Ensign: Put Some Meat On These Bones!
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 3 February 2017
My wife Martha leaves her thirties behind tomorrow! Happy Birthday, Honey.
Now this message could be set in the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel where the LORD restores those who fell in the valley of dry bones, but it isn't. This could be elaborating on Paul's advice to the church at Corinth in his first recorded letter to them from 1 Corinthians 3:1-4, but it's not. No, the reason I chose today's message out of the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah (which as I read it in church Sunday morning I'll introduce "from the book of the prophet Isaiah") is because it leaves meat out.
Meat is usually on the list of what people fast or intentionally deprive themselves of.
As for personally fasting myself, the only times I recall doing it intentionally were in my university years in the early nineties. Depriving yourself of nourishment for thirty hours when you're in your early twenties is ... hard. I'm a mite jealous of the constitutions of people younger than me who've gone days without food; medically, you can go for more than a month without food, but past a few day without water?
You're toast.
Fasting's a discipline. Like all disciplines it's not something you should take lightly -- at least your body won't, especially if you're used to three squares a day! But if we're not careful we will miss the whole point of the fast. I'd print the whole chapter, but I'm a little pressed for time; focus on verse six: "Is not this the fast I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?"
Sure we want to get closer to God!
But to do that it's not all about the food we don't eat. I'm thinking of what the prophet Micah said about God requiring us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him (you get to look up that verse!) and coming back to Isaiah 58:7 about dealing bread to the hungry and bringing the poor into your house. It means fasting from yourself and your own needs to take care of other, to do what God would do in your position. What He's empowered you and I to do.
It sounds tough.
And it is tough. But in the words of the baseball coach from A League of Their Own, if it were easy everyone would do it! Also, loosing wickedness and undoing burdens and breaking yokes is not something we necessarily see as benefiting us, so WHY do it? It sounds pretty big and sounds like God's job, not ours. We certainly can't manage the world, but we miss out on the best opportunity when we don't provide for some service, and gain ourselves some meat, in our small corner of it.
Meat is muscle. Muscle gives us strength and endurance. And we need to exercise ours.
David
P.S. I will continue as long as God allows me to write this devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages us too! If it's not or you want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!
And thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and in prayer and that we can count on You to provide for all our needs according to Your riches in glory, even when we don't know what they are. (This happens more often than we think!) And we come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.
Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, in authority and power, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus the Christ.
And now I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 3 February 2017
My wife Martha leaves her thirties behind tomorrow! Happy Birthday, Honey.
Now this message could be set in the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel where the LORD restores those who fell in the valley of dry bones, but it isn't. This could be elaborating on Paul's advice to the church at Corinth in his first recorded letter to them from 1 Corinthians 3:1-4, but it's not. No, the reason I chose today's message out of the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah (which as I read it in church Sunday morning I'll introduce "from the book of the prophet Isaiah") is because it leaves meat out.
Meat is usually on the list of what people fast or intentionally deprive themselves of.
As for personally fasting myself, the only times I recall doing it intentionally were in my university years in the early nineties. Depriving yourself of nourishment for thirty hours when you're in your early twenties is ... hard. I'm a mite jealous of the constitutions of people younger than me who've gone days without food; medically, you can go for more than a month without food, but past a few day without water?
You're toast.
Fasting's a discipline. Like all disciplines it's not something you should take lightly -- at least your body won't, especially if you're used to three squares a day! But if we're not careful we will miss the whole point of the fast. I'd print the whole chapter, but I'm a little pressed for time; focus on verse six: "Is not this the fast I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?"
Sure we want to get closer to God!
But to do that it's not all about the food we don't eat. I'm thinking of what the prophet Micah said about God requiring us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him (you get to look up that verse!) and coming back to Isaiah 58:7 about dealing bread to the hungry and bringing the poor into your house. It means fasting from yourself and your own needs to take care of other, to do what God would do in your position. What He's empowered you and I to do.
It sounds tough.
And it is tough. But in the words of the baseball coach from A League of Their Own, if it were easy everyone would do it! Also, loosing wickedness and undoing burdens and breaking yokes is not something we necessarily see as benefiting us, so WHY do it? It sounds pretty big and sounds like God's job, not ours. We certainly can't manage the world, but we miss out on the best opportunity when we don't provide for some service, and gain ourselves some meat, in our small corner of it.
Meat is muscle. Muscle gives us strength and endurance. And we need to exercise ours.
David
P.S. I will continue as long as God allows me to write this devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it encourages us too! If it's not or you want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!
And thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to You in praise and in prayer and that we can count on You to provide for all our needs according to Your riches in glory, even when we don't know what they are. (This happens more often than we think!) And we come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.
Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, in authority and power, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus the Christ.
And now I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
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