Reading from Monday, September 20

What what. Lazy Sunday, yo.

Reading for September 20
Isaiah 33:10-36:22
In Chapter 34, God talks about how all the nations have become, or are becoming, a wasteland desert. Completely devoid of life except for jackals and owls. He talks about how his vengeance has been poured out and how his sword is covered in blood from all the generations of justice on his people. The desert to me is symbolic of the heart of man. Without God, our hearts become deserted, dry and lonely places.

In Chapter 35, he talks about how the people in the desert will be redeemed.

 ⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
       the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
       In the haunts where jackals once lay,
       grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

 ⁸ And a highway will be there;
       it will be called the Way of Holiness.
       The unclean will not journey on it;
       it will be for those who walk in that Way;
       wicked fools will not go about on it. ^[e]

In an obvious reference to Jesus, Isaiah writes something here that he may not have even known he was writing. In verse 8 when he refers to the Way of Holiness, he is naming what Christians called themselves in the time shortly after Christ. They were called "The Way". Little trivia for ya.

So the purpose of this is to paint a picture of how people's hearts can be radically changed through knowing Jesus. A place that was once alone and desperate for water, Jesus brings living water that will never make men thirsty again.

One more thing. Remember the other night when I was talking about how people were probably expecting a different type of savior when Jesus came around because Isaiah made it sound like it was gonna be this awesome celebration? Check this out:

⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
       "Be strong, do not fear;
       your God will come,
       he will come with vengeance;
       with divine retribution
       he will come to save you."

These people, as I would have, assumed that this vengeance and divine retribution would come in the form of a hail storm of fire on the enemies of Israel. Instead, it was the death of a humble man - the divine retribution was paid for by Jesus, though we are the ones who deserved it. 

Galatians 5:13-26
Oh yeah. Great stuff in this one.

¹³You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature^[a]; rather, serve one another in love. ¹⁴The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."^{[b] 15}If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Verse 15 is so poignant. How often have you seen friends, or even yourself, involved in a frivolous dispute with a friend and that dispute goes too far and in the end, they both hate each other and have done some serious emotional damage to one another? Instead, Paul teaches, serve one another in love. Be kind to each other. Let love rule your thoughts and emotions and most of all - let love rule your actions. That is how we can change the world.

Then Paul gives us a surefire plan to avoid the snares of sin:

 ¹⁶So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.  

The tough thing about this is that "live by the Spirit" is kind of a tough thing to outline. "Live by the law" is much easier to define, but obviously a much harder thing to do. Could living by the spirit just mean living in a loving way? Loving your neighbor as yourself? I think it is that, but I think it's also more than that. I had begun to dig into the idea of the Spirit a few months back, but now I've forgotten it all. Paul does give one clue as to what it means:

 ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control.

While this is helpful, it only shows the result of living in the Spirit. So now I know what I should be getting out of it, but I don't know what I need to do to get it. 

Someone help me out. What do you think it means to live by the Spirit?

Psalm 64:1-10

 ⁶ They plot injustice and say,
       "We have devised a perfect plan!"
       Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning.
 ⁷ But God will shoot them with arrows;
       suddenly they will be struck down.
 ⁸ He will turn their own tongues against them
       and bring them to ruin;
       all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.

Again, this kind of thing outlines a message and expectation that good people will have good lives and bad people will have bad lives. God will raise up the righteous and humble the wicked. But this is simply not true. We see it today just as we see it in books like Job and Ecclesiastes. 

Proverbs 23:23
 ²³ Buy the truth and do not sell it;
       get wisdom, discipline and understanding.

Yup.