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Happy Aloha Friday, Beloved. Did you see the moon Wednesday night? It was so-o-o-o BIG and BEAUTIFUL! I hope someone got a moonshot that night. If you did, can you email it to me at champion3r@aol.com, please? I would love to post it, and tag it with your name if you wish. Here’s today’s Scripture Quote:
Isaiah 26:4 (NLT)
Trust in the LORD always, for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock
Isaiah 26:4 (KJV)
Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength
When I was growing up there were two particular quiz shows on TV that I really enjoyed. One was You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx, and the other was Who Do You Trust? hosted by Johnny Carson. These shows ran from the late 50s to the early 60’s. (Visit You Bet Your Life and Who Do You Trust? for details). The basic format for both was to have the host, an announcer, and two people – usually a man and a woman – and the couple would be asked a short series of questions. The goal of the game was to win a small monetary prize. The goal of the show was laughter. Both hosts were extraordinary comedians, and some of the broadcasts became classics.
That trivia tidbit was prompted by this passage in Isaiah. “Who do you trust?” Isaiah says the ultimate source and goal of Trust is God. Isaiah uses a double-take on God’s name, here translated a Lord God or Lord Jehovah. The first part is the Hebrew name jah, and the second one we recognize a transliteration of God’s name for Himself: YWHW. The two names put together emphasize in the highest possible sense the permanent and ubiquitous, self-existent, immutable One-ness of God. There is no higher source of protection, love, strength, or safety and therefore no superlative to the confidence we can have in God’s steadfastness. Isaiah is confirming Israel’s unfaithfulness and affirming God’s unchanging care for them. Think of it as “You’ve tried the rest. Come back to the BEST.” Through all the millennia, this was the central failing of God’s Chosen People: They put their trust in something less than God.
Isaiah says God is The Rock. One poetic expression of that Hebrew term is “The Rock of Ages.” Other poetic references to The Rock come from psalms, I think there are at least 20, and in all of them God is a sheltering and safe refuge, protection from enemies, and an abode for the weary. We have other images about The Rock as in the Rock of Gibraltar, Rock-Solid Truth, Founded on The Rock, and even Plymouth Rock. The connotation is something that endures for an unimaginably long period of time in comparison to human life. So, if we combine the two ideas – the intensification of God’s name as Lord God or Lord Jehovah plus the idea of endurance beyond human comprehension, then there is the sense that God is the only completely and eternally trustworthy being in all of eternity. We can, or at least ought to, always put our trust in Him without fear of His failing us. There is absolutely no adverse human condition in which confidence in God will be unfruitful – not terror or tragedy, not trials or tribulations, not even in death should we fail to trust in His sheltering love and protection. He is The Rock that gets us to higher ground. He is the Stone Mountain that shelters us from every storm. We cannot compare him to earthly rock for there is no comparison. It is His eternal permanence and power that stand in stark contrast to the impermanence of everything The World presents to us – even the Earth He created is ephemeral and super-finite compared to the LORD GOD. Those who place there trust in Him have placed their trust in His eternal permanence and power. There is no comparative, no superlative, and no equal to Him. He is ALMIGHTY GOD ETERNAL. Yes, He is an Awesome God!!
The passage is part of a song Isaiah declares will be sung by The People when God makes his Salvation known. The song continues: “Yet we have this assurance: Those who belong to God will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy! For God’s light of life will fall like dew on his people in the place of the dead!” (Isaiah 26:19)
In a later passage God tells Israel through Isaiah:
“Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” (Isaiah 44:8) The Bible – His Story – is replete with accounts of God choosing Israel, Israel responding with allegiance, Israel forgoing their allegiance, God’s correction for there errors, and Israel’s repentance and return to God. It is the story of all our lives; each of us experiences the same cycle as the Nation Israel experiences throughout the Bible. We chose to place our trust, our devotion, and our life’s energy in something-less-than-God: Ourselves, drugs, money, fame, a sports team, physical pleasure, “The Force,” science, and every other form of false god. (See June 4, 2010) All of these originate from The World and point to the Accuser a/k/a the Deceiver. Why? Beloved, if only I could answer that!
In the past several years, we have seen how unreliable the financial world can be. Greed and indifference caused suffering for hundreds of thousands of people just in this country. Around the world, the numbers are staggering. We will be recovering from this economic earthquake and tsunami for decades. Does I mean to tell you then that if you place your trust in God all the difficulties in your life with melt away like snow in the desert? No, you know better than that. People suffer, people die, people cause more suffering, people get saddened or hurt by others, and people cannot stay strong and faithful FOREVER just on their strength alone. Young lovers will swear by it, but their “forever” kind of love is no match for God’s steadfast, enduring, unchanging and unchangeable, 100%-pure Love.
Psalm 146:3 tells us not to put our trust in powerful people or any mortal human. They don’t have the power to save us. Only God has that power to save and even to protect. In Micah, Chapter 7, the prophet says “Do not trust in a neighbor; do not have confidence in a friend. From her who lies in your bosom, guard your lips. But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” (Micah 7:5,7)
These are scary times – if you are of The World. There are many around the world who expect Spaceship Earth to rattle to pieces in just a few hundred days. We have been here for thousands and thousands of years, and in the time the Earth has shown few signs of self-destruction. If you are in The World, but no of The World, there’s no person, place, thing, idea, or even spirit that can make you afraid. If you are in Christ Jesus, you are in the “Cleft of the Rock that shelters the dry weary land.” It makes no difference what happens to The World because whatever it is will be for The World. If you have your trust, your refuge, and your strength IN GOD JEHOVAH, well The World is the background noise 98% drowned out by the Angel’s Chorus of the Ages, the Eternal Symphony, and that odd little tune God hums to himself just loud enough for us to hear: I AM THAT I AM AND I AM ALL WHO I AM, I AM YW YWHW, CREATOR OF ALL THAT IS AND LORD OF ETERNITY.
I’ll tell you what, when I remember to remember that, ain’t nuthin gonna get me down!!
Share-A-Prayer
For discernment and deeper faith for our teens who are under constant attack by The World and the Accuser, that they will climb up and into The Rock to defy temptation – Let us pray to the LORD.
For Christians everywhere who face the challenges of holding faith closer to their hearts than they hold The World – Let us pray to the LORD.
For men and women of all faiths, that they will realize that Peace is the realization of righteousness everything in which they believe – Let us pray to the LORD.
For family and friends who are dealing with life-threatening illnesses, that they will find endurance, strength, and healing in The Rock and in our loving prayers for them – Let us pray to the LORD.
For family, friends, community members, and people everywhere who are being wiped out by this economic crisis, that they may find meaningful work in sufficient quantity and quality to restore their losses – Let us pray to the LORD.
For those who lead and those who serve, that they will do so with Rock-Solid resolve to regard the needs and rights of every living soul, every living thing, and every speck and moment of Creation as Sacred to them because it is Sacred to God – Let us pray to the LORD.
Praise Reports
Thanks be to God for the excellent progress made by Gabrielle Giffords and others injured in Tucson, for the families of those whose loved-ones were injured or killed, and for the millions of prayerful supporters who have taken all this to The Rock – Let us give thanks to The LORD.
Thanks be to God for the excellent progress made by MBN member FO and thanks also for all the prayers and kind wishes – Let us give thanks to The LORD.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for watching over our leaders even in the times of greatest danger so that we know we can continue to rely on their service – Let us give thanks to The LORD.
Thank you Spirit of the Living God for inspiring us and guiding us to be confident in The Rock of Ages, a very present help in time of need – Let us give thanks to The LORD.
Please visit the Share-A-Prayer link to add more.
Thank you beloved for welcoming these little messages. Not as many of you as I hoped have become subscribers, so that is why today I sent just the link to this message. Please just take a couple of minutes and click on the word Subscribe in the right column or click on this link: Subscribe . You just enter your E-Mail address. Then you’ll get an E-Mail asking you to unscramble a kooky looking word, and bingo! You’re a subscriber! Thanks. I appreciate your help with that.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved
chick
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