Tuesday 1 July 2014

TFTD - 01 July 2014 - Thoughts from Today's Bible Readings

01 July 2014

1 Samuel 13
Isaiah 56; 57
Revelation 21; 22

“THE RIGHTEOUS MAN PERISHES”

Our chapter 57 in Isaiah commences with the above words - but then adds, “and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away … “  But then comes a very meaningful statement - which may well become really meaningful for us  in the years ahead, it may even be in the months ahead, “for the righteous man (& woman) is taken away from calamity; he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness”

Coming to Isaiah 57:15, more words jump out to our minds, “… thus says the One who is high and lifted up. Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

In contrast, the chapter ends, “But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt.  ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.”  It is “my God”, our God who counts us, as righteous in his eyes.  As we become more and more aware of the true picture of our present existence - and conscious of the increasing traumas in many parts of the world (and threatening or including ours) how wonderful it will be to be “taken away” - in whatever way God chooses, from the calamity that is starting to surround us.  If it should be that “the righteous man perishes” - it is God who “lays it to heart”, such move into God’s time - which is instantaneous, there is no awareness of passing time at all.

Today’s 21st chapter of Revelation has a wondrous description of the ultimate time to come - when “the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”   Let us, from now on, live with this divinely given vision flooding ever more readily into our hearts every day.
-------
- DC


Thought for the Day

01 July 2014

"In our natural state we cannot walk with God because the mind of the flesh is not in agreement with Him; there is enmity. God’s ways are not man’s ways, and as God cannot change, we must change if we would agree with God and walk with Him. Only His word can change us. When we take it in our hands day by day, let us not look upon it as merely doing the readings, but as God talking to us by the way, and so we will by His great mercy become more and more like Him, more and more in agreement."

- George Jarvis
Walking (1957)
Isaiah 56:6
"Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant"

We were sons of strangers who, by Gods grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, have joined ourselves to the LORD and been brought close unto the covenants of promise. (Eph 2:12-19).

Let us never forget for what purpose:
- to serve Him and be His servants
- to love Him, keeping His sabbaths
- taking hold of the covenants of promise

The wonderful reward as verse 7 in this chapter continues, to be granted a place in His Kingdom, when His house will truly be a house of prayer to all people's and nations.

What characteristics do keepers of the principle of the LORD's Sabbath have?
- don't please self
- see as a delight to put self last and God first
- not seeking and doing own ways and speaking own words
- therefore seeking to do Gods ways and speaking His words
(Isai 58:13)

Is this truly our character?

No comments:

Post a Comment