July 17, 2012 … Ahead Is Way Scary! … Way Exciting!!

Chronological Bible Reading Plan - Day 199 

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Isaiah, Chapter 23-27 [NIV] To study these chapters, go to this link - 
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Highlight Passage: Isaiah 23: 1; 8-9 : [NIV] … 1 A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them. … 8 Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth? 9 The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.  
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Highlight Passage: Isaiah 24: 3-6; 21, 23b : [NIV] … 3 The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word. 4 The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. 5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. … 21 In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. 23b … for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders—with great glory. 
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Highlight Passage: Isaiah 25: 1; 6-9 : [NIV] … 1 Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. … 6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. 7 On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. 9 In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." 
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Highlight Passage: Isaiah 26: 1-3; 7-8; 19 : [NIV] … 1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. 2 Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. 3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. … 7 The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth. 8 Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. … 19 But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise — let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. 
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Highlight Passage: Isaiah 27: 2-3; : [NIV] … 2 In that day— "Sing about a fruitful vineyard: 3 I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. … 6 In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. … 13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. 

My Journal for Today: Okay, if you’ve come this far to read along with me, I can likely read your mind. You’re probably thinking, … “Aw common, Bill; that’s a bunch to expect me to read and digest!” And you’re right. We’re drinking at God’s fire hydrant fountain of truth again. And if you’ve invested the time to read and meditate on the passages I’ve highlighted above from my chronological reading assignment today, I’ll be brief in my own journal comments; because Isaiah’s prophetic writings in Chapters 24-27, which make up today’s study segment, stand alone in their interpretation.

This segment of Isaiah’s writings is sometimes called “Isaiah’s Apocalypse”, because God, through Isaiah, shifts gears in his prophesies from Isaiah’s earlier warnings to Judah, Israel, Egypt, and other neighboring nations to putting forth a word for the whole world and all of earth’s peoples [including you and me]. And as I’ve titled my journal entry today, these prophesies are “Way Scary And Way Exciting.”

If registered and believed they would have to be WAY SCARY to those who had rebelled against God’s will and His ways through His word; but once digested in these chapters, this word unto the future would be WAY EXCITING for God’s remnant of obedient disciples who’ve believed God’s covenant and have done all they can – in faith – to follow God – i.e., in spite of what God’s spiritual enemies have done to draw believers away from God’s promised ones.

So, I hope you take the time to read, study, and meditate on today’s assigned passages, or at least my highlighted ones copied above. Because if you are motivated enough to do that, you are likely one of those believers whom Isaiah wrote about in God’s pronouncement above in Isaiah 26: 3, … that is, one who lives in peace because your mind is settled and pursuant of God’s will and His ways by being in God’s word. I truly hope you’re one of those; because if you are, reading through Isaiah’s prophesies today had to be WAY EXCITING.

But any who read here today and saw today’s prophesies as WAY TOO SCARY, perhaps you had best take note of just how strongly you believe that today’s word from God is really true or not. If you don’t think so, my dear one, you are headed toward the scariest eternity that anyone can or will face. And all that you need to do is to realize the exciting prospects of heaven, believing that Christ came, as God promised, to provide the way for you to repent, believing that Jesus died to save you and expressing openly/honestly that you want Him to be the Lord of Your life.

Do that … and your eternal future will be more EXCITING than you could ever imagine.

My Prayer Today: … Thank You, Lord, for the eternally exciting times ahead. Amen