Today's DB Isaiah 58 from TRC Daily Readings w/ Lena's Journalin'

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Isaiah 58:1-14
True and False Worship
1"Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Tell my people Israel F119 of their sins! 2Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to hear my laws. You would almost think this was a righteous nation that would never abandon its God. They love to make a show of coming to me and asking me to take action on their behalf. 3'We have fasted before you!' they say. 'Why aren't you impressed? We have done much penance, and you don't even notice it!' "I will tell you why! It's because you are living for yourselves even while you are fasting. You keep right on oppressing your workers. 4What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. 5You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like a blade of grass in the wind. You dress in sackcloth and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the LORD?
6"No, the kind of fasting I want calls you to free those who are wrongly imprisoned and to stop oppressing those who work for you. Treat them fairly and give them what they earn. 7I want you to share your food with the hungry and to welcome poor wanderers into your homes. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8"If you do these things, your salvation will come like the dawn. Yes, your healing will come quickly. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind. 9Then when you call, the LORD will answer. 'Yes, I am here,' he will quickly reply. "Stop oppressing the helpless and stop making false accusations and spreading vicious rumors! 10Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day. 11The LORD will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy, too. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. 12Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as the people who rebuild their walls and cities.
13"Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD's holy day. Honor the LORD in everything you do, and don't follow your own desires or talk idly. If you do this, 14the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and give you your full share of the inheritance I promised to Jacob, your ancestor. I, the LORD, have spoken!"
FOOTNOTES:F119: Hebrew Jacob.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Yesterday at our dinner table our 15+ year old asked us how is it we call one another Christians and then we complain about what one another does or does not do in behavior? She so wisely stated that we should not really be calling just anyone a Christian unless we really know them and neither should we call ourselves Christians, we should let others watch our lives and in reading about Christ, they might be able to say about us if they observe Him in us or not. I suggested that we, our family, call ourselves believers who are on the journey of following Christ, my husband said, we could say we are “Born Again” by God’s saving Spirit.
That was great table talk. Why would that come up? Why is the title of this passage “True and False Worship”?
People wear masks. Masks cover up who we are in the inward parts. Masks allow us to show people who we want them to see. Masks are like fig leaves, Adam sinned and took fig leaves and made an apron for himself. Man looks on the outwards appearance of things, but God looks straight inside the heart at what is true and what is real.
Do we believe in Jesus? Then we will live out our faith in a life f worship of Him. Maybe we just know of Him, if that’s the case, we may live whatever we really believe and go wherever we want to go.
There is a scripture in John 21 where Jesus speaks to John just before Jesus leaves earth, He says 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go."
When Jesus said , when you were young, he was saying immature and young in your faith, you were “allowed” to do as you saw fit. Stretching out the hands is maturity and submission to Lordship.That is true worship of God in demonstration, giving of one’s life for another, for others. Being led by the Spirit, being led by the Spirit who lives in the form of men. Wanting to be led, desiring to follow a good example. Being told what to do by one who follows and following, amidst rebellion in the nature etc.
This scripture we are reading through today is being written to those who say they follow Christ. Israel is a representative of the Living Body of Christ, the church.
The first complaint from the Lord towards His church is, you come to church, you come to look good, you come to hear, hear, hear, but do not change and do, you come always asking Me about your own needs, you want me(God) to be your servant….
Then you say to Me (God), I have been faithful to come to church for many years, I have fasted, I have served in nursery, I have tried to be good for You, tried to make You look good to the world that looks at church goers….
Like God owes us something, when He already sent His Son Jesus to show us His great love for us…..
While you “fast” you show how miserable you are, you don’t stop the disagreements and divisions that can easily come when more than just one person assembles together, you just remain as you are, not being changed into My Image and likeness. You keep the fig leaves on when I’ve made royal coats for you taken from a sacrifice I made and provided for your sins, a covenant covering, yet still you want to cover yourself.
It would be better if you never abstained from eating foods, if you would rather, stop division and disagreements. If you would be love in demonstration and act fairly with those closest to you. This is what I’m looking for a fast of self. A fast of flesh life and a breaking forth of true worship lived everyday. The peace of God ruling in real life situations. Like at work and at home and with people you see everyday, those who know who you really are, those who see you take off and put on the masks.
You wonder why the blessings of God have somehow been pent up from you, you’ve blamed and tried to negotiate with God concerning your good outward works, yet He sees inside of your physical and mental and spiritual walls. He knows how we are inside, whether we believe in Him or truly love Him.
Is it in our hearts to free prisoners, both naturally mentally and spiritually speaking? What would that actually take to do that? Are we willing to do and be what it would take to see someone through that process? Do we desire to help people, enough to invite them into our home hospitably? Doing this shows there’s nothing about us that needs to be hidden from sight.
Are we waiting for healing of our own body, souls or spirits? Give and it shall be given you…
What about God’s appointed day? Do we love to think of it and be a part of it, or can we not wait for it to come and go?
What excuses do we really have when Jesus gave it all for us?
It is amazing what humans can do when they set their minds to something. How many things they can fit into one day, how much money they can make to buy something, how many sacrifices it takes, even how much sleep they’ll lose on purpose to pursue a person or a purpose, etc. I’ve even seen people who are really ill and weak get up and go to work, or go out or rise up to help someone…Then when it come to serving or worshiping God…..How much do we do, how far do we go, of what do we sacrifice, etc?
Whom we love, we serve. Do we find ourselves serving God or money?
The greatest fast, the greatest sacrifice anyone can give is their own life laid down, as Jesus did, so we follow, if we are Christians. He laid down His self life first, His own desires. We can’t lay down another person’s desires, or make them sacrifice, the sacrifice has to be of me.
Your good at my expense, that’s covenant talk.

Daily Repetitive Verses:

John 3:17
You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing.