Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Isaiah 40:1-31
God's People Are Comforted The Majesty of the LORD
R13 1 "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" Says your God. 2"Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD's hand Double for all her sins.
3The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert F64 A highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; 5The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." 6The voice said, "Cry out!" And he F65 said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 7The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."
9O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" 10Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him. 11He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young. 12Who has measured the waters F66 in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? 13Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? 14With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?
15Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. 16And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. 17All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. 18To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? 19The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains. 20Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman To prepare a carved image that will not totter. 21Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. 24Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. 25"To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. 26Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing. 27Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: "My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God"? 28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Footnotes
1. F64: 40:3 Following Masoretic Text, Targum, and Vulgate; Septuagint omits in the desert.
2. F65: 40:6 Following Masoretic Text and Targum; Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, and Vulgate read I.
3. F66: 40:12 Following Masoretic Text, Septuagint, and Vulgate; Dead Sea Scrolls read waters of the sea; Targum reads waters of the world. Show cross-references
1. R13: cf. Luke 3:4!ND6


Copyright Statement: The New King James Version© 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.


~ Lena’s Journalin’
As usual I’d like to help open up to you a new understanding. When we read God’s word, we want to dig into it, dig deeply and see what God is saying that we can appreciate, value, and live the words of life. We don’t live in Britain in 1611 when the KJV was translated, and we defiantly do not speak or think in this age of the Old English Language. This would be a great reason to study the word and delve into its depths, to gain greater understanding in 2006 America.
Comfort the congregations of people’s who say they belong to Christ! Tell them the battle is over with, there is no reason to be involved in a fight, the victory has already been declared and set forth by the one who is Almighty, the One who has won the wars for us all. What our sins, mistakes and rebellion deserved has been paid for, for us, if we will only embrace Him, believe in His work, accept His sacrificial love, and live all the rest of our days for Him.
Look at the meanings of the word “double”:
To turn sharply or all the way around; reverse one's course
Immediate
The penalty of any sin is death, no matter what the gage or measurement. However great or small, sin separates beings from the Divine and Holy presence of God, for eternity. Its penalty is so severe that man could never bring repair of this breech with anything except faith in God and His finished work at Calvary.
Man could be good, do good, act good, and try try try to live good, but it still would not be enough to bridge in the gap. That is the severity of sin’s consequence.
Man used to offer blood of animals to atone for sin, but if one sinned again another sacrifice was needed and usually a hefty price was paid to obtain and make the sacrifice – it was gross too, who liked doing it? Hopefully in the grossness one would be deterred in the future from the sin that caused the sacrifices to have to be made. BUT, even if I somehow had the strength to overcome my sin by avoiding it, there’d be another reason come my way, to have to sacrifice again.
Ever feel you can’t get ahead? That has to do with the need for a savior. That’s the warfare that needed to end, man could never save himself, ever.
BUT in Christ Jesus we have a Savior, and if we choose to commit our lives to Him, we also have a Lord, who will repair that breech that no sacrifice ever could make repair for. We owed a great deal, for any and every sin we ever have committed or would ever commit. The wage for our sin was eternal death and separation from God, BUT Jesus came and paid for our hefty debt, no more animal sacrifices are needed. He paid it in full, eternally full.
So, for those who believe in Him and stick with His family on earth until they die, they stay in the service of the King, these are pardoned, these have a reversal of the judgments laid up against them. Those who turn from unrighteous living and get on the pathway of life, will receive payment in full when faced with eternal death and its edict against them.
(Read Romans 10:9-10 Amplified – it does not say if we say a prayer of lip service, something like- “Lord I believe You died, rose again and You are Lord, now thank you for saving me” – we will be saved. It says if we adhere, that means stay with our new life’s confession, our new lifestyle proclamation, proving what we say by what we live, then we will be saved!)

Thank God for these three:
Grace -we receive what we don't deserve.Mercy - we don't receive what we deserve. Justice - we receive what we deserve

One way a confession which is not merely words is evidenced, it is through action. Ever hear someone say, “Put some actions to those words, please”?
Evidence that one is “saved” is they speak about their freedom, their grace gift, their salvation and especially of the One who paid the price for their freedom. They believe and can’t help but speak for Jesus, whom they greatly appreciate to the point of love. They prepare the way of the understanding and receptivity of the Lord to come to others.
They know who sits in high places with prideful arrogance will be brought low enough to look up to Jesus on the cross, everything will be brought to the same view and perspective of Him. That perspective is all life here is about, seeing Him clearly and making way for others to see Him clearly also. Those who need to come up, will be brought up into their places in Him. They also realize how short earth days are in comparison to eternal days and that however much time is spent here preparing other’s way, it just isn’t enough when one thinks of men going to hell eternally separated from God’s presence.
Oh Zion wake up early, take a trek up to that mountain to see what God sees, so you’ll do what God has for you to do for today especially. How do we know if we will still have time tomorrow?
Be what He created you to be, a foot soldier, one who brings good news. Don’t be afraid here, fear what comes ahead to those who would not speak or share their living personal faith. Don’t be deceived by a gentle Jesus, that gentle Jesus broke the devils back, crushed his head under foot. He will not be honored by us if we did not take that seriously. That is a serious matter.
Our Father God will be asking- “So, what was it you did – with My Son, while you still had time left on earth?” “Did you know what He did for you and for others? Did you not care?”
How many have the souls of men on their hearts, in their wombs? He leads these. Lambs are led, are we led? Goats butt, do we butt? (“But”, I have this to do,”but” I don’t know how to speak good,” but” I’m busy, tired, sick….Was My sacrifice not enough to nullify those “butts”?)
Who is great? Are we great or is God great? How would someone know who is great to us? The one we serve and attend to most is the one who is great to us, that’s how they know. Who do we speak about most. That is the one who is great to us. Maybe in the past, you attended to yourself most and spoke of yourself and your needs a lot, lets’ gain a different perspective.
Who made the earth? Did you? What about the things in the earth? Did we humans do such a thing? Then why are we so great and all we talk about? He is great and greatly to be praised by the creation who were made by Him and for Him. That’s who we are. His beloved is who we are.
Wow, it seems like a lot to ask of me, to think of Him rather than me, to let Him care for me rather than me care for myself. To live responsibly rather than irresponsibly, to take on that kind of eternal responsibility. Yes it is a lot, whole lifetime worth.
He gives strength to accomplish it.


Daily Meditation/Recital/Question
Ask myself daily: “What Page Am I On?”