"'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. 'Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it' ... 'I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone' ... I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God' ... 'I am the LORD, and there is none else' ... 'there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me' ... 'For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me'" Isaiah 44:6-7,24; 45:6,18,21;46:9.

Repetition reinforces. If we hear something often enough, we eventually remember. The advertising industry is well aware of this fact (think about that commercial that you can't get out of your head).

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"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary" Isaiah 40:28-31.

Knowledge and faith must go hand in hand. 2 Timothy 1:12 says, "I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day." Paul knew the One he had believed. Isaiah appeals to us to know and believe.

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"Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, 'O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God ... Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God'" Isaiah 37:14-17,20.

The situation was grim; defeat seemed certain. The enemy had a far larger and better-equipped army, and had the entire city surrounded and cut off.

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"Behold, a king will reign righteously And princes will rule justly. Each will be like a refuge from the wind And a shelter from the storm, Like streams of water in a dry country, Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land" Isaiah 32:1-2.

The musical, Camelot," first performed on Broadway in 1960, is best known for the line, "Don't let it be forgot/ That once there was a spot/ For one brief, shining moment/ That was known as Camelot."

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"Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right or to the left" Isaiah 30:20-21.

God's covenant people knew hardship and deprivation resulting from their disobedience. Generations of Jews spent years in captivity under extreme adverse conditions. The God who seemed so silent and absent during such times promised that it would not always be so. They would behold Him, and they would hear His voice as they turned right and left, directing them to the path they should walk.

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"Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open" Isaiah 22:22.

The key to everything is God's Messiah, Jesus. With Him, everything is literally an open and shut door. And it is interesting that He identified Himself by these words to the church at Philadelphia: "He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: 'I know your deeds Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name'" Revelation 3:7-8.

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"O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness" Isaiah 25:1.

If Yahweh is not my God and your God, then little else matters. The same is certainly true of His Son, Jesus. It's not what we know ABOUT them that ultimately matters; it is that we know them personally. Jesus makes this abundantly clear in Matthew 7:21-23.

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"And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea" Isaiah 11:3-9.

It is hard to imagine life without fear. There are so many varieties of fear that we've neatly labeled them, "phobias." From acrophobia to xenophobia, fear is pervasive. Can you imagine what would life would be like without fear? I

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The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them" Isaiah 9:2.

It was the moment of a lifetime; an event never to be again. My wife and I, and a couple who have been friends for many years, stood in a motel parking lot a mere ten miles from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Even from that distance, we could hear the countdown via the NASA public address system. The Space Shuttle's main engines momentarily turned the night sky into dawn as it roared from the launch pad.

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Mulligan Shot

Jesus's Message

Conversation Stoppers

The Way of Hardship

The Vital Message

Noble Minded

Working Ethic

What's Wrong With Worry?