MCF, this is what God really yearns

MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) – and all of us – what God really wants is actions of justice and kindness.

I just read Isaiah 58 this morning.

It couldn’t be clearer. In this case it was how you go about fasting. But for us it can be how to go about anything we do.

First the Lord told them how they WERE fasting:

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is 58: 3,4

And boy, were we exploited.

And then he tells them the point of it all. Even in much of the Old Testament it was about the heart and actions and freedom and care and not the ceremony:

to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;

Is 58:6-8

As for us all, MCF, you must hear these words above. That is what we must be doing.

When we watch out for injustice and care for the little ones – like the ones on our list – it is as if we are doing it to Jesus:

³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Matt 25:38-40

How much the Lord looks to those who uphold justice.

Old or New Testament.