Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / November 22 - Isaiah 51

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November 22 - Isaiah 51 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends. Sean here it is a Wednesday, it
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  is hump day. It's the 22nd of November.
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  Great to have your company. Good on you for tapping on play,
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  not just thinking, oh, I can squeeze in another one of my
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  favorite episodes of whatever podcast it is that you're
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  listening to. Or I can listen to some music,
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  or I can just chill and listen to the the sounds of the world
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  around me. But you have thought, ah, no,
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  it's time. Let me invite Sean in and he
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  will bring God's word and together we will hear some more
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  of God's promises for his people.
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  I like that decision. Well done.
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  So we are going to do just that today.
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  It's all about calling God's people to trust in God himself.
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  This is a very kind of unified chapter of Isaiah, all about
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  trusting God. And boy, we can use this as the
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  world around us gets noisier and busier.
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  It's nice to have this reminder to draw our hearts and our minds
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  back to our Creator. Join me, friends.
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  Let us refresh and refocus our hearts reading together.
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  Isaiah 51. Listen to me.
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  All who hope for deliverance, all who seek the Lord.
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  Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which
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  you were mined. Yes, think about Abraham, your
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  ancestor, and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation.
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  Abraham was only one man when I called him, but when I blessed
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  him, he became a great nation. The Lord will comfort Israel
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  again and have pity on her ruins.
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  Her desert will blossom like Eden, her barren wilderness like
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  the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found
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  there. Songs of Thanksgiving will fill
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  the air. Listen to me, my people.
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  Hear me, Israel, for my law will be proclaimed, and my justice
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  will become a light to the nations.
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  My mercy and justice are coming soon.
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  My salvation is on the way. My strong arm will bring justice
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  to the nations. All distant lands will look to
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  me and wait in hope for my powerful arm.
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  Look up to the skies above and gaze down on the earth below.
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  For the skies will disappear like smoke, and the earth will
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  wear out like a piece of clothing.
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  The people of the earth will die like flies.
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  But my salvation lasts forever. My righteous rule will never
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  end. Listen to me, you who know right
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  from wrong, you who cherish my laws in your hearts.
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  Do not be afraid of people scorn, nor fear their insults,
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  for the moth will devour them as it devours clothing.
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  The worm will eat them as it eats wool.
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  That my righteousness will last forever.
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  My salvation will continue from generation to generation.
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  Wake up, wake up, O Lord, Clothe yourself with strength.
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  Flex your mighty right arm. Rouse yourself as in the days of
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  old when you slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile.
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  Are you not the same today? The one who dried up the sea,
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  making a path of escape through the depths so that your people
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  could crossover. Those who have been ransomed by
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  the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem
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  singing crowned with everlasting joy.
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  Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be
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  filled with joy and gladness. I yes, I am the one who comforts
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  you. So why are you afraid of mere
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  humans who wither like the grass and disappear?
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  Yet you have forgotten the Lord, your Creator, the one who
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  stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations
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  of the earth? Will you remain in constant
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  dread of human oppressors? Will you continue to fear the
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  anger of your enemies? Where is their fury and anger?
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  Now it is gone. Soon all your captives will be
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  released. Imprisonment, starvation, and
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  death will not be your fate. For I am the Lord your God, who
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  stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar.
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  My name is the Lord of Heaven's armies, and I have put my words
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  in your mouth and hidden you safely in my hand.
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  I stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations
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  of the earth. I am the one who says to Israel,
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  You are my people. Wake up, wake up, O Jerusalem,
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  You have drunk the cup of the Lord's fury.
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  You have drunk the cup of terror, tipping out its last
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  drops. Not one of your children is left
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  alive to take your hand and guide you.
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  These two calamities have fallen on you, desolation and
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  destruction, famine and war. And who is left to sympathize
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  with you? Who is left to comfort you?
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  For your children have fainted and lie in the streets, helpless
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  as antelopes caught in a net. The Lord has poured out his
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  fury. God has rebuked them.
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  But now listen to this, you afflicted ones who sit in a
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  drunken stupor, though not from drinking wine.
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  This is what the Sovereign Lord, your God and defender, says.
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  See, I have taken the terrible cup from your hands.
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  You will drink no more of my fury.
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  Instead, I will hand that cup to your tormentors, those who said
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  we will trample you into the dust and walk on your backs.
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  Lord, we think of those parts of our lives which feel like ruins,
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  which feel like deserts, or just as you promised your people long
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  ago. May they blossom like Eden.
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  May the barren parts of our hearts and our experiences
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  transform into the garden of the Lord.
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  Let your songs of Thanksgiving fill our air.
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  Holy Spirit, come. Come into the deepest crevices
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  and cracks in our hearts and in our experiences transform us.
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  Take away that brokenness that has been a part of our lives and
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  replace it with your presence and your wholeness and your
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  restoration, the restoration that you have been providing for
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  your people for so many countless generations, from the
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  days of Isaiah all the way to here, to us.
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  Lord, make us whole and help us dive head first into that deep
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  pool of grace that is your presence and your provision in
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  our lives. We just bask in your
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  magnificence and we pray all these things in the saving name
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  of Jesus. Amen.