Author: missionspaul

5 TRUTHS NEEDING YOUR ATTENTION!
Isaiah 51

God is trying to get our attention.
Listen to me …
Listen to me, my people …
Hear me …
Awake, awake …
Awake, awake, hear this …

1. GOD’S PAST IS A BLESSING
V1-3 They are discouraged and begin to doubt things will ever change. God is telling them to look to how he dealt with His people in the past. As yesterday so today. He can bless you and make you great. LISTEN TO ME!

2. YOUR FUTURE IS CERTAIN
V4-6 Justice will be done on your behalf. His righteousness in your life will never die. He will never change His mind regarding your salvation. You are eternally secure. LISTEN TO ME, MY PEOPLE!

3. THE PRESENT IS TEMPORARY
V6-8 For those who suffer because they belong to Him, it is only temporary. Keep holding on for His righteousness and salvation will never let go of you. HEAR ME!

4. GOD IS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
V9-16 From within our hearts comes a rising call to awaken in faith, to call upon God and to believe on His promises of returning in victory and joy. He has sheltered us from the storms of life so who do we fear? Nothing happens without His permission. AWAKE, AWAKE!

5. THE HISTORY MARKER FOR PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE IS CHRIST’S CUP OF WRATH.
V17-23 This is not the time to sleep. Christ has drunk even the dregs of the cup of suffering for you at the cross, so that we no longer have to drink such judgment. There will come a season of recompense for those who walked over you. AWAKE, AWAKE, HEAR THIS!

It’s all about Jesus!

Isaiah 50

Learn to meditate, slow the words down.

• His name is Jesus …
Though we are sinners, He never rejects us by divorcing us, v1
Yet when He came no one welcomed Him, v2
The answer to the rhetorical question of ‘can I save?’ is YES, v2
He hung on the cross in sheer darkness for you, v3

• His name is Jesus …
In His humanity He trained himself to hear the words of God, v4

• His name is Jesus
He suffered voluntarily, v6
In the middle of it all his confidence was in God, v7
Through it all He was determined, steadfast and courageous, v7
He reveals the truth: if God is for us who can be against us? v8-9

• His name is Jesus
Therefore, will you fear Him? Will you obey Him? Will you trust Him? v10
Therefore, do not light your own fires to guide your own paths, follow Him. v11

• His name is Jesus
Look at the cross of Christ again, you are not rejected.
Look at the training of Christ again, you can know the word of God.
Look at the suffering of Christ again, you can keep going.
Look at the challenge of Christ again, you can be His disciple.

It’s all about Jesus!

Isaiah 49
Learn to meditate, slow the words down.

• His name is Jesus …
Listen to Him, v1
He is eternal, v1
He speaks with power and authority, v2

• His name is Jesus …
A Servant, v3
Who knew discouragement but He overcame, v4

• His name is Jesus …
He has come for the Jews in order to restore them to God, v5
He has come for the Gentiles in order to be their Saviour, v6
He was despised and rejected and still is, v7
But He will also be worshipped from those with honour, v7

• His name is Jesus
His Father helped Him especially on the day of salvation, the time of the cross and the resurrection, v8
He Himself is the new covenant from God, v8
He sets the captives free, He opens the way for those contained and trapped, v9
Throughout the world many make the journey towards Him, v10
As a follower of Jesus your mountains will no longer be impassable, v11
The followers of Jesus will come from every conceivable place in the world, v12

• His name is Jesus
Whatever Jesus has done for you PRAISE HIM! V13
Stop saying He has forgotten you. It is not true, v14
His concern for you is stronger than a nursing mother, v15
He died for you with nail-pierced hands, how could He forget you? v16

• His name is Jesus
The history of the forming of the nation of Israel is testimony to the person of Jesus, v19-26
Now which line has spoken to you the most?
Think on this.
Pray this.

His name is Jesus.
It’s all about Him.

If Only

Isaiah 48

I’ve just seen an ad on You-tube that is titled ‘reply all’.
Two men are working at their computers in an office cubicle. One sends an email to the other that triggers a smile—followed suddenly by alarm. “Rod, you sent this email ‘Reply all.’ You hit ‘Reply all’!”

Rod panics and sprints down the hallway. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he runs through a meeting room grabbing laptop computers away from those seated at the table. He dashes between offices carrying away desktop computers, still screaming. He reaches through a window into a home office and takes the laptop from a woman typing at a desk, still screaming. He leaps up the stairs leading to an office building knocking cell phones from people’s hands.

On he goes, screaming like a man who has lost everything, attacking the computers and hand-held devices of a man walking in a parking garage, another man eating in a restaurant, a man hiking in a forest, a man sitting on a park bench. Finally, climactically, Rod rips a bundle of wires out of the wall of a computer electronics room, sending out a shower of sparks.

Like Rod with his email, have you ever communicated anything that you later regretted? Have you said anything you wished you could take back?

If only … v18

I am sure we can all look back on lives with unfinished business, if only.

Michaelangelo worked on 44 statues in his life. Thirty were never finished. These unfinished works, the unfulfilled potential of a great genius will never be completed.
There are works of God in your life still to be finished. There is potential that is not being realised. Are you ready to be set free to become all that you can become before your opportunity is over.

As we approach the end of the year and the start of a new one, let us all be determined to have as few ‘if only’ comments over our lives. Let us fulfil our potential. Let us trust the Lord and obey Him.

There is only one Saviour

Isaiah 47

Babylon (our world system) has fallen under the hands of Cyrus. Isaiah speaks to them says your gods, your astrology and all your wisdom cannot save you.
You are stripped naked, v1-3
Your success is not lasting, v7
You think you are a god but you are not, v8, 10
Your wisdom will take you in the wrong direction, v10
No one can deliver you, v14
In stark contrast there is a Redeemer, the Lord Almighty, the Holy One, v4.
On this day in 1606, William Shakespeare’s play King Lear was performed at the court of King James I of England. Lear was one of the later works penned by the playwright and after the restoration period many thought the ending wasn’t happy enough so they changed it to make the audience have the feel-good factor.
Many have tried to do that with the gospel.
The truth is there is only one Christmas Day, there is only one Saviour. Outside of Him, there is no one who can save, there is no happy ending.
Now is the day of salvation, there is a Redeemer.

The Christmas Message

This is the Christmas Message: He has come. The long-awaited Messiah arrives. God said it and he did it.

Isaiah 46
V10-11 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfil my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.
Today, maybe the healing didn’t arrive in your Christmas stocking, maybe there was no salvation under the tree, don’t despair:
My purpose will stand.
What I have said, that will I bring about.
What I have planned, that will I do.
These are the words of God over your life. This is your Christmas Message.

The Christmas Dream

Isaiah 45

“He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited,” v18
In 1969, when observing the Earth from the moon, Apollo astronaut James Irwin said, “When you lean far back and look up, you can see the earth like a beautiful, fragile Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space”.
This Christmas tree ornament was God’s dream. His dream shows us 10 important aspects if we too are going to pursue our dreams:
1. To dream is to do.
At some point we need to stop thinking of the dream and start acting on it.
2. He created the space for His dream
The environment for the dream to sit in is everything.
3. It may have looked empty, but it wasn’t, it was expectant.
Don’t knock what you’ve got.
4. He was content to wait for the right time for His dream to begin to take shape
This dream wasn’t created in a day. It is okay to take time.
5. His dream was formed from what He had created
The last move is crucial for today’s move, don’t ignore the past, use it for today.
6. His dream carried the ability to reproduce itself
Think momentum for it will take the dream further than you dreamt.
7. His dream contained huge risk for it carried the capacity to self-destruct.
Is your dream risky enough?
8. His dream would need constant attention and a thought-through rescue plan.
Thank God for the rescue of Christmas!
9. His dream had a limited shelf-life.
Knowing the end is as important as the beginning.
10. His dream is so huge that it is not restricted or damaged by man’s goals.
Never settle. Never arrive. The world is not yet reached. The dream continues.
Just one of these 10 aspects will keep you on track in the fulfilling of the dream God has given you.

Christmas Redemption

Isaiah 44

In December 1853 Charles Dickens book ‘A Christmas Carol’ was published. Depicting the appalling conditions of the working people in London it preached a message of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Dickens priced the book so that all could afford and on opening day 6,000 books were sold.
We know the story so well. The central character, Scrooge, is portrayed as a cold, bitter, selfish and greedy man. Through the ghost appearances the reader sees that this man is on the path to destruction. Christmas past shows Scrooge what he is losing; Christmas present what he has lost and Christmas future what he will lose as he dies alone and in poverty. It speaks to the heart of every man. The transformation of Scrooge to the nice man is the message that no man is beyond redemption, everyone can change and (because of Dickens Christian symbolism throughout the book) redemptive change comes by the work of Christ.
V6 This is what the LORD says – Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.
V22 I have swept away your offences like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.’
V24 ‘This is what the LORD says – your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
Overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro is the world’s largest statue constructed between 1922 and 1932, Christ the Redeemer. It is an amazing picture for the whole of Brazil’s Christian faith.
Christ the Redeemer has His arms stretched out to the whole world today and especially to the Scrooges of life. No man is beyond His reach.
Is there someone you know who needs to hear the message, “Return to me, for I have redeemed you”?
Is that someone you?
Many are in danger of losing everything and yet Christ is still holding out His hands to give everything, Himself. Let us pray that Scrooge finds redemption this Christmas.

5 Christmas journeys that we are making

Isaiah 43

1. The journey of the miraculous, v2
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son …
2. The journey of the harvest, v5-7
You are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.
3. The journey of Intimacy, v8-12
The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
4. The journey of provision, v18-21
Immanuel, God with Us
5. The journey of worship, v22-25
They saw the child, they bowed down and worshipped him.

Jesus loves the weak and broken

Isaiah 42: 3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.

As we come to the end of this year and look back you may feel like you are a bruised reed:
Bruised because of the circumstance of life, of the strong winds of nature continually beating you down.
Bruised because of your own bad decisions and character flaws. Even the greatest were not perfect. Founder of The Salvation Army, William Booth believed in the sinless perfection of the Christian. I wonder if you would have believed in his sinless perfection if you had entertained the General in his finery and majesty. This is what one lady said of her experience. “On arrival William Booth virtually took over the management of the household. He demanded dinner at once and simply wolfed it, putting his knife in the salt and in his mouth. He next retired upstairs but didn’t like the bedroom I had prepared as it was at the front of the house. So he took possession of the rose room …. . During the afternoon the fire must have annoyed the General in some way because he put it out by throwing water over the fire and hearth … . Nearly all our doors had to be padded with dusters to prevent them banging and orders were sent down to shut the dog up.”
You may feel like you are a smouldering wick:
A smouldering wick is ineffective with little impact in the lives of others. It is also offensive as the smoke irritates others. There are plenty of ineffective and irritating people around!
However, the good news is that Jesus will never break you nor snuff you out. He will never give up on you nor turn His back on you. He is for you, believing in you till the very end.
He loves and uses the weak and broken.
He started His life on earth weak and vulnerable and he ended his life broken and in pain.
He is with you.