{"id":5505,"date":"2021-02-10T10:39:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T16:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5505"},"modified":"2021-02-10T10:39:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T16:39:29","slug":"devotional-on-isaiah-187","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-isaiah-187\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Isaiah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-7DBui6HdajQ\/YCMxVSHC0UI\/AAAAAAABIek\/MOTGQTFsHEA_Aik48iZMy6cq2unecOV8QCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/P5133625.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2008 &#8211; Blue Ridge Parkway &#8211; Virginia<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nSurprise, surprise, surprise!<br \/>\nIsaiah 64: Since before time began no one has ever imagined&#8230;a God like you.<br \/>\nI know there\u2019s much (and that\u2019s too mild a word) about God that\u2019s beyond my imagination.  However, it isn&#8217;t the vastness of God that\u2019s on Isaiah&#8217;s mind here.  Isaiah\u2019s talking about what he does know.  The Almighty has revealed his intentions concerning his broken people and their enemies.  Isaiah isn&#8217;t saying &#8220;no one knows what God\u2019s going to do.&#8221; Instead, he\u2019s saying &#8220;here&#8217;s what God\u2019s about to do and it\u2019s something no one has ever before imagined.&#8221;  The Lord is about to move in their lives bringing restoration to them.  Everything\u2019s going to change as the Lord works in a never-seen-before way on their behalf.  His plans aren&#8217;t a secret; they\u2019re being announced ahead of time.  This verse reminds me of the passage from the New Testament that\u2019s based on Isaiah&#8217;s words here.  In 1 Corinthians 2:9 Paul says: &#8220;No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.&#8221;  A lot of folks stop right there, thinking Paul\u2019s talking about the future and unknowable plans of God.  However, they need to go right on reading.  Paul continues with: &#8220;but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.&#8221;  Paul\u2019s saying the very same thing as Isaiah.  No one could ever guess ahead of time how God is going to redeem his people, and now that we know it we stand amazed.  From our point of view, who could ever imagine that a baby born in a barn can save the world?  But God, through his angelic messenger right up front announces that that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s going to happen.<br \/>\nTake Away: The Lord\u2019s wonderful plan of salvation is both known by us and amazing to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surprise, surprise, surprise! Isaiah 64: Since before time began no one has ever imagined&#8230;a God like you. I know there\u2019s much (and that\u2019s too mild a word) about God that\u2019s beyond my imagination. However, it isn&#8217;t the vastness of God that\u2019s on Isaiah&#8217;s mind here. Isaiah\u2019s talking about what he does know. The Almighty has [&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":[131,179,481,894,920],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5505"}],"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=5505"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15082,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5505\/revisions\/15082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}