Isaiah Reflection

I have continued my quest of reading the Bible chronologically in a year (I got behind a little bit here & there, but I'm cutting myself some slack, it's summer, right?!) & just finished reading Isaiah.  Wow, a great book that is quite convicting towards the end.  While reading Isaiah 53, I began to weep.  It's about Jesus, the Servant, who was wounded for our transgressions.  It was me who put Jesus through all of that... the trial, floggings & ultimately death on a cross.  Jesus didn't suffer for his own sin, because he was sinless, but as the substitute for sinners, me & all mankind.  Every person has sinned (Romans 3:23), but Jesus sufficiently shouldered the consequences of sin & the wrath of God deserved by sinners, again, me.  God laid on him our iniquities as if he committed every sin ever committed by every person who would ever believe, though he was perfectly innocent of ANY sin.  

This past weekend in church Pastor James preached on Isaiah 64:1 and the Vertical Church.  During worship I was so moved by the Holy Spirit to the point of tears.  God is at work in our church.  He is present.  & He is sooooo good!  Vertical Church is the biblical belief that deep within the heart of every person is a longing for God.  Our hearts are restless until we find God.  From Isaiah 64:1 which says, "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence."  Pastor James had one point:

• The Manifest (visible) presence of God:  With it we have everything we need, no matter what we lack; without it we have nothing, no matter what we have.   

This verse in Isaiah is a plea for the LORD to demonstrate his power & show his visible presence.  

I also love verse 8 of chapter 64 when it talks about God as the potter & we as the clay, we are all a work of his hands.  I pray I am continually being molded into who God wants me to be.  I pray I seek him with my whole heart & that I'm awake spiritually in order to do so.  In chapter 66:2 the Lord says, "He who is humble & contrite in spirit & trembles at my word, is the one to whom I will look."  God is looking for a heart to dwell in, a heart that is tender & broken, not one concerned with the externalities of religion.  God is looking to dwell in the heart of a person who takes his word seriously.  (MacArthur commentary)
I pray the Lord looks on me as this, having a soft heart & moldable spirit.  

Thank you God for your Word, that provides truth, conviction, encouragement & peace.  Thank you Lord for your son, Jesus, who was perfectly sinless & yet had the sins of the world upon his shoulders as he died upon the cross.  & thank you God for the Holy Spirit who guides & directs & moves me to tears as I worship you, the one TRUE God!  I love you Lord Jesus!