130809 - Engraved in the palms of His hands....
S: Isaiah 49-50 O: God is lifting up the head of Israel and giving them hope after their humiliation. We are leading up to some very familiar passages, and the Lord's Word to them is getting them ready for a tremendous destiny. "my Lord has forgotten me," they say, because by this time they know that "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity" and that God's recompense to them is just. It's not enough that they'll go back out of captivity and proclaim His faithfulness to their own tribes, He will make them (and specifically Christ, Luke 2:32) a light to the nations, to the end of the earth. Though they have been deeply despised and abhorred, in showing God's faithfulness to the nations, they will be honored as well. A: There's a point at which self-doubt and depression over a humiliation becomes crippling and hinders faith and vision. That makes me complicit against myself. Eleanor Roosavelt said, "No o...