Sidelined, Brian, and many others here, it is good to see you are still here. I have been gone for about a year, but decided to breeze through once more. I noted your post and thougt I might be able to clarify things a bit. Let me say that I am not exactly sure how your post correlates with the orignally posted questions, but perhaps the information I provide can serve to direct things back to the original topic.
Let me begin by quoting the context of the verse. I must say that the context is really larger than what I am quoting, but these verses will serve, for now, as an immediate context.
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the
everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends
of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there
is no searching of his understanding.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have
no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the
young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint."
Isaiah 40:28-31
In dealing with what you said there was some measure of accuracy. You mentioned an individual getting tired. This misses the mark a bit due to being an oversimplification but I think it can stand for now. Also, you mentioned born again Christians. I would like to point out that there were no born again Christians, as we define those words, at the time these verses were written down. However, there were a great multitude of people who believed in the same God that is worshipped by a "born again Christian" who is following the biblical pattern. I must say at this point that the preceeding statement goes beyond a mere definition of God and acceptance of the Bible to a thorough understanding of the principles for human life that God has put forth. Getting back to it...
In the immediate context, the verses are pointing the reader to God as a source of strength instead of their finding strength within themselves. Verse 30 refers to "youths" and "young men" because in a community, these are individuals who are expected to have strength and not be weakened or tired above others. Yet, the Bible says even these will fail. Then the contrast is made in verse 31 where the Bible says that those who are in dependence upon the LORD will not suffer this failure.
Does this mean that believers in the LORD will never be tired? No. The larger context makes it clear that those who are in dependence upon the LORD will be provided the strength and/or energy to accomplish that which is required as they individually place themselves in a resting position in God's plan, like a leaf being carried by a stream current. Please understand that I do not mean that a believer is to be inactive. Rather I am saying it is the strength of the LORD that makes the activity productive according to the plan that the LORD has established for that individual. Psalm 1 serves as an excellent support to this truth.
As far as relevance to what Flying Hawk asked, I think it is clear that I have a definition of God (though I would disagree and say that I merely aggree with the Bible's definition). Also, it is clear that there are moral implications derived from that definition, as the verses in question serve to illustrate. I do hope this has been some help. I will be glad to make another attempt if I have stated anything unclearly or created more questions than I answered.
Again, I have missed interacting with many of you and hope to find time to come through more often.
Russ
edited for grammatical correction
This message has been edited by apostolos, 02-04-2005 16:27 AM
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