Isaiah on Tuesday - The Faith of the Redeemed

After nearly 3 months off, I'm back traveling with Isaiah. I figured I really need to finish this series and it gives me some purposeful writing to do. I wish I could have been more diligent this past quarter, but were lack of content lives, grace abides all the more! I may drop the "Tuesday" part of this series and just try to get in as many posts as I can muster in a week. I have a lot of catching up to do.

OK, enough blather. We last left off with Hezekiah praying for the deliverance of Israel from Sennacherib and Sennacherib did indeed fall. Chapter 38 finds Hezekiah ill and praying for his own deliverance! While at the point of death he calls out to God and is given a 15 year reprieve from the grim reaper. Hezekiah is overwhelmed by God's grace and can't help but tell of what God did for him - he even writes a song about it:

10 I said, "In the prime of my life
must I go through the gates of death ^[a]
and be robbed of the rest of my years?"

11 I said, "I will not again see the LORD,
the LORD, in the land of the living;
no longer will I look on mankind,
or be with those who now dwell in this world. ^[b]

12 Like a shepherd's tent my house
has been pulled down and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,
and he has cut me off from the loom;
day and night you made an end of me.

13 I waited patiently till dawn,
but like a lion he broke all my bones;
day and night you made an end of me.

14 I cried like a swift or thrush,
I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.
I am troubled; O Lord, come to my aid!"

15 But what can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.
I will walk humbly all my years
because of this anguish of my soul.

16 Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
and let me live.

17 Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
behind your back.

18 For the grave ^[c] cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19 The living, the living—they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children
about your faithfulness.

20 The LORD will save me,
and we will sing with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the temple of the LORD.

Sometimes it takes death or near death for us to truly recognize God's grace in our lives. As Christians we are in that place - we've been saved out of death and been given life. All to often I am guilty of taking that for granted and not recognizing God's grace in my life.

One of the meditations we're doing at church right now is on Mark 14 which is appropriate for this season. As we go through Holy Week, will we join Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and pray and watch with Him? And as we do what do we sense God is saving us out of (what is being crucified in our lives)? What is he saving us into (what is being born/resurrected)?

I think if we really though about it, we'd be composing songs of praise as well.

Avinoam, Rock Star

Just a picture I took with my Q a while back. I don't think I've posted it before. Avi in his volatile rock star mode.

Gardening and Kipper and Stuff

Our new place has quite a large piece of land for gardening - well, large for an urban back yard. It's probably average size for the suburbs. Anyway, we've started a garden with the help of our pastor who is, among other things, a prolific gardener. We're growing two kinds of kale, broccoli, green beans, cucumbers, zucchinis, onions, potatoes, corn, peppers, tomatoes and hopefully some raspberries. We also have some cilantro in a pot and will probably do some other potted herbs and whatnot. Only the kale, broccoli and cilantro are in now, but the rest will follow as their planting time arrives.

It's pretty exciting for Avi since he not only gets to garden (he's quite enjoyed stomping about in the mud as well as planting the kale), but grow his own toys. He's enjoyed playing with cucumbers and zucchinis for a while now, but this should save us some money.

Avi hasn't been into the VeggieTales as much since we moved, though. That's in part to his toys being less accessible and also because we're only allowing faster-paced videos a couple times a week. As a consequence, he's been watching the much slower Kipper the Dog. I'm no longer Archibald Asparagus, he now calls me Tiger (a dog). Elizabeth is Jake (a dog) and Theodore is Arnold (a baby pig). Other characters get foisted upon people as context allowed. If you ever visit and Avi says "You're Pig!", don't take offense. You've been honored as a character in Avi's world.

Hive: A Very Fun Game

So remember that post about Mike Doyle? Well, he has a widget that displays his most recently played games and I click on them just to find out what kind of fun I'm not having right now (life's been a bit hectic for gaming...) One of those games was Hive. I looked at the entry at BoardGameGeek and it looked like a cool game.

It's chess-like, for two players and played with tiles but no board. What's more there's an online version at hivemania.com, so I've played a few games and I can say that this is a great game, highly addictive and worth getting. I'll play the digital version for now, but it's on my ever-growing list.