Panis de Deo

Just gorgeous, this passage.

               When my heart was grieved
                   and my spirit embittered,
                I was senseless and arrogant;
                   I was a brute beast before You.

               Yet I am always with You;
                   You hold me by my right hand.
               You guide me with Your counsel,
                   and afterward You will take me into glory.
               Whom have I in heaven but You?
                   And earth has nothing I desire besides You.
               My flesh and my heart may fail,
                   but God is the strength of my heart
                   and my portion forever.

--Psalm 73:21-26

Panis de Deo

               He gives strength to the weary
                   and increases the power of the weak.
               Even youths grow tired and weary,
                   and young men stumble and fall;
               but those who hope in the Lord
                   will renew their strength.
               They will soar on wings like eagles;
                   they will run and not grow weary,
                   they will walk and not be faint.

--Isaiah 40:29-31

Panis de Deo

          Why do you complain, Jacob?
               Why do you say, Israel,
          “My way is hidden from the Lord;
               my cause is disregarded by my God”?
          Do you not know?
               Have you not heard?
          The Lord is the everlasting God,
               the Creator of the ends of the earth.
          He will not grow tired or weary,
               and his understanding no one can fathom.

-- Isaiah 40:27, 28

Panis de Deo

          Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
               Who created all these?
          He who brings out the starry host one by one
               and calls forth each of them by name.
          Because of his great power and mighty strength,
               not one of them is missing.

--Isaiah 40:26

Panis de Deo

          He brings princes to naught
               and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
          No sooner are they planted,
               no sooner are they sown,
               no sooner do they take root in the ground,
          than he blows on them and they wither,
               and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

 

          “To whom will you compare me?
          Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

--Isaiah 40:23-25

Panis de Deo

     Do you not know?
          Have you not heard?
     Has it not been told you from the beginning?
          Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
     He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
          and its people are like grasshoppers.
     He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
          and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

 

-- Isaiah 40:20-22 (NIV)

 

God bless!

Panis de Deo

          To, whom, then, will you compare God?
              What image will you compare him to?
         As for an idol, a craftsman crafts it,
              and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
              and fashions silver chains for it.
          A man too poor to present such an offering
              selects wood that will not rot.
          He looks for a skilled craftsman
              to set up an idol that will not topple.

-- Isaiah 40:18,20

I love passages in the Bible that portray how useless idols are.  Isaiah has quite a few of them, but I think this one from chapter forty-four is my favorite:

Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal,
he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
“Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”
From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
“Save me! You are my god!”
They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
No one stops to think,
no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel;
I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him;
he cannot save himself, or say,
“Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

Isaiah is earnestly pleading his case against idols, but you can almost sense a bit of sarcasm, too: as if he's saying, "Hello!?  Don't you see this?"


Later this week: I will be posting another short story. :)

Panis de Deo

                    Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
                        they are regarded as dust on the scales;
                        he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
                    Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
                         nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
                    Before him all the nations are as nothing;
                         they are regarded by him as worthless
                         and less than nothing.

-- Isaish 40:15-17

Panis de Deo

“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ...For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."

-- Matthew 6:27, 32-34

 

 

Needed this one!

I'll be back to Isaiah 40 next week.  Have a good day! ;)

Panis de Deo

                    Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
                         or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
                    Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
                         or weighed the mountains on the scales
                         and the hills in a balance?
                    Who has understood the mind of the LORD,
                         or instructed him as his counselor?
                    Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,
                         and who taught him the right way?
                    Who was it that taught him knowledge,
                         or showed him the path of understanding?

-- Isaiah 40:12-14

Translations

Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Greek...

0_0

The New Testament, especially the gospels, are a mess of these.  It seems there were a lot of languages floating around in Jesus' culture.  The Old Testament is in Hebrew and Greek, the main inhabitants speak Aramaic, but the occupying Romans speak Latin, and some of the scholars will still use Greek... ah, the confusion!  So, I just wanted to give some fun facts connected with this subject that rather interested me.  And, you know, help you understand stuff you didn't even know you were confused by.

     >At Jesus' crucifixion, Pilate fixed to His cross a sign that said: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."  The Apostle John tells us the sign was written in "Aramaic, Latin, and Greek" (John 19:20), so everyone who passed could read it.

     >I had never quite understood where the word "Calvary" came from.  The Bible says Jesus died on the hill of Golgotha, called the place of the Skull: why did people keep calling it Calvary?  I finally learned the answer two weeks ago: there are three translations of the word "skull": Golgotha is the Aramaic.  In Latin, it's "cerebrum" (where we get our words, "cerebrum" and "cranium").  And calvary is "skull" in Greek.  Mystery solved!

     >Almost all of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (there were a few bits and pieces in Aramaic).  As time progressed, it was translated into Greek -- this Greek translation is called the Septuagint.  It was this new translation that contained the Apocryphal books, which I won't explain just here.  After Christ, the Old Testament was also translated into Latin, largely by St. Jerome.  This translation is called the Vulgate.

By the way, the youth Sunday school at my church is now going through the history of the Old Testament (our leader says we still won't be done by the time the youngest of us -- that's me -- graduates from highschool!).  Supposedly one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it, so I'll probably be posting anything interesting I learn up here. (:

             

Panis de Deo

                    See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
                         and his arm rules for him.
                    See, his reward is with him,
                         and his recompense accompanies him.
                    He tends his flock like a shepard:
                         he gathers the lambs in his arms
                    and carries them close to his heart;
                         he gently leads those that have young.

-- Isaiah 40:10-11 (NIV)

Panis de Deo

               You who bring good tidings to Zion,
                    go up on a high mountain.
               You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem,
                    lift up your voice with a shout,
               lift it up, do not be afraid;
                    say to the towns of Judah,
                    "Here is your God!"

-- Isaiah 40:9

Panis de Deo

In the next few weeks, I think I will post Isaiah 40 bit by bit, as it is an amazing passage.

          A voice says, "Cry out."
               And I said, "What shall I cry?"

          "All men are like grass,
               and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
          The grass withers and the flowers fall,
               because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
               Surely the people are grass.
          The grass withers and the flowers fall,
               but the word of our God stands forever."

-- Isaiah 40:6-8

Panis de Deo

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

-- Colossians 3:23

Panis de Deo

            How beautiful on the mounatains

                are the feet of those who bring good news,

            who proclaim peace,

                who bring good tidings,

                who proclaim salvation,

            who say to Zion,

                "Your God reigns!"

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How, then, will they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

-- Isaiah 52:7 (emphasis added), Romans 10:13-15 

Panis de Deo

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.

-- 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Panis de Deo

From Psalms 20: 7-8 --

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

They are brought to their knees and fall,

but we rise up and stand firm.

Panis de Deo

May the God of peace, who through the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepard of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us that which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.

-- Hebrews 13:21

Panis de Deo

Well, I thought I would be posting Bible verses regularly, but I haven't.  We'll see if I can fix that.  Here is one that I love (out of the hundreds!):

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks recieves; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.

-- Matthew 7:7-8