Infinite. “He calls His own sheep by name.” The single one is seen as though he alone possessed the earth. When God looks at the wood He sees every tree. When He looks at the race He sees every man.

“And, therefore, I need not fear that “my way is overlooked by my God.” He knows every turning. He knows just where the strain begins at the hill. He knows the perils of every descent. He knows every happening along the road. He knows every letter that came to me by this morning’s post. He knows every visitor who knocks at the door of my life, whether the visitor come at the high noon or at the midnight. “There is nothing hid.” “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

Israel desperately wanted a king like the other nations around them. They had God as their king, but they wanted a flesh and blood king to lead them. God wasn’t enough. Interestingly, God gave them over to their deep desire to have a king. When He relented and gave them their desire they realized they had acted inappropriately. They went to their prophet, Samuel, and said to him, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king” (I Samuel 12:19).”

In his response Samuel reminded the people that even though they had rejected God as their king, He had not rejected them as His people. He challenged them to remain faithful to God in this new arrangement, to “serve the Lord with all your heart” (vs. 20). They were still God’s people and He still loved them. Their sin would not separate them from His love.

The counsel of Samuel to the people who would get their king was, “Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart” (vs. 24). He challenged them to ever “consider what great things He has done for you” (vs. 24). Of himself Samuel told them, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you” (vs. 23). In this new arrangement Samuel told the people, “I will instruct you in the good and right way” (vs. 23).

We are the people of God regardless as to who our earthly leaders may be. God is still our God regardless of the powers at work in the world. Our allegiance is to the living God. We lift Him up in our lives regardless of the arrangement in which we find ourselves. Leaders come and leaders go but “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29)

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). In saying this He speaks right into the heart of lives. Shortly before His crucifixion Jesus spoke to His disciples about the coming event. He concluded by saying to them, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Some time later, after the birth of Jesus’ Church the apostle Paul called the people to “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” (Col. 3:15).

I am thinking that inner peace might just be the most important condition for which the human heart searches. We talk about peace and we pray about peace and we read books about how to have peace. Perhaps peace doesn’t come through a book. Is it possible that peace comes in a person, and that to know this person is to experience the peace that is unique to Him?

In Luke 2:79 we are told that Jesus would “guide our feet into the way of peace.” Of all the things Jesus came to do in the human situation peace seems to lie at the center of it all. He loves us and in this we discover peace. He forgives us of our sins, and in this we discover peace. He lavishes us with grace and in this we discover peace. He speaks truth to us and in His words we discover peace. He treats us with the respect and dignity of the Creator and in this we discover peace.

Let the peace of Christ rules in your hearts.

I may be more of a mystic than I have allowed myself to admit to, but as a Christian who truly believes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I really do believe in dreaming and hoping and visualizing possibilities." It is a mysticism rooted and grounded in Jesus, so much so that if I had a personal creedal statement it would read, "Jesus is Lord, and He is enough."

Jesus said where two or three were gathered in His name that He would be in their midst. This one Biblical truth alone sets my heart to singing, energizes my passion to be faithful to God, and ignites a fire in my soul that ever reminds me that where people gather in the name of Jesus, all the possibilities of God are in that people because Jesus is with that people.

As we seek to be faithful in this place at this time, we have valid reasons to be encouraged for Jesus, the Lord of Lords, is with us.

We have valid reasons to dream dreams beyond ourselves because Jesus, the Lord of Lords, is with us.

We have valid reasons to be optimistic in a pessimistic world because Jesus, the Lord of Lords, is with us.

Second star to the right and
straight on until morning.

He Is Risen