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It is time to consider direction of heart, mode of life, the place of soul, the path for strength and that indeed, in which it is received in its magnificence of conception, in the beauty of holiness, allied to man as cloud to sky.

There is no time left for pondering interminably in drifting thought, luxuriating in the means of life and forsaking the end, both as objective, and  as terminus of felicity, in judgment. The religions of self, whether Buddhistic (cf. SMR pp. 1011ff.), or perverted misconceptions of Christianity, or other inventions, are inadequate. It is not a matter of finding a satisfactory way, being oneself the judge, and inventing a scenario from the mind, which meets the inclination, and finding whether it enables one to steal one's way through this world, or anon march more imperiously, if only one is pleased with oneself, one's imagined stars or the feeling, or whatever other spurious criterion suggests itself. Subjectivity is its own sentence. Divine sentences are needed from the living God, and these, as food to the stomach, for the heart and the mind.

The world is on the brink of a rule which on every side is presenting its morbid face, pocked with the fevers of folly, bright-eyed but not with health. It is already seen in China, in Russia with now some temperings, but for how long as the State veers this way and that, its bombs tucked under its arm as it writes ? It is found in juntas interminable, and in cruelties all but unthinkable, making mere savagery often seem mild by comparison.

Social considerations make truth inconvenient

• to the many who invest State funds in private accounts, reports of which become all but nauseatingly common;
• for those who want to worship at the shrine of the United Nations and follow a humanism the more ludicrous as man debases himself so far, that the earth has to be opened up to new depths, to accommodate the craze.

Man has found this century past, the depths of his depravity which contrast violently with his pretensions and lofted words; but he does not heed. Most remain adrift. As a race, he does not seek the Lord, he does not refrain from imaginary deities, humanistic in himself, or other, from the prodigies of his own mind. As a people, mankind is not popularly interested in validity, in logic, but in desire. Such is the trend, such is the unamended movement of masses, under control, seeking control, denying right to religion, to free expression, or to life, to those whom they deem better dead, directed or subject to slow decay.

It is time to find not desire but truth, and to follow Him; it is time to look not where convenience calls, wealth or riches, honour or esteem from one's fellows: for what is the honour that man gives, when man is such, and often lies or serves for success, this meaning nothing more than wealth and acceptance, together with some measure of self-made congratulation on imaginary premises. As well might a student judge one's mark, as one could do in concern after an exam, and expect THAT to be the assessment, as might mankind engage in this deceitful subjectivity, blind to truth, of reality unaware.

God has not left us in this mockery, but is Himself mocked by such follies; and yet,

• still offers Himself,
• having exposed His face in Christ,
• incarnate as predicted, mocked as specified in prophecy,
• empowered as required,
• resurrected as forecast,
• unable to be either rebutted or removed,
• but presenting Himself as the truth,
• alone in validity on the secular scene, for all the vainglory that the world seeks shimmering to present

In this volume, we shall emphasise the fact that neither the delusions of intellectual fraud and spiritual folly, nor the pretensions of unbiblical, pseudo-Christianity are to the point. An imaginary object, conceived as a lawn-mower, is no better at mowing than no mower at all, and indeed may delude the worse, as one attempts to cut lawns with it!

The numerous substitutes, and not only those of the sects, for the unchanging faith (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms  17, That Magnificent Rock Chs.  2 and  3) of millenia, of Christ to come and now long arrived and ready to return for His time has been shown to be NEAR (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5): these have had a century of profusion, in a history of confusion, where murder of millions in this or that way, has substituted for truth. Force is no answer, not  sly subtleties that flatter, but do not face the requirements of reason, or the call of faith. It is necessary, now as always, but now with increasing urgency, to KNOW the Lord, to SERVE the Lord, to LOVE the Lord with ALL the heart and soul, not in formalities or frenzy, for He did not make us rational for pretence, or for mere fever, just as He did not give us hearts for a repository of anodynes, to dim their awareness. The mind also and the strength, these join life and heart: for these are they which the Lord seeks, and it is in this way that He is to be loved, whether as noted some 31/2 millenia ago, or two (Deuteronomy 6:5, Marheart7.htmlk 12:30, Matthew 22:37).

It is consecration, commitment, yes, but FAITH in Him, who BEING ALIVE from the dead (Revelation 1:18-19), and having beaten death, has all power now NOT to bring convenience in as king, for this was never His way, but to bring the love of God into the heart, the peace of God into the soul, the strength of God into the needs of life and the presence of  God into companionship which makes all other acquaintance, dim by comparison. It is not a switch in the mind, that turns it on like water; it is the reality of God who, when approached as He has ordained, reveals itself from objectivity (cf. That Magnificent Rock Ch. 5), to bring to fruition the potential of man, not to become some imaginary superman, but to be restored to the creation image (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10), and freed from the burden not only of guilt at the waywardness since creation, to the very present hour, but of dimness and confusion, alive in the arena of truth.

It is faith, but also repentance (cf. Repent or Perish); and this with awakening to the fact that Christ having died for sin, and risen for justification, there is nothing to add, or subtract, nothing to invent or summon from heights or depths. HE IS, and HE GIVES HIMSELF, as He did on the cross, so in the life. He has spoken, and expressed Himself without our aid, intervention or addition (Deuteronomy 4; 12, I Cor. 2:9-13, Matthew 5:17-20, Rev. 22, Proverbs 30:6, Isaiah 43:;16, 59:20-21), having spoken His mind, from the heart; so that His Spirit, which does not speak on His own authority, just as Christ Himself spoke as commanded (John 16:13, 12:48-50), brings the reality home to the heart, embracing the spirit, enabling the life; and to His ear, as Redeemer who came and is to return,  the cry and call of the Christian smartly arrives.

It is not different. It is merely denuded of superficial additions, human constructions which arise like plagues, as if, never satisfied, man insists on making his own God, putting his own words in the mouth of what is then merely an idol, or adding or subtracting by whatever mental machinations, from what God has spoken.

It is delightful in simplicity, for coming home; and challenging more than any Everest, in finding out its depths. It must however never be an add-on, a mode or a phase, a chapter or a consideration. God is worshipped, as Christ has said, IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH.

Hence the entire being is alive to Him, and He alive to it (John 14:19, I John 5:10,12, 1:1-4), so that the radiance of His reality becomes, like the spray of a vast waterfall underneath which one is standing and rejoicing, or the surging of the ocean at some lower step in carved rock, something experienced indeed, but not an experience worshipped; for it is always the same, whatever His dealing. It is HE who is worshipped, and followed, and delighted in, the beginning and the end, the author and the One whose love is not in word only but in deed, and by deed in death, confirmed in life from the dead, whose word rules the history of this globe, and advises of His early arrival, after so long a time, to the world which by now has had His Gospel preached to it in amazing strength and endurance, as He required (Matthew 24).

In this worship, in this walk with Him, in this work for Him, in this love to Him, it is with ALL the heart and soul, mind and strength. This will unfold the more as we continue in the volume now before us.
May God be praised, for there is no other worthy of it, in such a way as this; and having One to praise in such a way, it is rest; for it is the aborted frustration, conscious or unconscious, of man without Him, which leads to so many 'solutions' which dissolve and do not help man,so  that one must often wonder how at all such a being, with such endowments, could be so foolish. But that, it is life. If you abort it, it can have consequences - like a smashed Jaguar on some light pole, that do it small justice. Justice however, like the legal proceedings AFTER smashing the Jaguar, does not delay because folly has preceded it.

Love has provided. Salvation is free. Confusion is rife. Life is on offer. It has been for millenia on the same terms. They do not vary, have not varied, because God does not vary. Nor does His word. Nor does His witness. He is alive, even in the format chosen that we might know Him; and that, it is there alone that life is found, in the Maker of it, who in love, and calling for the love which is imbued with what is the answer to and for His product, mankind, presents it.

Folly is innumerable; truth is one, and it does not alter. In beauty, it is alive, personal and Jesus the Christ, God manifest in the flesh. Not a mere solution, but solving all; not a self-inflicting sovereign, but in love toward all; not a work of the mind, but the mind, it is His work: He is to be worshipped simply because He deserves it, being wonderful. (Cf. Spiritual Refreshings for the Digital Millenium Ch. 16.)
 
 

Chapter 1

They Move But He is Still
Immovable, Come and Coming Back

April 2000 TV News
 

Chapter 2

The People Crushers Continue their Aided Labours

Dw TV April 3, Advertiser April
 
 

Chapter 3

ALL or Nothing - and Nothing, It is so Vacant

 
  ISAIAH 4-7

Chapter 4

THE COHESION, COHERENCE AND COMPREHENSION
OF ASPECTS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH

In Three Parts with a Fourth Space Rocket style overview

PART I
 

Chapter 5

PART II
 

Chapter 6

 PART III
 

Chapter 7

PART IV
ISAIAH IN ACTION

On the Prophecy of Isaiah

AN INTEGRITY WHICH SPEAKS SOOTHINGLY
SHOUTS HILARIOUSLY
COMMANDS GLORIOUSLY

 
                                       NOTES

 1)  A further treatment of the Messiah in Isaiah 42-66, and correlative aspects,
is found in

 JOURNEY TO GOD ... Ch. 8 and Mercy Outdistances Judgment Ch.  17.

2)  More on the treatment of the Messiah, and with this, the Trinity,
largely from Isaiah 48-50 but also from 45-47, 51-55 is found in

DASTARDLY DYNAMICS ... Ch. 3,

and further on this topic is also
to be found, added in June 2007, in CHAPTER  5 above.

Added here, these help to bring to one place more of the Isaianic exposition
into this one volume, of which they really form a part.

3) Isaiah 32-33 is dwelt on in The Lord of Longsuffering ... Chs.  4 and   5.

4) Isaiah 34 is contemplated and expounded in The Bountiful, The Accountable and the Surmountable Ch. 3.

5) See also: Isaiah, Free, Exuberant Salvation and Waiting for Wonder  Ch. 10; POSNOT   3; MJC   2, 4 and  6 and Department of Bible ... Chs.  8,  2 and  12 (esp. Isaiah 65-66), as for extensive refs.. See also for Isaiah 29-33, DBSA Vol. 2,  Ch. 9, and for Isaiah 1-2, DBSA Vol. 7, Ch. 3. Check DBSA Vol. 9, Ch. 1 for Isaiah 39-50 largely, but broadly.

Chapter 8

OBTRUSIVE AUTHENTICITY
of Christ on this earth
 

Chapter 9

HEARTS, HEARTLAND AND HOLINESS

New Life, April 5, 2001
A Matter of Primacy, Papacy and Pollution,
and Scotland
 

Chapter 10

The LIGHT that SCATTERS DARKNESS
but remains WHOLE ITSELF

Chapter 11

ROYALTY WITHOUT TIERS

The Australian, April 17, 2001

  Notes

1) Elements of Isaiah 33 are given treatment in Deserts and Desserts ... Chs.   1 and   2

and that a significant coverage of salvation in Isaiah is provided, around Isaiah 7, in Scaling the Heights, Scanning the Depths, Spanning the Breadth  Ch. 1.

2) A thematic work on Isaiah, with focus on salvation and the Messiah, appears at

DIAMONDS OF DIVINE DIVULGEMENT

IN THE BIBLE Ch. 2, entitled

RAYS IN ISAIAH

Strings of Pearls Lit Up

Diamonds of Desire Nascent with Light

THE LOOK OF THE BOOK

Emphasising the Messiah

3) Another coverage, this time of Isaiah 60-66, is found in Pilgrims and Strangers, but Not  to  God Ch.   3.

4)  A dissertation on Israel, senses of the term,  definitions, clarification is found in  the same volume, Ch.  2, as extended in Mercy Outdistances Judgment Chs. 16 and 17.