{"id":5129,"date":"2014-03-15T00:05:51","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T07:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2014-03-14T23:53:28","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T06:53:28","slug":"just-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/03\/15\/just-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Ask"},"content":{"rendered":"

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
\nyou will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
\n\u201cIf you do away with the yoke of oppression,
\nwith the pointing finger and malicious talk,
\nand if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
\nand satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
\nthen your light will rise in the darkness,
\nand your night will become like the noonday.
\nThe LORD will guide you always;
\nhe will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
\nand will strengthen your frame.
\nYou will be like a well-watered garden,
\nlike a spring whose waters never fail.
\nYour people will rebuild the ancient ruins
\nand will raise up the age-old foundations;
\nyou will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
\nRestorer of Streets with Dwellings.
\n\u201cIf you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
\nand from doing as you please on my holy day,
\nif you call the Sabbath a delight
\nand the LORD\u2019s holy day honorable,
\nand if you honor it by not going your own way
\nand not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
\nthen you will find your joy in the LORD,
\nand I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
\nand to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.\u201d
\nThe mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 58:9-14)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just whistle! All the Israelites had to do was ask and God would respond. But what exactly did God mean by \u201casking?\u201d Offering warm words to someone who needs a warm meal won\u2019t help him. Sentiment is not the same as accomplishment. Asking was not just about using the right words. It was about doing the right things. God would know that they had asked him for help\u2014and he would hear them\u2014when they started loving one another and when they started loving God: when they gave aid to the poor, and when they kept the Sabbath. <\/p>\n

Giving aid to the poor meant not taking advantage of them. Keeping the Sabbath meant taking God seriously. In both cases, rather than thinking only about themselves, they\u2019d be thinking about those outside of themselves, whether human or God. The focus of their attention, the aim of their efforts, would all be on others, rather than on what they could get for themselves, how they could make things work to their advantage.<\/p>\n

God cares about us. He\u2019d like us to care about him and everyone he cares about. Caring about others shows just how much we care about God, because we\u2019re paying attention then to what God cares about most.<\/p>\n

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Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. \u201cIf you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5130,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129\/revisions\/5130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}