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, and you comforted me.
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
This is God's pattern.
We experience, from God, what seems to us, to be God's anger.
What it is, at a deeper level, is God's resistance to our resistance.
When Isaiah says that God's anger turned away, he explains that he is beginning to experience God's comfort. How does this happen? Where is the turning?
There is no intervening action on Isaiah's part that he reports. He just notes that God breaks through. God overcomes the resistance.
Isaiah's repentant change of heart and perspective is that process where he recognizes God becoming his salvation. He no longer experiences God as the angry judge, but as the One who rescues him and redeems him.
This is a joyful experience for Isaiah. It is one he desires to publish among the nations. It causes him to sing and shout.
It is not God who has changed, but the relationship. God is solid truth and when you bang your head against God, God does not budge.
God who revealed his glory in a pillar o cloud by day and one of fire by night, has many facets, but the face God shows us is love and mercy.
For followers of Jesus, it is reflected and experienced in his face.
John saw that face in a vision from the Island of Patmos. It was the context for the entire book of Revelation, the backdrop of all that is revealed in the visual disclosures of the book.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
God is your salvation.
God's heart for you is compassion.
Receive that compassion and show it to others.
A Few Reposts from Earlier Entries on Today's Scriptures
My Rock and Salvation - Psalm 18
"I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies." - Psalm 18:1-3 (ESV)
The editor observed in the introduction:
"To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who addressed the words of this song to the LORD on the day when the LORD rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said ..."
What is your battle?
Who is your strength?
"I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.""The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.""In my distress I called upon the LORD;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears." - Psalm 18:3-6 (ESV)-------------------------
In distress we call ;
In reverence we fall;
In joy, in sorrow, all ...
We bring to Him and crawl
To be lifted. Enthrall ...
The nations. Install ...
His glory. Each wall ...
Collapse. Each hall ...
Be filled with wonder and praise!
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"For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight." - Psalm 18:21-24 (ESV)
Poor David had a bit of a blind side in his self assessment.
Or did he?
If God forgets my sin and separates them from me as far as the east is from the west, why should I wallow in guilt of that which is forgiven.
God sees me through different eyes than I could ever see myself.
He see the future and the present me ... perfected in Christ, made complete by grace.
Only that which is Christ in me, the hope of glory, comes to His attention. He looks a my little, pitiful efforts to follow Him and calls the angels over so that He can brag about His child.
Maybe I can sing these verses in faith after all!!!!
It is all about GRACE!
I Can Run and Climb and Jump
God, make me merciful, for I need mercy.
God, cleanse me from blame that I might see Your holiness.
Purify me that I might melt away in the glory of Your purity.
May I ever be humble that I might know I need You.
Light my way. Enlighten my darkness.
Give me strength to run, to leap and to long ...
For Your perfection.
You are my shield.
I take refuge in You.
" With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
For it is you who light my lamp;
the LORD my God lightens my darkness.
For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him."
(Psalm 18:25-30 ESV)
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