Isaiah and Sara

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

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

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.

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

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

1 Thessalonians 5:17

pray without ceasing

One of the shortest verses in the Bible is one that convicts me, without ceasing….

This is one of those concepts that blows my mind.  Praying throughout the day, about every situation, about every problem.  My issue is not the praying, its not hard to pray… its the without ceasing.  I’m not one who has an issue praying when times are good.  For some reason it is easy for me to pray when times are good, but I have hard time remembering to pray when times are tough, or during a hard situation.  Maybe I’m the opposite of you, but its something that I struggle with… praying through the hard times, which is ironic, because I know that when I do stop and pray I feel better.

Do you struggle with praying without ceasing?

I pray, that I would pray without ceasing.

Will you do the same?

in Christ,

Isaiah

Isaiah 7:9b

If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.

I was reading along in Isaiah, and this verse hit me in the face like a spiritual wrecking ball.  God is speaking through Isaiah to Ahaz, saying that if you stand firm in faith, knowing that I am stronger than the Assyrians – stronger than any army, then you will be firm.  But… if you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all… you will fall.

Something about this passage, the exchange between God and Ahaz struck a chord with me.  It is very easy to not be firm in the faith that God is in control.  The past couple weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions as we closed on our house.  From being sure we were closing to finding out we needed more money to close, to finding that money, to be worried that we didn’t fix everything well enough for the appraisal to… the list goes on and on.

But God is faithful.  He is firm, He is the Rock.

If we do not stand firm in Him, we will not be firm at all…

Be firm in faith,

in Christ,

Isaiah

Isaiah 6:8

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Being as Isaiah is my namesake, I do like to read through Isaiah often.  I suppose that could be viewed as narcissistic, but since I hope to be half the man of God that Isaiah was, maybe not.  I pray that my life show the meaning of my name, “The Lord is Salvation!”

Here in the text above, Isaiah is standing before the Lord, having just heard the chorus of, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.”  Where he was standing shook from the force and power of the voices… so we see an awesome display of the power of God.  But then something weird happens…

God says, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

Almighty God is asking who will take his message to the people.

The Lord is asking who will speak words of life to those around us.

God, Creator, Father is asking you… “Whom shall I send?”

May we all like Isaiah say, “Here I am… Send ME!”

in Christ,

Isaiah

I was reading through the story of the Israelites as they built the Tabernacle in Exodus, and I came upon this passage.

Exodus 35:2-7
² Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. ³ They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. ⁴ So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work ⁵ and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.“ ⁶ Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more,⁷ because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

The Israelites just kept giving and giving and giving… They gave until the craftsman actually said, “Stop!”

What about us?

Are we giving to God, to our Churches, to others like that?

Just a thought…

in Christ,

Isaiah

What a day!  Wow… since lunch where I began spilling everything all over myself it has been a rough day.  I’m not going to relate here all that happened because that would be petty, unprofessional and definitely not Christ-like.  Lets just say it was a frustrating day…

Then I read this:

Isaiah 40:28, 29 (ESV)

²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹ He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Apparently I forget how good and awesome and mighty God is.  Instead of praying for power and strength while I was being frustrated, I let frustration boil.  So I guess I need to ask myself:

Have you not known?  Have you not heard?

God is good, and everlasting!

Frustration is neither.

As I read that, and as I write this, I can feel the frustration peeling off of me.  God is in control… he is good and mighty, everlasting and never failing.

Focus on Him in frustrating times…

in Christ,

Isaiah