A bruised reed

A bruised reed he will not break,

and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice

Isaiah 42:3

 

Barnes' Notes on the Bible says:
The word 'reed' means the cane or calamus which grows up in marshy or wet places. The word, therefore, literally means that which is fragile, weak, easily waved by the wind, or broken down; and stands in contrast with a lofty and firm tree. The word here, therefore, may be applied to people who are conscious of their own frailty and sin; that are moved and broken by tragedy; that feel that they have no strength to bear up against the ills of life.

The word 'bruised' (רצוּץ râtsûts) means that which is broken or crushed, but not entirely broken off. As used here, it may refer to those who are in themselves naturally frail, and who have been crushed or broken down by a sense of sin, by tragedy, or by illness. We speak familiarly of crushing or breaking down by trials; and the phrase here is intensive and emphatic, meaning those who are at best like a reed - feeble and fragile; and who, in addition to that, have been broken and overloaded by a sense of their sins, or by tragedy.

He will not break - He will not carry on the work of destruction, and entirely crush or break it. And the idea is, that he will not make those already broken down with a sense of sin and with tragedy, more wretched than they already are. He will not deepen their afflictions, or augment their trials, or multiply their sorrows. The sense is, that he will have an affectionate regard for the broken-hearted, the humble, the penitent, and the afflicted. Luther has expressed this well: 'He does not cast away, nor crush, nor condemn the wounded in conscience, those who are terrified in view of their sins; the weak in faith and practice, but watches over and cherishes them, makes them whole, and affectionately embraces them.' The expression is parallel to that which occurs in Isaiah 61:1, where it is said of the Messiah, 'He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted;' and to the declaration in Isaiah 50:4, where it is said, 'that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.'

The smoking wick - The word used here means flax, and then a wick that is made of it. The word rendered 'smoking' (כהה kēhâh) means that which is weak, small, thin, feeble; that which is just ready to go out, or to be extinguished; and the phrase refers literally to the expiring wick of a lamp, when the oil is almost consumed, and when it shines with a feeble and dying luster. It may denote here the condition of one who is feeble and disheartened, and whose love to God seems almost ready to expire. And the promise that he will not extinguish or quench that, means that he would cherish, feed, and cultivate it; he would supply it with grace, as with oil to cherish the dying flame, and cause it to be rekindled, and to rise with a high and steady brilliancy.

The whole passage is descriptive of the Jesus the Redeemer, who nourishes the hearts of his people, and who will not allow the beliefs of the soul ever to become wholly extinct. It may seem as if the slightest breath of misfortune or opposition would extinguish it forever; it may be like the dying flame that hangs on the point of the wick, but if there be faith, it will not be extinguished, but will be rekindled to a pure and glowing flame, and it will yet rise high, and burn brightly.

Is this promise to lift us up when we fall not in sharp contrast to the ways of the world who will instead kick the person who falls and then takes great delight in its own actions! Jesus as the healer, as the one who binds us up, is an option not to be ignored.

Here is a song for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLNL49TFC_8&feature=related

 

Psalm 148

 We do not know who wrote Psalm 148. And we do not know when they wrote it. Many Bible students think that the psalmist wrote it to use in the new temple in Jerusalem. The psalmist was the person that wrote the psalm. The temple was God’s house in Jerusalem. The army of Babylon destroyed it but 70 years later the Jews built it again.

Psalm 148 is the third Hallelujah Psalm. "Hallelujah" means "praise the LORD". "Praise" means "tell someone that he is very great". "LORD" is another name for God. It is the covenant name. A covenant is when two people, or groups of people, agree. Here, God agrees to love and send help to his people when they need it. His people agree to love and obey God.

Later, someone else wrote this psalm in a new way. They made it longer. It is in the book called the Jewish Apocrypha. The Apocrypha tells the story of the Jews between the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible. We call the new song The Benedicite. Some Christians still sing it in their churches.

What Psalm 148 means
The psalm has three parts:

     ·    verses 1 - 6: the psalmist tells everything in the sky to praise the LORD;
     ·    verses 7 - 10: the psalmist tells everything on the earth to praise the LORD (but not people);
     ·    verses 11 - 14: the psalmist tells people to praise the LORD.

Verses 1 – 6: "From the heavens" means "everything that is above the earth". In the Bible, heaven or the heavens means two things. It can mean the sky, where we can see the sun, moon and stars (verse 3). Also, it can mean the home of God, where his angels also live (verse 2). Jews believed that there were waters above the sky (verse 4). God created  all this by his word of command.

Verses 7 – 10: Everything on the earth must also praise the LORD. We do not know how animals, birds, reptiles, snow, clouds, winds, storms, trees, hills and mountains all praise the LORD. But God knows, and accepts their praise.

Verses 11 – 14: The psalm ends by telling people to praise the LORD. Everybody is here. The leaders of people and people themselves are here, young and old, male and female. [This information is from Wycliffe Associates (UK).]

Something to do
When you see something that God has made, praise him for it! Because even when we don't praise God, nature will. In the above paragraph the writer says that s/he does not know how nature praises God. Well, we know how birds may praise God with their songs, how animals may exude their  strength, their gentleness, their beauty, and we know how snow adorns mountains and creates awesome scenes for us to enjoy. But God does not need our praise because his own creation does that nonstop. The Psalm however tells people to praise him as well. We must never forget that.

For a unique take on how the heavens praise God take a look at this clip by Loiue Giglio who shows just how this could happpen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zWKm-LZWm4

Robes of righteousness



I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

 

 

Some one posted this cartoon on my facebook page and of course I smiled when I saw it. Is it not typical of cats to have inflated egos? :) Is it not typical of ourselves to think more of ourselves than we really should.

Anyway, as I was enjoying the cartoon I also thought, "But wait a moment, is this not how God sees those he has saved?" See, when we are saved, God transforms us and adorns us with robes of righteousness, and those robes are what he sees when he looks at us.

Nothing we do can get us saved - it's our faith in Jesus Christ that saves us. Nothing we do can make us right with Christ - it is only through faith in Christ that we can become right with God. Jesus calls us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Is it possible to be perfect as God is perfect? As human beings I think not! And yet Jesus would never have said these words if he knew that we could never be perfect. Truth is, we can be perfect! How you may ask? Well when we accept Christ, he does two things for us:

• He clothes us with garments of salvation
• He arrays us with a robe of righteousness

What we try and do for our own salvation here on earth is like filthy rags ("All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6). We cannot save ourselves and any effort to do so will be in vain.

Our worth is in God alone. Our jobs cannot give us the status we want. Our relationships cannot fulfil our deepest needs. Our worth comes into its own when we turn to Christ. He changes us from being mere human beings into heavenly creatures with potential beyond our imagining. This makes life worthwhile and the best is that it is all free! Once saved, we are shaped into something new and all of this because of what Christ did. We do not have to strive any longer. In fact we can sit back and smell the coffee.

Here is a youtube link to ponder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR4CCLnmf1Q



You are the salt of the earth

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Matthew 5:13

Jesus said these words to the crowds on the mountainside after delivering some of the best known words in the Bible, what we have called the Beatitudes, or as some say, the ‘blessed attitudes’. If Christians are the salt of the earth what does this mean and can salt lose its saltiness?

Salt is a mineral comprised mainly of the two elements, sodium and chloride. When we speak of salt, we mean unrefined, unprocessed, sodium chloride plus all of the other 82 natural occurring mineral elements held within the crystalline structure of the salt in its original form; holistic, wholesome, unaltered, and natural, the crystallised remains of an ancient, primal ocean that evaporated over 250,000,000 years ago. Life on earth is not possible without salt.

The word salt comes from the Latin word, sal. In ancient times, the Roman soldiers were paid with salt. The Latin word salarium; meaning a payment made in salt, is the root of the word salary. The word sal is synonymous with its root origin, sol, again synonymous with the Sole, Latin for Sun. Mythologically, and from definition, sole means "liquid sunlight", the liquid materialization of the sun's energy bound into the geometric structure of a cube, capable of creating and sustaining life. Interestingly, our blood contains the same salty solution as that of the sea; that is, a fluid consisting of water and salt. This salty water flows through more than 56,000 miles of waterways and blood vessels throughout our organism with the forces of gravity and levity and regulates and balances every single function of our body. There can be no thoughts or actions without the presence of salt in the body.

The benefits of salt are numerous. Salt has a tremendous power to transform. From a scientific view, salt has a unique property. Unlike other crystalline structures that are molecular, salt’s atomic structure is electrical. That is why salt is so transformable. It has the ability to give up or surrender its material structure and transform into something electrical, ions. When we combine salt with water, the salt dissolves and the minerals that are hidden inside the cubic form are released as ions, both positively and negatively charged particles. The result is a supercharged potion of ionised minerals.

So can salt lose its saltiness? John Gaydos says, “the salt that people had in past days was not the highly refined salt we have today. It was a rock salt. Somewhat similar to the rock salt we use in making ice cream or the kind we throw down on our sidewalks to melt ice and to provide traction. If the salt in rock salt is washed away, one is left with only a few small bits of rock. Or if you leave rock salt out exposed to humid air, the salt will evaporate and again you will only be left with a few small pieces of rock. Even today, the refined salt that you buy at the grocery store still has small pieces of rock in it – just look at it closely or examine it under a microscope! You will be surprised what you may find in it!”

The uses of salt are many whether to repel cutworms in a garden, to ease bee stings, to help whip cream more easily, or to keep apples and potatoes from turning brown once they have been peeled, salt is also most notably used to preserve food and to add taste to food.

For Christians then, salt has both an important inner and outer part to play. We can only derive our inner saltiness from spending time with God and His Word, and only as a result of time with God, are we able to be salt in the world. Just as salt can lose its saltiness and get thrown out (Luke 14:34 - 35), it is possible for us to lose our saltiness and end up on a manure pile. Just as salt regulates and controls our bodies, the Word of God needs to be known in order for our spiritual lives to be regulated and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

As people in the world we need to be the salt of the earth. If our inner lives are not ‘salty’, I can’t see that we can be the salt of the earth. The role that we as Christians play in order to ‘preserve’ the earth should not be underestimated. I believe that we temper morality by our very presence. It is essential then that we ensure that the saltiness of our inner lives is maintained through regular time with God.

Ruach - a small word with immense meaning

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:2

As a bit of introvert, I thought I would try blogging to share thoughts, search the unsearchable and plumb the depths of my own mind as a way to reach out to others.

I have always loved the word 'ruach' and thought that it would be a good name for my blog. 'Ruach' is not limited (as you will see in a minute), and that it is the quality of the word that inspired me to give my blog the subtitle of 'a pastiche of musings, reflections and contemplations'. I pray that what I share in this blog is God-inspired and will enrich the person who reads it.

'Ruach' is used 389 times in the Bible and mostly is used as 'spirit' or 'breath'. The meaning of the word is to be understood however only from its usage.  The one root idea running through all the passages is invisible force.  As this force may be exerted in varying forms, and may be manifested in diverse ways, so various renderings are necessitated, corresponding to the word. 'Ruach', in whatever sense it is used, always represents that which is invisible except by its manifestations.  These are seen both externally to human beings, as well as internally within humans.

As coming from God, it is the invisible origin of life.  All apart from this is death.  It comes from God, and returns to God (Ecc. 3:19, 20).  Hence, 'ruach' is used of :

• God, as being invisible - The Spirit of Jehovah", is Jehovah Himself, in His manifestation of invisible power
• The Holy Spirit
• Invisible divine power manifesting itself in creation, in giving life and in executing judgment
• Invisible "power from on high," manifesting itself as divine power in giving spiritual gifts.  Spoken of as, coming upon, clothing, falling on, and being poured out. 
• The invisible parts of a person (psychological - given by God at a person's formation at birth, and returning to God at  death.)
• The invisible characteristics of a person (manifesting themselves in states of mind and feeling)
• Invisible spirit beings, both good and evil
• The invisible manifestations of the atmosphere such as air, temperature, wind, tempests, blasts etc

A perfect word that gives me room to manouvre as I think about to share. I look forward to the journey.

Youtube is a wonderful source of inspiration and so I will suggest relevant clips to the theme. Here is one from the City Harvest Church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R8fJO1hlg8&feature=related