March 21, 2011

3-21-11 Monday, 6:59 am Springfield, 62 degrees, cloudy, birds singing

This will be the first full day of spring, and the high will reach 80. Yesterday worship was fulfilling, with many varied aspects to the four services, including the commissioning of Stephen Ministers. A group of students from Marshall, West Virginia attended the 8:15 am service, en route to a VIM trip in Texas. In the afternoon I met with several folks at the Meet-the-pastors coffee, and then with a college aged couple who are engaged. Between morning worship and afternoon meetings I rode the Concours south on 160 about 20 miles in the afternoon heat. The bike performed well after its tune up, new tires, and overall reconditioning. It is heavier and more powerful than the KLR, and seems to melt the miles away as purported by its advocates. It will be my all weather, long distance steed.

Isaiah 55

What a great chapter! It continues Isaiah’s celebration of the work of the Servant, and moves from a descriptive mode to a prescriptive mode. This chapter has two segments, verses 1-5 and 6-13. In verses 1-5 “everyone who thirsts” is invited to “come to the waters...listen carefully to me and eat what is good.” An everlasting covenant is offered, referencing the covenant with David, and extending it beyond the nation of Israel.

Verses 6-13 seem to me like a box of Sees candy – every word a morsel, every verse worth memorizing and tasting all day long – “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways.” (verses 6-9)

Verses 10 – 11 liken the word of God to rain which generates the harvest, and so God’s word “shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire.”

Lord, thirsty I have come to your waters. Spiritually poor I trust in you and live in your covenant of grace. Your Word is precious to me, watering my soul, and I desire to produce spiritual fruit in every season of my life, in every way possible. Use me today, on this day of rest and recreation as I live joyfully in your presence.