I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 64-66.

    Since the beginning of time, no one has seen or heard of another god like our God. He is ready to welcome and aid those who gladly do good, yet quick to pour out His anger on those who defy Him by treating others wickedly. Despite this all of mankind fails to do good. Each and every one of us has sinned and deserve God’s wrath. Our good deeds pale in comparison to our wicked actions. Even so, God molds us a potter molds clay. He is working to form us into a vessel which will bring honor to His name.

    There are those who go their own way and worship idols while claiming to worship God. They are busy doing things which God declared to be an abomination while declaring themselves more holy than others. As I read this passage I am reminded of a link I saw posted on Facebook today. It talks about how those who preach prosperity through faith are preaching a false gospel. We cannot worship God and money, or fame, or sex. There are many things which we worship in God’s place, and most of them boil down to worshiping ourselves. I am really torn here because I do believe that we need to focus on the message Scripture has for us, rather than the message we see directed at others. Yet, I see so much of this passage which describes so many in our society today. However, I will also point out that there is a portion directed at us. Let us not give in to the temptation to consider ourselves more righteous than others. I know that I am a sinner who desperately needs God’s forgiveness and grace. Nevertheless I need to constantly remind myself that I am no better than those whose sins seem so obvious to me.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 60-63.

    Isaiah loved his nation. So, he promised to pray for it until its righteousness would shine like dawn. He could not keep silent. He would not stop praying for it to be a righteous nation. Do we love our nation the same way? Do we pray for it to be a righteous nation? We are to be watchman on the walls of our nation praying that righteousness will shine out from it to illuminate the world. Notice that we are not called to claim that our nation is righteous when it is not. No, we are called to pray for our nation that it will become righteous. And how does a nation become righteous? Only when its people become righteous. Let us pray for our neighbors, our friends, and our enemies that they will turn to God and become righteous.

    I fear for our nation and its people and not just this nation but many nations throughout the world. God is getting ready to trample on His enemies as if they were grapes. He is looking for those who will intervene to help the oppressed. I do not see those who are willing to intervene on their behalf. Instead I see people taking advantage of those who are oppressed to advance themselves. They have no interest in helping the poor and downtrodden improve their lot. No, all they desire is to harness their anger for their own ends. When the poor and oppressed have lifted them to power, they will leave them worse off than they found them. Let us humble ourselves in prayer. Perhaps it is not too late.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 57-59.

    Today’s passage is loaded. I am not sure how much of it I am going to go over. However, I need to start with the opening message. Isaiah talks about why good people sometimes die young. His explanation is really quite simple. Good people die young because God is protecting them from an evil time to come. This does not mean that all good people die young. It also does not mean that all people who die young are good. Finally, it does not mean that those who do not die young will face an evil time to come. It may be that the evil time to come was specific to that good person.

    Now to move on to the portions of this that really moved me today (I need to work on different ways to say that a passage influenced my understanding of my faith). God punishes people for doing wrong in order to teach them to do right. If and when people repent of their sins and turn to Him God clears their path so that they may easily come to Him. If we humbly recognize our sin and failure, when we turn to God the obstacles that prevented us from reaching Him will vanish as if they had never been. No matter how great our sin has been, God is willing and able to heal us. He will welcome us back and give us peace. If we mourn our sins, if we genuinely regret them, God will comfort and forgive us.

    However, it is not enough to go through the motions of repentance and humility. Praying, fasting, and self-denial will do us no good if we continue to take advantage of those weaker than ourselves and fail to help those less fortunate. God wants us to share our food with the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, and help those in trouble. Then there is an important point made. God calls on us to stop pointing our fingers at others and talking about the sins of others. Our focus should be on becoming better people ourselves, on overcoming the sins we still struggle with rather than talking about the sins of “that person over there.” That does not mean that we do not confront those we love about their sins, their self-destructive behavior. However, it does mean that we need to be careful not to use others sins as a means of directing attention away from our own failings.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 52-56.

    Yesterday I wrote that I thought the suffering servant references in the passage could be applied to those who serve God today as well as applying them to Jesus. I still think that is true. The same cannot be said for the suffering servant described in today’s passage. The suffering servant whom Isaiah describes in today’s passage is Jesus, the Messiah. I am forever grateful for the suffering to which He submitted. And I am shamed by the way I have failed to acknowledge Him at times in my life (“turned my back on Him”). I am shamed by the things I have done which required Him to suffer as He did.

    Now I come to chapter 55, which is God’s call to us, and our call to those around us.

Is anyone thirsty?
Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.

If we come to God and listen to what He says we will find life. God is calling us to seek Him now, not next week, not tomorrow. Drop what your doing and seek Him. Let us change our wicked ways at once and turn to God. “Seek the Lord while you can find Him.” That phrase contains the implication that our time is limited. But I want to point out that not only is our time limited, but so is that of those around us. If we do not call them to turn to God NOW, it may be too late.

    I thought that what I wrote above was going to be the thread I followed as I wrote about the rest of this passage. But then I came to chapter 55 verse 8 (I prefer the NIV here because its phrasing more clearly expresses what I am feeling about this passage today):

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

How true this is! When we look at the wicked in this world, our tendency is to hate them and desire them to experience the full weight of God’s judgment. But God tells us to give them the same message which He gave us: “Come, all you who are thirsty.” Let us not be afraid to speak God’s word, to teach God’s word, and to preach God’s word. He has sent His word out and it WILL accomplish the purpose for which He sent it. It has the power to transform the evil in this world. Even the vilest of offender will be transformed by hearing God’s word. Let us take every opportunity we are given to spread that word.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 48-51.

    Today’s verses contain references to God’s suffering servant. These are Messianic prophecies which discussed the coming of Jesus. However, elements of them apply to all of those whom God has called. God called us before our birth. He planned our tasks while we were still in our mother’s womb. It may seem that our work is useless, but God will honor us for serving the purpose for which He placed us on this earth. Each and every one of us has been called to show His light to the Gentiles and bring His salvation to those we meet. At just the right time, when the enemy thinks that he has won, God will employ us to demonstrate His victory. We may face mockery and humiliation, torture and beatings, but if we stand fast in our faith the pain will soon pass and those who mock us will instead be shamed. Yes, let us remain faithful in the face of mockery and torment because God will be our comforter and He will put His words in our mouths. Are we willing to accept just a small piece of the suffering which Jesus endured?

    I was going to stop, having written what I wrote above. But then I skimmed back over the passage one more time and this caught my eye:

Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys his servant?
If you are walking in darkness,
without a ray of light,
trust in the Lord
and rely on your God.
But watch out, you who live in your own light
and warm yourselves by your own fires.
This is the reward you will receive from me:
You will soon fall down in great torment.

There may be other ways to interpret this passage, but this is what it meant to me as I read it. If we fear the Lord and obey His Servant (Jesus), even as we cannot see our path or what is around us, let us trust in God and rely on Him. However, those who think they have it all figured out and are sure of their own ability to reason it out had better watch out because our minds are not up to the task of understanding God’s plan.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 43-47.

    Today’s passage spends quite a bit of time telling us how foolish it is to worship idols. I have some friends who worship idols in the sense this passage is talking about. Some of them worship the Norse gods and some worship the older Germanic gods which the Norse gods were derived from. Those whom I have heard speak about it know that these gods are not real in the way we think of God as real, but then they do not think that God is real either. As best I understand what they believe, they believe that their gods are social constructs which have power commensurate with how much they believe in them and to a degree commensurate with how many people believe in them. My feeling is that their belief is an attempt to gain control over the world around them. After all, their gods only have power in as much as they give them that power, so their gods are dependent upon them, and their fellow believers. Isaiah tells us that it is foolish to worship a god (or gods) which has no power that we did not give it. If we have the power to do the things which we call upon the gods to do, why do we need the gods? However, God has power which did not come from me, or anyone else. God has demonstrated His power to those willing to see.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 39-42.

    Today’s passage is quite powerful. Our God is coming with great power. His path will be straight and level. All obstacles will be cleared out of His way. Mountains will be leveled and valleys will be filled in. There is nothing and no one we can compare to God. The entire earth is less than a grain of sand to God. Everyone grows tired, even young men in the prime of their life. But God gives strength to the powerless and energy to the weary. Those who put their trust in God and wait for His time will always have the strength and energy to do God’s will. I have always loved the image this passage provides. There is a great song based on the King James version which contains a line which says, “Teach me Lord to wait down on my knees.” I am striving to spend more of my time in prayer, waiting for the Lord to tell me what to do. However, later in this passage Isaiah reminds us that waiting is not enough. Once God has told us what He wants us to do, He expects us to act:

You see and recognize what is right
but refuse to act on it.
You hear with your ears,
but you don’t really listen.

I pray that when God speaks I will listen and that when I recognize what is right, I act upon it.