"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel."
Isaiah 27:12
This chapter is about the last days, and "beat off," it tells us in the footnotes, means to harvest or glean. What I really love about this particular verse is the idea of being "gathered one by one."
Sometimes religion can seem generic, and what God asks of us seems ho-hum, of course, that is what everyone says, blah blah. I think that unfortunately sometimes it takes a reminder such as a dramatic personal need for us to remember how individual the Lord is. He isn't a professor in a lecture hall filled with hundreds of people. He is a personal tutor, taking into account our individual desires and capabilities.
We go to church as we go to study hall. We get to talk to our friends about what we are learning, compare notes, cram for the test... quiz each other and try to help each other pass the class. Our textbooks are the scriptures and the words of the prophets. But our real instructor is the spirit... God communicating to us every day, as we live our lives. The gospel isn't some separate thing that happens only on the sabbath, and the learning of it isn't confined to any specific day or hour. It's all of it... everything. It's every hour of the day. That thing that happened at work or school. It's what that person said or how they acted. It's how we respond to a text or a gracious neighbor. This is life, and this is the gospel, and this, right now, is God talking to us and helping us learn something. (All the nows, not my post.)
Today, let's talk to God, and allow him to gather us and teach us individually. Let's be open to the lessons that are in front of us every hour of the day. Let's thank him for his tutorials, and be more aware of his guiding presence in our lives.
Isaiah 27:12
This chapter is about the last days, and "beat off," it tells us in the footnotes, means to harvest or glean. What I really love about this particular verse is the idea of being "gathered one by one."
Sometimes religion can seem generic, and what God asks of us seems ho-hum, of course, that is what everyone says, blah blah. I think that unfortunately sometimes it takes a reminder such as a dramatic personal need for us to remember how individual the Lord is. He isn't a professor in a lecture hall filled with hundreds of people. He is a personal tutor, taking into account our individual desires and capabilities.
We go to church as we go to study hall. We get to talk to our friends about what we are learning, compare notes, cram for the test... quiz each other and try to help each other pass the class. Our textbooks are the scriptures and the words of the prophets. But our real instructor is the spirit... God communicating to us every day, as we live our lives. The gospel isn't some separate thing that happens only on the sabbath, and the learning of it isn't confined to any specific day or hour. It's all of it... everything. It's every hour of the day. That thing that happened at work or school. It's what that person said or how they acted. It's how we respond to a text or a gracious neighbor. This is life, and this is the gospel, and this, right now, is God talking to us and helping us learn something. (All the nows, not my post.)
Today, let's talk to God, and allow him to gather us and teach us individually. Let's be open to the lessons that are in front of us every hour of the day. Let's thank him for his tutorials, and be more aware of his guiding presence in our lives.
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