Devotions – James & Carolanne https://ptc.jamesandcarolanne.com Serving God as a web programmer with Digital Strategies. Sun, 11 May 25 20:16:05 +0000 en-US Isaiah 22 https://ptc.jamesandcarolanne.com/2012/03/09/isaiah-22 Wed, 21 Mar 12 11:57:35 +0000 https://ptc.jamesandcarolanne.com/?p=1606 Now at the outset, this chapter does ring of the "doom and gloom" variety.  It discusses the impending destruction of Jerusalem and how God is even more angered by the people because instead of mourning and repenting in the face of death, they are a) preparing for battle simply in their own strength and then b) leaving the result up to fate instead of asking God for His forgiveness and help.
You say, "Kill the ox and slaughter the sheep, eat meat and drink wine. Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!" (v. 13b)
The passage that really struck me though was a little further on.  Isaiah makes reference to a man named Shebna who supervises the palace.  Apparently this Shebna had a very high opinion of himself and yet God says that he will throw Shebna away and replace him with another.  This is where it gets interesting because in verse 22 God says this about the man who will replace Shebna, the palace administrator:
I will give him the key to the house of David—the highest position in the royal court. When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them.
THAT sounds familiar, doesn't it!  This is exactly what Jesus said of Peter in Matthew 19.
Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. (Matt. 19: 18-19)
There is also a warning here though.  In the Isaiah passage, God talks about how the man who replaces Shebna will be fastened like a peg in a solid place and will gain honor and respect.  In the analogy, all sorts of smaller containers will be hung off of this peg and "His father's family will gain increasing prominence because of him, including the offspring and the offshoots."  The warning comes at the very end though where God says that "the peg fastened into a solid place will come loose.  It will be cut off and fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut off." Now, in my mind, if we carry this analogy back over to the situation in the New Testament, we see Peter being set as the cornerstone on whom Jesus is going to build His church.  He is the peg on whom the offspring and offshoots (the bowls and containers) are being hung.  The question that comes immediately to my mind is whether the warning at the end has any connection to Peter and the church, or whether that part of the prophecy was simply for the Isaiah situation. If it was for the church, what does it mean?  Is the church going to be "cut off" in some way in the future?  There are a lot of possible situations and outcomes which can come to mind, but I'll leave the speculation alone for now.  Suffice to say that we the church should be very careful in our actions and decisions in order that we NOT come loose and be cut off.  Pauls seems to allude to this in Romans 11 where he says:
17 But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. 18But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root. 19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” 20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. 21 For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’t[f] spare you either.
If you have thoughts on this or any other insight, I'd love to hear it.  I hope you have been challenged and blessed by this.]]> Ephesians 1:3 https://ptc.jamesandcarolanne.com/2010/12/17/ephesians-13 Thu, 01 Dec 11 14:48:12 +0000 https://ptc.jamesandcarolanne.com/?p=1106 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. (Eph. 1:3 NLT) After a very brief introduction to the letter regarding who he is and to whom it is written (verses 1 and 2), Paul launches into this amazing description of God's wonderful love for us. When I was reading this, I got stuck on the phrase "has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms". What does that mean exactly? What ARE spiritual blessings? I would assume they include things like the spiritual gifts, the fruit of the Spirit, His presence, His love, ... I doubt I could ever come up with a complete list, but I think the most important one would be the blessing of Himself. He gave Himself to us, made Himself accessible to us and adopted us into His family. When I look honestly at myself and my life, I quickly realise that I'm really not worth much. I'm just one small voice in among 6+ billion others, each of whom also have their own lives, plans, goals, problems... Even all of us together, really are just ants crawling around on a globe, hurtling through space and time with no control over where it takes us. Yet, in spite of our insignificance, God, the almighty creator of everything that is, was and ever will be, has taken an interest in us. More than that, He VALUES us, as his prized possession. He values us SO much He sent His Son to become one of us, so that He might communicate more effectively with us and give us hope and a future, when we were destined for destruction.
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. - Jesus (John 10:10b NIV)
That's it for today. Maybe I'll write again one of these days and take on the next verse or two. Hope you found it inspirational. Now it's 12:30 and I'm tired and need to sleep.]]>