Tag Archive - Scripture

how wide/long/high/deep

December 2, 2009 in personal with 0 Comments

Ephesians 3:17b-18

…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ

It seems that we really like to measure things… comparing houses, tv screen sizes, cars that get better gas mileage, or can hold more people, even neighborhoods that make sure your grass is mowed often – 3″ and no taller!  We are constantly in search of measuring up in the more or less department, yet we never seem to be able to grasp the more important measurements…  like the one above.

How Wide, Long, High and Deep is the love of Christ!

Stop and think about that right now.

Compare God’s love to what you’re worried and anxious about… to the fear that you’re holding… to the sin that you think you can’t be rid of…

Which is wider, longer, higher and deeper?

Which matters more?

God loves you more than we can ever measure… hold on to that.

in Christ,

Isaiah

Meditate

December 1, 2009 in personal with 0 Comments

Lately, I’ve been digging into meditating on the Psalms and trying to just focus on one passage of Scripture.  I still read other passages, but every day I’ve been trying to focus on Psalm 1… Verse 2 says why.

1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

So, even before the beginning of the new year and all the resolutions, I’m trying to change.  I want to be able to meditate on the law of the LORD, on his Word, day and night.

That somewhat begs the question though, how do we meditate?

I’m reading some of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Meditating On The Word to find out how…

We’ll see how this goes.

in Christ,

Isaiah

p.s. How do you meditate on His Word?

Read and not believe

October 16, 2009 in personal with 0 Comments

Scripture of the Day:

John 5:39-40

39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Interesting that Jesus talks about people who study the Scriptures that talk about him, but won’t come to Jesus to get the eternal life they’re looking for.  This reminds me that even in studying the Bible we can miss out on the big picture.  Where’s our focus today?

in Christ,

Isaiah

I must decrease

October 15, 2009 in personal with 1 Comment

Scripture of the Day:
John 3:30
He must become greater; I must become less.

May I become less as HE becomes greater, each and every day.
in Christ,

Isaiah

Come and See

October 14, 2009 in personal with 1 Comment

Scripture of the Day:

John 1:46
46″Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.

Come and see…

in Christ,

Isaiah

paper or pixels?

October 8, 2009 in personal with 2 Comments

I haven’t posted for some time, and rather than give you a long list of excuses… I thought I’d just write a new post.

Lately I’ve been reading my paper Bible far more than my electronic versions of the Bible.  There’s just something about paper and the heft of a book, and the feel of underlining a verse in “real” life.  I underline and highlight verses on my electronic versions and it just isn’t the same.

So, my question to you is this:  Do you prefer reading the Bible in paper form, pixel form, or a combination of both?

I’ll admit that I’m both, when I’m laying in bed at night, it is much easier to read on my iPod touch, which doesn’t require a seperate light and physically changing pages…

So… Paper, pixel or both?

in Christ,

Isaiah

summer update

July 22, 2009 in personal with 0 Comments

up*date
verb |ˌəpˈdāt; ˈəpˌdāt| [ trans. ]
give (someone) the latest information about something

Yeah, I’ve been gone a while, and the lack of posting is mostly due to the fact that I’ve been lazy.  So far this summer I’ve been to Western Wyoming Christian Youth Camp in Lander, WY, Camp Como in Como, CO, and Nebwyodak SR High near Deadwood, SD, then immediately to Hills Alive in Rapid City, SD.

It has been a crazy summer so far, and it seems that every time I come back from a trip there’s a desk full of paperwork to catch up on.  But I have to say that’s how I like it… I’d rather be busy than bored any day.

Now that I’ve returned, I’m thinking back over the summer thus far and it has been an amazing one.  Youth have been impacted for Christ through the three camps I’ve been to in ways that only God can.  What an awesome God we serve.

If you’ve been to any of the camps, you probably saw the “trading cards” we had of our camp teams, faculty and staff.  I just wanted to share with you the favorite verse that is on mine:

Isaiah 55:8-9

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

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God’s ways are not our ways… and I am so glad for that.

His thoughts and will are so much higher than ours, and I am glad for that as well.

As you go through the rest of your own summer… I have two questions:

How has God impacted you this summer?

How will you impact others for God?

in Christ,

Isaiah

p.s.  let me know if you think this “counts” as an update, haha

flashlight

July 5, 2009 in personal, SCC with 0 Comments

For the past few weeks that I’ve been at camp, especially during the evenings, I had my flashlight with me wherever I went.  When I couldn’t see, it lit my path and kept me going in the way I wanted to go.  I even did the “nerdy” thing and wore it with the geeky holster.

I’m sure you all have some idea of where I’m going with this…

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

Yeah, Isaiah, we get it… read the Bible and God will light your way, just like the flashlight lit your way.  That’s true, but keep reading.

One evening I woke up in the middle of the night.  I’m still not sure why, but I awoke, prayed, and rolled over to my side.  When I did that I felt a constant pain in my hip, which was better when I rolled back onto my side.  I figured it was something with the mattress, and, being so tired… ok and lazy, I just dealt with it and slept on that side…

The next morning I woke up to realize that I had left my flashlight in my right hip pocket.  That which lights my way in the darkness was a pain to me that night.

I learned 2 things:

1) I’m apparently quick to forget whats in my pockets…       ok and lazy…

and

2) Sometimes that which lights our way can be painful, even convicting if we keep it in our pockets (hidden away).

We’re told to shine our lights, but we feel scared too… then we feel the conviction that we had the chance to shine, and kept our flashlight off.

We’re walking with our friends in the dark, knowing we have the flashlight to turn on so we do not stumble, but neglect to turn it on… for fear of being “religious” or “judgmental”.

That flashlight convicted me, because of the times I neglected to share my light while others fell around me… but it also encourages me, because we have the light to shine.

God’s word is a light to our feet so we do not stumble, and sometimes God will nudge us when we aren’t doing what we’re supposed to be.

Matthew 5:14-16

14“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Go out and shine… and Light the Darkness.

in Christ,

Isaiah

p.s. keep the flashlight on, just don’t leave it in your pocket.

Wholly – completely, totally, absolutely

June 13, 2009 in personal with 1 Comment

Joshua 14:6-10

6 Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 But  my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. 9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, ’Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.‘ 10 And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.“

I read this passage some time ago, and its been sitting, percolating as it were, in my mind.

“Yet I wholly followed the LORD my God.”

Caleb, one of the two spies who took a stand saying that the Israelites would be able to conquer the men of Caanan.  Forty years later he returned, still as strong as he was before, still wholly following God, and believing that even though the men of the hill country were strong… his God was stronger.

Then there’s me.

ouch.

The last post was talking about how we put other things, other people’s writing, before God’s Word.  That convicted me.

So here’s some questions for us…

Am I wholly following the Lord with my reading time?

Am I wholly following the Lord in my work? – not just doing the minimum?

Am I wholly following the Lord in how I spend my money?

Do you have any other questions we need to ask?

in Christ,

Isaiah

Hardcore

June 4, 2009 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Isaiah 20:1-6

1 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it- 2 at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

3 Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, [a] 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame. 5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame. 6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’ “

Do you love God enough to go stripped and barefoot for 3 years?

Do you want to do the will of God enough that you would go stripped and barefoot for 3 years?

Isaiah the prophet was hardcore in love with God…

May we be the same.

in Christ,

Isaiah

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