More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
You cannot love God until you have seen that he is holy. We only experience God’s love through forgiveness.
The word of God either softens your heart or it hardens it — you cannot stay the same.
to go into the future with fear, dread or terror is entirely the wrong attitude for the people of God. If we fear other people, disease, loneliness, poverty or death
whatever it is we fear — it reveals that we have got out of touch with God;
our terror and our fear betray a broken relationship...
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A godless man is not a man who denies the existence of God but a man who ignores the existence of God. An atheist in Bible language
is a man who can live from Monday to Saturday, and often right through Sunday, without ever thinking about God at all.
In other words, you can only have justice when you have righteous indignation.
If I give you a lot of history in this part I hope that this one lesson will come through to you: when you are in trouble, when you are in real need and you are tempted to look around and ask who can help, don’t forget to look to God, who can really help
you. That is the simple lesson of these chapters.
Look at some of the pieces. Here are some of the things that Isaiah says in these chapters that Revelation or Daniel also say. First, the whole world is to be judged. Second, the Lord is to return. Third, the sun and the moon are to be
changed. Fourth, all tears are to be wiped away. Fifth, the resurrection of bodies will take place. Sixth, a trumpet will be blown. Seventh, a great feast will be enjoyed. Eighth, death will be swallowed up. Ninth, Satan will be vanquished. Tenth, Israel will be gathered together. Eleventh, a new Jerusalem will be built. Twelfth, God’s glory will be seen by the whole world. Did you pick up all those pieces as you read?
These chapters say that we can expect four major things to happen in that day. First, we can expect the judgement of God to be executed. Second, we can expect Jehovah, God himself, to be exalted or extolled,
to be praised. Third, we can expect tremendous joy which will burst into song. Fourth, we can expect Jacob, Israel, to be extended until her fruit fills the world.
At 30:18, we read: Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you.
There is guidance: “This is the way; walk in it.” Notice that the guidance comes as you walk, and if you stray to the right or to the left the guidance comes. God will guide those who trust in him; he will say: this is the way. Maybe you cannot see a way out of the problem or where to go, but God will say ‘this is the way, walk in it’ —and you go ahead.
The lesson I want to draw is this: what is the point of going back to trust the things from which God rescued you when he saved you? In what did you put your trust in the past? Your health? Your money? Your friends? Your intelligence? Your connections? Science? The welfare state? What did you trust to see you through your troubles
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37, NIV). What security!
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength . . . .”
He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes . . . .
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. That is Romans 12:19 (NIV).
God’s will affects nature as well as human nature.
This passage we are looking at now conveys to us three truths about God: he is above us as
our Sovereign, alongside us as our Saviour, and underneath as our support — the everlasting arms.
“If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea” 48:18 (NIV)
first, that you are tattooed on God’s hands. How can he ever forget? Second, God’s arm is long enough to lift you up again.
If you are really seeking the Lord then there are three dimensions you should consider: first, consider what God has done in the past for others; second, consider what God is going to do in the future for others; third, you should consider what God is doing in the present.
He demands from us justice and righteousness and he gives to us salvation and deliverance.
In the Bible it means four things: to be in perfect harmony with yourself through a forgiven conscience; in
perfect harmony with other people through love; in perfect harmony with God through righteousness; and in harmony with nature. That is peace, and everything else would follow if you had those four things.
The reason was two-fold. First he said there is something wrong with your goodness, and secondly, there is something wrong with your badness.
What in the Lord’s sight is true fasting? It will include three things: a denial of self; doing our duty to others; and delighting in God.
‘amen’, translated ‘truth’. That word ‘amen’ is one of the most wonderful words in the Bible. It means absolutely reliable, certain to take place, surely. If you say ‘amen’ at the end of a prayer, do you realise what you are saying? I do not want to discourage you from saying it because I love the sound of a grand amen in church. I
We are saying that it is going to happen.
that God is going to pull this world down and build a new one.
