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"Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back - a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what's wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people - law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' and love having me on their side. But they also complain, 'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' "Well, here's why: "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like? "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.' A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places "If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places - firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. (Isaiah 58:1-12 The Message Version)
We sometimes still don't get it! We sometimes prefer to live in darkness when we could be living in light. The prophet's call to God's people in today's passage was all about that: You're trying to act religious but you're not fooling God! If you live a life seeking only profit as the bottom line, you're empty and will stay empty until you realize what it is that pleases God and blesses God's people. Then there's a list of things that God would prefer from His people: Fast in the right way. Break the chains of injustice. Get rid of exploitation. Free the oppressed. Cancel debts. Share your food with the hungry. Invite the homeless poor into your homes. Put clothing on the shivering ill-clad. Be available to your own families. Ouch. Read that last one again; all of them are important, but think of the impact we can have by being available to our families. God says, "You do that and the lights will turn on." What I love is where this version says that once we do those things and pray to the Lord, God will say, "Here I am." And boom, we are living a Full Life in the Emptiest of Places. What an awesome way to live. But, wait, the list continues: Get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sin. Be generous to the hungry, and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, and your lives will begin to glow in the darkness.
Let the lights come on. Seek to bless God and all these things will be ours. I don't know about you, but I want that full life in the emptiest of places!
PRAYER: Loving God, fill me with Your light so that I may walk in the fullness of life and share as I should. Let me be one of those who blesses You by blessing others. Take my empty life in the fullness of places and let it be a full life in the emptiest of places. This I pray in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
Prayer Requests and Joys: In the concerns: Prayers of condolences for the Hill family on the death of Mrs. Virginia Hill, of Harlingen. May God's comfort be with them. In the joys: It was some years ago today, that seem only like yesterday that a screaming baby came out of the elevator in the old McAllen General Hospital and that bundle of joy quit screaming when she heard my voice. I told Nellie when she came out of surgery (yes, C-Section), "She's pink! She's beautiful! And she looks like me!" We thank God for the arrival of our first baby, Nellie Maria Valverde Garcia on this day. May the Lord continue to bless her and keep her. Happy Birthday, Mijita!
Here's the link for my early morning video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTcTd9hq8iw&feature=youtu.be
