“The destined end of man is not happiness, or health, but holiness. Nowadays we have far too many affinities, we are dissipated with them; right, good, noble affinities which will yet have their fulfillment, but in the meantime God has to atrophy them … At all costs a man must be rightly related to God.
God is not an eternal blessing-machine for men; He did not come to save men out of pity: He came to save men because He had created them to be holy.
Never tolerate through sympathy with yourself or with others any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means unsullied walking with the feet, unsullied talking with the tongue, unsullied thinking with the mind … Holiness is not only what God gives me, but what I manifest that God has given me.” -Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, September 1.
Isaiah 28:5-10
5 On that day
the Lord of Armies will become a crown of beauty
and a diadem of splendor
to the remnant of his people,
6 a spirit of justice
to the one who sits in judgment,
and strength
to those who repel attacks at the city gate.
7 Even these stagger because of wine
and stumble under the influence of beer:
Priest and prophet stagger because of beer.
They are confused by wine.
They stumble because of beer.
They are muddled in their visions.
They stumble in their judgments.
8 Indeed, all their tables are covered with vomit;
there is no place without a stench.
9 Who is he trying to teach?
Who is he trying to instruct?
Infants just weaned from milk?
Babies removed from the breast?
10 “Law after law, law after law,
line after line, line after line,
a little here, a little there.”
Comparable to America?
Isaiah 28:16
16 Therefore the Lord God said:
“Look, I have laid a stone in Zion,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
the one who believes will be unshakable.
“…The one who believes will be unshakable,” Stand firm in Christ. Do not let this world make you stagger with drunkenness, with doubts and worry. Stand firm in Christ’s salvation and His commands to live an abundant life, regardless of outside circumstances.
Isaiah 28:19
19 Every time it passes through,
it will carry you away;
it will pass through every morning—
every day and every night.
Only terror will cause you
to understand the message.
“Only terror will cause you to understand the message.” How many people come to Christ when everything is rosey-peachy in their life? Even those who have everything physically are still empty inside without Jesus in their heart.
Physical, mental, spiritual, but flip in the order of importance to an individual’s well-being. How desperate someone is spiritually–and they recognize it–determines that individual’s degree of reception of the gift of salvation and an introduction to God the Father. The willingness of the individual and the openness to God–the Trinity–and God’s plan determines how quickly God begins opening the individual to Himself and giving them understanding.
Isaiah 28:24-29
24 Does the plowman plow every day to plant seed?
Does he continuously break up and cultivate the soil?
25 When he has leveled its surface,
does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin?
He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots,
with spelt as their border.
26 His God teaches him order;
he instructs him.
27 Certainly black cumin is not threshed
with a threshing board,
and a cart wheel is not rolled over the cumin.
But black cumin is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Bread grain is crushed,
but is not threshed endlessly.
Though the wheel of the farmer’s cart rumbles,
his horses do not crush it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of Armies.
He gives wondrous advice;
he gives great wisdom.
God does not keep us in a state of perpetual punishment. Seeds must be planted, then tenderly cared for–along with reasonable water and sunshine (which God provides, not us)–to grow and produce a useful crop. Even then a crop standing in the field is useless until it is harvested (work put in) and grain threshed, ground, etc. to be made usable to humans for nutrition.
Everything useful and valuable to humans on earth takes work–the only thing that doesn’t is Jesus’s gift of salvation (is salvation earthly?)–generally, how much work something requires determines its monetary value. Except in agriculture now, government influencing prices and production through subsidies et al has skewed the markets–and peoples’ concept of value.
WOW! The USA’s production, commodities markets all the way to the end consumer are biblical!