Stumbling Rocks

Bro.

Reading Isaiah is like eating cheesecake. I can only study a little section at a time because it's soooooooooo rich. 

It's also like when I use to eat Little Caesar's hot wings. You see, their hot wings were like $8 for 6 itty bitty wings, that are mostly fat let's be honest here. But the sauce was very tasty in that I would want to disgustingly lick every bone, piece of skin, and nibble any morsel of actual meat on them things that I could because it was so good. I didn't want it to be over so soon. So I'd comb through little by little and take way too long to eat 6 itty bitty little wings.

Seriously, I think Molly had bigger wings when she was mailed in from California:

Anywho, I was reading Isaiah 8, and verse 14 stuck out to me as I licked the bones and meditated on the rich, fluffy cheesecake:

And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

This verse is talking about how Messiah would come and pretty much throw everybody off their game. 

I just deleted a whole thing I wrote about the "both houses of Israel" phrase because that topic is a huge one that deserves several posts in the future. I wanted to focus on the "rock of stumbling" part.

I've been saying for months now how I think humility is a prerequisite to coming to the Father. He opposes the proud but leads and teaches the humble. We see this all throughout the scripture.

So back to this rock: He's going to trip everybody up. It says both of the houses of Israel will stumble.

But how we respond to the stumbling, I think, is telling.

The proud stumble because they are walking upright in and of their own strength, probably with their head held high. When they stumble on the rock, they do that weird little dance thing and keep on walking, offended that they even got tripped up in the first place. I often get mad when I trip on stupid rocks or birdhouse posts outside because they're in myyyyyy waaaaay!!!

But when the humble stumble (lol, rhyme), they fall and are broken. 

They are crushed beyond repair. They are helpless. Poor in spirit. 

And yet, blessed are these.

They then cling to the rock which broke them and He is "a sanctuary" to them whilst being a "stone of offense" to the proud.

Cool stuff. 

And then the Catholics were like 'Peter's the rock let's make him a pope' looooooool,

TWS

Terrain

I was shopping the other day and came to an interesting observation. In almost any grocery store, the produce section is on the opposite side of the pharmacy section.

Think about it.

On the signs outside of Wal Mart, it says "Pharmacy" on the left, and "Food" on the right.

It's almost like giving you a choice. 

Will you live by strengthening your body from the inside out, or simply medicate the symptoms of your lifestyle?

Changing your lifestyle is much harder than enabling it. It's much, much harder because it takes self-control, discipline, effort, patience and perseverance, which is why the majority don't do it.

The words "doctor" and "doctrine" come from the same Latin word docere which means to teach.

Spiritually speaking, doctors are a lot like doctrine. People go to assemblies that make them comfortable in what they're already doing. Doctors prescribe medications to make people comfortable in what they're already doing. They don't want to change their lifestyle. They want to find the doctrine/doctor that will prescribe what they think they need - even if they are chronically dis-eased.

Make no mistake, there is a spiritual component to dis-ease that the body of medicine loves to ignore. I would just love to point out James 5:14. The elders should as good as our doctors. Why aren't we working in this power anymore?

The alternative is repentance: turning from man and his docere to the Creator and his Torah (teaching). 

His ways are good. His ways are true. His ways are life.

I see metaphors and connections all over the place now. I could say a lot more on this, but I think I put enough out there.

I also might be getting older,

TWS