GREENE STREET LETTERS: Continuation in Isaiah 35

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Continuation in Isaiah 35

Looking around at this old world, one can't help but see and feel the spiritual darkness and fear that is rising up in our societies and in the people. A people who do not know God and have turned their attention and their appetites toward a quick fix. As the big book says, "we look for the easier, softer way."

Isaiah 35 deals with God's redemptive power to restore and make new. God's ability and power to resurrect life out of what we perceive to be dead. We see death, God sees opportunity and life. In this chapter from Isaiah, we see God speaking prophetically using the image of a desert that has received rain and because of this water, life begins to appear. Water has always been a symbol of the Holy Spirit in scripture, so God is saying that it is His Spirit that brings life to our wilderness places. The places of fear in our heart are filled with His peace. The places of doubt and mistrust in our hearts are filled with the assurance that He is who He claims to be and will do what He has promised.

Isaiah 35:6-7 reads: The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will shout and sing! Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the desert. The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land. March grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.
God will take those dry, dead places in our hearts and fill them with life. Life that seeks the eternal things of God for nourishment and the temporary things of this world.
Eternal life.....
Eternal peace......
Eternal mercy.....
Eternal grace......
Eternal relationship with the one, true living God.....

V10 of this chapter is the culmination that God will bring about. Me? I'm so looking forward to this day it isn't even funny. V10 reads: Those who have been ransomed by the LORD will return to Jerusalem, singing songs of everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be overcome with joy and gladness.
Did you catch that? I will be overcome............I will be overtaken.....I will be overwhelmed by joy and gladness. His joy....His gladness. They will seek me and cover me and fill me like a divine flood. I'm telling you if that doesn't set you on fire, then your wood's wet.

You know, today I am going to lay down my fears.
Today, I am going to turn my heart and attention to God.
Whatever the world has for me today, I will not fear but rest in the assurance that God is in control.
Let it be Lord.
God on you.....

mb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Continuation in Isaiah 35

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD