Due to popular demand (Dan, Cate and Gareth need to get out more!) I have decided to recommence blogging this evening in the hope that I will continue to do so regularly. Hmmm...
I will begin with some things that made me chuckle a bit before moving onto something a touch more serious. This ought to be quite novel as I haven't really strayed into anything more serious than jokes about cats in my blogging career so far.
I was feeling quite depressed the other day and was standing on a 6th floor windowsill looking down at the ground below when the thought crossed my mind that if i fell about 6 inches it would be curtains. And if I fell the other way I was going to die.
You know that was funny really.
On another occasion I was sitting with my face in a plate of fried eggs. My mum entered the room, and you know what mums are like, she said (Remember, adopt South African accent as you read this bit):
"Andy, you'll never find a yourself a wife if you sit around with your face in a plate of fried eggs"
I responded (adopt my reasonably monotone voice at this point):
"That's ok mum, I've already decided to spend the rest of my life as a spatula"
And finally...
I was reading Isaiah chapter 1 today (the joys of not having a job 
) and it is just amazing so I thought I would include some of it with a few thoughts:
2Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
for the LORD has spoken:
"Children have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
3The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master's crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand."
4Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the LORD,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.
Court is in session as the God who commands the heavens and the earth calls them to bear witness to his people's rejection of him. God shows us that for to sin is ungrateful - The children he has brought up (Sonship in this context refers to redemption from Egypt, Cf. Exodus 4:22) have rebelled against him - and it is unnatural - they are intended to develop an instinctive attachment to him like an ox to it's master but instead do not know or understand him.
Instead of being a holy nation as they were redeemed to be (Exodus 19:6) they have become the 'sinful nation', their characters 'laden with iniquity'. Rather than offspring of Abraham they are described as 'offspring of evildoers'. The verdict is that they are bad people and the reason; they have given up on God, they hate him. And the result is that are 'estranged', they have made themselves strangers - "God's chosen people have reverted to alien status" (Motyer, p.44).
It is sobering stuff and must be a warning to the visible church today against being "hardened by by the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13). We must look to Christ and cast off sin with the grace that he gives us. Isaiah goes on in verses 10 - 17 to express the Lord's disinterest and anger at outward religion without real obedience to God. No amount of religious activity is going to impress him if we are those who have forsaken him and are strangers to him.
But he also goes on to promise grace to the person who turns and trusts in God in verse 18:
18"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
Good news seems like an understatement when you consider that for all that each of us has rejected and hated God if we come back to him, repent and trust in Christ, he washes us clean of guilt and accepts us as beloved children.
So there we have it a sobering warning and a great promise - praise God!
N.B. All bible quotes are from the English Standard Version. Also, I am indebted to Jon Bell for the nice photos, Andy Chadwick for the lame jokes and J. A. Motyer's commentary on Isaiah (pp. 42-4)for anything interesting or intelligent about the bible in this blog. You may notice that this means none of the material is original. Apologies, I hope you enjoyed it anyway.
I'm very glad to see the return of your blog. I have been twiddling my thumbs and twitching most evenings since the last instalment. I can now sleep easily again. Make sure this continues.
I loved the 2 jokes, but the final bit was the best. It's great to be reminded of such things.