Wednesday's Bible Reading is Isaiah 11
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD - and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
What a beautiful picture of our Lord. As a team, this is who we are tasked with introducing our children to. How do we go about reflecting this wonderful person in our lives and in our teaching?
Verse 10 speaks of people rallying to Him, and in verse 15 we read that he makes the way easy for people to come to him. He dries up the seas and rivers that act as barriers to people.
We need to be aware of the barriers to children finding faith. We need to be praying for our children, that the barriers will be broken down, that the rivers will be dried up to allow them to cross. But most of all, we need to know that our wonderful Lord is able to do all this even without us!
Tim
The vision of the spirit filled man, the rule of justice, freedom from oppression, the shalom in the Kingdom is inspiring and raises our discipleship beyond the individual. But the inspiration is tempered by the world around us and life in the church.
'sick of sorrow /sick of pain' 'but hope and history won't rhyme'
I get an uncomfortable feeling about the return of the remnant. I can see Zionists using this to support the state of Israel and the images of swooping on Gaza and occupying The West Bank are ready made for proponents of a greater Israel. In my untutored state I cannot see an immediate rebuttal although I abhor such an interpretation .
Similarly, I get the same sense of discomfort in interpreting the vision of river barriers being removed in terms of barriers to faith being overcome. I cannot see that this passage could have been understood by Isaiah, or the people he was talking to, in this way.
However the concept of barriers to faith is a useful one. So what are they. Could be any of:- How we present the Gospel and the content of the bible. The character of Trekkers and the attitudes displayed there. The behaviour of the church. Competing or opposing messages from outside of the church. There may be some benefit in pursuing this.