194 - “There Is A Balm” Jeremiah 7-8, Acts 27

 

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. A balm in Gilead.

293 - “If you have run with foot men…” Jeremiah 11-12, Acts 27:15-44

 

This is not just another set of rules.
Obedience gives us access to the God of the Angel Armies.  "Obey what I tell you. Do exactly what I command you. Your obedience will close the deal. You'll be mine and I'll be yours.”  Jer 11:4

This is not just when we have a crisis.
God wants our attention all the time. And as for you, Jeremiah, I don't want you praying for this people. Nothing! Not a word of petition. Indeed, I'm not going to listen to a single syllable of their crisis-prayers."  Jer 11:14

This is not just religion and going to church.
God examines the heart. What business do the ones I love have figuring out how to get off the hook? And right in the house of worship! Do you think making promises and devising pious programs will save you from doom? Do you think you can get out of this by becoming more religious?  Jer 11:15

His disposition is about to grew even worse. What he is up against is not dissipating. He is forced to answer himself. And what does he hear? The very voice of Jehovah in his innermost parts. You won't make that horse foot race if you are wearied by the trials at hand. It's easy to be safe and sound and secure in a land of peace. But what about when the danger is pressing in on all sides? The pride of Jordan? When the overflowing peaceful banks meet with hungry lions? In the midst of all of our pride.

“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you are so trusting,
what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
Jeremiah 12:5

PHOTO:  The thickets of the hill country.  Whether it be lush or little, may we fully trust and press in.  

292 - “Our Sins Trail Behind Us” Jeremiah 4-6; Acts 27:1/15

 

There are people who have no idea how they come across or what they are really doing to you.  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.  

Shipwrecked----got any of your own shipwrecks?
Stripped----feel like you've lost a few things?
Favored----finding favor with the captain of the prison, unheard of!

Paul was given undisturbed freedom to preach the Gospel on this island to a barbarous people.  This was no small thing for God to do.  This island welcomed the shipwrecked.  May we find favor where we are shipwrecked today. We all have equal standing at the foot of the Cross. Beat above this world, oh heart of mine.  

These people could see a land they had never seen before.  Acts 27:39.

For two deadly weeks, the ship weathered the Northeaster, a tempestuous terrible wind.

Yet.

All make it safely to shore.

But.

First, they shipwreck in the harbor.

Some commentaries speak of the story as a metaphor of our own journey.  

"The ship that had weathered the storm in the open sea, where it had room, is dashed to pieces when it sticks fast. Thus, if the heart fixes in the world in affection, and cleaving to it, it is lost. Satan's temptations beat against it, and it is gone; but as long as it keeps above the world, though tossed with cares and tumults, there is hope for it." Matthew Henry.

PHOTO:  A trail. Our sins trail behind us. 

291 - “Dress Yourself for Work” Jeremiah 1-2; Acts 26

 

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,
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 an ocean in France wondering about my future.  Dressing myself for work today. 

290 - “Forward Faces Coming Against Us” 2 Chronicles 35; Habakkuk 1-3; Acts 25

 

In the midst of all we have going on...

In the midst of all we need to trust you blindly...
In the midst of all we don't even know...
Revive us.
Show Your Work.

Here's an honest prophet
who doesn't mince his words.
"The unexamined life is simply not worth living." Socrates.
Are we self-aware?  Do we really know what stirs within?

We prayed tonight together for things to fall where God wills.
We prayed for Grace and Favor and Mercy.
"Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord."
Habakkuk 3:17-19

Oh God!  Help us see through what stirs within, the good stirrings, that Your Power is the Energy that will help us make it through this crazy maze.  Col 1:29.  

PHOTO:  Standing on this Brazos river bank thinking about the unexamined life in me and those I love. Have mercy O God. 

289 - “He Is Here” Zephaniah 1-3, Acts 24

 

The Lord is Mighty to save.  He will save us!
He will be God to us!  He will be our All!
The Mighty One!  For the least of all.  For the worst of all.
The Lord is in our midst, Zephaniah 3:17
the Mighty One to save.
He will rejoice over us.
No matter what has happened to us---what shame, contempt, dishonor---
the LORD will honor us.  He will take care of His own.
In this life there will be tribulation.
Many are the troubles of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him from all.
We can always rejoice in the love of our God.
No matter what befalls.

PHOTO:  The ocean.  Thinking about whatever befalls, we can always rejoice in God's Love.  That can never be taken away from us.  

288 - “God Was Touched” 2 Chronicles 33-34

 For as he prayed, God was touched!  2 Chronicles 33:16.  And it is only by the grace of God that He has surrounded Him on all sides and protected him.  My son knows what is in the Book.  In chapter 34, it says they weren't obeying a thing written in the book they found.  As my son enters a new chapter in his life, may this Book of the law depart from him and give him success in God's eyes. Joshua 1.  My prayer for my boy this day and always is 2 Tim 4:7 that he fight the good fight of faith, finish the race, and keep the faith!  There's so much to distract a young man this day from following his God.  But there's a Mighty God listening to you, listening for you every day.  May the prayers go up for you and by you.  And may God be touched! 

287 - “Summon All Your Strength” Nahum 1-3; Acts 23:1-15

 

The Lord is Good. Nahum 1:7

A Stronghold in the day of trouble.
He knows those who take refuge in Him.
Nahum 1:7.
That's it.  All I have to do is climb into His arms.
So, how do you do that.
Especially this day, when people have been so rude,
so high and mighty on themselves, so disrespectful,
and the hardest one of all---so dismissive of me.
When anyone scatters my thoughts, my character. . .
"Man the fortress.
Watch the road.
Strengthen your back.
Summon all your strength."
For the Lord will restore you and yours.

286 “We Cannot Pay for Our Sins” Micah 6-7; Acts 22

 

What
We cannot search for the good through penance.
We so want, at times, to pay for our sins.

No
"Deep conviction of guilt & wrath
will put men upon careful inquiries
after Peace and Pardon,"
And there begins to be some ground for hope.

But 

“With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

Oh
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

So

I want to do justice.

I want to love kindness.

I want to walk humbly w/God.

And

there is no way I can muster up that kind of power.

there is no way I can control my actions by my power.

there is no way I can stop the evil that comes out unexpectedly.

Not
By Might or by Power but by His Spirit.

Upside down from what this celebrity society thinks.

285 - “ Remaking You into a People Invincible” Micah 4-5; Acts 21:18-27

 

 God Promises us Light.

He reveals the motivations of our hearts,

fallenness or redemption.

In our every move.

On your feet, O daughter of Zion!

[And sons, too.]

Be threshed of chaff, be refined of dross.

I'm remaking you into a people invincible.

God's juggernaut.

Micah 5:13

It was this very day that a friend said:  "Church is the highlight of my week.  

It is how I make it through.  I just cannot wait to worship each week."  

For many "their hope lies in religious excitement and activity.

"Exactly what Micah 6:6 says

Hear now what the Lord is saying,

With what shall I come to the Lord

And bow myself before the God on high?

Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings,

With yearling calves?

Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams,

In ten thousand rivers of oil?

He has told you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

PHOTO:  Precious five God-given grandchildren plus one. I have never gotten over the fact they are here. 

Never will.  

284 - "The Issue Is Not What They Do To Me But What Jesus Does Through My Obedience" Micah 1-3; Adts 21:1-17

                                              

Let the will of the LORD be done.

Somehow, we talk about seeing our children graduate from college and get married and have babies. LORD, let me be there---the will of the Lord. We pin our happiness on things turning out right. Paul pens his happiness on the will of the LORD. 

Prophets cry "Peace" when they have something to eat. Micah 3:5
But do those same prophets cry "Peace" when they are treated poorly and good withheld.
No, those prophets "Declare War" against him who puts nothing in their mouths.

May we all pray like crazy not to be delivered out of our circumstances
but to be delivered from our selfish souls.

LORD, 
Thy Will be done
Our wills be undone.

Acts 21: 12 -13  We begged Paul not to be stubborn and persist in going to Jerusalem. But Paul wouldn't budge: "Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You're looking at this backward. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can't you see that?  It's in God's hands now," we said. "Master, you handle it."

I am sitting in Jerusalem tonight as I write.  These words mean much to me, down deep.  The issue is not what they do to Paul or to me or to you but the issue is what our Master does through our obedience.  And Paul tells the rest of his story.  

PHOTO:  Nothing matters more than the will of God on Earth.

283 - "Rain Righteousness" Hosea 12-14; Romans 16

Father, Hosea 12:6 sums my soul:
By Your Help,
I will return today
I will hold fast to love and justice.
I will wait continually for You.
And I will expect You to do much.
You are God!

Oh Father, You are the One Who teaches us how to walk.  You've taken us up in Your Arms and we don't even know that we are healed.  You lead us with cords of kindness, with bands of love.  You ease the yoke on these clamped tight jaws of ours.  You bend down and You feed us.  So humbling. So beautiful.  That You, Omnipotent God would take such a posture for me.  With warm and tender Compassion.  You truly are in our midst and we cannot thank you enough.  Hosea 11:3-5

PHOTO:  God turns our world upside down when we return to Him.  He's always been there.  Leading with Kindness. Bending down with Compassion.  Directing our every step til we learn to walk. 

282 - "Bend Down to Us, O God" Hosea 9-11; Romans 15:14-33

God yearns your way.
From the days of old, your very first days, He was there.
"Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them in My arms;
But they did not know that I healed them...

And I bent down and fed them.  Hosea 11:4
But they were bent on turning from Me.  Hosea 11:7. Am I bent on my own will.

Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; Romans 15:30

Join the greatest strength you have with me in prayer. 
That my service may be accepted of the saints.
Such an intriguing thought to pray.

God admonishes us to not lose heart and pray for all things.
Sometimes, I feel that it has to be spiritual for
God's ear, God's hand to bend toward me.

PHOTO: In all the desolate times, God's Ear is still bent toward us and He loves to hear our prayers together. 

281 "God's Daily Arrival Breaks With Each Dawn" Hosea 4-8; Romans 15:1-13

Come, O God, Like the Rains.

Unannounced.

Unnoticed.

So Needed.

She followed her lovers and forgot God, even when she was married---still an adulteress.  Consulting wooden idols.  Asking diviner's wands to inform them.  "Playing the harlot, departing from God."

God says:  He will go away until you acknowledge your guilt and seek His Face.  He does not say when you learn to be grateful or once you are doing well or when you do the right things.  No, it's when we acknowledge our guilt and seek His Face not seek changed lives/changed behavior.  He will come back when we repent not when we just recall good things, count our blessings.  

Hosea 6:1 - “Come, let us return to the Lord.

For He has torn us, but He will heal us...

Let us press on to know the Lord.

And He will come to us like the rain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth."

Hosea 6:3

"Come on, let's go back to God. He hurt us, but he'll heal us. ...We're ready to study God, eager for God-knowledge. As sure as dawn breaks, so sure is his daily arrival. He comes as rain comes, as spring rain refreshing the ground."  Hosea 6:7 - I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings."  

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak.
Please our neighbor for the good of his soul!   Romans 15:1-2.
May all our actions be for the Glory of God.
Paul sought the things of Christ

More than his own will."Strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." Romans 15:30.  Join the greatest strength you have with me in prayer.  Don't lose heart---pray for all things.  We need each other's great strength to bow humbly.  Sometimes, like now, I'm beside myself.  Yet, right next to me is a Right Hand.

280 - "God Pursues Us When We Are Unlovely" Hosea 1-4; Romans 14

It's a Beautiful God Who pursues us when we are unlovely. "I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness,and speak tenderly to her." And I weep. There. I will give her a door of hope. Hosea 2:14-15.And I will have mercy on No Mercy. And I will say to Not My People, You are my People." Hosea 2:23. So stirring. May Hosea be ever so real in each of us. For none of us lives to himself.  Romans 14:7.

Now to Him Who is able to establish you according to my Good News and the preaching of Jesus Christ...and by the Scriptures is made known for obedience of faith."  Romans 14:25.

It is our God Who establishes us.  I have no better words to use for the weighty Shawl of Light we must find in our every days.

PHOTO: Outside my classroom door for 15 years. Common Grace is always here. Redeeming Grace is forever mine. 350 

279 - "Former Things Won't Come To Mind" Isaiah 65-66; Romans 13

My mountains quaked this weekend.

Isaiah 65:17 says that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and all these things, these former things will not come to mind.  But for now, I wrestle with how I got to this place where I am in life.  There are parts of me that hold so much hope for whatever lies ahead.  Yet, I wrestle with what I see of who I am and who I hope to be.  "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence."  Isaiah 64:1.  I need Him so.  

Help me to accept what no one is offering; the apologies that do not exist; the distance that creeps in day by day surreptitiously; the lack of validation; the feeling of being left in the middle of the road to die; the thoughts of being a loser.  Thank you God for forgiving me for wrong attachments to living for this world.  Position each of us where new attachment is possible.  Impassion us all to desire first things first.  Empower me this lonely day to abandon myself to One Holy Passion. 

Owe no one anything, except to love one another.  Romans 13:8.  Our time is always drawing near.  We are one day closer to the day when we see Jesus face-to-face.  "It is already time for you to awaken out of sleep." Romans 13:11.  If we are spiritually dead, what good comes from our lives?  Why do we neglect the commandments of God and not give deep pensive thought to what stirs within?  

Paul teaches us everyday life-giving truths we must face every single day. 
* Wake up
* Consider your busy times
* Mind your own ways
* Mend your own pace
* Make yourselves ready
* Dress your own souls and put on the armor of light

The time is now.  This moment.  This day in our history.  What will we do with this Christ?   Far too many slumber in spiritual deadness, neglecting the tugging of their souls for God.  When it's really dark in our houses and hearts, what do we entertain?  We are either moving toward Light or stumbling in the dark.  

PHOTO: We were just at the base of this Mount Rainier last week. Our mountains did quake as we met with lifelong friends. As we paid 3 hospital visits in mere days. As we longed for things to change. 

278 - "No Eye Has Seen A God Like This" Isaiah 62-64; Romans 12

                                                       

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.

And my phone just rang.
And it was an answer to something we have waited on God not man.
No eye has seen.  No ear has heard.
He is an ever Present Help in trouble.
He is our God.
And our eyes look to God for help. 
And I weep with gratitude.
Henry also said:
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

Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
So present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God.
This is a powerful appeal.
Every single day of our lives,
we receive from God the fruits of His Mercy.
Take heed, if we make our plans for happiness
from the things in this world.
The work of the Spirit of God
begins in understanding there is more to this life.
May our whole lives be carried on every single day
til there is a change of who I am into who He is!
The likeness of God in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Romans 12

PHOTO: Watching the waves crash the rocks of the Pacific Ocean and pondering the Mystery of this life we empty and this God we embrace.

277 - "The Sovereign Lord is Upon Me" Isaiah 59-61; Romans 11:19-36

We all have the Holy Spirit and His Power at the whisper of a word. He is here.  Our hands may be knee deep in our work.  Our hearts must not be entangled with this world.  May we all proclaim the good news by the way we live.  

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair."

Isaiah 61:1-3

God never tires of our incessant absent distant furtive cries. His Arm long enough. His Ears stark open. Always a whisper Away. 

A partial hardening has come upon this land.
The Deliverer will come and take away their sins! Romans 11:25-27
The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.  Romans 11:29

Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His Ways past tracing out!  For Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His Counselor"?  Romans 11:33-34.

Inconceivable Riches.
Inexhaustible Resources.
Incomprehensible 

No one can trace His Ways.
"Past Tracing Out."
A metaphor taken from animals that pursue their prey by "tracing their footsteps."
We can't even trace the Perfect Pattern and Giver of All.

We find the author of this book, Paul, closing Romans with astonishing praise.  We should expect to find an author's voice but we find a man overflowing in Unsearchable Words of Life.  Benson says that Paul had sailed in "narrow seas" but now he is in an immense ocean of God's wisdom and knowledge.  And so are we.  Will we trust Him with what stirs within my soul this season?

PHOTO:  The railway in Pittsburgh. An unsafe little ride up a mountain on a track. Your Arm. Never shorted.

276 - "Break the Chains of Injustice; Free The Oppressed; Cancel Debts" Isaiah 56-58; Romans 11:1-18

Look at how many times the prophet says that this is what God says.  A message from the Holy One. God, the Son, is saying:  "I am coming soon."  

Until He comes, His Grace is with us in the midst of every sigh, every sorrow, every secret, every suffering.  We may be crying in HEARTACHE, but we can be living in HOPE.
  
A Message from the One Whose Name is Holy:  "I live in the high and holy places, but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed, And what I do is put new spirit in them, get them up and on their feet again. For I'm not going to haul people into court endlessly,"  Isaiah 57:15.

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, every year, I toe the line 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! 

Romans 11:5 ~ There is a remnant, chosen by grace.  But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. We are chosen by grace and not by works.  In the true church realitor, it is made up of people saved by grace.  Some are still working real hard to make it to heaven---doesn't work that way.  We are human beings not human doers.  The Hand of Grace is on us~ So why are you working so hard to pull your life together?

PHOTO:  Walking every day and thinking about those without.  Zeke and I are doing the 10K in this pic.  Godspeed. 
 

275 - "God's Word Does Not Return Empty" Isaiah 53-55; Romans 10

Though this mountain is shaking and the hill is removed, 

yet My Unfailing Love for you! will not be shaken; 

nor my covenant of peace be removed, 

said the Lord Who has compassion on you." 

Isa 54:10

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:10-11.

Come. Come with all your longings. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. The efficacy of nature depicts the rain and the snow coming down from heaven yielding seed and bread. Same for God's Word. It will not return to God empty. Do I have that fixed in my mind today?

Seek the Lord while He may be found.  He is near.

His Word is in our mouths.  

He will accomplish all that concerns us.

Our Counselor, His Word, will succeed.

We will find Peace that this world cannot give.

Are we looking in the right places?

Romans 10:2 They have a zeal for God but nor according to knowledge.  They didn't submit to God's Righteousness.  They sought to establish their own.  A righteousness based on the law that the person who does the commandments lives by.  No, the righteousness based on faith says what?  Romans 10:8,9 ~ The word is near you, in your mouth and heart.  Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is LORD and God raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved.

We have all submitted once and for all to God's Righteousness.  But, every day, we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts either the resurrection of Christ or a resurrection of our own ideas.  What will it be this day?

PHOTO: Mount Rainier. It doesn't shake every day. 

274 - "God's Arm Is Not Too Short" Romans 9: 16-33

                                                         

ISAIAH 50:2 GOD'S ARM IS NOT TOO SHORT  God's Hand is not too short. Isaiah 50:2 If he sends really hard things our way, do we complain that He is too harsh? He turns life into wilderness. And we argue that it is too much. Who does the argument start with? Not God. Our own desires. His hand is His Strength. Can he dry up the Red Sea? Of course. Can he make a wilderness of our story? Absolutely. Can we argue with the Mighty Hand of God on our lives? Can we set limits on Omnipotence? Can the Almighty hand deliver us from what we face? Will He? Can He silence our questions, our doubts of His Hand in our lives? Here is unquestionable proof: He dried up the sea. He made the rivers into wilderness. And He redeemed His children out of all of it. Redeemed Israel out of Egypt. Redeemed me out of my worldly coveted land. And He can redeem those places in my heart that still need redemption. 

Every day is marked. All our days. Our good ones.  Our bad ones.

For those days when we walk in the dark,

where there is no light for our path,

may we trust in the Name of the Lord,

our God.  Isaiah 50:10

May we lay down our strategies, our crutch,

and not try to illuminate our path

through analysis and maneuvers and spotlights.

If we walk by the light of our own fires,

God puts in Isa 50:11 that it won't turn out well for us.

Torment is the word God uses. Awake the dead! God has comforted his people. He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people. Has God forgotten me? "Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore? But even if mothers forget, I'd never forget you—never. Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands. 

Isaiah 50:5-  SET FACE LIKE FLINT
He wakes me up in the morning, Wakes me up, opens my ears to listen as one ready to take orders. The Master, God, opened my ears, and the Master, God, stays right there and helps me, so I'm not disgraced. Therefore I set my face like flint, confident that I'll never regret this. My champion is right here. Let's take our stand together! Who dares bring suit against me? ... Lean on your God! 

Isaiah 51: 1-4 - GOD'S WORK IN ME IS RIGHT ON TIME
"Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God. Ponder the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug. Yes, ponder Abraham and Sarah. I'll transform you to a place of exuberance, laughter, gratitude, and song"...Revelation flows from Me; my salvation right on time. I'll bring justice...You made the bottom of the ocean a road for the redeemed to walk across? In the same way God's ransomed will come back, cheering, shouting. Joy eternal wreathing their heads, exuberant ecstasies transporting them— and not a sign of moans or groans. 

Isaiah 51:12  I WATCH OVER YOUR DOUBLE DOSE OF TROUBLE
I'm the One comforting you. What are you afraid of? Man who dies? You've forgotten Me Who made you. 51:16 I teach you how to talk, word by word, and personally watch over you, Even while I'm unfurling the skies, setting earth on solid foundations 51:20 -You've been hit with a double dose of trouble—does anyone care? Assault and battery, hunger and death—will anyone comfort? "Look, I've taken back the drink that sent you reeling. God has something to say: "No more drinking from that jug of my anger! I've passed it over to your abusers to drink, those who ordered you, 'Down on the ground so we can walk all over you!"

Isaiah 52:7 PURIFY YOURSELVES/ YOU'RE NOT RUNNING....GOD IS LEADING YOU OUT OF HERE.
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!"...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 EVERYTHING WE HAVE DONE WRONG IS ON HIM
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 on Himself.

It is not owed to the works of our hands, nor our desires, not even our bold actions.  This is not the motive of His mercy.  We are Under The Mercy.

Romans 9:17 ~  "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." It's what God said to Pharaoh who hardened his heart against the Mighty One.  What will we do with this God Who wants to show His Power in you and in me? Will we strive and struggle with all of our strength?  Romans 9:16 says that it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.  We should all be on our faces crying to Our Maker for Mercy.  Romans 9:18 ~ He has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.   Do we answer Him back?   He wants to make known the Riches of His Glory in vessels of mercy.  What will we do with this Jesus, our God? 

PHOTO:  35,000 feet in the air on the way to Kansas City.  "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy...it does not depend on human desire or effort but on God's mercy."  Romans 9:16.

273 - "Lean On The God of Israel" Isaiah 47-49; Romans 9:1-15

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

Do I allow an Infinite God the Sovereign Right
to manage the affairs of His Creation?
May we adore His Pardoning Mercy,
His New-Creating Grace,
His Ever-Vigilant Superintending,
His Almighty Power.
Christ is God over all.  Romans 9:5.

Romans 9:13 ~ "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." A stunning verse to comprehend. What shall we say??  Injustice!  "By no means.  For God says to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

Praying for us all that the Holy One shifts His Eyes of Mercy our way.  It is all about the Sovereign Will of God not about my human exertion.

PHOTO: My prayer today is for these two guys lean in their lives to listen to God all their days.

272 - "Stirred More By My High Calling or By My Pain?" Isaiah 45-46; Romans 8:22-39

                                                                   

 "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.

What an introduction in Psalm 46:10. I am God! Be still. Know this! Such a beautiful way to introduce the offer. Take this comfort: I am with you. I am for you. That is what you use to answer your worries. 

The Hebrew word for "be still" means to let it fall; let the concerns hang down. Then, slack off, especially your hands. No exertion needed. Leave the matter with God. Oh! The Providence in all our problems. 

Oh! The Power in what we contemplate. Oh! That introduction! Take the comfort! 

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 not acting right and hate their responses more than their pain and emptiness---those people will experience transformation to love their spouse, their children, their families, their friends.   I have prayed this verse for you over and over throughout all of your lives. Romans 8:26

"The Holy Spirit is the spring of all desires toward God, which are often more than words can utter." M. Henry.  The Spirit Himself intercedes for you in wordless groans.  Rom 8:26,

Nothing can come between your soul and those wordless groans of glory.  God is answering!

PHOTO:  The sun draping our city in the power of Light. Only God can raise this sun every day. That's the same power we have to love. 

271 - "Wood Fuels Fires and Carves Idols" Isaiah 43-44; Romans 8:1-21

 

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.  

The more that we know about things in this life, the less we wonder. The more that we know about things in the next life, the more we wonder. Mystery! While an earth groans and the Spirit inside of us bears witness: "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1. No spirit of slavery. No more. We have a spirit of adoption. So, cry out to the most real thing in the world! Romans 8:15. "In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of tthe Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." Romans 8:26.  And pray where you are suffering.  "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Romans 8:18. "The sufferings of the saints strike no deeper than the things of time, last no longer than the present time, are light afflictions, and but for a moment. How vastly different are the sentence of the word and the sentiment of the world, concerning the sufferings of this present time!"  Matthew Henry. The sentence of the Word tells us that tribulations will happen to us in this life; the sentiment of the world says that if God is really good, then He will protect us and spare us from this suffering. May we live for the the truth of the word of Grace not sentiment.  May our thoughts that keep returning for a visit home conclude in truth not sentiment.  

PRAYER FROM PSALMS

"Guide me in Your Truth and teach me, O God, for you are my God, my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long."  Psalm 25:5  All. Day. Long. This day, I will put my hope in You. For what I entertain in my thoughts, hold in my heart, please intercede with groanings too deep for words, according to Your Will.  For You, I wait. 

270 - “God Is Tender Toward Suffering” Isaiah 41-42; Romans 7

 

 Find Rest, O My Soul.

Isaiah 42:3 "A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick, He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice."  This prophecy is about the Coming Christ.  This Son of God is tender toward those who are suffering, the bruised and the broken; the dimly burning and the delicate.  He knows our frame.  He will never allow more suffering than for our good.  Whatever comes our way, we have a Savior who will bear us up, bring us up, and give birth to Something New.  Isa 42:9; 43:1-4.This is my world today.

269 - “Every Valley Lifted Up” Isaiah 39-40; Romans 6

 

 Isaiah 40 - it's a commission to all of God's ministers, you and me. Comfort God's people. Speak tenderly to them. Tell them they are forgiven. They will receive double from the Lord's hand. These people saw Jerusalem "ripening for ruin" and they couldn't help themselves. They were melancholy for good reasons. But they needed to look further. God had mercy in store. So, what's the point here. Comfort, you comfort. Doubled down. They needed it in the worst of times and so do we. Make straight in this desert, a highway for God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Isa 40:1-4.

“Patient sufferers have most of the Divine consolations, which abound as afflictions abound. It works needful experience of ourselves. This hope will not disappoint, because it is sealed with the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of love. God sheds abroad the love of God in the hearts of all the saints.  A right sense of God's love to us, will make us not ashamed, either of our hope, or of our sufferings for him."  Matthew Henry.  

Just watched a story on the "I Am Second" website about Ethan:  http://www.iamsecond.com/ethan/ This 13-year-old is not ashamed of his suffering and neither am I.  

Therefore present yourselves to God as alive from the dead." Rom 6:13.  People don't want us to suffer---they don't want to hear the trodden stories.  And they miss the Grace of God there.

PHOTO:  The Hound of Heaven comes.  From the days of Jerusalem to the days of hill country, He comes.

268 - “Spread Out Your Dilemma” Isaiah 36-38; Romans 5

   

This picture of Hezekiah going to God with his problems is cemented in my heart.  I'll go looking for Hezekiah in heaven to tell him just how much his story of spreading his problems before God's Eyes meant to me over my lifetime.  I've smoothed out sheets and asked God to sit in the hospital bed next to me.  I've smoothed out paper and invited Him to write a different script.  I've smoothed out sin-sick souls and sat next to them and wept.  Whatever we face, spread it before the One Who is the Author of all.  Isaiah 37:14 - Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:  “O Lord of hosts, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see..."

Spreading before the LORD what concerns us this very day. Oh God, incline your ear.

Romans 5:3-5 Rejoice in Suffering...How do you do that?
And God moves...
Endurance
Character
Hope 
Love poured into our hearts.

PHOTO: California. Whether cemented in splendor or surreal or surprise or senseless, spread it out before the Lord.

267 - “Converting Grace” Isaiah 34-36; Romans 4

  

We are on the right path to rest forever.  

All our sighs and sorrows will be no more.

We shall see the Glory of the Lord.  Isa 35:1

So,

Strengthen our weak hands, O God,

Make firm our feeble knees.

Let's say to those who have anxious hearts,

No More, Fear Not, Be Strong,

And speak peace to our brothers. Isa 35:4

For,

Our God is coming One Day with a vengeance,

and He will right all wrongs done against us.

Leave it in His Lap this day.

Our God will open blind eyes.

Unstop deaf ears.

The lame will leap and

the deaf will sing.

Yes,

There will be a Highway there...

and we are on that highway today.

Headed in the Right Direction.

The Way of Holiness.

Isaiah 35:8

Converting Grace.

Those who are barren in a wilderness

will sing again, will love even deeper, will grow mighty themselves.

That is the Gospel we live for, the Day we long for.

Oh God, help us see in our sighing that what matters so today will not be a thought in Eternity. What matters to me today is being around people who know-it-all; who don't give a flip about me; who think it's a great idea if it is their idea only.  Why does this bother me so?  Not a drop of that thought in Eternity. Let it go.  Help us to prepare for the Day we live for---to be with You.  

PHOTO:  Stunning sunset contemplating speaking to anxious hearts including my own. Let your words lay help upon the Almighty, the Might One, for your friends.  

266 - “Counsel For Our Deepest Needs” Isaiah 32-34; Romans 3

             

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.  

The Jews provided Light to the World.  They knew the truth and rebelled and God had two things against them.  They didn't rebel in ignorance.  God held the nation accountable.

Did the Jews think they were superior over the  Gentiles?  God was their Author.  But He chose the Jews just like He chose the Gentiles because of His Love set on them not because they were so great or so many.

Rom 3:10-11   "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God."  Wonder why I think other people are better than I when we are all wandering pilgrims.  

We are justified by His Grace as a gift.  Undeserved.  Unbelievable.  Unrelenting. PHOTO: On this beach while I walk, be our arm in time of trouble. 

265 - “Run To These Verses” Isaiah 30-31; Romans 2

Three Verses I have thought about for the past 5 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.

This chapter has meant more to me over the last three decades. I carry these words daily. 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? 30:18

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

Romans 2:4  Our Good God does not give us what we deserve.  We should have perished even today for what we did to Him, to others.  But no, it's His Goodness that leads us to repentance.  Goodness closely related to kindness.  He is way more Kinder than we think!  You practice evil and repent either in ignorance or in full knowing.  He is always doing us good even when we don't see it.

      “There is in every willful sin a contempt of the Goodness of God.”                      
                                                           Matthew Henry

Romans 2 ... these people were on a downward spiral. Be mindful, God is good and kind. But, He is not soft. Romans 2:1-3

  

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. 

264 - “Confront Us with The Holy One” Isaiah 28-29; Roman’s 1

 

Isaiah 28:8 Woe to: parodies of a proud and handsome past. 

Isaiah 28:21 – The LORD will rise up; He will rouse Himself to do His Work, His Strange Work.

Isaiah 29:13 – 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 made up only of rules taught by men…I will astound them with Wonder upon Wonder. No. They wanted to hear what would make them feel better. 

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 to me

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 merely humans, yet the Sovereign Lord says: In quietness and trust is your strength.

This justification by faith is no new doctrine introduced.  Those disciples just bore witness to a perfect life and a resurrection. That word of mouth changed everything.  The Resurrected Christ is resurrecting me. What was written here in antiquity now is now alive. Romans 1:7.  With great affection and powerful authority, this blessing is for you Today and always.  Sweet Grace: the favor of God on us and the work of God in us.  Great Peace: peace with God, peace with our own conscience, peace with all that surrounds us.  "Grace to you and peace."