God Looks for a Contrite Spirit — Joshua Daniel

Welcome to the Lord's Challenge, our weekly quarter-hour broadcast bringing the reality of God's Word to all people everywhere. Stay tuned as Joshua Daniel challenges us to a walk with God and the corresponding impact that it will have on our lives, families and society today.

God Looks for the Poor and Contrite in Spirit

I'm going to bring you to one of my favorite scriptures and mark you. Here's a scripture which you and I should daily employ and practice. Isaiah 66 and 1 and 2. All those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, said the Lord.

But to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. What? God says, even to this person will I look, even to him who is poor. Now tell me, what in this present world is designed to make you a really humble person?

Anything? You mean to say you're attracted at all by such a concept? You know, people like something grand, something big. And let me tell you folks, education ought to teach us how ignorant we are. That's true education.

If some of you are proud of some of your degrees, let me tell you, you are poorly educated. Real education and wisdom makes you very humble. We know so little, the best of us. And why can't we be humble?

Oh no, that's not the kind of lifestyle that we want to practice. But God is looking for whom? To him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Trembleth at my word. You know, we tremble at many things, and of course, people are very jittery these days.

Fear, Insecurity, and the Spirit God Gives

The security, they ask me, what have you got in your pocket? Well, you know, when they kind of check me out and they see some little bulge, I say, this is a New Testament and you had better read it. You need to read it, I tell them.

You know, folks, but people can be very fearful and jittery. We see people trembling at imagined situations. They are trembling about the future, trembling for their jobs. You know, how many people are being laid off to the right and left.

My downsizing of companies, relentless downsizing of companies, well-paid possessions lost. And some of them, of course, go to the East, go to the cheapest markets, or where a good service can be obtained at a far lower price.

And so, with the result, a number of people out there are getting ruined, you know. They are getting into the party life, you know, weekend parties. And I don't know what is going to happen. And some of them are unused to such heavy demands, such as their employers make.

And mark you, it's not a very healthy thing, sitting for 12 hours, 14 hours, before a screen, a monitor, and peering at it as though it is the latest wonder of the world. Mark you. And what it is producing, and is likely to produce, many deleterious effects from the radiation.

Of course, that's common knowledge. And what about the back problems? What about the sedentary posture? What happens to the health of these people? Some of them, their health is being shattered. Okay, morally shattered, physically shattered, just for a few dollars.

Isn't that a fine bargain? No, it isn't. But anyway, we see that there are many people afraid. They are afraid of the insecurity of their job situation. What does God say? God says in 2nd Timothy 1st chapter in the 7th verse, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

You know, people are losing their minds. They're getting crazy. And, you know, the attention deficit that is coming into the classroom, it has got a big cause. Fighting parents can completely destroy the concentration of children.

Family Unity and the Education of Children

And their nerves can be shattered. If a father and a mother are not of one heart and one spirit, their twain shall be one flesh. But, you know, people say, I have a mind of my own. Okay, but is it a properly educated mind?

And you want to damage some five other minds by sticking to your own stubborn will? Well, you know, one child who disobeys God's word in the house can bring such disturbance to a family. My, my, my. As someone was telling me, about 60 of the children at school today come from troubled or divorced families.

What? 60%. And what is the kind of level of education that you can give such people? Some people cannot follow what the teacher is saying. They're simply not there. They don't have the attention necessary.

Now, friends, isn't that a shocking thing? Has not produced enough mathematicians and technical people, and they have to borrow and bring people who can't even talk proper English. Oh, and you say, and they must rely upon these cheap laborers to come and man their technical places.

What do you mean? That's the failure of a nation. It's a moral responsibility of a nation to educate its children. What a sickening thing. Hey, what are you studying? I'm studying what, what's that, political science.

So, you're going to run a factory with political science or some very easy subject. Nothing to do with science. What kind of people are we producing today? Now, this is the result of families where there is turmoil and discard.

And we don't have the right kind of education either. Even the teachers, they're alarmed, they're attacked, they're beaten up. The police have to come into the classroom. Where are we? And I say, now if the Church of Jesus Christ is not able to produce the right kind of policemen and the right kind of teachers, what kind of church is that anyway?

The Church's Responsibility Beyond Superficial Evangelism

It's a church that evangelizes with teacups. Why don't you all go set up some tea shops and say, I'm going to do God great service. My dear friends, this tea party evangelism, I never knew it. What could I say?

I had no special techniques. I had only the technique which I see in Jesus. But to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Let us pray. Let us tell God, oh God, I want to be that person.

A Prayer for a Humble and Useful Life

I want to be that person. The boy, the girl after God's own heart. I will put away my rattles and my toys. I do want to be used of you. Hear our humble prayer. In Jesus almighty name, amen.

The speaker on this program was Joshua Daniel. He would like to know what your response has been to the Lord's Challenge and would be delighted to hear from you. Please write and if you have burdens you want to share and want prayer, do let us know.

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