A light to the World, to open our eyes to our own darkness, to remove the chains of bondage. Our part……..Believe and walk in faith in Jesus, who did what we could not.
“I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
Isaiah 42:6-7 NASB
““Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.
Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, A leader and commander for the peoples.
Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, And a nation which knows you not will run to you, Because of the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, And it will be a memorial to the Lord, For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.””
Isaiah 55:1-13 (NASB1995 YouVersion Bible App)
3–5 This was the Lord’s appeal. With tenderness and emotion, the divine Plaintiff recalled His many gracious acts toward them, almost to the point of assuming the tone of a defendant. Noting their trek from bondage in Egypt to their own homeland, God had provided leadership (v. 4), reversed the attempts of Balaam to curse the people (v. 5a; cf. Nu 22–24), and miraculously parted the Jordan River (v. 5b) so they could cross over from Shittim, located E of the Jordan, to Gilgal on the W side near Jericho. God had faithfully kept all His promises to them. † 6:6, 7 Micah, as though speaking on behalf of the people, asked rhetorically how, in light of God’s faithfulness toward them, they could continue their hypocrisy by being outwardly religious but inwardly sinful. † 6:8 Micah’s terse response ( v. 8) indicated they should have known the answer to the rhetorical question. Spiritual blindness had led them to offer everything except the one thing He wanted—a spiritual commitment of the heart from which right behavior would ensue (cf. Dt 10:12–19; Mt 22:37–39). This theme is often represented in the OT (cf. 1Sa 15:22; Is 1:11–20; Jer 7:21–23; Hos 6:6; Am 5:15).
From: John MacArthur Study Bible.
Vs 7emptied Himself. From this Gr. word comes the theological word “kenosis”; i.e., the doctrine of Christ’s self-emptying in His incarnation. This was a self-renunciation, not an emptying Himself of deity nor an exchange of deity for humanity (see notes on v. 6).
Jesus did, however, renounce or set aside His privileges in several areas:
1) heavenly glory—while on earth He gave up the glory of a face-to-face relationship with God and the continuous outward display and personal enjoyment of that glory (cf. Jn 17:5);
2) independent authority—during His incarnation Christ completely submitted Himself to the will of His Father (see note on v. 8; cf. Mt 26:39; Jn 5:30; Heb 5:8);
3) divine prerogatives—He set aside the voluntary display of His divine attributes and submitted Himself to the Spirit’s direction (cf. Mt 24:36; Jn 1:45–49);
4) eternal riches—while on earth Christ was poor and owned very little (cf. 2Co 8:9); and
5) a favorable relationship with God—He felt the Father’s wrath for human sin while on the cross (cf. Mt 27:46; see note on 2Co 5:21). form of a bond-servant. Again, Paul uses the Gr. word “form,” which indicates exact essence (see note on v.
6). As a true servant, Jesus submissively did the will of His Father (cf. Is 52:13, 14). the likeness of men. Christ became more than God in a human body, but He took on all the essential attributes of humanity (Lk 2:52; Gal 4:4; Col 1:22), even to the extent that He identified with basic human needs and weaknesses (cf. Heb 2:14, 17; 4:15). He became the God-Man: fully God and fully man.
bible.com/bible/100/mat.6.33.NASB1995
He’ll take care of the rest!
See a fun song from the past, by Keith Green
bible.com/bible/116/jer.15.19.NLT
From Good News about Grace by Rick Warren who wrote ” The Purpose Driven Life”
Isaiah 1:18 says, “No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow” (LB).
If ever there were a sin you’d think was unforgivable, it would be denying Jesus three times on the night he was betrayed. But Jesus knew Peter would deny him, and he even knew Peter would come back to him. In fact, before it even happened, Jesus said to Peter in the Upper Room, “I have pleaded in prayer for you that your faith should not completely fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen and build up the faith of your brothers” (Luke 22:32).
Jesus knew that Peter’s ministry would be more effective after his denial than it was before. And, sure enough, it was! Peter wrote two of the books of the Bible called 1 and 2 Peter. Then he shared his memoirs with a relative, and that’s the Gospel of Mark.
You may think God’s forgotten you. He hasn’t. The Good Shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to go after the one. He knows how you’ve fallen away. If you have — either by one giant step or a series of petty steps where you just slipped away and you’re not as close to Christ as you used to be — you need to pray what David prayed when he came back to God after committing adultery. He said, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation” (Psalm 51:12 NLT). David did not have to pray, “God, restore to me my salvation,” because he hadn’t lost his salvation. He had lost the joy.
And some of you have, too. Come home to Christ today.
bible.com/bible/100/mic.7.18.NASB1995
bible.com/bible/100/2pe.3.9.NASB1995
Living Waters 