Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Thought:  To me, God's love of mystery, as demonstrated in His applications of grace, creates much awe in me of His plan and how it unfolds to all of us.

Question:  How has God revealed His mysteries to me?

Scripture:  Ephesians 3:3 (NIV):  "that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly."

The "administration of God's grace" to Paul, the giving of God by God to Paul, (that is, God's great "revealing"), is equivalent to "the mystery made known" to Paul.  What was the known mystery?  Refer back to 1: 9 & 10:  "And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."  The mystery is what Christ accomplished.  In Revelation we have the "mystery, Babylon" which is what man can accomplish.  These two are mysterious because they contain many secrets and processes, many parts and thoughts, when viewed bit by bit are perhaps confusing and unreadable; but when taken as a whole, the purposes are very clear and the end is seen.  Surely the old testament prophets knew very little of Jesus but that He would come and save.  We today who look back at all the accumulated prophecies and history see mucy more clearly the end-product of "the mystery."  During Paul's day they still struggled, perhaps in the very heart of the mystery, as Jew and Gentile were brought together; but today we see the beauty of that unification and understand what Christ accomplished.  Further ahead in Ephesians 5:32 Paul says that marriage is, and does demonstrate, a "profound mystery."  Two flesh join and become one.  This parallels Jew and Gentile joining and becoming one.  And both parallel Christ and the church (5:32b) becoming one.  The mysteriousness is that two diversities can ever join to become one at all!!  How can sinners be joined to a Holy God?  This is supreme dichotomy.  Yet that is exactly what happens in and through Christ.

Prayer:  Thank You, Father, for revealing more of Your mysteries through the gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, we ought to aspire to Paul's example and live for others.

Question:  In what way and to what purpose has God's grace been administered to us?

Scripture:  Ephesians 3:2 (NIV):  "Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you,"

Paul validates himself to being this kind of prisoner, showing he is not crazy to live this kind of life.  He proves his sincerety by reminding them that they have all heard the story of what happened to him on the road to Damascus, and affirming with them that this indeed was God sending grace.  He says God's grace was "administered" to him.  To me this means applied to Paul personally, specifically and purposefully; to be given authoritatively by One over him who can bestow it upon him exactly.  Paul says he knows God "administered" the grace for the Gentiles via himself.  He is clear, so clear, about his calling.  He knows his job.  (Do I know mine?  Do I see the purpose, the reason, God graces me?  Is it not for some others somewhere who need God?)

God never gives something to someone to have it dead-end there with them.  It is given to be given again.  Our gospel received will shine and live anew and afresh when we give it new and fresh to someone else who has never heard.  This is the nature of God Himself:  ever new and fresh, alive with love that flows and grows, never-ending and ever gracious.

Prayer:  Oh, precious Lord, may I act with responsibility and share the very grace You gave me with others near me.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, the apostle Paul is one very dynamic, if not the most powerful, of all the apostles.  We're so blessed to have his writings!

Question:  Am I willing to follow Paul's example and become a "prisoner" unto Jesus Christ?

Scripture:  Ephesians 3:1 (NIV):  "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the sake of you Gentiles--"

Paul has seen and shared the grand scope of God's fore-ordained plans which involve the eternal intent to unite Jews and Gentiles.  Now he says this is the reason he gives himself to the Gentiles:  to share this and make it clear to them that they are loved, accepted by God, covered in His grace and promised eternal life right along with the Jews.  Paul is extremely dedicated to telling this "mystery" to all Gentiles.  He allows himself to be "the prisoner of Jesus Christ," that is, he willingly puts himself into a life of captivity and bonds, bearing the name of Jesus to the entire world.  Paul is not free, (by his own choice), to live unto self; he is a willing bondslave to Christ.  To be a prisoner is an unwanted, unpleasant experience.  Paul is willing to undergo that as he goes from place to place preaching, taking the reproach and shame that comes from an unbelieving world, a world happy to trust in anything other than Jesus Christ.

Prayer:  Lord, work in me until Your love constrains me, moves me, to be the kind of selfless Christian, like Paul, that You want me to be--FOR OTHERS.  Amen.

Thought:  To me, God's power to reach and change and build me personally is fantastic and immeasureable!

Question:  Have you come to the full blessing of God's maximum inclusion of you into His "building project"?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:22 (NIV):  "And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."

Now Paul applies these truths about the church universal to another level:  the local church, the Ephesian Christians.  He says that "you too", any handful of believers anywhere, are currently being built together as well.  God is seeking to make of "you too" a dwelling for His Spirit.  The goal for both church universal and local is to be Spirit-filled, Spirit-indwelt.  I like the tense of verb here:  "are being built."  It is an on-going, present activity.  We are in process.  This is an encouragement.  No doubt any building project experiences moments of seeming defeat, downturn or even disaster, but the end results become the proof of the Master-Builder's ability.

Take this analogy down to another level:  past universality and locality, into the very life of the individual. "You too," an individual believer, are being "built together" to become an acceptable dwelling-place for God to live in.  "You too", individual Christian, are in process, day by day becoming more and more conformed to Jesus Christ, more and more full of His Holy Spirit.

"A dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" is a fantastic phrase to meditate upon.  God can live in us!  We used to be separated from Him completely, but when we received Christ, we began to "house" God.  Can The Living God Almighty be housed?  Yes!  He lives in thousands, millions of believers' hearts and is working to fill their lives with His Spirit!  What a fantastic and marvellous thing!  Praise the Lord!

Prayer:  Oh, my God and Master, praise Your Most Powerful Name!  Your strengthening and building up of me is SO WONDROUS--thank You!  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, we often take for granted the great "joining" we have to God through Christ.

Question:  Am I a "holy temple"?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:21 (NIV):  "In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord."

The cornerstone unites the whole building into one holy body--a temple to God.  Are not our bodies temples of the Holy Spirit?  And so all small "temples," joined by Christ's Spirit, make up the One Grand Temple, the Body of Christ, the church universal ("catholic").  We are joined to Christ.  Christ makes us one; no other force does.

The church "rises."  To me this means it grows up from its foundation, like walls erected as the next phase of a building.  Over the years, the church has done just that; grown up in diversity and size, various parts being added even now.  But the cornerstone makes the building become strong, straight and true, that is, "holy":  "in him the whole building is joined...", and as the branches in a vineyard cannot live unless they abide in the vine (receiving its life "juice", the sap), so we must remain in Christ truly to be part of the "whole building."  We also "rise" in Christ in the sense of His resurrection power.  Christ is the first to be resurrected from the dead; we will all follow later only because His power was established as the beginning groundwork.

Prayer:  Holy God, it amazes me always, the amount of blessing and goodness You give us in Christ.  Often I am overwhelmed with it all!!  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, great rejoicing should spring from our hearts when we see God's great plan of "the church" and Christ, its cornerstone.

Question:  Have we studied all about the prophets and disciples enough to know and appreciate what our "church" is founded upon?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:20 (NIV):  "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone."

This God-ordained change was well-established by God throughout time's eras.  The church, united from many nations and races, a world-wide brotherhood in Christ, was already a plan to God before He invented time.  The Old Testament prophets foresaw its scope and beauty, and the apostles brought it to inception in God's timing, after Christ departed the earth.  These men of God, filled by His Spirit, (thus united in theme, doctrine and purpose), laid the groundwork, the "foundation", for the church to take its footing.  That Jew and Gentile would unite was no freak accident, no new development at all.  It was purposed all along.  This great fore-ordained foundation is unmoveable and flawless because it has as its cornerstone, Jesus Christ.  A cornerstone sets the pace for all other stones.  A cornerstone is primary and determines what kind of building will be produced.  It undergirds and anchors all other stones.  It supports.  It is laid first.  And it becomes unseen underneath the superstructure.

The word "himself" here, to me, shows how God became flesh to join the prophets and apostles in making up the foundation of the church.  The church is based on the blood of these martyrs, Christ being the extreme example.  All the apostles died as martyrs, and scripture often refers to the fact that the prophets were slain.  Great sacrifice established the existence of the church.  

Prayer:  I praise You, Oh, Lord, for the great forethought You had and the great pre-planning You did, out of love for us, to establish the groundwork of Your dynamic church.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, our society has many members who are in the midst of a "need to belong somewhere" crisis.

Question:  Now that you belong to Jesus, has it erased your lonliness?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:19 (NIV):  "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,"

Jew and Gentile combine, "in Christ," into a family.  The atmosphere is one of belonging, of sharing the family name and inheritance (whatever the family head owns).  Formerly they had experienced strangeness and alienation, but now they are blessed with the opposite.  God has made the change, not they.  Nothing is worse than a sense of not belonging somewhere.  "Where is my home?" some might cry.  Christ is "a friend that sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24b), and if you have no one else, all you'll ever really need is to know Jesus.  He'll be yours, and you'll be His, forever!

Prayer:  Father, I'm so glad I'm a part of Your family.  What a great privilege!  Bathe me every day, Lord, in a new sense of belonging to You.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, God's Holy Spirit always brings and creates peace.

Question:  Have we ever questioned the existence of the Trinity?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:18 (NIV):  "For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit."

Access, what a satisfying word!  Christ's most fundamental purpose in coming to earth was to provide us access to His Father.  Without Jesus we have no way to the Father.  There is one Mediator between God and man and that is the Man Christ Jesus.  Jesus declared Himself to be the only Way, (John 14:6).  And Paul declares that this access can be shared by both Jew and Gentile; both attempting law-keeper and lawless one.  The access is to the Father, of course through Christ, but also "by one spirit", that is, the Holy Spirit.  Here we see the Trinity at work.  When Jew and Gentile enter into the same spirit, that force is what unifies them and empowers them toward peace and nearness to God.

Prayer:  Divine Father, thank You for sending both Your Son and Your Holy Comforter, the Holy Spirit to us!  The result of all three of You at work in our lives is access to You:  all "three" of You!  Amen.

Thought:  To me, the universality of the gospel is a much-needed and very powerful quality.  It is available to all and helps each of us right where we are.

Question:  What does it mean to be "near" the Kingdom of God?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:17 (NIV):  "He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near."

Jews were nearer, I suppose, because of their exposure to the things of God, especially the Law.  Christ told certain ones in the gospels that they were "near" the Kingdom of God.  Usually it was due to their great faith.  Gentiles were "far away" because of lives lived with no tradition of Law or heritage in the things of God.  But Jesus preached to both.  This is the beautiful thing about God.  He is no respecter of persons.  All need Him universally.  The message of the preaching was, and ever is, peace.  What another beautiful thing about God!  He loves everyone and He brings everyone peace!!  In His love He provides peace, and it unites those who were "near" to those who were "far away", closing the gap.

Prayer:  Lord, where would we be if You had not "come" to "preach" to us?  We would yet be separated from others and struggling with hostilities.  Thank You for bringing us out of such strife with Your gospel of peace.  Amen.

Thought:  To me, it is a great work for man to have peace with his fellow man, as accomplished in Christ; but it is a greater work for those men to have peace also with God.

Question:  Has my hostility been "put to death"?

Scripture:  Ephesians 2:16 (NIV):  "and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."

Reconciliation is what the cross accomplished.  Reconciliation was achieved for both the self-righteous law-keeper and the hopeless Gentile dog who kept no laws.  Both are sinners and in need.  Both are unable to save themselves.  Both come together "in Christ" if they yield their free-will to Him, believing Christ is Savior and Lord.  Once yielded to Christ and saved, the two formerly opposing sides are at peace.  No more disagreements need exist.  No more hostility between issues of law-keeping need exist.  Christ kept the law--that is what's important.

Is this to say that no one need keep the law anymore?  No, of course not.  It is discovered that "in Christ" we are finally enabled to keep the law, and for the first time.  The Jews thought they were keeping laws because they tried to, but now "in Christ" they finally do truly "keep" the law.  The Gentiles never had laws because they were kept out of that tradition, but now "in Christ" they discover the ways to "keep" the law.  Christ becomes their law.  They "keep" themselves "in Christ," both of them.  Thus steeped into Christ and joined into His "Law of Love" they are no longer hostile to each other.

Prayer:  Lord, Your peace truly does pass my understanding.  You have conquered our hostilities by way of Your love.  Amen. 

• Main
• archives
• Albums
• Links
• Admin
• Send us a story!
• Summary-Blog Directory

• Isaiah - Day 183
• Isaiah - Day 182
• Isaiah - Day 181
• Isaiah - Day 180
• Isaiah - Day 179
• Isaiah - Day 178
• Isaiah - Day 177
• Isaiah - Day 176
• Isaiah - Day 175
• Isaiah - Day 174

• General [338]

• RSS 0.90
• RSS 1.0
• RSS 2.0
• Atom