Reminders

Todays' sermon was excellent. I enjoy Pastor Goyo's preaching more and more each week. I've been feeling off lately, just in my heart and head--sort of as though I'm doing the doggy paddle in the deep end and getting tired and am too far from the ledge to feel comfortable with my level of tiredness. Then today Goyo preached from Isaiah 42:1-4 and talked about the justification that God brings TO us and THROUGH Christ IN us. It was a stellar service. I love how he gets SO EXCITED about our God every time He preaches. It revives something in my own heart! Anyway, I kept reading in that chapter today and the Lord just started a refreshing work. It is a work of conviction of course, but it is a reviving work too! So, I shall leave you with Isaiah 42.

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight.
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope.

This is what God the Lord says--
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all
that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it;
"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon
those who sit in darkness.

"I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to another
or my praise to idols.
See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you."

Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from th eends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.
Let the desert and its towns raise their voices;
let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.
Let the people of Sela sing for you;
let them shout from the mountaintops.
Let them give glory to the Lord
and proclaim his praise in the islands.
The Lord will march out like a mighty man,
like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;
with a shout he will raise the battle cry
and will triumph over his enemies.

"For a long time I have kept silent,
I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
I cry out, I gasp and pant.
I will lay waste the mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.
But those who trust in idols,
who say to images, 'You are our gods,'
will be turned back in utter shame."