The Suffering Servant

Our Daily Bread
The book of Isaiah in the Old Testament is a long book with about 60 chapters.  It is believed that there may have been three books at one time and had as many as three authors.  One of the themes is the "suffering servant".  There are three main theories about who the suffering servant is:  Israel, Isaiah or Jesus.

When we talked about this in my Disciple 1 class last week, I decided I am not sure it really mattered which one it was.  Jesus came.  He gave us a new way to live and to think.  There are two things important to me now: living the way he taught us and looking forward to his second coming.  As children of God, we have hope in the future on earth and for all eternity!  I don't know how all of this stuff will work in the long run. I have no clue.  I trust God to fill in the details as I go along.  I wish could be this trusting and spontaneous in my daily life!  ;-p

Lord, thank you for giving us hope and life.

Simply Saturday
I had a busy week with performances and recovering from the performances last weekend!  I have one more concert on Sunday morning.  The chancel choir at church is singing the Christmas portion of Handlel's Messiah with lots of voices and orchestra.  How cool!  It will be exciting.

I also grew closer to my new friend.  I nicknamed him "mi tigre".  He is a Missouri Tigers fan, so that was a natural nickname to give him.  He is of Mexican descent.  He is trying to help me learn some Spanish.  I will focus on it some more after my last concert.  We have known each other for almost a month.  We are taking things slow.  We are looking forward to visiting each other again soon.  We will see where this long distance relationship might go.  ;-p

God is so good.  There are so many things that are coming together for me now.  All the hard work from the past 4.5 years has paid off.  I will continue to work hard on my personal growth and being more sensitive to God's leading.  I thank God each day for my many blessings and for meeting a special man.

I also learned some things about other friends in my life.  I learned more about accepting people where they are not judging them.  To be a better friend and to love more selflessly.  It has been a good week.

I hope that each of you will be open to God's leading.  Be open to learning.  Be open to growing.  Be not afraid -- God knows you and wants to work in your life to make you whole.

Let go, my friends!  God will be there to catch you and hold you in his loving arms!