Verse of the Day 9/23

Through the Bible - Isaiah 2-3, Galations 3

Good morning,
The read through the Bible plan above will be in Isaiah for the next few weeks. If you have never read through the book I would recommend that you do so. If you have gone through it, maybe you could try a different translation such as The Message. If you don't have a copy, it is available at www.biblegateway.com.

Isaiah's name means "the Lord is salvation. The intro into the book from the Message states " Isaiah does not merely convey information. He creates visions, delivers revelation, arouses belief." Eugene Peterson goes on to say that " the impressive art of Isaiah involves taking the stuff out of our ordinary and often disappointing human experience and showin us how it is the very stuff that God uses to create, save, and give hope."
Reading these early chapters in the book you can't help but see the similarities between today's society and Isaiah's. The need is also the same. The need of a Saviour.

Isa 2:6-9
God, you've walked out on your family Jacob
because their world is full of hokey religion,
Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus,
a world rolling in wealth,
Stuffed with things,
no end to its machines and gadgets,
And gods — gods of all sorts and sizes.
These people make their own gods and worship what they make.
A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter.
Don't bother with them! They're not worth forgiving!
(from THE MESSAGE)

Doesn't that sound like today in America, stuffed with machines and gadgets, people making their own gods and worshipping what they make?

But God sees, and he doesn't abandon us, and he does offer forgiveness.

May we be examples in this world and shine as lights. This involves "holiness" being set apart by God for God.

There are many themes or subthemes in the book of Isaiah, one of them being holiness.

Peterson writes, "The more hours we spend pondering the words of Isaiah, the mor the word "holy" changes in our understanding. If "holy" was ever a pious, pastel tinted word in our vocabularies, the Isaiah preaching quickly turns it into something blazing. Holiness is the most attractive quality, the most intense experience we ever get of sheer life - authentic, firsthand living, not life looked at and enjoyed from a distance. ... Holiness is a furnace that transforms the men and women who enter it. Holy, Holy, Holy is not needlepoint. It is the banner of a revolution, the revolution."

We here many calls for change in our society from politicians to the pulpits. This is the change, the "revolution" that we need. It is accomplished by living in faith, in trusting, and obeying.

Faith is as much the rule of temporal as of spiritual life; we ought to have faith in God for our earthly affairs as well as for our heavenly business. It is only as we learn to trust in God for the supply of all our daily need that we shall live above the world. We are not to be idle, that would show we did not trust in God, who worketh hitherto, but in the devil, who is the father of idleness. We are not to be imprudent or rash; that were to trust chance, and not the living God, who is a God of economy and order. Acting in all prudence and uprightness, we are to rely simply and entirely upon the Lord at all times. - Charles Spurgeon

Spend some time in Isaiah in the coming days and weeks.

In Christ,
Mike

Isa 2:1-12
The Future House of God(Mic 4:1-5)
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter daysThat the mountain of the Lord's houseShall be established on the top of the mountains,And shall be exalted above the hills;And all nations shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say,"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,To the house of the God of Jacob;He will teach us His ways,And we shall walk in His paths."For out of Zion shall go forth the law,And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations,And rebuke many people;They shall beat their swords into plowshares,And their spears into pruning hooks;Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,Neither shall they learn war anymore.
The Day of the Lord
5 O house of Jacob, come and let us walkIn the light of the Lord.
6 For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob,Because they are filled with eastern ways;They are soothsayers like the Philistines,And they are pleased with the children of foreigners. 7 Their land is also full of silver and gold,And there is no end to their treasures;Their land is also full of horses,And there is no end to their chariots. 8 Their land is also full of idols;They worship the work of their own hands,That which their own fingers have made. 9 People bow down,And each man humbles himself;Therefore do not forgive them. 10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust,From the terror of the LordAnd the glory of His majesty. 11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
1
NKJV