The Fall (Pun Intended) of 2008

There Is Hope for Those Who Know Not What They Do

You, oh Lord, meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned. In these ways we continue, and we need to be saved.  All our righteousness are like filthy rags.  But now, oh Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You our potter. And all we are the work of Your hand (Isaiah 64:5-8).

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses (Psalm 107:13). Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing (Psalm 107: 13-22).

If you will inquire, inquire. Return!  Come back! (Isaiah 21:12). “Return, oh backsliding children,” says the Lord. “I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15). Says the Lord, “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at My word”  (Isaiah 66:2). Yet return to Me (Jeremiah 3:1).

I have held My peace a long time; I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry like a woman in labor; I will pant and gasp at once. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up the pools. I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they did not know; I will make darkness light before them and crooked paths straight. These things I will do for them and not forsake them. They shall be turned back; they shall be greatly ashamed,who trust in [false] images, who say to [false] images, “You are our gods.” (Isaiah 42:14-17).

Lord says to us, who believe," Bring out the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears… Let them hear and say 'It is the truth.' You are those whom I have chosen that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He and that, besides Me, there is no savior (Isaiah 43:8-11). Let the wicked forsake his way; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:7).

When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you, but the wind will carry them all away; a breath will take them. But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land and shall inherit My holy mountain. For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15). If you honor Him, not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourselves in the Lord, and I (the Lord) will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth (Isaiah 58:14).

The Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations (Isaiah 61:11). I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek me (Isaiah 65:1). If you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not be moved. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts. Oh Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness that you may be saved (Jeremiah 4:1-14).

This photograph is by Jo Chaney.