Isaiah 52:13-15---53

13 See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
and his form marred beyond human likeness—

15 so will he sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied ;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Goodbye, Mr. iPod

So, my iPod shuffle just died. Or rather, I murdered it. I was getting it out of my sister's car and just as I was closing the door, it slipped out of my hand and got closed into the door. It didn't break, but kinda got bent in half. I tried turning it on to see if it would work, and nothing. I've had it for exactly two years, got it on my birthday! But, alas, it has played its last song. You will be missed, my friend. Sad face.

The Lone Summer Post

Yeah, so I haven't posted all summer. Big deal! J/k. Anyway, here's a few random, bulleted points of what I've been doing.

-Ok, first of all, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is only three days away, and I'm like about to die. I am anxiously awaiting the seventh and final book of the HP series. So who's it gonna be...Harry or Voldemort? My prediction: Harry's going to live of course! You can't end a series like that with evil triumphing!

-Besides that, what have I been doing? Well, I started shadowing an ER doc at a hospital, because that's what I wanna be. Let me tell you, it's been pretty spiffy. I'm attracted to the ER because of it being so unpredictable.

-Well, before I can be a doctor, I have to devote four years of my life to med school, and admission to that requires taking the MCAT. So, yeah, I studied up for that the first half of my summer and took it June 15th. I'm supposed to be getting my score in like 24 hours so I'm kinda nervous about that...

-And, to bring us up to date to today, God taught me something really cool this morning. He taught me..........the gospel. You might think, "Matthew, you're a Christian, you should know what the gospel is..." Well, I did, and I do, but God really made a connection with me today that made me understand it so much better. Everytime I used to hear the word gospel, I would think about the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and what they contained, the teachings of Christ. Well, I was reading today in Galatians 3 and God shed light on something that I'm sure for most people is obvious, but for me it really was a revelation. In this passage, Paul is admonishing the Galatians for so quickly forgetting their new relationship and freedom in Christ and exchanging it for bondage through the law. Paul brings up the OT patriarch Abraham to make his point (v. 5-9). He explains that Abraham was counted righteous not by works but by his unwavering faith in God. And then it's so cool because Paul says that because of this, the Scripture foresees how the Gentiles would be justified and saved--through faith in God. So many times in the NT the people are told to not forget the gospel they were taught, to not turn to any other teachings, and at the beginning of this letter Paul says the same thing. And today we muddy things up so much, saying you've got to do this, got to be like this, got to give up this, and got to act like this to be saved, to be a Christian. But that is NOT the gospel. The gospel was revealed long ago to Abraham, and is still the same today. We are justified by faith (that's it) in Jesus Christ, are sealed with His Spirit, and are imputed with His righteousness (Galatians 3:5-9, Habakkuk 2:4, Ephesians 1:13-14, Romans 4:22-25).