SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/28/2013
11:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Announcing
of a New Victory PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah 63:15-64:12
Message of the
verses: We will try and look at the
remaining verses in this fourth main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s outline
The Prophet Looks Up & Calls on God to Bare His arm
& Display His Power (Isaiah 63:15-64:12):
“15 Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious
habitation; Where are Your zeal and Your mighty deeds? The stirrings of Your
heart and Your compassion are restrained toward me. 16 For You are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us And Israel does not recognize us. You, O LORD, are our Father,
Our Redeemer from of old is Your name. 17 Why, O LORD, do You cause us to stray from Your ways And
harden our heart from fearing You? Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes
of Your heritage. 18 Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little
while, Our adversaries have trodden it down. 19 We have become like those over
whom You have never ruled,
Like those who were not called by Your name.
“1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, That
the mountains might quake at Your presence- 2 As fire kindles the brushwood, as
fire causes water to boil- To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That
the nations may tremble at Your presence! 3 When You did awesome things which
we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence. 4 For
from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen
a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him. 5 You meet
him who rejoices in doing righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we
sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved?
“6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf,
And wind, our iniquities,
like the take us away. 7 There is no one who calls on Your name, Who
arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have
delivered us into the power of our iniquities. 8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We
are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. 9 Do not be angry beyond measure,
O LORD, Nor
remember iniquity forever; Behold, look now, all of us are Your people. 10 Your
holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a
desolation. 11 Our holy and beautiful house, Where our fathers praised You, Has
been burned by fire; And all our precious things have become a ruin. 12 Will
You restrain Yourself at these things, O LORD? Will You keep silent and afflict
us beyond measure?”
I see some similarities in this section and the prayer
that is found in Daniel chapter nine as both Isaiah and Daniel appeal to the
Lord using words that show what the Lord has done for them in times past, yet
they confess the sinfulness of what Israel has committed against their Holy
God. I know that when I read this that I was convicted over sins that I have
committed against our Holly God, feeling very badly as I thought about the
things that I have done in the past that were sinful. I keep going back to the quote that Dr.
Wiersbe has in several of his commentaries from an old Scottish Pastor who said
that the successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings. I also think of the times that I have heard
from different preachers who said the we, as believers are to keep a short list
with God. John writes the following in 1
John 1:8-10 “8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and
the truth is not in us. 9 If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not
sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
Isaiah wants the Lord to come down to earth in a similar
manner that He did when He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, but if
we look at other passages from Isaiah we see that He tells us that the Son of
God would come to earth, be born of a virgin, and then would be killed for our
sins, so Isaiah did know that He would come to earth.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “He asks God to ‘look down’ (63:15 and
to ‘come down’ (64:1). This is one of
the greatest ‘revival prayers’ found in Scripture. Jesus as God came down in fire at Sinai (Ex.
19:16-19(, so let Him come down again and reveal His awesome power to the
nations. They trust in dead idols, so
let them see what the living God of Israel can do!”
The reason that God was not working in their lives was
because of their sin, and this is a lesson for all of us to remember. If a person has accepted the salvation that
comes only through Jesus Christ and then continues to sin without confessing it
then God will not work in their lives. Dr.
Wiersbe writes “Yes, because God is a forgiving Father and a patient Potter
(Jer. 18). He can cleanse us and make us
anew if we will let Him have His way.”
This is how Isaiah ends this section (with a question) “Will
You restrain Yourself at these things, O LORD? Will You keep silent and afflict
us beyond measure?”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Since this is one
of the greatest sections of Scripture on revival, my prayer is that the Holy
Spirit will work a revival in my life and that it will spread to others and
continue to grow all around this world.
My Steps of Faith for Today: That the Holy Spirit will have His way in my
life today and every day.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “His own blood” (Hebrews
13:12).
Today’s Bible
Question: “What two groups of men
worshiped the baby Jesus?” I will say at
this time that the answer that will be given to this question will not be
correct. I will give the correct answer
in our next SD and explain why I believe it is right. Remember these questions are coming from a
Bible Trivia game that I have, and there are some of the answers that I do not
agree with, and when this happens then I will let you know why I disagree with
them.
12/28/2013 12:52 PM
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