The Vineyard of my Beloved

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it." The vineyard of Yahuah of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.  Yahuah of Hosts has declared in my hearing: "Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants. A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain." Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of Yahuah, no respect for the work of his hands. Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst. Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers. So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. But Yahuah of Hosts will be exalted by his justice, and the set apart Elohim will show himself set apart by his righteousness. Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich. Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, to those who say, "Let Elohim hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the set apart One of Israel come, so we may know it." Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of Yahuah of Hosts and spurned the word of the set apart One of Israel. Therefore Yahuah's anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily! Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken. Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue. In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened by the clouds.

Isaiah 5:1-30

The Spirit and the Bride say "Come"

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Yahushua, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of Elohim." Yahushua replied:

"A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'

"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'

"The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' "

'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'

"Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.

(Luke 14:15-23)

And His servant Isaiah says:

"All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You without money, come, buy, and eat! Yes, come! Buy wine and milk without money -- it's free! Why spend money for what isn't food, your wages for what doesn't satisfy?

Listen carefully to me, and you will eat well, you will enjoy the fat of the land. Open your ears, and come to me; listen well, and you will live -- I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the gift I assured David. I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and lawgiver for the peoples.

You will summon a nation you do not know, and a nation that doesn't know you will run to you, for the sake of Yahuah your Elohim, the set apart One of Israel, who will adorn you."

Seek Yahuah while he is available, call on him while he is still near. Let the wicked person abandon his way and the evil person his thoughts; let him return to Yahuah, and he will have mercy on him; let him return to our Elohim, for he will freely forgive. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways," says Yahuah.

"As high as the sky is above the earth are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For just as rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return there, but water the earth, causing it to bud and produce, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so is my word that goes out from my mouth -- it will not return to me unfulfilled; but it will accomplish what I intend, and cause to succeed what I sent it to do."

Yes, you will go out with joy, you will be led forth in peace. As you come, the mountains and hills will burst out into song, and all the trees in the countryside will clap their hands. Cypresses will grow in place of thorns, myrtles will grow instead of briars. This will bring fame to Yahuah as an eternal, imperishable sign.

(Isaiah 55:1-13)

Weather Update

Gray and wet today, but I noticed on my noon walk that a lot of trees have buds on the branches, and I found this flowering shrub.  I think it may be a camellia; I know it is not a chrysanthemum or a carnation.

To Know You

To know You is to never worry for my life
To know You is to never give into compromise and
To know You is to want to tell the world about You
‘Cause I can’t live without You

To know You is to hear Your voice when You are calling
To know You is to catch my brother when he is falling
To know You is to feel the pain of the brokenhearted
‘Cause they can’t live without You

More than my next breath
More than life or death
All I’m reaching for, I live my life to know You more
I leave it all behind, You’re all that satisfies
To know You is to want to know You more
To know You is to want to know You more

To know You is to ache for more than ordinary
To know You is to look beyond the temporary
To know You is believing that You’ll be enough
‘Cause there’s no life without You

All this life could offer me
Could not compare to You, compare to You
And I count it all as loss
Compared to knowing You, knowing You

All this life could offer me
Could not compare to You, compare to You
And I count it all as loss
Compared to knowing You, knowing You

And I count it all as loss
Compared to knowing You, knowing You

Casting Crowns

MARK HALL, JASON INGRAM, BERNIE HERMS

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 / 2 Corinthians 4:18 / 2 Corinthians 5:11-12 / Ephesians 4:20-24 / Philippians 3 / Philippians 4:12-13

© 2009 My Refuge Music/Club Zoo Music (adm. by EMI CMG Publishing) (BMI) / Be Essential Songs (adm. by Sony/ATV Songs LLC) (BMI) / So Essential Tunes / West Main Music / Windsor Hill Music (SESAC). All rights on behalf of So Essential Tunes, West Main Music and Windsor Hill Music adm. by Sony/ATV Sounds LLC. / Word Music, LLC/Banahama Tunes (ASCAP) All rights on behalf of itself and Banahama Tunes adm. by Word Music, LLC.

Running with Horses

Whenever I complain to you, Yahuah, you are always fair. But now I have questions about your justice. Why is life easy for sinners? Why are they successful? You plant them like trees; you let them prosper and produce fruit. Yet even when they praise you, they don't mean it. But you know, Yahuah, how faithful I've always been, even in my thoughts. So drag my enemies away and butcher them like sheep! How long will the ground be dry and the pasturelands parched? The birds and animals are dead and gone. And all of this happened because the people are so sinful. They even brag, "God can't see the sins we commit."

Jeremiah, if you get tired in a race against people, how can you possibly run against horses? If you fall in open fields, what will happen in the forest along the Jordan River? Even your own family has turned against you. They act friendly, but don't trust them. They're out to get you, and so is everyone else.

I loved my people and chose them as my very own. But now I will reject them and hand them over to their enemies. My people have turned against me and roar at me like lions. That's why I hate them. My people are like a hawk surrounded and attacked by other hawks. Tell the wild animals to come and eat their fill. My beautiful land is ruined like a field or a vineyard trampled by shepherds and stripped bare by their flocks. Every field I see lies barren, and no one cares. A destroying army marches along desert roads and attacks everywhere. They are my deadly sword; no one is safe from them. My people, you planted wheat, but because I was furious, I let only weeds grow. You wore yourselves out for nothing!

Yahuah said: I gave this land to my people Israel, but enemies around it have attacked and robbed it. So I will uproot them from their own countries just as I will uproot Judah from its land. But later, I will have pity on these nations and bring them back to their own lands. They once taught my people to worship Baal. But if they admit I am the only true Elohim, and if they let my people teach them how to worship me, these nations will also become my people. However, if they don't listen to me, I will uproot them from their lands and completely destroy them. I, Yahuah, have spoken.
(Jeremiah 12 EH after CEV)