Your builders outdo your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go away from you... Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land-surely now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. Isaiah 49: 17, 19, NRSV. Heavenly Father, we all stand in need of Your restoration.  Speak to our hearts Your Words of peace and liberation.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen. Today we will continue with the theme, "God Restores."  In this chapter, in its immediate context, God is speaking both to the...

Your builders outdo your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go away from you... Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land-surely now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. Isaiah 49: 17, 19, NRSV. Gracious God, You who delight in restoring the things that the destroyers have taken away; please make Your will plain to us as we study Your Word.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen. I "happened upon" this text.  I did not go in search of it.  But I...

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His love in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, not did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.  But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Galatians 1: 15-18, NKJV. ...

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His love in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, not did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.  But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Galatians 1: 15-18, NKJV. ...

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of is sufferings by becoming like im in is death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3: 10, 11, NRSV. Gracious God, we can only know You as You reveal Yourself to us.  Please do this as we come into Your presence to study Your Word.  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen. The desire of Paul is rather profound.  To know Christ, by way of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings!  Sufficient would have been to know Him by...

For ou created my inmost being; ou knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise ou because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; our works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from ou when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, our eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in our book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are our thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to...

When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to  you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.  They are not just idle words for you-they are your life.  By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. Deuteronomy 32: 45-47, NIV.  Our LORD and our God, with grateful hearts we come before you.  We pray that Your goodness will fill our hearts and our lives, as we...

But Samuel replied:  "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, e has rejected you as king." 1 Samuel 15: 22, 23, NIV. Precious LORD, please teach us obedience.  Please help us to see the dangers of having our own way.  Please make this plain to us as we study...

When e finished speaking, e turned to Simon.  He said, "Go out into deep water.  Let the nets down so you can catch some fish."  Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything.  But because ou say so, I will let down the nets."  When they had done so, they caught a large number of fish.  There were so many that their nets began to break.  So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  They came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. Luke 5: 4-7,...

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"  Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.  Jerusalem-built as a city that is bound firmly together.  To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.  For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:  "May they prosper who love you.  Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers."  For the...