In this reading we close out the wonderful book of Isaiah!
In these last chapters there are several things that to me are ABUNDANTLY clear!
There is a judgment and people will be judged!
But what is also abundantly clear is that our judgment will be because of our choosing not the Lord’s. As it is written,
“I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me;
I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me.
I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’
To a nation which did not call on My name.
2 “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people,
Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts,” Isaiah 65:1 & 2
What is also abundantly clear is that there is a better land coming than the world we currently live in!
Tomorrow’s Reading: Mark 3 & 4
I apologize for being a couple days behind on this. I was no where near a computer two nights ago and did not have internet last night. Hopefully I will be caught-up by the end of today. I pray that even if you don’t see a blog you are still reading. Remember this journey is not about my blog but about all of us spending time DAILY in the Word of God!
Job 23 encouraged me in my walk today. As we all struggle, as we all at times don’t “feel” God’s presence Job understands and shows us what it looks like to really live out the text, “The just shall live by faith.”
“Behold, I go forward but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
9 When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him;
He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.
10 “But He knows the way I take;
When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
11 “My foot has held fast to His path;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
12 “I have not departed from the command of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my ]necessary food.” -Job 23:8-12
This is even more amazing in light of his limited picture of God that we see in Job 24 which brings me to my second insight.
How blessed we are to have the picture of Jesus we do in the gospels. I don’t know that we fully realize this! Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” We don’t have to have the horrible misconceptions of God that Job does…Job in spite of these walks by faith, so how much more should we walk by faith?!
Knowing that Jesus is the representation of God. So merciful, patient, gentle, humble, loving, etc.
Tomorrow’s Reading (Actually yesterday’s that I will write later today 😉 ) –Isaiah 62-66
Highlights from today’s reading:
I’ve been in a lot of churches anyone got to sing or play an instrument NO MATTER how poorly they played. Now I don’t believe everyone has to be an expert, but this view is in fact not Biblical. There are places where it is very clear this position is not a Biblical one and when we come to those portions of scripture I’m sure I’ll point that out again, but we see evidence of this point here quickly in Psalm 33:3,
“Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.”
Play “SKILLFULLY”
I know many of folk that take offense to such a concept and I don’t mean to be offensive, but I wish we could accept that God has gifted us all in different ways and none of us get to say this is my gift and it is so. Just my thought…you agree? Disagree?
I love the first three verses of Psalm 34 it strengthened and encouraged me in my mission this morning…
I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul will make its boast in the Lord;
The humble will hear it and rejoice.
3 O magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together. -Psalm 34:1-3
I also love the verse because it teaches an important truth about worship.
It is:
Individual: “I will bless the Lord at all times…”
&
Corporate: “And let US exalt His name TOGETHER.”
Worship is not either/or, it is both/and!
David a lot times is crying out for destruction of his enemies, but I appreciate what he shares with us in Psalm 35:13-14,
“But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth;
I humbled my soul with fasting,
And my prayer kept returning to my bosom.
14 I went about as though it were my friend or brother;
I bowed down mourning, as one who sorrows for a mother.”
I can testify…maybe I shouldn’t, but I can so I will…that there are certain people pastors wouldn’t mind if they decided to go to another church…but I’ve not known any pastor that if that person that is a thorn in their flesh were sick or going through crisis they would not be on their knees in heartache for them.
David wanting people gone is a reality of life that if God chooses to grant he is not going to mind…but David is also pastoral and so even though he wants that person away from him, as long as the person lives and it is in his power to do so he will cry out to God also on their behalf.
What spoke to you in these three Psalms?
Tomorrow’s Reading: Job 23 & 24
The reading from yesterday and today were both a blessing, but there was not much that stood-out in either to me so I am going to give the quick highlights that I underlined in my Bible.
Genesis 44 Joseph had to test his brothers to see if they truly had changed. Would they give-up Benjamin easily as they had given him up? We see the answer is no. They tore their garments when the cup was discovered in Benjamin’s bag. Also, Judah steps forward, Judah who is found in the genealogy of Jesus steps in and says, “I will take the punishment” our father can’t stand to lose another son from this mother. I hear echoes of our Savior in that moment, “I will take their place we can’t stand to lose our children.”
Genesis 45 I underlined verse 5:
“Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.” -Gen. 45:5
Again I hear echoes of a type of Christ. Sin brought Joseph to Egypt to preserve life…He says God but it was God acting as result of sin. Sin brought Jesus to this world to preserve life…God again acting as a result of sin.
Genesis 45:22:
“To each of them he gave changes of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments.” -Gen. 45:22
Is Joseph repeating the error of favoritism of his father or does he still not fully trust his brothers and so he is still testing them?
Genesis 47:24:
“At the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food and for those of your households and as food for your little ones.”
Look at that Joseph set-up a tax system…a flat tax…Lol
Now in today’s reading of Samuel
In chapter 6 verses 9 & 10 the question I wrote down was. Did the pagan priests of the Philistines prophesy correctly or did God condescend and do as they said would happen in order to show them He was the true God and they had done wrong in taking the Ark of the Covenant?
Also,
“And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. 2 Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judging in Beersheba. 3 His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.” -1 Samuel 8:1-3
The reason this caught my attention is that there is no indication of Samuel being a bad Dad, yet his sons still went astray…was he a bad parent like the example he had in Eli or did his sons just do what many good parents kids do, get caught-up in the wickedness of the world?
8:7 is a great reminder for all Christian leaders–if we are doing right and the people still reject us, it is not about us…because really it is about what they are saying to God. We need to not get to defensive…it is not all about us!
8:10-22 are extremely sad verses and remind me of our current political climate. There are so many red flags to the decision that the people were making but they were convinced having an authoritarian figure over them would be a blessing and their adulation for such a decision blinded them to the harmful doors (8:12-18) having a king would open.
“The people refused to listen…our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (help us to win again).
How utterly sad!
The last verse in today’s reading that I underlined:
Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me in this way?” -1 Samuel 9:21
As God so often does He chooses those who may seem to have the least power and to be the least expected to represent Him! A reminder that God’s calling is what matters and nothing else!
Tomorrow’s Reading: Psalms 33-35
It seems as if chapter 8 should be tied to chapter 9, so I am going to only spend some time on chapter 7 which is all about persons marital status’s.
Paul’s writing can be confusing, “I say not the Lord” when we come across those phrases we should not assume these are therefore lacking in Biblical inspiration, Paul is pointing to his understanding of Jesus’ teaching on divorce and Paul is simply saying this part are words I am first speaking to you, not the same instruction Jesus gave while He was on this earth or God gave in the course of history. This is new info.
Chapter 7 is made-up of four exhortations regarding marital status. If you break the chapter up and read it with these exhortations in mind you will have a clearer picture:
And within all those main sections there are of course verses that apply to all four sections no matter which section they are in.
If this random rambling on marriage seems odd in the book of 1 corinthians, remember it was in response to a question Paul must have received about the topic (7:1a)
Before I close this post I want to say a word about the last exhortation the great benefits of singleness…I guess this applies to the third status as well, contentment in one’s present marital status whatever it may be.
I believe the church owes an apology to many young people that feel that they are less than because they are single. What is one of the questions someone always is asked after a certain time in their lives and they are not married, “why aren’t you married?” No one ever asks “Why are you married?” at least not in the church. Yet Paul does seem to ask the question, why if you’re content with singleness and don’t have a problem with lust would you ever want to get married. We treat it the exact opposite of the Bible…if someone says, “I never want to get married.” We a). Don’t believe them and instead interpret that to mean they are masking some deep loneliness; b.) wonder if they are gay. c.) wonder what is wrong with them and why no one wants to marry them.
Why can’t we just believe that some people as Paul clearly teaches are blessed with the gift of singleness…oh and why can’t we call it a gift?! Marriage is a gift, but not more so than the gift of singleness.
And all the above applies doubly for single women, since we are way worse on them than on single men.
Okay I’ll get down from horse…
All the single ladies…and men…if that is the gift God has blessed you with…praise the Lord and I am sorry we the church have ever made you feel like it is an inferior state to marriage.
Have a blessed Sabbath.
Tomorrow’s Reading: Genesis 44-47
Mark is the Gospel of urgency…he does not let the grass grow under the narrative what may take the other Gospels several verses, like for instance the baptism of Jesus, Mark sums all of it up from going to the water and coming-up out of the water in just three verses. In the first chapter alone the word “immediately” appears 10 times.
Yet I love in the midst of that first chapter and all those “immediately’s” there is a slow down verse…
“In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” Mark 1:35
Jesus might have been moving quickly…He did after all have a lot to do in 3.5 years, but He was never to busy to spend time alone communing with God in Heaven.
Should that be a lesson to us who use busyness as an excuse for time missed with God?
Verse 38 also struck a chord in my heart…
He *said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” Mark 1:38
The true preacher of Jesus will not want to ever limit his or her reach. Now we may be limited by God and that is fine, but a true preacher of the Gospel will NEVER intentionally limit his or her own reach! We may be asked to, I know I have but this verse supports resisting such a request.
Mark chapter 2 verse 15 was a new underline in my Bible today.
“And it *happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him.” Mark 2:15
Of course I have underlined and even preached the front part of this text before, but the new emphasis to me today was,
“for there were many of them, and they were following Him.”
Oh I want to be like Jesus where even though my sermons are condemning the lifestyles of sinners potentially…or those that are irreligious (my Bible has a notation the sinners were “irreligious Jews”) that even the irreligious are drawn to the message because it is done with the overarching love of Jesus. Oh how I long to preach and teach and live like Jesus!
I love the Gospel of Mark I am so glad it is now part of our weekly blogging!
Tomorrow’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 7 & 8