Saturday, February 6, 2010

Homebody

(NIV) Isaiah 32:17-19
The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. [18] My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. [19] Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely,

Confidence and peace. Two things everyone I know desires for their lives. Fruit is grown from a source that determines it's nature and substance. Feeding upon that fruit produces desirable effects. Peace is a term conotating satisfaction and fullness. If peace is the fruit, and righteousness is the source (John 15), this then requires us asking what is the source of righteousness?

(NIV) Romans 3:21-22
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. [22] This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

(NIV) Isaiah 30:15
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

The effect of feeding upon the fruit of peace, feeding being actively resting in Christ's righteousness rather than something or someone else, is quiet confidence that exists beyond circumstance.

Peacful dwelling places, secure homes, and undesturbed places of rest in a flattened forest and a leveled city?
Must mean your actual home wasn't in the forest or the city.

(NIV) 2 Peter 3:13
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

(NIV) Hebrews 11:13-14
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. [14] People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.

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