Isaiah 47-48; I Corinthians 11

Isaiah 47: O.K. so I missed yesterday. I could have done it, but I simply decided I was to tired after spending the night hanging out with Jimmie. Not a bad use of time (we had some good God talks) but that doesn’t excuse me skipping devos. The Lord is talking about how He will humble Babylon. He talks about how he turned Israel over to them, and instead of being good masters they we’re bad to them.

Isaiah 48: So, from the previous chapter we know that God is mad at Israel’s chapters. Unfortunately He’s still frustrated with Israel. He admonishes that for “invoke[ing] the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness.” I wonder if this is my problem. I often Invoke God’s name, but do I do it in righteousness and truth? Good question. I should watch that. He is upset at them for blaming His works on their own doing, and their Idols. God refuses to give His glory to anyone else, so He says he will have His day.

I Corinthians 11: O.K. so this starts out with the whole man vs. woman thing. I think people take this out of context. Men don’t cover their head vs. Women do. This is a cultural thing that would be people sending a certain message. Verse eleven and twelve are the key, “However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his berth through the woman; and all things originate from God. Here’s my take; In the spiritual realm men and women are equal before God. In the home, they both serve each other, but the man in the leader. The key to that statement is the word leader. In this context the word “leader” means a lot, and has a lot of limitations on it. Leader doesn’t mean boss, master, always in charge. Instead it means he should humbly lead by example.

Isaiah 45-46: I Corinthians 10

I wrote this Tuesday, but didn't have a chance to post it.

Isaiah 45: It’s been a long day… not bad though. I had fun doing some crazy combatives this morning (also known as rolling around in the grass). It actually bangs your knees up pretty bad. I’m not complaining though. It beats working in a cubicle. In Isaiah 45 God talks about how He uses Cyrus to accomplish really awesome things. God could use me in that way. If I open my life to His control I know that He can take me to places both great and small. God talks about how strong He is, but one message really hit me. “Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons.” He wants us to ask about the things to come. He wants us to ask Him why He does things. The key thing to remember is that He might make us wait a while for the answer. I’m still waiting for the full answer to my issues a week ago. Though I think I’ve sorted it out at least a little.

Isaiah 46: God emphasizes that idols are worthless. “Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god.” How worthless is that. If you can make it, what use is it to pray too? It can only have the power you give it (namely the power over you). The idols of today are just as stupid. They are made by men, so what good are they. They will only be in ruins before too long.

I Corinthians 10: Paul talks about how most of their fathers disobeyed God in the wilderness. He is emphasizing this, because the Jewish culture focuses a lot on their ancestors. Paul doesn’t want them to be led astray to idols like their ancestors. There seems to be a pattern lately of God talking to me about idolatry. What is my idol? Anyway, Paul gets back into the lawful vs. profitable debate again. He uses a good world: edify. I think I’ll ask from now on whether things edify. I think it will put the right light on things.

Isaiah 43-44; I Corinthians 9

Isaiah 43: In this chapter God emphasizes the fact that His people are HIS. That’s kind of comforting. “Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you… Do not fear for I am with you.” Obviously this is to Israel, and a different covenant than I am under, but still it reveals how God is. If God was always going to stay by Israel despite her shortcomings, (details later in the chapter) He will do the same for me. He will always be there to wipe out my transgressions.

Isaiah 44: In this chapter God focuses on idolatry. He talks about how stupid it is to trust in things besides Him. “Is there any God besides Me, or is there and other Rock? I know of none.” God emphasizes that He is the only way, and that trusting in anything else is futile. People who ignore God are blind to the truth. It says that God has smeared over their eyes (food for thought, but I’m still formulating my opinion on it… someday). God will forgive and redeem those that sin. God finishes the chapter on a positive note telling Israel how He will establish them again.

I Corinthians 9: Paul reminds of us the Law of Moses “don’t muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” Paul focuses throughout the chapter on how people of God have the right to enjoy life, get married, and enjoy the fruits of their labor. I often forget this, and I beat myself up for not trying to “make every second count.” Yes, I should make every second count, but I often have a messed up view on what that means. I need to sometimes enjoy myself, as long as I’m not keeping God out of those activities. God can go with you to whatever you do. He can help you be a witness, or just spend time with you as you do mundane tasks. Yay!

Isaiah 41-42; I Corinthians 8

I just had a scrumptious breakfast of bacon, biscuits, cantaloupe, and peach yogurt. It filled me up, and now I’m ready to take on a not so busy day. I’m looking forward to hanging out with Jimmie this weekend. Hopefully, that means I’ll be adding to the witnessing blog soon.

Isaiah 41: This chapter is a message from God to His people telling them that they do not have to fear. When people are thirsty, God will answer… he will open rivers and the fountains of water. God is there for the small things, and the large things. This always puzzles me when God says no, and I don’t get why. That fact that he can and will answer the small prayers makes it all more frustrating when he doesn’t. That’s when we have to remember the part when He says, “I, the Lord, am the first, and the last. I am He.”

Isaiah 42: God is still speaking in this chapter. He talks about how he will put His spirit on his servants. That it won’t be a big deal. People won’t see crazy things, and He won’t draw attention. However, He will bring justice in the earth. That’s what I want to be. I want to be God’s servant with His spirit bringing justice in the earth.

I Corinthians 8: This chapter is often referenced by Christians. It talks about how you shouldn’t do things that make others stumble, even if they aren’t sin. It’s a hard thing to practice. It brings a lot of topics into play such at judging etc. Usually if a Christian is doing one of these “legal” things that makes others stumble they want the others to just get over it. Or, they say people are judging them (alcohol is the biggest one here). Is it wrong to have a drink? No. Can it cause some others to stumble? Yes. So what is the balance? Where do you draw the line? Do you put off alcohol, and other such things? Or do you just do them in certain settings? What if you are then seen, and are perceived as hiding it? Wouldn’t that just make it worse? Maybe people should only drink alone in there rooms :p (that was supposed to be funny). Anyway, it’s a hard one that obviously comes down to situations. I think you have to evaluate each situation, and if there is any hint that there is a problem you should do it. Yeah… I guess that’s easy to say.

Isaiah 39-40: I Corinthians 6

We woke up early for PT today… then stood around for a good half-hour plus waiting for it to start. That seems to kind up some up the situation here. Basically, we do a lot of hurry up and wait. The good news is we alternate it with slow down and wait J. Yesterday, I stopped at Isaiah 38, and was looking forward to 39 because I remembered the story.

Isaiah 39: So Hezekiah decides to show his enemies messengers all the stuff that’s in his house. There seems to be two problems with this. First, it’s tactically stupid, since they get to see all the weaknesses, and all the rewards of attacking. Second, he does it in a “yes, I am that cool” way. The worst part though is when Isaiah tells him that God is going to let his sons fall into captivity. Hezekiah’s response is “Whew, at least I’ll be dead when it happens… lets party!!!” Seriously, have some class. At least pretend that you care about your country, and your children.

Isaiah 40: This chapter is a song to the Lord about how great He is. It’s a great chapter… read it for yourself.

I Corinthians 7: O.K. so Paul is sooo a bachelor. He still strikes a blow for all men when he says that couples shouldn’t keep having sex regularly… yay!!! The confusing part is when he talks about how it is better for people to be single. Didn’t God say it was better man not to be alone? God gave certain people the gift of being single so that they could minister in a certain way (could you imagine Paul running about the whole world with a wife in tow?). Verse 25 makes things really clear, “I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion… I think that [man should stay alone].” Yeah, well you can keep your opinion thank you very much. It is true that a single person is concerned with the Lord’s work, while a married person is concerned with his family… OR, a single man in constantly concerned with not sinning… yeah, I don’t think I have the gift… sorry Paul (haha, double meaning).

Isaiah 37-38; I Cor 6

So I had to wake up this morning at 4:15... yay... fortunately they let us go back to be by about 6:30.... much bigger yay. I'm getting bored here, and it's only my first week. I'm going to try to spend a bit more time on my guitar... hopefully that will keep me busy... and I might even get good at guitar!!! Yesterday I had a walk with God... it started to rain, and then it started to downpour... awesome. It felt good... like God was finally washing me clean (more coming soon in my crying out blog).

Isaiah 37: King Hezekiah turns back to God... He seems to automatically gain confidence because the Assyrians challenged God’s power. I don’t think he would have turned to God if they hadn’t. He knew that God would want to show His power to the world. And of course Assyrian starts fighting all sorts of other peoples. Hezekiah’s prayer to God is inspiring. Anyway, God answers though Isaiah, and then has an angel go slaughter the Assyrians… yeah… cool.

Isaiah 38: This is the Chapter about God healing Hezekiah. Hezekiah has been a real inspiration to me. I’ve been so frustrated lately about continually falling. Hezekiah is the prime example of someone who wants to do the right thing, but never seems to actually do it. However, whenever he is in trouble, and he cries to God… God always answers. He always saves him. The final part of the chapter Hezekiah asks “what is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?” great question to ask… maybe I should be asking and waiting instead of running around… all I know is that there is no better place to wait J.

I Corinthians 6: This gets into that fact that Christians shouldn’t be having lawsuits against each other… more importantly Paul attacks the deeper issues. There should never be reasons for things to go that far. Either fix it in the church, or just be wronged and move on. He then talks about how if we join ourselves with Christ we become one flesh. We should defile it with immorality (more on this in the temptations blog). He finally reminds us that God bought us with the blood of Christ, so we should glorify Him.

Isaiah 35-36; I Corinthians 5

So, I'm still missing my big hulking bible with all the look up stuff (I left it in Florida this past weekend--typical). Anyway, I was looking everywhere for my other bible, which I had yesterday. Fortunately, I had just enough discipline to go look in my car, which of course is where I left it after my failed attempt at witnessing at the mall (read all about it in the Witness blog). Anyway, I'm excited for day two of devotions blogging.

Isaiah 35: The title of the chapter is Zion's Happy Future... that's encouraging. After 34 chapters of mainly talking about God's wrath maybe were going to hear some good news. It starts off talking about how God will come to save Zion. The coolest part is that that he says that "they will see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God." That would be awesome. I would do just about anything to actually see the glory of the Lord. Sometimes I just want to write down the scripture instead of commentating. Go look it up, God's going to bless people and open the eyes of the blind etc. Basically everything is going to be really awesome... sweet.

Isaiah 36: O.K. so Judah’s going to be invaded by Assyria. The Assyrian messenger tells them that counting on Egypt is useless. Then he goes on to say some cool things. He tells them there is no use for them to rely on their God, but not because God isn’t strong enough. It’s as if they know that if God was on Jerusalem’s side (as history has shown) they can’t be concurred. Instead he lectures them on how they have forsaken the true God for other gods, so they can’t rely on God anymore. It’s funny that even Israel’s enemy did research on whether they were serving their God or not. Then Assyria makes their big mistake and Calls out God, and says that Israel’s God can’t deliver them… ouch. I bet this doesn’t turn out well.

I Corinthians 5: Paul uses this chapter to rebuke the immorality in the church. In my limited experience people either don’t take this chapter seriously, or they are too zealous about it. People should try extra hard to be friends with, and help those who have fallen through their sin… It’s only when that does not work should they put them out of the church. The point that Paul was making is that it CANNOT be ignored, and the person CANNOT be ignored.

Isaiah 33-34; I Corinthians 4

So today is my first post. All my blogs started as a result of a bad day I had yesterday--you can read all about it in my blog "CryingOut." I've been reading through the Bible off and on this past year. I'm trying a new format, which has been super cool. I'm reading through the books of the Bible in reverse order (starting with Malachi and Revelations etc.). It's been similar to working through a math problem backwards. The method becomes more clear when you already know the answer. So without further delay I will start reading.

Isaiah 33: He starts off condemning people who selfishly are against people. Telling how other selfish people will hurt them back. He then pleads for God to be the strength of His people, and talks about how God is the true treasure of God's people. I really needed something like this after last night, so it's good. God then goes on to talk about people who break His covenant, and how He will exalt Himself until people acknowledge His might. This seems to be what He was doing to me last night, but I thought I did acknowledge His might. I was calling on Him to do something miraculous, and I truly beleived He wood. Why isn't my faith strong enough... but that's for another blog. Isaiah ends the chapter saying that those who live in God will be forgiven their iniquity.... Thank goodness.

Isaiah 34: He starts this chapter saying that the Lord's indignation is against all the nations, and His wrath etc. I think indignation is a good word. I think it's probably as close to what He felt for my outburst yesterday as any word can discribe. He than just goes into gory detail about how bad He's going to waste His enemies. Wow, He really digs deep for some of these analogies. He's obviously serious.

I Corinthians 4: Paul says that people should regard us as "servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." O.K. that would mean that if I am a trustworthy stewart I would be investing those secrets in others.... I think I've been busy thinking about doing that while I pursue my own goals. Paul says that he doesn't even judge himself, he leaves that to God. I think thats a concept most of us forget. He then rips the Corinthians for spending all their time discussing and gossiping about him and Apolos.