Strengthen all weary hands,
steady all trembling knees
and say to all faint hearts,
Courage! Do not be afraid.
‘Look, your God is coming,
vengeance is coming,
the retribution of God;
he is coming to save you.’
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
the ears of the deaf unsealed,
then the lame shall leap up like a deer
and the tongues of dumb sing for joy;
for water gushes in the desert,
streams in the wasteland,
the scorched earth becomes a lake,
the parched land brings springs of water.
The lairs where he jackals used to live
become thickets of reed and papyrus….
– a picture of God’s judgement and also salvation.
From the Bible, in the book Isaiah, chapter 35:3-7 .
For some in the Bible, after the judgment, salvation
follows
Tag: devotion
Why is there the flesh?
In my previous post I wrote about the flesh, I explained that the flesh is the vessel in which ‘lives’ that thing called sin. I likened sin to a worm in the flesh, where that worm can climatize if we let it. After I wrote that, I was thinking about the origins of the flesh. Here is what I think.
Continue reading “Why is there the flesh?”
It’s real!
Some will say that the life of Jesus was made-up to console the disciples loss when Jesus died. Certainly not. A very heart-broken disciple would not write such a lengthy “myth” as they have called it, but the Bible texts show that the disciples rejoiced when Jesus overcame death. A relieved disciple, and a happy one, would be motivated to write about Jesus because he showed that he was alive by rising from the dead.
The reality of the texts about Jesus in the Bible is literal life over death, not regret and sorrow. Why would the disciples want to make it up? But most of the literature that passes through book stores today is tinged with a sense of lifelessness. But for many I have come across, Jesus is about rising up on the inside, life that touches the heart and stirs the heart on share something of his life.
What is his life?
When one believes in Jesus, one can receive from Jesus, in the way he decides. A Christian can be hopeful because Jesus rose from the dead, and so will have eternal life, and are given the enabling Spirit as a helper, to help overcome baser instincts that work against the good of one’s soul. Jesus is for weak and strong. He is for everyone. And can give to each one.
The disciples were told by Jesus to make more disciples and this has been going on since. Jesus can still be still involved in people’s lives today.
Life
The following is a translation of an early Bible passage. The passage was originally written about 700 years before Christ and the translation I am using is in the Jerusalem Bible. Was the passage referring to how Jesus healed people at his coming?
In a short time, a very short time,
shall not Lebanon become fertile land
and fertile land turn into forest?
The deaf, that day,
will hear the words of a book
and, after shadow and darkness,
the eyes of the blind will see.
But the lowly will rejoice in Yahweh even more
and the poorest exult in the Holy One of Israel.
(The Book of Isaiah chapter 29, verses 17-19; Jerusalem Bible)
Evasion can be a good thing
In the Bible, there is the story of David who became a king of ancient Israel. God chose him as king because his heart was in the right place (1 Samuel 16:7). One day, while David was still a tender of his father’s sheep, he was brought into the service of the king named Saul and eventually rose to the head of the army or fighting men. But Saul got jealous of David because he was more popular with the people. In a frenzy, Saul brandished a spear to pin David to the wall. “But David twice evaded him” (1 Samuel 18:11, Jerusalem Bible).
Continue reading “Evasion can be a good thing”