Old Jerry

Jesse was David’s father. If you follow the ancestry of Jesus, it will lead you back to Jesse. The attributes that the Jesus will have due to the Spirit of God upon him is wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and He will fear God. We learn that He will be a righteous judge and He will always be faithful. The one that seem to be victims of injustice and oppression are the poor and meek of the world. Those that were involved in the in justice will be killed.

I think that the reason that we humans tend to pass laws that oppress the weak and poor is because we put the rich and famous in power. The only way that they can show their authority is to pass laws that oppress the weak and poor. We as Christians can help put people in power that is not willing to do these things. When they happen we can campaign against them and try to get the law overturned. We can donate to organizations that take care of the poor.

I think that the part of text that convinces me that the Child/Son is the Messiah himself is the name that He is given. The thing I learn from the four word pairs describing Him is that He is going to be a great counselor, He is going to be My God and everlasting Father and that He will bring peace. The saving attribute that I need most in life right now is that he is My God and the everlasting Father.

I think that the way that Yahweh is a “stumbling stone” and “a trap and snare” is because He has put in us the intuition to do things that are right. One of the things that we have is a place in our hearts for Him. Therefore if we aren’t doing what He wants us to do our conscience will bug us until we change our ways.

The gist of Isaiah’s prophetic instruction to Ahaz was to keep calm because God is going to take care of everything. He will not lose the kingdom if he does what God tells him. I think that reason that Ahaz chose to disregard the instruction because he didn’t have the faith that it took to believe in the message that Isaiah had told him about what God had said. So Ahaz decided to make an alliance with Syria. The consequence of this disobedience was that Ahaz gave a lot of gold and silver and they still didn’t get the protection that he wanted. Sometimes we do think we are smarter than God because we think that we want to control our lives and God doesn’t know what we want. Therefore we always want to do things our way because we think we know what is best.

I think that Isaiah is called to the impossible mission of trying to teach the people what God is trying to teach him. But the people will not believe him and the more he tries to convince them, the more they will not believe the truth. The parable that Jesus quoted this passage is the parable of the sower. In this parable there is plenty of frustration in preaching the gospel because it is going to fall on deaf ears and hardened hearts. But there is plenty of hope because those that receive the Word will spread it and be able to tell it to others.

Isaiah’s reaction to the vision is that of being an unclean man and that he should not have looked on to the Lord. But since he did then he will surely die. God deals with fear by telling him that since he has repented of his sins then he is clean. So God touched his lips with some burning coal. After Isaiah’s cleansing then the Lord asked who He could send and Isaiah responded by saying that he should send him. I hope that I am responding in the same way that Isaiah responded.

I think that Yahweh revealed himself in this way to Isaiah because He wanted Isaiah to see Him as He really is. He was showing Isaiah that it was He that created all things and that the things that Isaiah sees were done by His mighty power. From the seraphim’s chant we learn that our God is that almighty God. We see that He Holy, Mighty, and the creator of all things.

The vision that the vintner had for the vineyard is that it would have a great harvest of the best grapes that there could be. He did all he could to have the best vineyard by planting the choice vines, built a watchtower to watch over it and made a wine vat. When the crop came in it was nothing but wild grapes. Then he decided to remove its hedge and let it be devoured. The parable means that God has done everything to protect us but if we are not productive and continue under his protection then we will be devoured by the world.

This prophecy tells us that God is going to accept everybody that believes in Him. He will be the only God there is. So the plans for the Jews are also the same that they will also believe in the One that can save them. We will all be feed and we will no longer be spiritually hungry and that God is going to resolve all disputes and we will no longer have any enemies. What a glorious day that will be.

The way that Judah is confused about its identity is that they are rebelling against God. They don’t know who they belong to. The consequences of Christians today suffering from such identity confusion is that they no longer believe in Jesus. They will start conforming to the world standards and forget about their Christian background. They are doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. They are not seeking justice, nor are they correcting the oppression and they are not bringing justice to the fatherless nor are they pleading the widow’s cause. God wants them to change their ways and be obedient to him then the things in the land will be good but if they rebel then they will suffer.

The actual request being made of God in this benediction is to make it possible for us to do his will and to work with us to please him through Jesus Christ. The thing that “pleases” God is to do well and to give generously. If we love him then we would want to please him. Just we did with our parents. We loved them and we were always trying to please them.

We are called upon to praise God in all that we do and live out our lives praising Him. These offerings please God.

It gave them the assurance that they could always count of God being there. He always has been and He will always be there. This is the same for me that it assures me that He will always be there. We know what Jesus did while he was here on earth and everything he did then we can count on it still happening today.

We can recognizer greed in ourselves when we see ourselves not will to give away things. When we keep things that we no longer need and try to sell them. Not be willing to support our churches or those that are doing things that promote Christian ideas. I think that an earmark of a greed-free life would be to give things away and feel good about it. Our security for the future should be God. The promise is that God will never leave us or forsake us.

Hospitality to strangers and visiting prisoners relate to brotherly love because you are inviting them into God’s world. You are showing them kindness and are willing to feed them. I have a tough time with brotherly love. When I go down to Mexico on mission trips that brotherly love pours out of me I guess because they are so loving. But other than that I am weak in brotherly love.

It is very healthy to fear God. We are to respect Him and do as he says in the bible. If we follow His commands that is fearing God. The fear of God becomes unhealthy when we don’t do anything because we are afraid that we would offend God if we did. We cannot go into hiding because we fear God. If we love God and are doing the things that He says then we will have no fear.

The writer of Hebrews is teaching that salvation comes from God and if we follow Him then we will be holy. Habitual sin will deprive us of heaven. We will be continually in sin and when we are it is hard to think about anything else. Therefore we will stop worshiping God and following him so this will deprive us from heaven.

It is not true that “God never punishes anyone”. Punishment fits into the larger overall concept of discipline and child-rearing by letting us do what we think is right and then letting us suffer the consequences. When we suffer the consequences then we can learn from that. But we are faced with difficult situations sometimes and maybe not of our own that we need to lean on Jesus but then again if we make the wrong choice then we will suffer the consequences. The purpose of God’s discipline is to correct our ways so that we will be able to enter the Kingdom of God.

I find it very hard to look at my struggles and hardships as the Father’s discipline and training. I know that a lot of things that is done are because of some of my choices. Now I don’t know if that is the Father training me or just suffering the consequences of my choice. But anyway you look at it; it is still training us to make the right choice the next time.

I think that one of the reasons that spiritual warfare can so weary is because it is hard to point out in the physical the things that God is doing for us. We can’t see him and when someone who doesn’t believe in the Bible wants to argue with us they always point out the physical or science of things. We must continue to resist on and on because there is the possibility that God might want to bring that person to redemption and God is always using us to do this work. I have been overcome by Satan because of weariness and when I get away from him I am always brought back to the light.

The cloud of witnesses that mentioned in 12:1 is those who have gone before us and have been martyred. Not only have those that are mentioned in the Bible but there are a lot of witnesses since then that are also parted of the cloud of witnesses. The analogy of life of faith that is offered on 12:1 is one that running a race to overcome evil. We are to stay the course. Jesus is the “author” or “pioneer” of our faith because He is the one that we are trying to follow. He is the one that came to earth to show us the way to heaven. Jesus knew what lied ahead and was willing to do whatever it took to get to that goal. When they put him on the cross He finished what He had come to earth to do. When he was raised into heaven that was the end and He finished it for all of us.

They saw what God could do and knew that He could do the same with them. They had heard what had happened earlier and they wanted to help those who were defending God. At the Red Sea the Israelites’ had seen what God could do so they needed to trust him to help them. They did grumble about Him but in the end they followed God. The Egyptian army was arrogant and thought they could do anything they wanted to do.

Moses’ faith affected his willingness to suffer when he challenged the guard that was beating up on a fellow Jew and killed the guard. If he wouldn’t have stuck up for his fellow Jew he could have lived in luxury the rest of his life. The faith that created for Moses is after God called him back from tending the sheep gave him a vision of freeing all his fellow men. I know that I can do all things through Jesus Christ my savior.

The characteristic of a believer who lived his life as an “alien” and “stranger” here in earth is one that is always looking for his true home. He would be studying about his permanent residence and will be longing to be there. But the balance would be that we are to prosper in this life while we look for the one in the future.