To Bring Him Joy

He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. Isaiah 53:7 ESV Isaiah 53 is a chapter of the Bible that the Lord takes me to again and again and again and again. Do you get the idea that I've read this chapter a lot. I should have it memorized by now.  I have written about this passage before but with a different focal verse. So here I am again, back in this chapter of prophecy and love.  As I said in the previous post, my reaction to the Lord directing me to this chapter isn't always one of excitement which was the case again, though I am not proud of that fact.. Too often I want the Lord to give me something new from a new passage. But His Spirit reminded me that it is not all about me, this life is about knowing Him and making Him known. If that is your goal, which it is mine, then this passage is a great place to ...

I really felt that the Lord would have me get another blog post out and wasn't sure what to write, so I looked in my journal for inspiration and felt as though I should just share a journal entry. It is my "twiG" journal, twiG standing for "time with God". In the past, I have called it a quiet time, but I have since landed on this acronym because it is fitting to what I want to accomplish and reminds me that Jesus said: I Am the vine, you are the branches . I feel that I am but a twig and there is no way that I can live this life without life from The Vine.  So here is my twiG journal entry: [I usually write the date, centered in the page with the year written in the top corner of the page.  Sometimes I fill up just part of a page sometimes several pages. It depends on the time I spend. I sometimes start out writing an opening prayer to the Lord, sometimes I start out writing the reference to the passage I'm reading and then the verses that stand out to me....

  “ Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” Isaiah 53:1 Christmas day in our household was weird as it usually is. Of course, we don't really know what is normal for everyone else but we assume ourselves to be weird. A lot of times we are ok with that – other times we struggle. It is who we are. We didn't get a tree put up until Sunday evening and it was never adorned with anything but the lights that came on it. (Actually, it is a simple kind of lovely.) Also, I still hadn't purchased any presents for anyone. Only one of us had achieved buying a present for every member of the family. Others were at various stages, two of us had attempted but came away empty handed. So there I was on the day our Christian culture opts to celebrate the birthday of our Saviour even though it probably is not the anniversary of His birth, asking ,with a bit of whine and angst, “God, what are we going to do? What do You...