August 6 .. Isaiah 42 - 44 "God is About To Do Something Brand-New

Is it truth alone that changes us?  What causes real change in our hearts?  How many sermons have you heard in your lifetime?  Did they change you?  How many times have you read Isaiah 42 and 43 and 44...God is about to do something new for you...did we really believe it?  I think most people do not think deeply about what changes them.  They are not aware of what is alive in their hearts as they walk through this day---and I mean alive, good and bad.  Did what happen to you last night or this morning cause joy or fear or judgment or sorrow?  We take so little time to wrestle with the deep things that stir in our heart.  What do these verses stir in you?  I am asking God this day to open my eyes to see what is alive in you and me as we face this day.  These chapters are ones that have meant so much to me in the past years and speak so deeply to me this day.  It stirs in my heart and the place where I am a resolve to be holy and not live in fear of man.

Isaiah 42
2 He'll set everything right among the nations. ...He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won't disregard the small and insignificant, but he'll steadily and firmly set things right. 5-9  The God Who makes us alive wiith his own life: "I am God. I have called you to live right and well. I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe. I have set you among my people to bind them to me, and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations, To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light: opening blind eyes, releasing prisoners from dungeons, emptying the dark prisons. I am God. That's my name.  11 - I will take the hand of those who don't know the way, who can't see where they're going. I'll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country. I'll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don't fall into the ditch. These are the things I'll be doing for them— sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute." 18 -Open your eyes! Are you blind? You're my servant, and you're not looking! You're my messenger, and you're not listening! The very people I depended upon, servants of God, blind as a bat—willfully blind! ... Is anyone paying attention to what's coming? ... Their whole world collapsed but they still didn't get it; their life is in ruins but they don't take it to heart.

Isaiah 43
2 - "Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you. I've called your name. You're mine. When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you. When you're in rough waters, you will not go down. When you're between a rock and a hard place, it won't be a dead end— Because I am God, your personal God, The Holy of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge price for you: ...That's how much I love you! I'd sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you. 7"So don't be afraid: I'm with you. I'll round up all your scattered children, pull them in from east and west. I'll send orders north and south: "You're my handpicked servant So that you'll come to know and trust me, understand both that I am and who I am. 16 -21This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, Who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies— they lie down and then can't get up; y're snuffed out like so many candles: "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.  But you didn't even do the minimum— so stingy with me, so closefisted. Yet you haven't been stingy with your sins. You've been plenty generous with them—and I'm fed up.  25 I am the one Who takes care of your sins—that's what I do. I don't keep a list of your sins.
26 -"So, make your case against me. Let's have this out. Make your arguments. Prove you're in the right. 

Isaiah 44
2 God who made you has something to say to you; the God who formed you in the womb wants to help you. Don't be afraid...20  This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, O Israel, I'll never forget you. I've wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings. There's nothing left of your sins. Come back to me, come back. I've redeemed you."  ... I will raise you up!