“Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

Isaiah 45:22-23

This morning I learned that a friend of mine’s Dad died earlier this week at the age of 97. He lived a long life, didn’t he? I think I met him once and my friend spoke of him often. He had a large family and was loved as the patriarch.

Ironically, for our family, today marks thirty-five years since the death of our Dad who lived just about half of the years above. Dad was a few months away from his 49th birthday when he was murdered at his business, but the most important thing about Dad is found in the verses above.

Dad wasn’t a great singer, but I can still see him in my mind’s eye, standing on the platform at our church back in the 70’s as we often sang a chorus that included this line –

“Every knee will bow, Every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Isaiah is writing in the voice of the LORD above as he encourages the world to “turn to me and be saved..For I am God, there is no other.” That is the message of the Gospel in many ways.

As a pastor, Dad’s primary concern was for the people he interacted with in the community, at the church or in his business. He spoke the Gospel, but importantly he consistently lived out his faith in Christ in public and in our home.

I think that faithfulness in Dad (and Mom) is a key reason we can look back over the past 35 years and see God’s grace in our lives. Instead of turning from God, we all turned toward God in our lives and have attempted to point our own kids in the direction of following Christ.

At the end of the day (and our lives) each one of us will bow and acknowledge Christ as Lord. It’s much preferred to do so now, don’t you agree?