True Fasting is This!

Isaiah 58:4-11 (NLT)

What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.
5 You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
    Do you really think this will please the Lord?

6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

8 “THEN YOUR SALVATION WILL COME LIKE THE DAWN,
    and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
    ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
    Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
10 Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble.
THEN YOUR LIGHT WILL SHINE OUT FROM THE DARKNESS, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
11 The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.

This is such an incredible passage.

Take time and read the KJV, NKJV, AMP or other translations.

Galatians 2:18 - acting as a charlatan

Galatians 2:18 (NLT)
Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.  

Galatians 2:18 (KJV)
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 

The destroyer (14–21). Jesus destroyed the law by fulfilling it (Matt. 5:17–20). His death tore the temple veil (Luke 23:44–45) and removed the wall between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:14–18). To go back to Moses is to rebuild what Jesus tore down and say that He did not really save us when we trusted Him.
Warren W. Wiersbe, With the Word Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), Ga 2:1.

Peter had abandoned the whole legal system for faith in Christ. He had repudiated any difference between Jew and Gentile when it came to finding favor with God. Now, by refusing to eat with Gentiles, he is building up again what he once destroyed. In so doing, he proves himself to be a transgressor. Either he was wrong in leaving the law for Christ, or he is wrong now in leaving Christ for the law!

William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1880.

For if I build again. Return to the law. After Paul had preached that justification is only by faith in Christ plus nothing, it would be folly to seek righteousness by keeping the law. This would be building again that which he destroyed. Destroyed. This word means to demolish, dissolve, disunite, pull down. Paul destroyed the teaching that salvation was by works of merit by proclaiming that salvation was by grace through faith in Christ.

Edward E. Hindson and Woodrow Michael Kroll, eds., KJV Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 2381.

In Closing,

Galatians 2:18 (The Message Bible)
If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

How to de-escalate a matter?

 Proverbs 21:9 (KJV)
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.

Proverbs 21:19 (KJV)
It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.

Proverbs 25:24 (KJV)
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.


Seventeen Better Things in Proverbs
 
1. Wisdom is better than gold (Prov. 3:14; 8:19).
2. Wisdom is better than silver (Prov. 3:14; 8:19).
3. Wisdom is better than rubies (Prov. 3:15; 8:11).
4. A despised man is better than one who honors himself (Prov. 12:9).
5. A little with the fear of God is better than treasures with trouble (Prov. 15:16).
 
6. A dinner of herbs with love is better than a feast where hatred is (Prov. 15:17).
7. A man slow to anger is better than a hot tempered mighty man (Prov. 16:32).
8. A man who rules his spirit is better than an intemperate hero (Prov. 16:32).
9. A morsel of bread with quietness is better than a feast with strife (Prov. 17:1).
10. An honest poor man is better than a fool with perverse lips (Prov. 19:1).
 
11. A poor man is better than a liar (Prov. 19:22).
12. It is better to dwell alone in a small place than in a large one with a brawling woman (Prov. 21:9; 25:24).
13. It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with an angry and contentious woman (Prov. 21:19).
 
14. It is better to be exalted than to be abased before men (Prov. 25:7).
15. An open rebuke is better than secret love (Prov. 27:5).
16. A near neighbor is better than a far-off brother (Prov. 27:10).
17. A righteous poor man is better than a wicked rich man (Prov. 28:6).
Dake's Annotated Reference Bible.

Title 42 - And Asylum for Who?

 Matthew 2:13-17
When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”
14 So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
16 When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

Asylum defined: the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee.

O, listen to the spirit of God. He that has an ear to hear, hear théé O simple one. 

O Lord, speak unto théé they gentle word.

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen