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| Isaiah 58
1 "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice
like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house
of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem
eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just
decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 'Why have
we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled
ourselves, and you have not noticed?' 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling
and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot
fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is
this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble
himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on
sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to
the Lord? 6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose
the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the
oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food
with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when
you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own
flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the
dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness
will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help,
and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of
oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you
spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the
oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night
will become like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you always; he
will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your
frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose
waters never fail. 12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and
will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of
Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 "If you
keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please
on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy
day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not
doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your
joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the
land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth
of the Lord has spoken. | | |
| "God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes
where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has
infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is
in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of
wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."
-Bono | | |
| I am a heretic.
I no longer believe the accepted theology[and lifestyle] of the church.
I've had problems with it for years.
I always felt that it contradicted with the Bible. I just couldn't explain it well.
--I believe the bible and the radical words of Jesus to be truth.
I believe that love requires action.
I believe that Jesus came to heal and love the spiritual and physical poor, the hurting, the destitute, the abandoned.
Maybe you won't be able to call me a "Christian" anymore, but certainly if you needed a new name a "follower of Jesus" would do just fine.
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I feel like I can't read the Bible anymore--
I've reached the point that I need to put it down and just do what it says.
[Don't worry I'm gonna keep reading the Holy Scriptures]
But I am fed up with not doing what I have always known to be true.
This idea Jesus had.
Of truly surrendering all to love the world, and work towards bringing
the kingdom of heaven and helping bring about restoration to all of
creation.
Relinquishing family ties, national idenity, earthly riches.
Taking the narrow road with a death/tourture device on your back[taking up your cross and following daily]
I really don't get how people can honestly read the Bible and believe
what they believe and live the way they live- I am ashamed that I have
put off what I've known to be true for so long.
It is just so simple. But we've put up walls--volumes and volumes of books of theology-- to separate us from it.
Go read Matthew 5-7 and follow some of the cross references. Go read
any of the prophets, even go read Deuteronomy. Heck read any part of
the Bible in context, without your "theology" and you'll be blown away.
So it's really simple. I know how I want to live.
-Matt Merola
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