7.31.10

  What a dreary day!  I can't explain how much I love rainy days and thunderstorms.  Today Kyle and I got to relax for the first time in probably months-- he watched Sportscenter all morning and I read a book.  I plan on spending tonight watching Remember Me (featuring my fav vampire, Robert Pattinson) and eating Greeks pizza. WIN.
  Today is Saturday, the day before worship.  What a fantastic day to think about some fantastic scripture.  Today's passage is short, it can be found in Micah 6:8.  It says,
"⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
       And what does the LORD require of you?
       To act justly and to love mercy
       and to walk humbly with your God."

Read it, love it, live it.  

7.30.10

  I am completely and utterly obsessed with everything Russian.  Literature, politics, language, music, and particularly history.  I'm not sure when this started, but ever since I was a tiny girl, I have been reading any books I can find on the matter.  One part of Russian history that I have always been oddly fascinated with is the Romanov family line, and more distinctly, the end of it.  I have spent years of my life pouring over books, watching documentaries, and just being a genuine geek about it.  Why am I mentioning this?  Long story short, today I was reminded of how much I love a passage in Isaiah 58.  They don't really have anything to do with each other (haha sorry), but for some reason they connected in my mind.  

  This little gem is found in a section of scripture where Isaiah is talking about true fasting and what it really means to fast.  Before joining the Church, I knew what it meant to fast, but this passage puts a whole new perspective on it-- I would strongly encourage anyone who actually reads this to check it out.  For those of you who are too lazy (which is okay sometimes haha), let me give you a brief summary:  Heavenly Father is annoyed because the Israelites seek Him out day after day, calling to Him and claiming to be righteous when REALLY they are doing whatever they want and hurting each other, not to mention Heavenly Father.  I mean, He flat out says "You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.  Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself?" (Is. 58:5a).  WOW... BUT THAT'S NOT ALL, FOLKS!  He continues saying, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:  to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" (Is. 58:6-7).  Double WOW. These verses kind of leave me with the same feeling that I get when I look up at the starry sky on a clear night, this infinitely tiny feeling.  

  The next verse and a half are the ones that came into my mind today and are just AWESOME.  They take away that feeling of insignificance and really lift me up.  I would recommend reading them aloud; I really got into that (haha).  So, without further ado, Isaiah 58. 

True Fasting

 ¹ "Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
       Raise your voice like a trumpet.
       Declare to my people their rebellion
       and to the house of Jacob their sins.

 ² For day after day they seek me out;
       they seem eager to know my ways,
       as if they were a nation that does what is right
       and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
       They ask me for just decisions
       and seem eager for God to come near them.

 ³ 'Why have we fasted,' they say,
       'and you have not seen it?
       Why have we humbled ourselves,
       and you have not noticed?'
       "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
       and exploit all your workers.

 ⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
       and in striking each other with wicked fists.
       You cannot fast as you do today
       and expect your voice to be heard on high.

 ⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
       only a day for a man to humble himself?
       Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
       and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
       Is that what you call a fast,
       a day acceptable to the LORD ?

 ⁶ "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
       to loose the chains of injustice
       and untie the cords of the yoke,
       to set the oppressed free
       and break every yoke?

 ⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
       and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
       when you see the naked, to clothe him,
       and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

 ⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
       and your healing will quickly appear;
       then your righteousness ^[a] will go before you,
       and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

 ⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
       you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
       "If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
       with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

 ¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
       and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
       then your light will rise in the darkness,
       and your night will become like the noonday.

 ¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
       he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
       and will strengthen your frame.
       You will be like a well-watered garden,
       like a spring whose waters never fail.

 ¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
       and will raise up the age-old foundations;
       you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
       Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

 ¹³ "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
       and from doing as you please on my holy day,
       if you call the Sabbath a delight
       and the LORD's holy day honorable,
       and if you honor it by not going your own way
       and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

 ¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the LORD,
       and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
       and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
       The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

**Most of the scriptures used in these blogs are from the NIV translation.  Sorry folks, it's what I grew up with :) **

7.29.10

  Sometimes I really struggle to read new scriptures.  And trust me, there is always something new that I have not yet read.  Usually when this occurs I go back and hit up some of my favorites.  You know, the ones that you just can't get enough of.  Anywho, in order to satiate my hunger for scripture study I have decided to get a blog.  I know these things may not seem to make sense together (haha) but trust me, I will find a way.  

  Today at work Heavenly Father reminded me of the first time I truly heard this scripture.  It is my FAVORITE (am I allowed to say that?) and I was seriously blessed to be reminded of how thankful I am for it.  This passage is a precise testament of what Heavenly Father has commissioned humanity to consummate.  I mean, check out what happens: Isaiah SEES the Lord and is in His presence.  He witnesses the seraphs worshipping Heavenly Father, and then he cries out in his uncleanliness.  THEN something truly radiant ensues... the voice of the Lord rings out, calling for a representative of His Kingdom to go forth and fulfill the purpose that every Christian is called to attempt.  Isaiah, who I can imagine is incredibly caught up in the emotion and wonder of it all, steps forward crying out, "Here am I! Send me!"  When I think about that, WHOA... I am astonishingly overwhelmed.  To think that Isaiah, a humble servant (albeit significant one) of the Lord could come forth to God's clear calling just blows my mind. Oh, the courage one must possess to hear the whispers of our Father and to fulfill the covenants between us!  So, all that being said, take a minute and check it out.

Isaiah's Commission  
 ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:
       "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
       the whole earth is full of his glory."

 ⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

 ⁵ "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

 ⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

 ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
      And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

 ⁹ He said, "Go and tell this people:
       " 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
       be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'

 ¹⁰ Make the heart of this people calloused;
       make their ears dull
       and close their eyes. ^[a]
       Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
       hear with their ears,
       understand with their hearts,
       and turn and be healed."

 ¹¹ Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"
      And he answered:
       "Until the cities lie ruined
       and without inhabitant,
       until the houses are left deserted
       and the fields ruined and ravaged,

 ¹² until the LORD has sent everyone far away
       and the land is utterly forsaken.

 ¹³ And though a tenth remains in the land,
       it will again be laid waste.
       But as the terebinth and oak
       leave stumps when they are cut down,
       so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."