Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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

• Isaiah 53:5

The Boilerplate

My wife started to write her thoughts down at one point in her life.  Some hints point to 2018 and 2019, after she had her open-heart surgery.  In spite of her trials and the atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) that required her to take blood thinners, this was before her major health decline.

Sometimes, she wrote a thought.  Other times, she wrote a Bible verse, and maybe her idea on that day.  Other times, it is a prayer, but I am going to take one entry at a time and try to write about it

Her comment

“But He pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him.”

• My wife’s next comment in this notebook

The Discussion

Again, my wife used the CSB (Christian Standard Bible) in quoting Isaiah 53:5.

She left the last line out for some odd reason.  Maybe she knew she was not healed, and the end could not be long, but this was before her health started to deteriorate.

That part that was left out became a nightmare for her.  Most people quote the KJV, “by His stripes we are healed.”  Someone came in late one night, when my wife wanted to be in bed asleep.  Faked a “Faith Healing” and then pronounced my wife was going to Hell because that last line of Isaiah 53:5 guarantees true Christians to never have illness.  This is pure garbage.  The person saying it was grandstanding and probably had no idea where that line in the Bible was or if it really was in the Bible.  It was all for show to make himself look big and important.

The only comforting words I could think of at the time was that if he really believed what he said, he would lose his faith the next time he got sick.  He was a liar.

But before that happened, she wrote down the first three-quarters of that verse.

My wife knew what the fear of God was.  She was in awe of His Majesty.  And she felt so unworthy.

She became a Christian late in life.  She commented on how I would talk about riding the fence when we were first married.  It took her nearly twenty-five years to figure out that she was on the fence.  She was not going to share in God’s glory unless she stepped off the fence and committed herself to God.

And commit, she did.

Her greatest lament was that she had wasted all those years.  At times, she told me that she would have done everything differently if she had only known.

And note, she knew everything that she needed to know in her head, but she had not committed her heart to it.  Only when you take that full commitment step does the Holy Spirit reveal what you need to know.  And in seeing how awesome God is, she lamented that she was too stubborn and thickheaded to not do it sooner.

But in wanting to do everything differently, I had always thought she meant since we were married.  She loved me, but in having looked back, was marrying me one of the things she regretted?  Before she became totally disenchanted with the Catholic church, she had wanted to be a nun.  And her last years, being a bride of Christ was pretty much her lifestyle.  Her body, according to her, was already dead, meaning that she no longer desired any earthly desires.

I am not saying that this is the right way to go.  The Apostle Paul talks about it and says that if you want to do that, it must be a joint decision, but she felt that her medical conditions trumped what Paul said, and I should love her enough to agree to her lifestyle, which I did.

But what she thought about for most of the last twenty plus years of her life was that Jesus did what He did for her.  It was so overwhelming, it consumed her.  She always thought of others, but her drive to put those thoughts into actions were only slowed by her health concerns.  And then, she smiled regardless of the pain she might be in.

Really getting to the root of Isaiah 53:5, we realize the cost for us to be saved, and that should drive us tirelessly to spread the Gospel and help those less fortunate.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory