And now, for something entirely unrelated
Alright so now I'm just gonna go on to a post that has nothing to do with anything that has been the topic of conversation lately. Tiff can completely ignore this if she wants cause it's about the church service we went to today and since she was there it's not really gonna be anything new to her. I did put this in word before posting it and it's nearly three pages single spaced just to warn people. I have a bad habit of writing long posts... Joe, random sidenote but I am interested in our society convo and I will make a post about that when I have time separate from the other thread so I can ignore other stuff in that one.
Anyway, as most of you know I'm not an overly sentimental guy but I have to admit, the sermon today really almost made me cry. It was just a great, touching sermon (for me at least, Tiff may be sitting there going "what the hell is that crackhead talking about). I decided to just summarize major points below. First the scripture, note that this is from one of the books of prophecy so it's written with lines and not in normal sentence form but I chose not to do that here.
This is the word of God (not to be pompous, just to differentiate what's perfect and holy from my lowly words):
"'Woe to the rebellious children,' says the Lord, 'Who take counsel, but not of Me. And who devise evil plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin; Who walk to go down to Egypt, And have not asked My advice, To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation. For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them, Or be help of benefit, But a shame and also a reproach.'
"The burden against the beasts of the South.
"Through a land of trouble and anguish, From which came the lioness and lion, The viper and fiery flying serpent, They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people who shall not profit; For the Equptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore I have called her Rahab-Hem-Shebeth. [Rahab sits idle]
"Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the Lord; Who say to the seers, 'Do not see.' And to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, Turn aside from the parth, Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.'"
Isaiah 30:1-11
Back to plain ole me:
First just a few quick points. The part about Egypt refers to when the southern kingdom (Judah with two of the twelve tribes) sought the aid of Egypt against the armies of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria who had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and was now invading Judah. They signed a treaty to give tribute to Pharaoh yet the armies never came to Judah's aid. Now that history's out of the way going to what I have to comment, again a lot of this is to summarize the sermon in my words. First the actions of Judah are rebellious and self destructive. They have made plans that are not God's plans and without consulting God. They give up the freedom that God gave them in the promised land to return to bondage to Egypt. Second God tells Isaiah to write this down for the future generations. We learn from history and from mistakes. Again this points to their rebellion, they refused to listen to God's word to them. They even went so far as to tell those who did preach God's word to sugarcoat everything and lead them astray and to tell the prophets (who in the Old Testament can be thought of as God's covenant attornies who convicted the people of sin) to make up false prophecies so they wouldn't have to feel guilty for breaking God's law. The people are guilty of breaking the law of God and the punishment is severe. But luckily for us the story doesn't end here (praise God).
This is the Word of God:
"Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.
"For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When He hears it, He will answer you. And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, 'Get away!'"
Isaiah 30:18-22
I just think that line "The Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you" is so awesome. But for God's grace salvation would be impossible. "For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8-9). To be born in bondage to sin, in bondage to death as the punishment. Those who are dead in their trespasses in sin, walking according to our sinful lusts and desires, and under the rule of prince of this world (Eph. 2:1-3) can somehow because of God's work find redemption and not only that but life everlasting and glorification before the throne of God. What an incredible gift that while we were dead to sin God made us alive. Through faith the gift is we can take His offer of eternal life, and even that faith isn't within us but a gift from God. I love this quote from John Bunyan "'Run John run' the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. Better news the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings." Moving to Hebrews where it talks about those who had faith that God honors and then says "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but haivng seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." (Heb. 11:13-16). Just think about that sentence for a bit. First off how many times are christians ashamed to admit their faith for fear of being marked as fools or mocked. Yet can you imagine that someone could be saying "Yeah He's my God" and God's up there going "No, don't say it again! Stop him, please!" But as believers the idea that God isn't ashamed to be called our God is amazing. That one day we can stand in the city that God has built for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose and God will not be ashamed of us because we are not naked, we are not clothed in the filthy rags of our own righteousness, not in any way to Him of our own making, but clothed in the perfect white robes of Christ's perfect righteousness! To finish up with what this speaker said when Buddha died he had a few last words for his followers. He told them to "Strive without ceasing. Your duty is to persevere and to strive!" When Jesus Christ died upon that cross at Calvary for sinful men and women in rebellion to His law as the One True God He said "It is finished." (John 19:30). There is nothing left to do for those who have faith in Him because He already did it all for us.
Anyway, as most of you know I'm not an overly sentimental guy but I have to admit, the sermon today really almost made me cry. It was just a great, touching sermon (for me at least, Tiff may be sitting there going "what the hell is that crackhead talking about). I decided to just summarize major points below. First the scripture, note that this is from one of the books of prophecy so it's written with lines and not in normal sentence form but I chose not to do that here.
This is the word of God (not to be pompous, just to differentiate what's perfect and holy from my lowly words):
"'Woe to the rebellious children,' says the Lord, 'Who take counsel, but not of Me. And who devise evil plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin; Who walk to go down to Egypt, And have not asked My advice, To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation. For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them, Or be help of benefit, But a shame and also a reproach.'
"The burden against the beasts of the South.
"Through a land of trouble and anguish, From which came the lioness and lion, The viper and fiery flying serpent, They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people who shall not profit; For the Equptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore I have called her Rahab-Hem-Shebeth. [Rahab sits idle]
"Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the Lord; Who say to the seers, 'Do not see.' And to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, Turn aside from the parth, Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.'"
Isaiah 30:1-11
Back to plain ole me:
First just a few quick points. The part about Egypt refers to when the southern kingdom (Judah with two of the twelve tribes) sought the aid of Egypt against the armies of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria who had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and was now invading Judah. They signed a treaty to give tribute to Pharaoh yet the armies never came to Judah's aid. Now that history's out of the way going to what I have to comment, again a lot of this is to summarize the sermon in my words. First the actions of Judah are rebellious and self destructive. They have made plans that are not God's plans and without consulting God. They give up the freedom that God gave them in the promised land to return to bondage to Egypt. Second God tells Isaiah to write this down for the future generations. We learn from history and from mistakes. Again this points to their rebellion, they refused to listen to God's word to them. They even went so far as to tell those who did preach God's word to sugarcoat everything and lead them astray and to tell the prophets (who in the Old Testament can be thought of as God's covenant attornies who convicted the people of sin) to make up false prophecies so they wouldn't have to feel guilty for breaking God's law. The people are guilty of breaking the law of God and the punishment is severe. But luckily for us the story doesn't end here (praise God).
This is the Word of God:
"Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.
"For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When He hears it, He will answer you. And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, 'Get away!'"
Isaiah 30:18-22
I just think that line "The Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you" is so awesome. But for God's grace salvation would be impossible. "For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8-9). To be born in bondage to sin, in bondage to death as the punishment. Those who are dead in their trespasses in sin, walking according to our sinful lusts and desires, and under the rule of prince of this world (Eph. 2:1-3) can somehow because of God's work find redemption and not only that but life everlasting and glorification before the throne of God. What an incredible gift that while we were dead to sin God made us alive. Through faith the gift is we can take His offer of eternal life, and even that faith isn't within us but a gift from God. I love this quote from John Bunyan "'Run John run' the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. Better news the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings." Moving to Hebrews where it talks about those who had faith that God honors and then says "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but haivng seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." (Heb. 11:13-16). Just think about that sentence for a bit. First off how many times are christians ashamed to admit their faith for fear of being marked as fools or mocked. Yet can you imagine that someone could be saying "Yeah He's my God" and God's up there going "No, don't say it again! Stop him, please!" But as believers the idea that God isn't ashamed to be called our God is amazing. That one day we can stand in the city that God has built for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose and God will not be ashamed of us because we are not naked, we are not clothed in the filthy rags of our own righteousness, not in any way to Him of our own making, but clothed in the perfect white robes of Christ's perfect righteousness! To finish up with what this speaker said when Buddha died he had a few last words for his followers. He told them to "Strive without ceasing. Your duty is to persevere and to strive!" When Jesus Christ died upon that cross at Calvary for sinful men and women in rebellion to His law as the One True God He said "It is finished." (John 19:30). There is nothing left to do for those who have faith in Him because He already did it all for us.