Deviant Pottery

*image courtesy of neadeau at www.sxc.hu

Isaiah 56-66 this morning.  Chapter 64, verse 8 caught my particular attention today.  This is a small reference to a larger truth that is explored by Jeremiah in chapter 18 of his book.  What struck me today was the thought of myself being the clay on God's spinning wheel.  For some reason, I combined this with the image of  Romans 12 where we are told to be living sacrifices.  Someone once said (Ken Davis?) that the problem with  living sacrifices is that they keep climbing down off the altar!  

Guilty!

By the thought occurred that sometimes we do this as the clay, too.

Grass, Flowers, Rain, Snow

*Image courtesy of DesertRat1 at www.sxc.hu

So I slacked off ran out of time last night and didn't do my entry on Isaiah 34-44.  However, the passage that stuck with me from yesterday tied neatly into today's passage.  Of course, I covered Isaiah 45-55 (one more day of consistency and the dream will be complete!) on my walk this morning.  Ironically, my walk was cut short by rain (the irony will soon become apparent), so I finished listening under my carport.

The key passage yesterday was Isaiah 40:7-8, and today was Isaiah 55, especially verses 10-11.  In chapter 40, we see that people may come and go, much like the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of God stands forever.  And in chapter 55 we see that this same eternal Word will not be found to be useless or powerless, but will accomplish the purpose God had for it, just as the rain and snow never fall without watering their intended ground.  

Where is my hope?  Where am I putting my confidence?  I say that the Bible is all we need.  I use words like inerrant, inspired, and sufficient*.  Do I really mean this?

I surely didn't use to.

Refuge for the Thorns

*image courtesy of www.sxc.hu
Listened to Isaiah 22-33 this morning. There was an interesting couple of verses in Chapter 27.

Ok, so this is one of Isaiah's vineyard songs, another being in chapter 5. In the whole book, the briers and thorns represent destruction of some kind. In 5:5-6, they come up after God removes his care and protection. In 7:23-25, they come up in the literal farmland when the area becomes desolate. In 9:18 they are consumed by fire as a metaphor of the consuming power of wickedness. It seems consistent to me with the parable/song in chapter 5 and the general tenor of the book that these briers and thorns represent the invading armies that will come as God's judgment. At the least, they represent the destruction these armies will bring. Ok, so briers and thorns = bad.

But then, the last time briars and thorns come up in Isaiah is in our passage today.

27:2-5 says:

Paul planted, Apollos watered...

Today was Isaiah 12-22. It's been a long day, and I'm tired, but I remember God speaking through Isaiah at one point and saying that the people had made great preparations for some plant (i'm ashamed at my fuzziness right now), but that it would not grow because He had not allowed it to be so. Ugh, that was horribly recalled. I'll have to look it up later and correct this entry.

The point was (and this is what I remember for sure) that we can lay all the plans we want, we can plant all we want, we can say all we want, but if God does not bless it will not succeed. After my chapters in Isaiah, I listened to Mac Brunson's sermon "Growing Deeper in the Things of God" and he echoed this point.

God provides.

Ashes for beauty

This morning I listened to Isaiah 1-11 on my NIV Audio Bible. I have begun to read through Isaiah at least 3 times in the last few years and get bogged down in the 30's nearly everytime. So, I've decided that I'll listen to 11 chapters a day on my morning walk for the next 6 days and be done in less than a week (assuming I drag myself out of bed everyday for my walk!). I decided this evening that perhaps I should write a bit each day on the passage I've heard.

I can't recall which chapter it was, but Isaiah prophesied against the "cows of Bashan" at some point this morning.