SHABBAT SHALOM

LET US examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3.40

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9

GENESIS 2 THUS THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH were finished, and all their legion. On the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and all their legion. On the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He abstained on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He had abstained from all His work which He created.

Psalm 51:15-19 (AMP) 15  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. 16  For You delight not in sacrifice, or else would I give it; You find no pleasure in burnt offering. 17  My sacrifice [the sacrifice acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise. 18  Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. 19  Then will You delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, justice, and right, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then bullocks will be offered upon Your altar.

Psalm 94:2-12 (AMP) 2  Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render to the proud a fit compensation! 3  Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph and exult? 4  They pour out arrogant words, speaking hard things; all the evildoers boast loftily. 5  They crush Your people, O Lord, and afflict Your heritage. 6  They slay the widow and the transient stranger and murder the unprotected orphan. 7  Yet they say, The Lord does not see, neither does the God of Jacob notice it. 8  Consider and understand, you stupid ones among the people! And you [self-confident] fools, when will you become wise? 9  He Who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He Who formed the eye, shall He not see? 10  He Who disciplines and instructs the nations, shall He not punish, He Who teaches man knowledge? 11  The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain (empty and futile—only a breath). 12  Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be...

3   The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up the roaring of their waves.  4   The Lord on high is mightier  and  more glorious than the noise of many waters, yes, than the mighty breakers  and  waves of the sea.

Psalm 93:1-4 (AMP) 1  THE LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord is robed, He has girded Himself with strength and power; the world also is established, that it cannot be moved. 2  Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.  

Psalm 22:27-30 (AMP) 27  All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow down and worship before You, 28  For the kingship and the kingdom are the Lord's, and He is the ruler over the nations. 29  All the mighty ones upon earth shall eat [in thanksgiving] and worship; all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who cannot keep himself alive. 30  Posterity shall serve Him; they shall tell of the Lord to the next generation.  

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (AMP) 51  Take notice! I tell you a mystery (a secret truth, an event decreed by the hidden purpose or counsel of God). We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed (transformed) 52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the [sound of the] last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [in Christ] will be raised imperishable (free and immune from decay), and we shall be changed (transformed).  

Ezekiel 37:11-14 (AMP) 11  Then He said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are completely cut off. 12  Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring you [back home] to the land of Israel. 13  And you shall know that I am the Lord [your Sovereign Ruler], when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people. 14  And I shall put My Spirit in you and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then you shall know, understand, and realize that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord.  

Romans 10:9-13 (AMP) 9  Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10  For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation. 11  The Scripture says, No man who believes in Him [who adheres to, relies on, and trusts in Him] will [ever] be put to shame or be disappointed. 12  [No one] for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord over all [of us] and He generously bestows His riches upon all who call upon Him [in faith]. 13  For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord [invoking Him as Lord] will be saved.  

FOR ME I WILL WAIT UPON THE LORD WHO IS WORTHY TO BE PRAISED Isaiah 8:13-17 (AMP) 13  The Lord of hosts—regard Him as holy and honor His holy name [by regarding Him as your only hope of safety], and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread [lest you offend Him by your fear of man and distrust of Him]. 14  And He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred and indestructible asylum to those who reverently fear and trust in Him]; but He shall be a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15  And many among them shall stumble thereon; and they shall fall and be broken, and be snared and taken. 16  Bind up the testimony, seal the law and the teaching among my [Isaiah's] disciples. 17  And I will wait for the Lord, Who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; and I will look for and hope in Him. 

Psalm 40:1-4 (AMP) 1  I WAITED patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2  He drew me up out of a horrible pit [a pit of tumult and of destruction], out of the miry clay (froth and slime), and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings. 3  And He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many shall see and fear (revere and worship) and put their trust and confident reliance in the Lord. 4  Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who makes the Lord his refuge and trust, and turns not to the proud or to followers of false gods.  

Psalm 27:5-6 (AMP) 5  For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tent will He hide me; He will set me high upon a rock. 6  And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; in His tent I will offer sacrifices and shouting of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.  

Deuteronomy 32:30-32 (AMP) 30  How could one have chased a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had delivered them up? 31  For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves judge this. 32  For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of [poisonous] gall, their clusters are bitter.  

Isaiah 51:1-3 (AMP) 1  HEARKEN TO Me, you who follow after rightness and justice, you who seek and inquire of [and require] the Lord [claiming Him by necessity and by right]: look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole in the quarry from which you were dug; 2  Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him when he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many. 3  For the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. And He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song or instrument of praise.  

Chapter 17 .  Proverbs  "The fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold; but the Lord trieth the hearts" ( verse 3 ). Man may try silver and gold, but God only the hearts. And He tries the hearts by the refining process, trials and afflictions, the process which rests in His own hands Annotated Bible, The - The Annotated Bible – Volume 4: Proverbs to Ezekiel.

Psalm 132:1-5 (NKJV) 1   LORD , remember David And all his afflictions; 2  How he swore to the LORD , And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob: 3  "Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house, Or go up to the comfort of my bed; 4  I will not give sleep to my eyes Or slumber to my eyelids, 5  Until I find a place for the LORD , A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob."

John 12:44-47 (NKJV) 44  Then Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. 45   And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. 46   I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. 47   And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

Luke 9:59-62 (NKJV) 59  Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." 60  Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." 61  And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." 62  But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

16    They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17    Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18    As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

13    But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14    I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15    I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 19    And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

11    Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me,  that they may be one as We  are. 12    While I was with them in the world,  I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept;  and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

9    I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10    And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.

John 17:6-19 (NKJV) 6   "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7   Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8   For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

11:4, 5  Judah had become corrupt and was surrounded by hostile, foreign powers. The nation desperately needed a revival of righteousness, justice, and faithfulness. They needed to turn from selfishness and give justice to the poor and the oppressed. The righteousness that God values is more than refraining from sin. It is actively turning toward others and offering them the help they need.

11:3-5  God will judge with righteousness. How we long for fair treatment from others, but do we give it? We hate those who base their judgments on appearance, false evidence, or hearsay, but are we quick to judge others using those standards? Only Christ can be the perfectly fair judge. Only as he governs our hearts can we learn to be as fair in our treatment of others as we expect others to be toward us.

Chapter 11 11:1-9 Assyria would be like a tree cut down at the height of its power ( 10:33, 34 ), never to rise again. Judah (the royal line of David) would be like a tree chopped down to a stump. But from that stump a new shoot would grow—the Messiah. He would be greater than the original tree and would bear much fruit. The Messiah is the fulfillment of God's promise that a descendant of David would rule forever ( 2 Samuel 7:16 ).