Category: Isaiah

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

A barren woman was considered a tragedy back then. We too have many things we consider a tragedy – for ourselves and for our church. This great chapter places the challenge to trust our wonderful God in the face of our well-grounded fears for our society and church.

SJA Notes

* Mighty God, please plant Your word deep within us and grow it, that we might be good soil and bear much fruit.

“O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.”

Listen to the love the Lord has for us, His peopl!

This passage is a letter of love from God.

“For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like  wife of youth when she is cast off, …”

Truly God’s word is the mirror that always tells us the truth. Life is not easy! The world around us is broken. We are broken.

“O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.”

The Lord is at work within us, as His people – Individuals and corporately His church. He is building us toward a wonderful hope, that New Jerusalem, the city of our God!

“‘For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”

Our God is faithful and true. His love is steadfast, His faithfulness forever.

What a hope we have! What a Saviour He is!

* Gracious Lord,

Thank You that Your steadfast love will not depart from us, that Your covenant of peace will not be removed.

Your love for us is clear and present. We see it in Jesus, in His righteousness, blood, death and life.

Please mark us as a faithful people, holding onto Your promises. Our foundation firm in You.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Jesus did act wisely and does act wisely today. This chapter is often read at Easter. As you read it today, let these awesome words roll over you like a cleansing ocean of God’s love.

SJA Notes

* Dear Lord God, please show us Jesus today.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

What a passage this is!

We see clearly the agony that Jesus endured, what He went through. Both on the cross but also through His life on earth.

Importantly, these verse contain the big problem that humanity faces. Our own broken decision, our sin.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way;”

Our own way. We have turned to our own way. Instead of God’s way, we choose our own.

But what did God do?

“… and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Who is the “him” here?

It’s Jesus! God in the person of the Son, fully God and fully man. Despised and rejected by us, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief … Any yet.

Any yet He bore our sin, the sin of the many, making intercessions for us the transgressors.

This is the good news, Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

* Gracious Father,

Thank You for Jesus. You brought us peace by making Him a curse. You healed us with His wounds.

What a love You have. What a love this is.

May our hearts be ever in wonder at what You have done for us.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

What marvellous verses. Verses 7-10 recall us to a new insight as to how we regard our parents, ministers, leaders, and teachers.

SJA Notes

* Righteous God, please teach us from Your word today, so that we might know how to please You.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feat of him who brings good news,”

Here is a wonderful poetic vision of what it means to tell people about Jesus!

What is the good news that we might bring to those around us?

JESUS: King and Saviour, Rescuer and Redeemer.

God does not act in secret, our faith is not without evidence.

“The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

In Jesus we see God at work in all His wisdom and power.

And in Jesus we see the salvation of our God, our forever King!

We do not follow dead wood, rotten matter.

No. We follow the living and true God. The Holy One of Israel.

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

* Dear Father God,

Thank You for the wonderful news we can bring. May our feet be ready, shod with the readiness to spread this good news to the world around.

Thank You for Jesus.

We pray in His Name,

Amen.