228 - "There Is A Balm in Gilead" Jeremiah 7-10

There are people who have no idea how they come across or what they are really doing to you. I am sure this happens to me every day. They are so lost in themselves.  Their sins trail behind them--- I Timothy 5:24.  For all those people in your life leaving a trail of sadness, stand up for them at their crossroads and ask for them the right paths of life.  Jeremiah 6:16.  There is a balm in Gilead.  Jeremiah 8:22.  There is a balm in your city to redress your grievances.  We have to submit to the care offered by God.  We have to submit to the cure offered by God. Redress me in my own trail of "misses" as sin is missing the mark.  The blood of Christ is the balm in Gilead.  We will remain in need not for want of the balm but for admittance of our need and submission to His cure.  Throws me back to my cancer days.  I had to submit to the cure to eradicate the cancer---it wasn't what I wanted but what was needed to move forward.  I didn't think Christ was what I wanted because I thought it was a religion to follow----and I already was.  But when we admit and submit and ask for the balm, it is more than anyone in the universe knows.  He offers an intimate relationship with Himself.  God gives us Himself and that's the dearest grandest offer of anything.  

PHOTO:  A trail. Our sins trail behind us. 

227 - "They Don't Even Know How to Blush" Jeremiah 4-6

This brand-new prophet, this child king---
they have inherited a people "greedy for unjust gain."
They embrace a mess of a kingdom. From the least to the greatest.
These righteous leaders couldn't make a dent in the evil bent of their people.  

This kingdom:
"They heal wounds lightly saying, "Peace, Peace." Jeremiah 6:14.

Do we do the same today glossing and minimizing pain saying, "It's all good." And it may not be so. And, yes, I do know that God is always doing good. But slapping a trite phrase on grief and pain and loss---well, that's not good.

This kingdom:
They have no shame over their sins,
they don't even know how to blush. Jer 6:15.

And it is the Lord, Who says:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls. Jer 6:16.

"Oh that men would be wise for their souls! Ask for the old paths; the way of godliness and righteousness has always been the way God has owned and blessed. Ask for the old paths set forth by the written word of God." Matthew Henry

Oh Father, give us Wisdom this day and the Grace to see the paths You have put in front of us by this written Word we hold. Solomon just prayed for it: Wisdom from Above. We humbly stop and surrender and ask for those old paths worn and creased and wrinkled and crafted by Your Beautiful Word. Counsel us this day, Oh God! We need You so!

PHOTO:  Jerusalem.  We walked this path.  Many followers have.  But it's the Written Word, the Living Word, Who they encountered on all these paths that we make supplication, that we seek, that we step into.  

226 - “I Know You” Jeremiah 1-3

 

A youthful prince & a novice prophet join Kingdom forces and things grow worse.
Josiah was 21 and trying to turn around his followers from the high places.
While God was calling a young Jeremiah to speak, prophesy and reform.
Both young men met the Voice of God in unison, in fear and trembling.
And Jeremiah hears God say to him:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, OH! That makes me cry!!!

and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:3
Not just a prophet to his people, but to the nations!

And Jeremiah tenderly trembles:
“Ah, Lord God!

I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 

But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Jeremiah 1:6-7.

Whatever it is God is saying to you this day.
Go in weakness. 
Speak in dependence.

“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
And I am watching over my word to perform it.” Jeremiah 1:16.
God fits each of us to His Calling and watches over all.

But you, dress yourself for work.  Jeremiah 1:17

Dear Father, there are days when I believe I could have done better.  I could have taken more initiative.  I could have...the list goes on.  The truth is You are always working to bring about good.  I must lay down the high places in my mind of where I think I should be.  Direct me this day to speak Your Word.  Watch over Your Word to perform it today. 

We anticipate the Great Day. I am one year closer, this day, in Ancipation of that Great Day.

PHOTO:  Standing at this ocean wondering about my future.  Dressing myself for work today. 

225 - "My Worst Problem is Me" Isaiah 64-66

                                 

The prophet Isaiah has disturbed us all and stirred such good things in our hearts.  What is one thought from the book of Isaiah that you walk away with?  For me, it is the unholiness that runs right through me.  Isaiah 30:11 ~ I have been confronted with the Holy One and I have so much hope! My ears have been opened and I'm so very grateful in the midst of my mess.  "No matter what is happening to you, your worst problem is in you.  And that problem is not how badly you feel, it is how poorly you love.  Your failure to love Me above all else and to love others at any cost to yourself defines your unholiness.  When you recognize your unholiness and own it without excuse, your ears will be opened to hear My words of comfort and hope.  And those words will set you on the narrow road to relating with holy love.  There is no other kind."  66 LL.

Isaiah 64:4 "From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
Who acts for those who wait for Him."
We wait for no man.
We wait for our God.
The Potter Who has worked us well to this place.
You will not stop with This Work of Your Hands, our Father. Isa 64:8
Your hands are spread out to us.
May we let go of all our devices.  Isa 65:2

These people so wanted God to manifest Himself like He did in the days of Moses and David and Elijah.  They beg him to do what He used to do. 
As I look back on my life and I am a little older,
I find myself begging for Grace undeserved.
Matthew Henry wrote:
"They need not fear being disappointed of it---for it is sure,
or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient. 
The very Sure Presence of our God.
The very Sufficient Grace from our God.
Our hope is in Him.
Our joy is in Him.
Wrapped up in what our God will do in us and for us and through us.
Such Mystery that we cannot even comprehend though we grasp the Grace.

God speaks his freeness and forwardness in doing us good.
Oh, my soul!
"See what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious soul." M.Henry.                               

God's Decree ~  There is something I'm looking for: a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say. But, your acts of worship are acts of sin: ... Well, I choose to expose your nonsense and let you realize your worst fears.  But listen to what God has to say to you who reverently respond to his Word: "Your own families hate you and turn you out because of me. They taunt you, 'Let us see God's glory! If God's so great, why aren't you happy?'   

"Now the once whispered word peals like the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings over the whole church of God." Ellicott

PHOTO: unfiltered,,,undone,,,the quarries

224 - “Crying in Heartache and Living in Hope” Isaiah 58-63

 

Isaiah 58:2 - 9    BUSY BUSY BUSY V. BEING AVAILABLE TO YOUR FAMILIES

Face my family with their sins! 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. 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. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground.  "This is the kind of fast day I'm after:  to break the chains of injustice, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is:  sharing your food with the hungry, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. ...  So, I toed the line on Saturday in the Kansas City Marathon for World Vision. 800 kids today will lose their life because of polluted water sources. Fundraising to help World Vision build one well at a time---$50 builds one well for one child for a lifetime of clean water.

You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'  Isaiah 58:9 - I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places...You'll be like a well-watered garden...If you honor it by refusing 'business as usual,' making money, running here and there— Then you'll be free to enjoy God! 

I do not cure your unholiness by overlooking or understanding it.  To overlook it would be to miss the spot on the x-ray that will destroy you.  To understand it in light of what you've suffered would be to excuse it.  I do not heal your selfishness by affirming your value.  I solve your deepest problem with My self-sacrificing, reconciling embrace that forgives all that is unholy within you."  What hope is given by the prophet Isaiah!  Faith to believe God is good in any circumstance. Love that pays any price to bless another both spring from hope.  66 LL 

Isaiah 59:1-2  WRONGHEADED LIVES CAUSED THE SPLIT
God's arm is not too short.  God's ears are not stopped up.  There's nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you.  Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God....59:12 - Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God, our sins stand up and accuse us...Good is MIA, missing in action.  

But You issue a decree in v. 20:  I'll arrive as Redeemer to those who leave their sins.   

PHOTO:  Walking every day and thinking about those without. Godspeed. 

223 - "Deliver us God from Ourselves" Isaiah 52-57

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger bringing good news, Breaking the news that all's well, proclaiming good times, announcing salvation, telling Zion, "Your God reigns!"...Isaiah 52:11 - Purify yourselves.  You're not running from anybody! God is leading you out of here, and the God of Israel is also your rear guard. 

Isaiah 53:6...But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us, and that made us whole. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on Him.

Isaiah 54:10 "The mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My Lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken, says the LORD Who has compassion on you."  Every one who is thirsty for more, come.  We recognize our deep inadequacies. With every breath, we either profane the moment or it is holy for we have been redeemed by a Holy One.  That which is not holy, may God refine.  Where we want something more than God, may God deliver us from ourselves.  

Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near. Isaiah 55:6

PHOTO: Mount Rainier - You feel so small standing next to it. The mountain is shaken by volcanoes. His peace will never be shaken in our lives. Not by any volcano. 

222 - "Lean On The God of Israel" Isaiah 47-51

Who am I really listening to?

What is playing over and over in my mind?

Am I listening to God?

Am I listening to what it means to "move in" to love those difficult people in my life?

\

You claim to be citizens of the Holy City; 

you act as though you lean on the God of Israel, 

named God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 

You've never been good listeners to me. 

You have a history of ignoring me.

I've refined you, but not without fire. 

I've tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction.  

Come close, listen carefully:   I've always been present with you."

Isaiah 48

He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”

But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.”

                                                                                Isa 49:3-4

Hope for a new chapter.  Hope for a better me.  Hope for new strength.  

I Thes 4:11 that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business ...

"It is very desirable to have a calm and quiet temper, and to be of a peaceable and quiet behaviour. Satan is busy to trouble us; and we have in our hearts what disposes us to be unquie; therefore let us study to be quiet." 

I think about this verse like every day. Am I moving quiet in my mind? Am I living quiet in my heart?

PHOTO:  Hope for these two firstborn boys. Barrett and Ezekiel. May their next chapters be full of love.

221 - "No One One Earth Knows Me Like God" Isaiah 43-46

          

Heavens, here comes a long post. No one is going to want to read this long post.

The Lord says:  I created you.  I formed you.  I redeemed you.  I summoned you by name.  You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. And the fire will not burn you. Isaiah 43:1-2

When God acts, who can reverse it? Isaiah 43:13.

God formed me from the womb. No one on earth knows me like that. He wired me together this way. He will help me even when I am fed up with me. Isaiah 44:2

He'll pour water on thirsty real estate. He'll pour His Spirit on our children.  

Fear not.

This God Who has formed us is here to redeem us. And that changes everything.  

This God Who formed us is here to deliver us from idols we do not even know we have. With one hand we use a simple piece of wood to fuel a fire, to bake some bread. On the other hand, we craft that piece of wood into an idol to worship. "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isaiah 44:20. 

And this Beautiful God confirms the Word to us, 
fulfills the Counsel of His messengers. Isaiah 44:26.

May we hear the Counsel of messengers. Confirm Your Word to each of us through the spoken Word, the written Word, the Word made flesh in those You bring across our paths. Open our eyes, our hearts to see idols we have crafted that worship time and people and achievement and success and safety and comfort.Am I stirred by my calling or by my pain?

 "I've singled you out, called you by name, and given you this privileged work."  Am I more stirred this day by my high calling or by the pain in my life?  Isa 45:11: "Do you question who or what I'm making? Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?"  Radical Repentance needed to respond to the truth of the Gospel to advance His Kingdom.

God will never stop doing you good.  Isaiah 45:3-6.  God says: I've been carrying you on my back from the day you were born, And I'll keep on carrying you when you're old. I've done it and will keep on doing it.  So why do I act like the center of the universe is me, sometimes.

In 66 LL, the author writes about a friend of his who thinks God's Love is all about the spiritual highs he sometimes expreriences when he sobs over how empty he feels.  But those "Divine Encounters" with Your Love don't seem to be freeing him to better love his difficult wife.  He backs away from her so he can experience Your Love without interruption.  As I stood on the beach as daybreak, and watched the Morning Star open its corridor, there was the sprinkle of rain and the surreal experience of singing the Doxology alone on a pristine island beach. Just happened to be the next song on my phone.  In the midst of my pain, I could have burst open, I was so "taken" with the God of the Universe Who walked with me on the succulent sultry sparkling saturated sand!  What is most alive in me this day?  Am I more alive with other people who are "safe" and backing away from those closest to me?  Heaven forbid.  What does love look like today toward those in my life who are difficult to read and dismissive in actions toward me?  "Only those who know they are unholy, who hate their unholiness more than their pain and emptiness, experience the transforming power of My Love!"  66 LL.  That's what God is saying to me this day. 

PHOTO:  Sunrise in Florida on that corridor

220 - "I Am In The Battle for Your Soul" Isaiah 38-42

I AM IN THE BATTLE FOR YOUR SOUL Isaiah 38 may have been written thousand of years ago, but this chapter about a prophet and a king deeply stirs places in my heart this day, this moment.  King Hezekiah hears the threatening report and goes into the sanctuary of his God.  He sends his administrators to the prophet to ask for prayer.  Prophet Isaiah responds with God's Message:  "I personally will take care of your enemy."  Isaiah was in the battle for Hezekiah's soul.  Am I in the battle for my children's souls, my friends' souls?  A letter arrives and Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of the messengers and read it. Then he went into the sanctuary of God and spread the letter out before God.  This verse means much to me.  I have thought about it hundreds of times in my life.  God marked these words. God said:  "Haven't you gotten the news that I've been behind this all along? This is a longstanding plan of mine.  Can I see that what happens in my life is always God's Plan A?  "I've got My Hand on this city.  I've got My Hand on your life! The Angel of God arrived and struck the Assyrian camp— 185,000 Assyrians died.  Then Sennacharib was murdered by his own sons. Unbelievable.

In Isaiah 38, God said:  You're going to die.  You're not going to get well."  Hezekiah turned to God:  Please, I beg you.  Hezekiah wept as he prayed---painful tears.  Remember me.  God said through the prophet:  "I've heard your prayer.  I've seen your tears. Spread out this day before our God and that thing that disturbs you. Live for the bended ear. Just as it happened in Isa 38:5. God heard Hezekiah's prayer for his health. He was knocking on death's door. God saw his tears and words. God changed His mind and added 15 years to his life.  "I have My Hand on this city."  Whatever time I have left, it seems it was good for me to go through all those troubles. Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline. You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing. And my sins I let go of, threw them over my shoulder—good riddance! 

PHOTO: Small town in California where people once fought for their independence. 

219 - "Sighs and Sorrows Scurry Into The Night" Isaiah 32-37

This beautiful book counsels us in our deepest need where our plans to walk wisely fail.  

                                                                 

Where our plans to be strong sink.  Where this Holy One is our strength, our everything.

O, Lord, be gracious to us this sunrise.  We wait for you not for any man.  

"Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble."  Isaiah 33:2.  

And, You will be the stability of our times today, an abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.  Isaiah 33:6.  

AM I AWED BY SUCCESS?  AWED BY THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO RESPOND TO ME?  Isaiah 31: 1-3  Doom to those who go off to Egypt thinking that horses can help them, Impressed by military mathematics, awed by sheer numbers of chariots and riders— And to The Holy of Israel, not even a glance, 
not so much as a prayer to God. Still, he must be reckoned with, a most wise God who knows what he's doing. He can call down catastrophe. He's a God who does what he says. 

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I REPENTED TODAY? 
Isaiah 31:6 -7  Repent, return, dear Israel, to the One you so cruelly abandoned. On the day you return, you'll throw away—every last one of you—the no-gods your sinful hands made from metal and wood. 

DO I BELIEVE HE IS DOING ME GOOD?
Isaiah 32:20  But you will enjoy a blessed life, planting well-watered fields and gardens, 

WHAT IS STIRRING INSIDE OF ME AS I READ THIS CHAPTER?
Isaiah 33:22  No more pulling up stakes and moving on, no more patched-together lean-tos. Instead, God! God majestic, God Himself! ... God is our King.  God runs this place and He will keep us safe. ... And you will live guilt free!  Isaiah 34:8 It's God's scheduled time for vengeance.

DO I NAME THE EVIL IN ME?
Isaiah 34: 16 -17  Get and read God's book: None of this is going away, this breeding, brooding evil. God has personally commanded it all.  His Spirit set it in motion. God has assigned them their place, decreed their fate in detail. This is permanent— generation after generation.

DO I BELIEVE THAT I WILL SING EVEN WHEN I HAVE NO VOICE?
Isaiah 35: 1 -2 Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower— Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom, a symphony of song and color.  ... God's resplendent glory, fully on display. God awesome, God majestic. Isaiah 35: 3 -7  Energize the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. Tell fearful souls, "Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things right And redress all wrongs. He's on his way! He'll save you!"  Blind eyes will be opened, deaf ears unstopped, Lame men and women will leap like deer, the voiceless break into song. Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness, streams flow in the desert. Hot sands will become a cool oasis, thirsty ground a splashing fountain. Even lowly jackals will have water to drink, and barren grasslands flourish richly. 

CAN I TRUST A GOOD GOD THAT ONE DAY OUR SIGHS & SORROWS WILL BE NO MORE? ISAIAH 35: 8 -10  There will be a highway called the Holy Road. No rude or rebellious people here.  It's for God's people exclusively— impossible to get lost on this road...Only the redeemed will walk on it. The people God has ransomed will come back on this road. They'll sing as they make their way home to Zion, 
unfading halos of joy encircling their heads, Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.

PHOTO: On this beach while I walk, be our arm in time of trouble.