{"id":5436,"date":"2021-01-08T05:49:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T11:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5436"},"modified":"2021-01-08T05:49:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T11:49:49","slug":"devotional-on-isaiah-154","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-isaiah-154\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Isaiah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-v_vbCZKM80o\/X_cokt1xWaI\/AAAAAAABIJo\/KmflYienVpoWJnL9TvIE3zAktpeMgUoJwCPcBGAsYHg\/s1280\/P9052229.JPG\" width=\"1280\" height=\"960\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><center>2007 &#8211; Near Estes Park in RMNP, CO<\/center><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nNot blind trust<br \/>\nIsaiah 45: I am God. I work out in the open.<br \/>\nIsaiah speaks to people who have incorporated idol worship into their religion.  The religions of other nations have greatly influenced them, causing their view of God to include lots of mystery and magic.   In his message, Isaiah includes the words of the Lord who reminds them that he\u2019s never told them to, &#8220;Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.&#8221;  In fact, the Lord has done just the opposite.  He\u2019s told them his plans ahead of time.  He\u2019s even offered them choices: &#8220;do this and I will do that, or do that, and I will do this.&#8221;  This God doesn&#8217;t work in the darkness and serving him doesn&#8217;t involve a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.  Serving God certainly requires faith on our part.  There\u2019s much about that Almighty that\u2019s transcendent, beyond our understanding.  However, his desires for us are an open book.  As Isaiah says it, &#8220;Turn to me and be helped &#8212;saved! &#8212; everyone, whoever and wherever you are!&#8221;  Living in a relationship with God isn\u2019t an exercise in ignorance.  This God partners with us, directing our lives, but, at the same time, allows us to operate freely within his purposes.  This God prefers light to darkness and is, in fact, the Creator of Light (both physical and spiritual).  We serve him in absolute trust, but, since his purposes for us have already been clearly stated, it isn&#8217;t blind trust.<br \/>\nTake Away: Living in a relationship with the Lord isn\u2019t an exercise in ignorance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not blind trust Isaiah 45: I am God. I work out in the open. Isaiah speaks to people who have incorporated idol worship into their religion. The religions of other nations have greatly influenced them, causing their view of God to include lots of mystery and magic. In his message, Isaiah includes the words of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,7],"tags":[131,340,373,481,680,744,1108],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15009,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436\/revisions\/15009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}