FEAST CELEBRATE JESUS 8-15-15 VIDEO CARMEN CELEBRATE
Eccl 2:25 Whether we feast or fast, it’s up to God. MSG
Isa 25:4 They’ll see that you take care of the poor, that you take care of poor people in trouble, Provide a warm, dry place in bad weather, provide a cool place when it’s hot.
Brutal oppressors are like a winter blizzard
5 and vicious foreigners like high noon in the desert. But you, shelter from the storm and shade from the sun, shut the mouths of the big-mouthed bullies.
6 But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will throw a feast for all the people of the world, A feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines, a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts. MSG
Isa 58 “Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back — a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives, face my family Jacob with their sins! 2 They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people — law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do? ‘and love having me on their side. 3 But they also complain, ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’
“Well, here’s why: “The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. 4 You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. 5 Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black?Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like?
6 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after :to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. 7 What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,being available to your own families. 8 Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way.The God of glory will secure your passage. 9 Then when you pray, God will answer.You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places
“If you get rid of unfair practices,quit blaming victims,quit gossiping about other people’s sins, 10 If you are generous with the hungryand start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. 11 I will always show you where to go.I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places — firm muscles, strong bones.You’ll be like a well-watered garden,a gurgling spring that never runs dry. 12 You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,rebuild the foundations from out of your past.You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,make the community livable again.
13 “If you watch your step on the Sabbathand don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,God’s holy day as a celebration,If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’making money, running here and there — 14 Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”Yes! God says so! MSG
Isa 61:6 But you’ll have the title “Priests of God,” honored as ministers of our God. You’ll feast on the bounty of nations, you’ll bask in their glory. MSG
Matt 9:15 Jesus told them, “When you’re celebrating a wedding, you don’t skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but not now. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!” MSG
Mark 15:6 It was a custom at the Feast to release a prisoner, anyone the people asked for. MSG
Job 36:16 “Oh, Job, don’t you see how God’s wooing you from the jaws of danger?
How he’s drawing you into wide-open places — inviting you to feast at a table laden with blessings?
17 And here you are laden with the guilt of the wicked, obsessed with putting the blame on God!
18 Don’t let your great riches mislead you; don’t think you can bribe your way out of this.
19 Did you plan to buy your way out of this? Not on your life!
20 And don’t think that night, when people sleep off their troubles, will bring you any relief.
21 Above all, don’t make things worse with more evil — that’s what’s behind your suffering as it is!
22 “Do you have any idea how powerful God is? Have you ever heard of a teacher like him?
23 Has anyone ever had to tell him what to do, or correct him, saying, ‘You did that all wrong!’?
24 Remember, then, to praise his workmanship, which is so often celebrated in song.
25 Everybody sees it; nobody is too far away to see it. MSG
1 Cor 5:8 So let’s live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread — simple, genuine, unpretentious. MSG
Acts 2:46 They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, MSG
Eph 1:6 He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. MSG
Phil 1:19 because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done.
20 I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit!
21 Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose. MSG