What does God think about...

I'm currently going through Isaiah for my scripture readings. I've been going through them before I started coming to Bible study, so I figured that I might as well continue that.

Isaiah 47 talks about Babylon and how God is not pleased with them. Note that this is when the Isralites were taken into Babylon as captives. One thing that stands out is verse 6 "I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage And gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them, On the aged you made your yoke very heavy."

In other words, Babylon was not very nice to Israel and God was not pleased. There are other things that God was not pleased about, like not recognizing God as who He rightly is and trusting rather in others who use sorceries, astrology, other things that are said to have "divine wisdom."

I think what this chapter speaks to me is that God knows everything that happens and sees the injustice in this world. But in concerns to His people, He takes a special possession of them, even when His anger burned against them, (ie being sent into captivity), and recognizing the injustice showed to His people.

How this relates to me is that sometimes I feel that people at church sometimes don't give me any respect or they keep me at arms length. (I'm talking about some of the adults, not peers.) I guess I can't blame them, because i don't know them, and they don't know me. But sometimes, I wonder exactly what our church is doing? Sometimes to me, it seems like we're just trying to make ourselves stronger and let the rest of the world go to Hell.

And then I think about myself and see that I fall in the same catagory as my last sentence. I haven't really done anything for the Kingdom recently. Anyway, I'm getting off track...

What I meant to say was that God is not pleased when you treat His people unjustly. So, I guess maybe it's a two way street. I should try to treat them with respect, even if I'm shown none. Matthew 7:12 says, "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets." Also meaning that you don't go out treating people the same way they treat you...that's kind of being passive agressive.

I guess what I've learned from this is that God will not be pleased with me when I don't treat His people, even those who are hard to love, with love. I find that I care too much about what others think about me and that I should care more about what God thinks about me and everyone else. Jesus died for sinners. Jesus died for the ungodly. Jesus died for the people who killed Him also. And He lives today so that everyone can come to know Him through Jesus.

I guess I should pray. When Jesus comes back, what will He say to me?

[Edit]

Here's the link for Isaiah 47. You can find it here

Unseen

Wudan mountain returns... again...
Well again our small group is taking over this blog. This time we're (b)logging our experiences in reading Celebration of Discipline. Each chapter will be something different. This week: Meditation.

I chose to meditate using The Word and decided on going through some of the Sermon on the Mount. Today I meditated on Matt 6:6 "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen." I ended up concentrating on the statement that our Father was unseen. What does it mean to be unseen? Well it means that He is not physically there, unperceived by our eyes. He isn't bound by walls or closed doors like I was. Which is why He says to "go into your room, close the door." Because that is the best way to have one-on-one times. Me who is enclosed by the space, away from all distractions, alone with Him who transcends physical limitations.