Author: Norm

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 60 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 59 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. [Isaiah 59:1-2] According to Isaiah, the suffering and hardship that Israel…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 58 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. [Isaiah 58:2] They…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 57 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. [Isaiah 57:1-2] These opening words caught my…

So here is the question of the week: If Jesus’ birth was really in a stable, do our festive traditions (lights, tinsel and presents) trivialize His birth?

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 56 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant– these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 55 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. [Isaiah 55:1] Thirsty, hungry, needy, poor, desperate – these adjectives describe the human condition well. Looking for love, belonging, acceptance, significance, recognition, for…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 54 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: For your Maker is your husband– the Lord Almighty is his name– the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. [Isaiah 54:5] Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my…