Isaiah 58

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.

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Isaiah 58:1-14
How to Honor God 1 The LORD says, "Shout out loud. Don't hold back. Shout out loud like a trumpet. Tell my people what they have done against their God; tell the family of Jacob about their sins. 2 They still come every day looking for me and want to learn my ways.
They act just like a nation that does what is right, that obeys the commands of its God. They ask me to judge them fairly. They want God to be near them. 3 They say, 'To honor you we had special days when we gave up eating, but you didn't see. We humbled ourselves to honor you, but you didn't notice.' "But the LORD says, "You do what pleases yourselves on these special days, and you are unfair to your workers. 4 On these special days when you do not eat, you argue and fight and hit each other with your fists. You cannot do these things as you do now and believe your prayers are heard in heaven.

5 This kind of special day is not what I want.
This is not the way
I want people to be sorry for what they have done.
I don't want people just to bow their heads like a plant
and wear rough cloth
and lie in ashes to show their sadness.

This is what you do on your special days when you do not eat, but do you think this is what the LORD wants? 6 "I will tell you the kind of special day I want:
Free the people you have put in prison unfairly
and undo their chains.
Free those to whom you are unfair
and stop their hard labor.
7 Share your food with the hungry
and bring poor, homeless people into your own homes.
When you see someone who has no clothes, give him yours,
and don't refuse to help your own relatives.

8 Then your light will shine like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your God will walk before you, and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind.
9 Then you will call out, and the LORD will answer.
You will cry out, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
"If you stop making trouble for others,
if you stop using cruel words and pointing your finger at others,
10 if you feed those who are hungry
and take care of the needs of those who are troubled,
then your light will shine in the darkness,
and you will be bright like sunshine at noon.
11 The LORD will always lead you.
He will satisfy your needs in dry lands and give strength to your bones.
You will be like a garden that has much water, like a spring that never runs dry.
12 Your people will rebuild the old cities that are now in ruins;
you will rebuild their foundations.
You will be known for repairing the broken places
and for rebuilding the roads and houses.

13 "You must obey God's law about the Sabbath and not do what pleases yourselves on that holy day.
You should call the Sabbath a joyful day
and honor it as the LORD's holy day.
You should honor it by not doing whatever you please nor saying whatever you please on that day.
14 Then you will find joy in the LORD,
and I will carry you to the high places above the earth.
I will let you eat the crops of the land your ancestor Jacob had.

" The LORD has said these things.

Copyright Statement: New Century VersionThe Holy Bible, New Century Version®.Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’
Let God be true and every reason of the natural minded man be called a liar.

Romans 3:3 What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity [to His Word]? 4 By no means! Let God be found true though every human being is false and a liar, as it is written, That You may be justified and shown to be upright in what You say, and prevail when You are judged [by sinful men

This is so important, in an examples world, where compromise or minimization is rampant, we want to say, God doesn’t really mean that.
I want to challenge your faith. Read this passage as though God means what is said here…
He does mean it all, as He’s expressed it, so it is.
What does it mean to shout? Tell? Speak? Does it mean if we get our bravery up? Does it mean if we don’t feel intimidated or stupid? If we can convince people? No He says, “shout” and “tell” people when they sin! Oh my, THAT is not at all popular, but do we want popularity to send us to hell? It will. I guarantee it.
Secondly, is God our servant? We give up something “for God”, and we want a reward almost to the point of being demanding. Wow, I wonder what right we think we have to demand from God as if He is our servant-friend? When was truly the last time we all asked Him what He wants done and went out of His presence with full purposeful intention to make a plan to get done what’s on God’s “Honey Do” list?
I was thinking about service the other day. I was thinking of how I used to not like being asked to serve, like to help clean toilets, floors, pick up trash, serve in nursery, help get something ready for someone else.
Truly I would have rather been the someone else things were being readied for. It was like that was my longtime subconscious wish, to someday be served by others. Recently I read the passage about Jesus washing the disciple’s feet the other day and how He said to Peter who protested, “It must be this way for now”, then He said- “I’m doing it as an example to you, so you’ll go do likewise”….It has been mowing over in my mind for days now. Yesterday I “got it”.
Pride hinders service. Servants are lowly in nature, teachable, humble, not self exalted- DING!!!-
Satan-pride-self-exaltation. I will, I will, I will…..When I serve and love to serve in any capacity especially in lowliness, I conquer that evil that has tried to embed itself in the hearts of men from the beginning of time. My servant’s heart, my demonstration of service is the best Christ I can shine on anyone, ever.
So, do I do what I will (what I want) on God’s holy day, His day of rest, His Sabbath?
On the 7th day He rested…we’re still living in that “day”. If He rested then we get to get up and serve Him and those He loves.
Just recently I read that Rest/Sabbath means to “Celebrate”. God’s day is the day in my life when He gets what He wants, Yee hawww. God’s day is His day of declaration over my life. God’s day is when His due comes back His way….The day He celebrates His will being done, by those who, with their will that could rise above His, won’t allow an exalted will, and thus consciously expect His to be done in their life!
God, always, by His Divine nature, tells us the end form the beginning, and so He tells us the promises due ones obedient to His will.
We have grasped a hold of those promises and desire them, but do we want to then live for the promises, even when we’ve not done the will? We can’t have the promises without the will being executed. If you will, I will. That’s telling the end from the beginning. Do we want what it takes to get from the now to the then? Really or do we just like observing and cheering others on that way? Do we want to pay the price to get His will done? Do we want to die to self exaltation and self will? If we really do we will, do His will. If we do that, live like that, we will see what He sees, the blessing on generations forever.
That’s what this passage is speaking of.
So now ask the ? below……

Daily Meditation/Recital/Question
Ask myself daily: “What Page Am I On?”
The page of the Will? Who’s will? Mine or Thine? Yours, mine or ours? Or was it supposed to be His? Ahhh, yes.
Please look up and read Galatians 2:20