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Tuesday, August 28, 2018
More Highlights from Isaiah...
Last week I wrote a post of a "few" highlights from the book of Isaiah. I only made it half way through the book!
Here are a few more highlights - or a few things that God taught me through the book of Isaiah or things that stuck out to me.
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I love Isaiah 40. It's such a beautiful passage packed full of lessons to learn and it shares about how great God is! If you have time to read the whole chapter I highly recommend looking it up.
Verse 18 says, "With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with Him?"
Verse 25-26 says, "To whom will you compare Me, or who is My equal?" asks the Holy One. Look up and see! He brings out the stars by number; He calls all of them by name. Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing."
Our God is so great. He knows every star by name! Stars are countless let He knows each by name! Who can we compare God with? No one. God is beyond measure and comprehension.
Verse 28-31 says, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding. He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless. Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint."
Wow! Doesn't that passage just make you want to jump up and shout? God is everlasting, He is Creator of everything, He never sleeps and He doesn't get tired, there is NO limit to His understanding.
Trust in Him. Let Him renew your strength, let Him be your strength.
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Isaiah 43:1-2, "Now this is what the Lord says— the One who created you, Jacob, and the One who formed you, Israel— "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.""
If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior then you are a child of God. He has called you by name and you are His. Our identity is in Him! We've been redeemed.
Verse 4, "Because you are precious in My sight and honored, and I love you."
God loves you. He loves me. God loves everyone. You are precious in the sight of the King of kings. Your worth is not in anything you do... its in the love He has for you. But isn't that comforting to know?
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Isaiah 52:2-3, "Stand up, shake the dust off yourself! Take your seat, Jerusalem. Remove the bonds from your neck, captive Daughter Zion." For this is what the Lord says: "You were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without silver.""
If you are a follower of Jesus then you've been redeemed by Jesus' blood. But sometimes we don't realize it. If our chains have been broken why do we wear them? If our transgressions have been forgiven why do we sit in the filth of our sins? We need to stand up and shake the dust off ourselves! We've been redeemed by His blood!
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Isaiah 54:10, ""Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken," says your compassionate Lord."
No matter what God's love never changes. His covenant will not be shaken. Cling to that hope. Cling to Jesus.
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Isaiah 64:3, "When You did awesome works that we did not expect, You who came down, and the mountains quaked at your presence."
God is so powerful!
Whew... there are so many things to learn from the book of Isaiah! I had trouble "narrowing" it down.
So what's God been doing in your life recently? What's He been teaching you?
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Highlights from Isaiah...
I finished the book of Isaiah a week or so ago so I wanted to share a few highlights from it... there's so much in the book of Isaiah to learn, I'll try to narrow it down to just a few things that God taught me. :D
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Something I notice throughout the book of Isaiah, and it's in other books of the Bible as well, is that sometimes a chapter or section will end with "for the Lord has spoken" or "This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies". (Is. 1:2, 3:15, 14:23, 17:3, 22:25, and so on). To me it's as if it's showing that His Word is final. God's Word is final. God's Word never changes. God's Word remains forever.
Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever."
Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away."
Psalm 33:4, "For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is trustworthy."
Isaiah 14:27 says, "The Lord of Armies Himself has planned it; therefore, who can stand in its way? It is His hand that is outstretched, so who can turn it back?"
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Isaiah 1:7-8 says, "Your land is desolate, your cities burned down; foreigners devour your fields right in front of you - a desolation, like a place demolished by foreigners. Daughter Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a besieged city."
Sounds like a pretty depressing picture, right? Let me skip ahead to Isaiah chapter 61.
Isaiah 61:4, "They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the former devastations; they will renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations."
Isn't that comforting? I love how you can see where they were, and where they will be.
In our world today we see darkness, destruction, and chaos... but one day Jesus is going to come back again and He will renew and restore.
In our world today we see darkness, destruction, and chaos... but one day Jesus is going to come back again and He will renew and restore.
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Isaiah chapter six is pretty well known for verse eight:
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking:
Who should I send?
Who will go for us?
I said:
Here I am. Send me."
Wow. Isaiah stood in the presence of God and when God asked who will go for us Isaiah said, "Here I am. Send me." At the time I'm sure he didn't know how much he would suffer for His Name, but I'm willing to guess he did know the cost.
How do we respond to God's calling?
Let me back up a few verses to Isaiah 6:5, "Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said:
Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for."
Isaiah saw the glory of God. He saw it and recognized that he was a sinner. But his lips were touched with a glowing coal and his sins were atoned for.
When we see the glory of God we see how sinful we are compared to His glory. But God has forgiven us, our iniquity has been removed and our sins atoned for.
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Isaiah 17:10 says, "For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and you have failed to remember the rock of your strength;"
When we forget about what God has done for us, when we forget Who He is, we are taking our eyes off of Him and onto other things. We need to focus on Him and remember.
Isaiah 26:13, "but we remember Your name alone."
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Isaiah 31:6, "Return to the one the Israelites have greatly rebelled against."
The Israelites had a tendency to turn to idols and away from God... but here Isaiah tells them to return to Him.
Isaiah 44:22, "I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you."
Hah, remember how in the beginning of this post I said I'll try to narrow it down to a few? I think those were a little over a few.... ;). And I barely made it halfway through the book! I may share some more next week.
So what is one of your favorite verses from the book of Isaiah? What's God been teaching you through His Word recently? What's a lesson from Isaiah God has taught you?
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Jesus, More than Words
His love is so amazing.
Even a second of His love is more than anyone could ever love you in a lifetime.
His love is so beautiful that I cannot describe it.
He is more than words.
His grace overflows.
All the waters combined couldn’t amount to His grace.
His grace is breath-taking.
He is more than words.
His mercy is plentiful.
His mercy is beyond measure.
His mercy is majestic.
He is more than words.
His glory shines.
All of His glory cannot be captured in a single moment.
His glory is everywhere.
He is more than words.
Jesus. He is more than I or any other person could ever describe. I can only say a few things to the beginning of who He is.
He is more than words.
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That’s a poem I wrote a while back... Jesus is indescribable. I can’t even begin to find words that describe Him.
Psalm 24:1-2, "The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; for He laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers."
Psalm 86:15, "But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth."
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
A Contradicting World
We live in a world of contradictions.
Think about it. Our world says one thing and then goes and says another.
The world says you're beautiful, then tells you how to lose weight and look beautiful.
The world says be yourself, then tells you how to live.
The world promotes being real, while putting on a fake mask.
The world says that life matters yet millions of babies have been aborted.
The world says you can make your own choices, but scorns Christianity.
But think about it even more. How often do we contradict ourselves?
We tell people to open up and share what they're going through, but we hide it all inside.
We say that we're a follower of Jesus, then we go do something contrary to God's Word.
We say that our words have impact, but throw them out carelessly.
We tell people to pray and read the Bible, but Monday through Saturday we don't do those two things.
How does any of that make sense? I'm not going to go into all of that, instead I want to emphasize another point.
God never contradicts Himself. His Word is never contradicting.
I find that thought very comforting.
Our world is contradicting, but God never contradicts Himself.
Our world is ever changing, but Jesus is the same forever.
Our world is full of lies and deceit, but Jesus is truth.
I find those truths very comforting.
Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
John 14:6, "Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Matthew 24:35, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away."
This post isn't as long as most, but I want to encourage you with this fact: Jesus is the same forever. He will never change. He will never say a lie and always speaks truth. His Word is never contradicting. In our chaotic world, cling to Him.