Isaiah 65 Today with Journalin too

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God Bless You Today, Lena B
Isaiah 65
Judgment and Final Salvation
1The LORD says, "People who never before inquired about me are now asking about me. I am being found by people who were not looking for me. To them I have said, 'I am here!'
2"I opened my arms to my own people all day long, but they have rebelled. They follow their own evil paths and thoughts. 3All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens. They burn incense on the rooftops of their homes. 4At night they go out among the graves and secret places to worship evil spirits. They also eat pork and other forbidden foods. 5Yet they say to each other, 'Don't come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!' They are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away.
6"Look, my decree is written out in front of me: I will not stand silent; I will repay them in full! Yes, I will repay them—7both for their own sins and for those of their ancestors," says the LORD. "For they also burned incense on the mountains and insulted me on the hills. I will pay them back in full!
8"But I will not destroy them all," says the LORD. "For just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones (and someone will say, 'Don't throw them all away—there are some good grapes there!'), so I will not destroy all Israel. For I still have true servants there. 9I will preserve a remnant of the people of Israel F132 and of Judah to possess my land. Those I choose will inherit it and serve me there. 10For my people who have searched for me, the plain of Sharon will again be filled with flocks, and the valley of Achor will be a place to pasture herds.
11"But because the rest of you have forsaken the LORD and his Temple and worship the gods of Fate and Destiny, 12I will 'destine' you to the sword. All of you will bow before the executioner, for when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not listen. You deliberately sinned—before my very eyes—and chose to do what you know I despise."
13Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "You will starve, but my servants will eat. You will be thirsty, but they will drink. You will be sad and ashamed, but they will rejoice. 14You will cry in sorrow and despair, while my servants sing for joy. 15Your name will be a curse word among my people, for the Sovereign LORD will destroy you and call his true servants by another name. 16All who invoke a blessing or take an oath will do so by the God of truth. For I will put aside my anger and forget the evil of earlier days.
17"Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth—so wonderful that no one will even think about the old ones anymore. 18Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard no more.
20"No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only sinners will die that young! 21In those days, people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards. 22It will not be like the past, when invaders took the houses and confiscated the vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees and will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains. 23They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the LORD, and their children, too, will be blessed. 24I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking to me about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers! 25The wolf and lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Poisonous snakes will strike no more. In those days, no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the LORD, have spoken!"
FOOTNOTES:
F132: Hebrew remnant of Jacob.

Lena Journals to Isaiah 65

God has opened His arms to His originally chosen, and all people were chosen by God to be His own and to reciprocate His love through obedience.
Those who choose to receive His love, and not reciprocate it, have gone on to live other ways than the ways He has for them to live.
Some say they know God loves them and so they love Him also in return, and those who say they choose His ways, in return, but they live like the world does; these who also say they are called ”His body” or “His children” or “the people of God” or “His church” in name, yet not in deed, these are who He speaks up to in these beginning verses. It is because they say with words that they are His, and being God is a God of words that mean what they say, He has extended His arms out specifically to those who say it and mean it, backing it up with action.
Yet after times of misused words, misused time and time again, after God offers, from one offer to each new offer, saying the offer through a different messenger or message a different way or in a different manner, there comes a time when those who say so, should be doing so. So, His grace and mercy and blessing will continue to those who do say and do so.
To those who are seeking to learn of Him, are asking how to walk in His ways, with full intent to change their lives and do, to these He says to us today, He will answer.
Ever wonder why you haven’t yet or don’t often hear the voice of God? We must do His words in order to hear Him speak again. He is silent to those who do not really want to hear Him. The way He gages our true willingness to hear Him, is that what we’ve heard we also do. He is such a gentlemen and His words are full of powerful accountability. It is grace to not give us more when we haven’t yet done the less.
Hearing what God says to us in reading or hearing His word preached or taught us, and that we act like we like hearing it, but having no intent to become what we heard, is very dangerous.
Religion allows people to come and go, sort of stating that somehow if we go to church we are God’s obedient ones.
Relationship with God is not the same as religion. Religion goes through motions and does what we see as expected duties, without a working and growing and changing relationship with God. One who relates to God, communicates to God. That does not mean recited prayers. That means, God speaks, and I respect Him enough to respond to His words with actions inside of a new lifestyle.
If I hear the word and do not change, I am in rebellion. I’m quite possibly dealing with pride that excuses me and says it’s ok for me to not do what I just heard, as though my thoughts and opinions are at a higher level than God’s thoughts and opinions are.
There was a statistic I heard lately that said – of 52 million professed Christians, 85% said they did not change their lifestyle at all after making a profession for Christ. So they go to and maybe like being at church, but they do not do what they hear preached.
Christianity is ALL about lifestyle change by choice, because of love.
Christian means to be like Christ. Not remain like me, saying yes I see Christ dies for the world and I appreciate that, and now I think I live with the love and mercy of Christ, hoping for fire insurance in eternity!
If God says He’ll repay us and our ancestors for our sins of rebellion, He is not religious and so since, he’s said it and he’s not a hypocrite, He really means it. Without obedience inside of a life covered by the sacrificial blood of the Lamb, with responsive action inside of a life now symbolically laid down by the change of the will and lifestyle changes as evidence, where is mercy?
Most of the Bible is written to “the chosen ones”, those who say they are the church, those who have told God they love Him too, believe in His Son, and say they are now gonna walk in His ways all the rest of their days on earth and later on in heaven too. We read it as though it is talking to heathen people who don’t know God. When most of it is written to people who say they love and serve Him, but need to wake up and see what they are doing is really not that. Serious times call for serious alarm clocks and alarms resounding.
So He says to the church, you will starve while my servants eat! That means that some of the church has changed their lifestyle to please the Lord, they say what He says and believe it His way, and another part that does it their own ways and tweak His words to see whether they suit their life or not, just doing the words of God when it is convenient.
We need to wake up and see this! If we do not, we will die for “what we do not (choose to) know”.
All of the “no longers” listed here sound just like the hurtful world we now live in and see and deal with everyday! It is sad to say, but man’s choices have brought us to this place.
We are freewill beings whom God has given the will to, to choose who we will love, by serving. If we choose life we get it, for He gives it freely to those who choose. If we choose death we also can have that.
If we turn out away from decisions that caused the circumstances we are now in to happen, and we turn to obeying His voice, the circumstances of choice also change.
Do we want to be saved, or save our families and communities? Our choices tell.
Let’s choose God and the life of His word, available to anyone who so chooses today.