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. 

218 - "Wonder Upon Wonder" Isaiah 27-31

Three Verses I have thought about for the past three decades.
The default of the Jews was to go to their neighbors if they needed help,
not to their God.
What about me?
I too have run to the arms of flesh for guidance, counsel, support.
May we deeply depend this day on the LORD our God.

In Returning and Rest
In Quietness and Trust
Shall be Your Strength.
Isaiah 30:15

The LORD longs to be gracious to you
He longs to show mercy to you.
He is a God of justice.
Blessed are those who wait for Him, not for any man.
Isaiah 30:18

And though the Lord gives you
the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
Your teacher will not hide himself anymore.
Your eyes will see Your Teacher.
Your ears will hear a word behind you, saying:
This is the way, walk in it.
When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Isaiah 30:20-21

We will find strength in affliction because You are there.  Help us this day in what you have allowed in your Providential Hand to escape the snares of the enemy of our souls.  Help us this day to find that quietness and rest in You in the midst of this world we live in.

Here it is.  The first verse I read that grabbed me and what I was doing, living, being when I was a mere 21 years old.

“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Isaiah 29:13.

And I turned.  I could no longer live in the human rules.

I could no longer live by the works of my hand.

I can no longer live today by the principle of this land.

Their worship is made up of rules that come from mere humans, yet the Sovereign Lord says: In quietness and trust is your strength. But they wanted none of it. 

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord. Isa 31:1 To Whom or what do I turn this day, this hour? 

Woe to the one

who tells God what to do.

Shall the clay tell the Potter

what to do?  

We have life mixed up..

Paul David Tripp calls it 

Eternity Amnesia.

"Life is a struggle.  The Lord, in His Wisdom, has left us in a fallen world.  But perhaps our struggles are not primarily about the brokenness that surrounds us.  Could it be there is something we bring to each of these struggles that makes them harder to bear?"   www.paultripp.com/articles/posts/your-final-destinatio

PHOTO: A Rabbit Hole.  As we look deep into the holes of our own lives, may we sense Your Presence with us, Your Provision toward us, and Your Bending Low to us. 

217 - "God Fastened Him As A Nail" Isaiah 22-26

I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him... Isaiah 22:22-24

Those who are called to power should rule with dignity and delight. Gill's Commentary says they should be like fathers and mothers to those under their rule. How beautiful is that? If we use people for our ministry advantage, we may look good on paper but our hearts have missed on our purpose on this earth.  

"The glory of this world gives a man no real worth or excellence; it is but hung upon him, and it will soon drop from him." We may be important and die a noble death like The Parade of a President. Or we may die a pauper, unknown to many. Yet we are all the same. All answer not for earth's achievements. Our faith must be hung on Christ and not on any man. 

God fastened him as a nail.  Isaiah 22:23.  He put in my husband's hands the power to lead His church.  Today.  Dad stands.  Established.  Speaks well.  The support the congregations needed.  And our family needs.  And this spike will be strengthened by each of you and your prayers.  And the church will be contrived to strengthen its walls by the binding of its people together.  And we all hang on that nail.  And the nail-scarred Hands. 

Praying for the strength that only come from the One Who has called us to lead. 

PHOTO:  A few days after the Great Divide in our lives that nearly wiped me out---but no. His faith still hung on Christ. And so did ours.

216 - “You Are Religious But You Have Forgotten God” Isaiah 15-21

                            

                        

Isaiah 17: 7 -8   Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They'll lose interest in all the stuff they've made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is. 

Isaiah 17: 10 - 11 You have forgotten God even though you are very religious.  Even though you work very hard. 

Isaiah 17:13 God will silence them with a word. 

Have I taken a hard look at the Holy One?  Isaiah 30:1 are words that will soon come from Isaiah's mouth.  "Woe to those who carry out plans that are not mine...Isaiah 30:11 stop confronting me with the Holy One of Israel.  Have we forgotten our God?  What word is God speaking to us through the prophet Isaiah?

"My love makes people holy.  "Only those who know they are unholy, who hate their unholiness more than their pain and emptiness, experience the transforming power of My Love.  Only holy people live well.  Only holy people love."  66 LL  Do I hate my unholiness more than my pain?  More than my emptiness?

PHOTO: May the God Who created you hear the sound of your voice rising up to Him every day of your life.

215 - “Great Peace and Quiet” Isaiah 10-14

 

All of us have walked in darkness.
Sometime.
The people walked in deep darkness
They have seen a great light;

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, 
on them has light shone.t
Isaiah 9:2

This word is truly amazing.

They new about Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David.

They knew not Jesus.

And you will say in that day:

I will give thanks to You, O LORD,

for though you were angry with me,

your anger turned away.  Isaiah 11:1

With joy, I will draw from the wells of salvation.
Great in your midst is the Holy One. Isaiah 11:6

That is the best news I can ever know.
The Holy One.  In our midst. 
Not because we are righteous but because He is.

The Messiah, a branch of Jesse.
Posting early notice:  His Kingdom will not be of this world.
And He will reign with justice and kindness and righteousness.
His Kingdom will know no end.

"There shall be great peace and quiet in his government."  M. Henry
There needs to be the same in each of our lives.
No show.  No display

214 - “Sweep Your Hand Over My Raging Waters” Isaiah 5-9

  

God will honor the nations. 

For a child is born. 

The people walking in darkness have seen a Great Light.

 On those living in the land of deep darkness, a Light has dawned. 

And That Love is the wonder of us all.

He is a Wonderful Counselor. 

He knew God's counsel from the Beginning. 

And He consults on our behalf the Wisdom of God. 

Nothing like this on earth. 

We live between the Already and the Not

All of us have walked in darkness.
Sometime.
The people walked in deep darkness
They have seen a great light;

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, 
on them has light shone.
Isaiah 9:2

This word is truly amazing.

They knew about Abraham, Moses, Jacob, David.

They knew not Jesus.

PHOTO:  A very dark day on Santa Rosa Island.  Thinking about how we are not evil yet do evil things.  We are righteous.  Called to peace and quietness in the midst of our deep darkness.  Big difference between evil people and those pursuing peace.

It's the Not Yet that keeps me trusting cause I'm not There yet. 

And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end." 

213 - “No Soundness in Any of Us” Isaiah 1-4

 

 From the sole of your feet to the top of your head, there is no soundness. Isaiah 1:6 Your guilt is great! You have forgotten the Holy One. You have turned your back on your God. How many times have we? Today?

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18

You are called.

It is settled.

Always plagued by sin.

Always offered white as snow.

Receive His Goodness to each of you, especially today.

All we have is this moment. 

PHOTO:  From the soles of all of our feet.  

Budapest, Hungary.  50 pairs of shoes slipped off the feet of Jews. Bayonets pierced their chests and they all collapsed in the weeping Seine River.  #holocaust

212 - “You Have Captured My Heart with One Glance” Song of Solomon 1-8

 

 116:  1 - GOD TAKES THE HAND OF THE HELPLESS
I love God because He listened to me, listened as I begged for mercy. He listened so intently as I laid out my case before him. Death stared me in the face, hell was hard on my heels. God takes the side of the helpless; when I was at the end of my rope, he saved me. 

I said to myself, "Relax and rest. 
Soul, you've been rescued from death;
Eye, you've been rescued from tears
Foot, you've been kept from stumbling." 
I'm striding in the presence of God, 
Alive in the land of the living! 

Something about these verses stirs up something so good in me.  Rescued by a very Good God.  

Striding in His Presence in the humdrum and holy business of this day.  Alive!  And, despite a ton of bad luck!  Ha.

Psalm 117:  1 - 5  GOD IS MY CHAMPION
Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people! His love has taken over our lives; Pushed to the wall, I called to God; from the wide open spaces, he answered. God's now at my side and I'm not afraid; who would dare lay a hand on me? God's my strong champion; "The hand of God has turned the tide! 

Brings to my mind:  The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  So what does that mean as I read these verses about a Present God?  Maybe the only thing we know will never let us go is God. Listen to my life.  What do I want more than my Shepherd?

PHOTO:  All those helpless times in the city where I lived in. Austin. Where God turned the tide.

211 - "The Answer Is Not Holding Your Tongue But Holding On To Your God" Ecclesiastes 9-12

Before the years draw near.
Before the sun and the light and the moon and stars are darkened
Before the clouds return after the rain
In the day when the keepers of the house tremble
Those who look through the window are dimmed
And the earth returns to dust as it was.
Before all that happens, know this
Vanity of Vanities.  All is vanity.
Fear God and Keep His Commandments.
And God records this to show us the reality of our days.

Cast your bread upon the waters.
Even 7.  Even 8. 
Even when it seems to be spent for nothing, not much.
Give freely!  Give your money away; Give your time away.
Eccl 11:1

So, let's pay attention to what really matters, first things first
Come to the Creator before He becomes Your Judge of every secret thing.
The end of the matter.  It's our whole duty.

Father, help us to see with spiritual eyes today what is in front of us.
We all will face judgment.  May I be way more concerned this day
with coming to You and loving You and leaving my life in Your Hands.

Eccl 10:14 The answer is not holding your tongue but holding on to God.

Eccl 11:6 So
Sow your seed in the morning.
Sow your seed in the evening.
You never know!

Words multiply.
People divide.                                             

Amid all the noise of this celebrity society in which we live,

to Whom am I listening?
I find myself still trying to change people.
And I find people trying to change me.
I see the look of disapproval, of disdain.
And my default goes to defense.
Oh God! Help me to repent in the moment I hear.
May we all go back to the conclusion:
Ecclesiastes 12:13 - Fear God and Keep the Word.
Draw up that Empty Chair and listen to the Voice so Dear

Dear Father, I am so defensive---and so are the others.  But I can do something about me.  Help each one of us with our desires for righteousness to really listen for Your Voice today.  Love covers a multitude of sins.  So, when I cannot get over the grievances, the gestures gone awry, then let me realize it is Your Voice calling me to repent.  Those times when people annoy, disrupt, condescend, and get away with it.  May I let it go for it is in Your Hands.

PHOTO:  The setting sun found me sitting alone under a bridge at dusk.  Today is our 44th anniversary. Kind of hard to believe. Kind of wonderful we made it together for Him. Waiting for the Empty Chair to be taken.  And it was.  And there is never an empty chair at home with Bob by my side---my everything in this life.  

210 - "Redress Those Hurtful Things That Happened and Arm Yourself" Ecclesiastes 5-8

Redress all those hurtful things that have happened to you and arm yourself against the "mischief" that you could run havoc with. It is the Eternal Counsel Who will work good out of this in your life.  That's what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7:  Take care of your own reputation; avoid all dangerous extremes; be mild and tender toward those who have been injurious to you; and lament your own sin as that which is more vexatious than anything anyone has ever done to you.  Amen.

Why can I not listen to my own words I write this day?  I am way too quickly provoked in my spirit and the anger resides in my lap. Eccl 7:8-9.  "Do Not Say: Why were the old days better than these?" It is wise not to ask such questions.

Do not be overrighteous. Eccl 7:15.  It is good to avoid all extremes.  There is no one who does what is right and never sins. 

"DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO EVERY WORD PEOPLE SAY or you may hear your servant or your kid cursing you----for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others." Eccl 7:20-21.

That's it.  Anger in my lap.  Overrighteous on my mind.  Hanging onto every word friends and family speak.  Why can I not stop it?  Romans 7 is why.

PHOTO:  The Bob Goff Weekend in California with 32 cancer victims.  Rather incredible to hear the stories and how God intervened and looked after.  Mike Slayman is still going through it.  Trying to find the Wonder in the adversity of it all.  Saw so much inside through these days----such healing from God.