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Gleanings From The Word

Category: Isaiah

  • Dancing with Joy

    Two trees dancing with joy

    Yesterday we went to a friend’s home for our weekly community group meeting. The first thing I saw when I exited the car was these two trees dancing with joy.

    Technically, I was experiencing Visual pareidolia. It’s a psychological phenomenon where your brain recognizes familiar patterns—especially faces—in random or vague stimuli. Humans are particularly wired to spot faces, so we tend to “find” them in things like clouds, tree bark, rocks, or even shadows.

    It happens to me a lot. It’s just the way I am wired. Yet, you don’t need a lot of imagination to look at the picture and see two trees dancing with joy.

    That image got me thinking about the state of the created world, both now and in the future. Right now, it is suffering and groaning.

    For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  Romans 8:22-23

    That will change. The Lord will set everything right.

    “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

    Isaiah 55:12-13

    That day is coming, for the Lord has promised it. Christians are the only people who have a true reason for hope. We ought to be giving thanks, singing, dancing, and praising God more.

    He gives us fresh mercies every morning, and He will deliver on his promises.

    I long for the days when the mountains break forth, and the trees clap their hands and dance. How about you?

    In the interim, remember his blessing and promises and rejoice.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

    The Gospel – Spreading Joy
    # Right Belief Must Become Right Living
  • Clean Laundry – Clean Hearts

    Clean Laundry – Clean Hearts

    Woman washing laundrt in Mexico c1930's original photograpger unknown

    Yesterday morning, as I finished my coffee and writing Gleanings, I prepared to go to my aquafit class. Before I left, I threw a load of laundry on to wash.

    A perfectly ordinary task, but it got me thinking. We are blessed with a machine that tends to the laundering, and another that tends to the drying. We don’t have to haul water to do it or carry our laundry down to a creek and wash it by hand, like this lady from Mexico in the 1930s.

    I not only have enough clothes to launder, but also clothes to wear while the laundry is being done and while enough clothes accumulate to do a load.

    I like clean clothing. I confess that at the end of the day, I’m not always fresh.

    Clean clothes are a very pleasant luxury that we take for granted sometimes.

    So are clean hearts. Before we come to Christ, we are dead in our sin. We have no concept of how repulsive our sin is to a God who is completely and perfectly holy. We get quite used to walking in our sin and even wallowing and rolling in it.

    Now the Holy Spirit restrains people, even those who are not His. We have no concept of how depraved we could be if the restraints of the Spirit and the rules of society were to be removed,

    Every act of an unbeliever is sin, even our so-called good deeds, because “without faith it is impossible to please God” Hebrews 11:6.

    That is a pretty astounding statement. Yet it is true.

    Fortunately for us not only is God perfectly holy and righteous, He is also merciful and just. Sinners who receive the penalty due their sin, eternal torment. That is justice. Do the crime and you do the time, Perfectly reasonable and fair.

    Yet he makes the offer of mercy. I am not going to get into the debate about the theology of election here, wherever you fall on the topic as a believer you understand some are saved and none of those by merit. That is mercy and grace. The penalty due us has been paid by Christ.

    The Psalmist understood that our hearts and minds need laundering

    Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:1-12

    The Lord Spoke through the prophet Isaiah (1:18)

    Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

    Clean laundry is a luxury, and it stays clean only until I wear it again. Cleanhearts and minds covered in the blood of Christ remain clean forever. Our flesh may fall back into patterns of sin, but when we are His, He does not reject us. He cleanses us anew.

    Until next time, I wish you clean clothing enough to wear and, more importantly, a fresh, clean heart from Christ and an appreciation for what He has done for you.

    Be blessed

    Kevin

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