{"id":84864,"date":"2023-01-09T16:37:20","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T21:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=84864"},"modified":"2023-01-09T17:00:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T22:00:37","slug":"the-church-is-a-hospital-reflections-on-isaiah-116-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2023\/01\/09\/the-church-is-a-hospital-reflections-on-isaiah-116-17\/","title":{"rendered":"“The church is a hospital.” Reflections on Isaiah 1:16-17."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Isaiah 1:16-17<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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16\u00a0<\/sup>Wash\u00a0and make yourselves clean.<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Take your evil deeds out of my sight;<\/span><\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>stop doing wrong.<\/span><\/span>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>Learn to do right;\u00a0seek justice.<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Defend the oppressed.<\/span><\/span>
\nTake up the cause of the fatherless;<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>plead the case of the widow.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

From DSC:<\/span><\/em>
\nObviously, all of this goes for me as well. I constantly thank the LORD for His patience with me as well as His grace and forgiveness. I often seek His help, wisdom, and strength. Anyway, the above verse caught my eye due to\u00a0Isaiah’s focus on justice <\/strong><\/em>and to seeing that justice is had by all.<\/span><\/p>\n

And those reflections caused me to think about what the church is all about — at least for me. This brought to mind an old pastor friend of mine who once exclaimed, “The church is a hospital<\/strong>.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Wow. That thought hit me powerfully. And you know what? I agree with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

“The church” is a place for “sick” people who are in need of hope, healing, teaching, support, forgiveness, grace, love, wisdom, community, and more. Besides a place to worship the LORD, those are some of the reasons why I continue to go to church.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Matthew 9:12<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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12\u00a0<\/sup>On hearing this, Jesus said,\u00a0\u201cIt is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Along these lines, I’m trying to figure out what the LORD wants me to do (during this next year and beyond). I want to make a contribution. For those who pray out there, I could use your prayers on where He wants me to plug in.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 1:16-17 16\u00a0Wash\u00a0and make yourselves clean. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Take your evil deeds out of my sight; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0stop doing wrong. 17\u00a0Learn to do right;\u00a0seek justice. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0plead the case of the widow. From DSC: Obviously, all of this goes for me as well. I constantly thank the LORD for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[832,86,72,425,95,500,248,377,480],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access-to-justice","category-change","category-daniel-s-christian","category-faith","category-global-globalization","category-hearts-matters-of-the-heart","category-relationships","category-religion","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84864"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84866,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84864\/revisions\/84866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}