Old Jerry

I think that in those days when the prophecy was written that it could have been a literal meaning. But today it is probably has a figurative meaning which means that we will be freed from the bonds of legalism and truly be free. I think that Jesus intended them to be understood as a figurative because the Jewish people were trapped in legalism. I think that I have personally adopted Jesus’ agenda because I used to be trapped in legalism and I have been set free. This is the way that I see our congregation as having been set free.

Our disobedience and lack of repentance prevents our prayers from being answered because we are caught in those sins. That is what we are thinking about when we pray. We are the ones that are causing the separation from God. He always wants to love us and be with us. We can correct this be repenting.

I think that the positive actions that align themselves with a true keeping of the Sabbath is to get with God’s people and listen to the words that God has given to the preacher. Taking the day off for all activities that doesn’t bring us closer to God should be avoided. Some of these activities would be to go shopping, mowing the lawn, and cleaning the house.

When people have backbiting, judgmental attitudes or harsh criticism they are marginalizing both themselves and the person that they are judging. They are hurt because they have maybe lost some friends because of the false accusations and maybe their reputation has been placed into question. We can change our church cultures by not engaging in such practices. We can cut it off before it gets started. To spend ourselves in behalf of the hungry would mean that we would have to get involved in the activities that include the hungry. That could mean that we would have to be placed in some uncomfortable situations.

The injustice that Isaiah condemned is making slaves out of those who are in need and exploiting those in need. The excuses that we use today is to say that the beggar is just somebody that is taking advantage of you when you donate to them when in fact that is the way they chose to live. Or we could say that the government is going to take care of them. In some ways that “tough love” could be important to them is that it would make the go out and find a job but it could also hurt them by depriving them of the needs that they might have.

The thing that I learn about God in this verse is that he loves a contrite heart. If we are willing to yield to His ways and follow Him then He will watch out for us. And the paradox here is that He is will to live with us. God cares for the downtrodden and the contrite because He knows that they are trying to live the way that He says. Our congregation does care for the downtrodden and the contrite but not the way that God can.

Keeping a sacred day of rest honors God because we put everything aside and make God the main focus of the day. I think that both the first option and the second option best honor God. But I think that if you can’t keep one of those days then you still need to keep one day a week to honor God and put all work aside and focus on Him.

The significance of God’s welcome of believing and ethical foreigners and eunuchs to full status in his temple is to include everybody that believes in him. He wants us to know that we have been accepted by him if we believe in him. The implications for the church are that we should also welcome everybody that believes in Jesus Christ. I don’t see that our congregation excludes anybody. I may be wrong because we don’t have much ethnic diversity in the church. But we should make sure that everybody knows that they are welcome to the church.

To me the New Testament passage that best sums up the lessons of Isaiah 53 is Luke 22:37. This is Jesus telling us that he is going to fulfill the Scriptures that he was numbered with the transgressors and therefore will be persecuted.

God cannot be around sinful people so in order for us to make it to the Kingdom we had to have a sacrificial lamb and Jesus was that lamb. He died for us so that we could enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The way that the Servant acts as a substitute to bear our sins is that He died on the cross with our sins upon him. When we go to the throne Jesus is going to be there saying that he had died for all those sins that I committed because it died on the cross.

The Testament that convinces me that Jesus saw his own mission and destiny spelled out in Isaiah 53 is what Jesus talks about his death and resurrection. He does that in more than one passage and brings it up again and again at the end of his ministry.

God removes the sins of the world. The sense of this universal sacrifice of salvation is to be saved by God. But Jesus’ sacrifice was wasted on some people because they do not believe in his sacrifice.

Seeking the Lord entails us to be reading his word and listening to his word through our pastors. We need to be talking to him daily. Since God’s ways and thoughts are different than our own human way of thinking this means that we have to depend on the Holy Spirit to do our bidding for us. The Holy Spirit knows what we want to say and do and he relays interprets that for us. Repentance is necessary to this process because we have to see and believe that we are sinners. That is the way that we can humbly go before the Lord. If our seeking is shallow then we do not repent and we may not be forgiven for our sins. When we put off seeking the Lord and we hear his invitation we become hard hearted and don’t ever want to go near him again. It can become too late to seek the Lord because our hearts become so hard that we don’t want anything to do with him. I don’t see any way that we can have a success by other means of seeking the Lord.

I think that people “spend” their lives doing things that they know won’t satisfy them deep down because they are always trying to impress somebody else. They have to show that they are better than the other person. As a rule this hedonism leads to despair and from there to depression and from there to drinking and really ruining their lives. The gracious element of Yahweh’s invitation in this passage is to come and dine with him. He has everything that anybody should want and that isn’t the half of it we would enjoy what we are doing. It doesn’t cost anything to accept this invitation because it is the “good news” to those how hear it. The way to issue the invitation is to witness to people and let them see what God has done for you.

The promise that no weapon formed against me shall succeed means that no matter what the evil one throws at me I will still succeed in the work that God has given me to do. We are still going to have to conduct spiritual warfare through prayer and faith because this is the way that the weapons will not prevail against us.

The sense that Jerusalem was “barren” without God’s favor was that they didn’t have any land of their own. They were in captivity and were salves to the oppressors. When Isaiah says that “your Maker is your husband” it means that he will be the one that will comfort you and be with you in your times of distress. The husband will do his best to protect his bride. In the New Testament the “bide of Christ” is the church and the husband is Jesus Christ. The wife is expected to respect husband and try to please him.

The messenger or carrier of good news is so beautiful because it will something that you want to hear. As a rule it is something that you have waiting to hear for quite a while and not your wait is over. Paul uses these verses to encourage those that are to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ as the one bring the ones bring the beautiful message of their salvation.

I think that trusting the Lord to guide you is something that you have to learn. You learn it by being in constant contact with the Lord and his word. I think that this is situation what we all go through sometimes. It is hard to see that end of the tunnel when is so dark. But if you follow the road it will lead you out. The trouble of creating your own “light” is that it isn’t bright enough to see the end of the tunnel. It will only light up the things around you.

It seems that Isaiah is speaking about Jesus in this passage because this is what Jesus had to go through when they crucified him. Jesus never cursed those who were punishing him but always relied on the Lord for his protection. When Jesus was taking on our sins he had to be separated from God because of our sins. This is the way that he suffered for us. The Messiah was vindicated on the day of the resurrection. And he will be vindicated again when he appears again during the rapture. We need to take on the character quality of trusting in the Lord for our justice. We know in the end we will be vindicated.

According to Isaiah in the Last Days the Israelites will be gathered around. God does seem to love Jews who haven’t trusted in the Messiah Jesus yet but He loves us all and we all haven’t trusted the Messiah. The way that we can show our love for the Jews is to support them.

People tend to disregard or even discriminate against aliens in their country because they want to feel that they are better than those who are of a different color. If they speak a different language then they might be discriminated because they don’t trust a person that talks different than them. I think that we can increase our love for people of other nationalities be associating with them and including them in our everyday activities. To be a light to the nation’s means that we are doing the things that we should be doing. We are always in contact with God and always trying to please him.

I think that the sense that God “bring prosperity and create disaster” is that when we and in communication with God then we have a prosper mind. We can think of the positive and not all the negative things around us. But the since that he create disaster is that when we don’t have God then there is that whole in us that needs to be filled and that is when the evil one comes in. God is not the source of evil. We are!! If we would stay connected to Him, then we will be blessed and we won’t be out looking for evil. So since we know that God is the source of all good things we should be staying connected to him.

The only way that Cyrus could have been called by name more than a century was by divine guidance. Cyrus was “anointed” by God in the sense that God was using him to accomplish what He wanted done. God still uses unbelievers to this day to accomplish His purposes. Look at all the good things that the unbelieving do. This only way this could happen is for God to be using them. This tells us that God can do anything that He wants and can use anybody to accomplish is mission. We are called not to judge others.

I can fulfill my purpose to show God’s glory by talking to him daily and to do the things that pleases him. I can help others and be thankful for all that he has done for me. We can witness by telling others about God and Jesus. We can proclaim his praise by telling others what he has done for us. The obstacle that I face in fulfilling these purposes is me. Sometimes it embarrasses me to witness as to how great my God really is. I could benefit from fulfilling God’s purpose by being more confident about what I am doing.