Isaiah

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 10:12-13:22

First I feel the need to apologize for my lack of a post yesterday and then I will explain to you that the reason there was no post is because I was so busy playing with our new dog Skippy!

He is a five year old miniature Dauschund (dox-in) that we adopted from the Kokomo Humane Society.

This process has been so special for me because I couldn’t help but bask in the similarities and think of how God adopted us as sons and daughters. (Romans 8:15, 23, Galatians 4:5 & Ephesians 1:5 Hallelujah!) How we started out in a kennel-like place where we were given food and water and a little bit of love but mostly it was simply a holding place. But then God walked through the door and everything changed.

HE chose US, He came and looked us over with a commanding gaze that melted us in His presence, pointing out our skinny little frames and dark complexions only to have Him respond “I choose YOU!”

The first time the kids and I went to visit Skippy at the shelter we knew that he was ours, but we couldn’t take him home right away, we still had to talk to Daddy about getting a dog. Three days later I was on my way back to the shelter, solo this time, to go pick up the dog… but I still didn’t get to bring him home with me. The shelter’s policy is to fix the animals after they have been adopted, and then have the adoptive parent pick up the animal from the vet’s office. So, while I had paid for Skippy on Friday I had to wait three whole days before I could pick him up! Sound familiar? On Good Friday Jesus paid for our sins and claimed us as His own, but it wasn’t until three days later when He rose from the dead that we were fixed and He was able to pick us up and take us home with Him. J Skippy is skinny as a rail, maybe because his previous owners were not able to cater to his somewhat picky tastes. But we have no problem spoiling and fattening this little dog up! He’s been through enough at this point he deserves a bit of time in the lap of luxury. And that’s where I keep getting quivery with the Spirit.

You see I have wanted a dog, any dog, for a very long time. And about a year ago I thought I had found the dog I was supposed to have. But he wasn’t the dog that God had picked out for me, Skippy was. And when I had come to the point of praying about last year’s dog and saying “If this dog is not my Isaac dog I don’t want him Lord” God told me that He had a dog for me. And while I can’t remember exactly how the conversation went, dogs quickly became a very big sign to me, like a rainbow reminding me of God’s promises to me every time I saw a dog it was special to me. They reminded me that God loves me and that He will hold true on His promises to me, no matter how impossible they might seem to me at the time. As I sat here in our recliner yesterday with my dog in my lap rather than my computer, watching a recorded sermon on TV rather than writing the blog a realization hit me. A fulfilled promise was sitting right there in my lap! In that moment I had a lap filled with a promise, laying there as contented as could be. He was so happy to have a house filled with people who absolutely adore him and was laying in his Master’s lap resting in peace because he was finally home.

It was such a beautiful moment when I realized how much of a picture of grace the two of us were sitting there together. Because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross we have been paid for, we have been justified, we have been redeemed, we have been adopted and are now members of the family of God where we live in a house filled with people who absolutely adore us and we can lay in the Master’s lap and rest in peace because we are home! No, we’re not in our heavenly home yet, however to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord! We are with Him in prayer, we are with Him in praise, and we are with Him in conversation throughout the day! And all we have to do is close our eyes, breathe His Holy Spirit in deeply and we’re there. Home. In the Master’s lap, curled up and resting peacefully because He is our home.

I’ve gotta throw in some fun pictures too, because I can’t leave you with the impression that Skippy is serious all the time. 😉

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 7:1-10:11

I had a rough morning this morning but God was with me through it all where at one point I was searching for a document on my computer and found this while I was searching; a letter from God to me from about a year ago. I thought it was just too wonderful not to share it with you tonight.

“I started teaching the class. They were unruly and under-disciplined, but I loved them with all my heart, they were mine, I had purchased them with my blood, adopted them so to speak. Adoption is an expensive process but it’s worth every second. Because in the end, they’re yours forever! They’ve always been yours, but now it’s legal. A contract has been signed in blood for each believer in their name, a covenant that is everlasting and eternal, binding and permanent. They are mine because I chose them. Hand-picked to be mine for all eternity, my babies. I can’t express in words you’ll understand, how much I love them. They mean everything to me. EVERYTHING! And I would do anything for them if they’d only ask and believe. Believe in My goodness. I love them Tamar, even you doubt my goodness. Why? Have I not shown you how much I care for you? Yet you still doubt that I would be willing to shower you with abundance beyond your wildest dreams. Why? Don’t you remember who I am and what I’m capable of? Red Sea ringing a bell? Raised from the dead…anything? Honey, trust me with your money, it’s safe in My hands. Besides it’s mine to begin with. Just think of the harvest you’ll reap from all this seed!”

Today’s reading: Isaiah 3:1-6:13
If you are a mother you know what it’s like to hold your newborn infant in your arms and just stare at them in wonder and awe of the miracle you are holding.
My friend, whether you are a mother or just have a mother, you need to realize today that you were and still are a miracle! Yup. That’s right, You.

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 1:1-2:22

for my impossible situations. I thank You for these opportunities to trust You wholly and completely in these areas of my life. I know that You are the God of the impossible and that You can redeem me from this circumstance, BUT before You do I want to take the time to thank You for allowing this impossibility in my life so that I may experience just how awesome You really are; so that I may see just how good You are. I thank You for this dark situation in my life so that I may shine Your pure light through this circumstance to others who may not know You. Thank You for using me in such a miraculous way that I may be the receiver of Your miracles! I am the recipient of Your miracles! Hallelujah! Lord, I thank You that blessed are those that mourn because they will be comforted. Lord I thank You in this weeping, I thank You for the sadness, because of it I am being comforted with Your very hand! Lord Jesus thank You for Your sacrifice and wisdom and sharing them with us!

Lord, I thank You for the captivity, it is because of my captivity that I will experience Your freeing grace. Lord, I thank You for the boundaries in my life, it is because of those boundaries that I will be able to see You exceed them! Lord, I thank You for turning the impossible into possible, the improbable into probable, the unlikely into likely. Thank You for changing me from a sinner into a saint. Thank You for turning death into a resurrection, for resurrecting me, for resurrecting the possibilities in my life. Thank You for helping me face my fears and through facing them conquering them together with You. God I thank You for this circumstance where I have been forced to face my fear. Thank You for helping me get through this to VICTORY in Jesus. I thank You Lord that You are with me and have been with me through it all. You have done it all, You have been and will be my shield and rampart my ever-present help in times of trouble and although I sit in darkness You are my Light; no purer light could I ask for than Yours. You are my Beloved and I am YOURS!

Lord, I thank You that I am forgiven once and for all! I PRAISE You that Your redeeming grace is so much greater and more powerful than all my sins ever could be! You are greater You are more powerful than anything and everything that I could ever face in a day. You are the beginning and the end. You are. You are. You are!!! And because You are, I AM! Because I am Yours and am in You I am redeemed, I am forgiven, I am loved, I am covered and will never be ashamed again all because of You! You have done it all and more, You have paid it all and more. You! Oh Yaweh, I love You! I love You because you first loved me. I know what love is because of You. You, my wonderful, marvelous savior my Beloved THANK YOU for choosing me to be Your BRIDE!!!! You chose me! Thank You Jesus! Lord, I thank You that the only condition to Your love is that we make the choice to hold out our hands and RECEIVE IT! Lord please help me to RECEIVE Your love today!

Lord, help me to keep my hands open trusting to receive Your goodness and nothing else. I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth! You are all I want, You are all I ever needed, help me to know that You are near! Hold me close to You, let me feel Your presence because Your presence is like heaven to me; it is like wine to my body. Make me drunk on Your Spirit alone. Come. Fill me with Your FIRE so that I can be more like You! Open me Lord so that I may be filled. Open my eyes so that I may see You working in my life and in the lives of others around me. Father open my ears so that I may hear Your sweet whisper as Your voice flows through my heart singing over me with the Song of Salvation. Lord, I pray that You would enlighten the eyes of my heart! Open my heart to receive Your outpouring of love for me. Lord, open my mouth wide so that You may feed me Your food from heaven. Open me wide to receive Papa! Open me wide to receive the goodness You have in store for me. Help me to let go of my worry and give it to You so that my hands may be empty and able to receive. Help me to drop the insignificant shells of the things I’ve been holding onto, so that I may lay hold of You my true treasure, my delight and hope are in You and Your goodness and light. You are neither insignificant nor a shell. You are everything. You are MY everything. Lord Your perfect love casts out fear, please take my fears and fling them from me as far as the east is from the west! I cast my cares upon You because You care about me and therefore You care about the things I care about, especially the things that bother me and make me afraid. Lord I thank You and I praise You for helping me turn my eyes towards You and reminding me that all the things of this earth grow so strangely dim in the light of Your glory and grace! When we look to You everything else, our worries, our fears, our doubts they all fade into the background and become so small and insignificant when compared to You and Your greatness! God I praise You for Your greatness and the way my problems are dwarfed into complete extinction when compared with You and Your power, ability and willingness to lift me out of this miry muddy mess! Jesus thank You for sharing Your love and Your life with me. Me of all people – the least of all people – me. You chose me to be Your FRIEND! I don’t know what about little old me would make you want me? But You do! And I praise You for wanting me! And oh how You want me!

LORD, I Thank You!!!!!