There is no one like our God to pump life back into our being after being tested and tried through difficult circumstances that can bring us to the edge of death.  God’s life-giving power brings the pink back into our pale cheeks, the sparkle back into our eyes, the spring in our step and the smile back to our faces!  When victory in Jesus is seen and felt on the other side of troubles, we experience life abundant that is beyond our wildest dreams.  We rise up and move forward once more, never giving up on God who is the creator of Life. 

Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus who rose from the dead!  Our faith is made stronger.  Our trust in God builds in us giving us confidence to keep moving on His path that leads to level ground thinking and behaving.  And oh, how our love for God grows deeper as we live this abundant life, larger than life, more life all because Jesus who saved us from death.  Jesus rose from the grave so we could run out of that grave with him and live—really live. 

There is no hope, help or meaning in death for the unbeliever.  Death is the opposite of life.  So dear friends, run from all that leads to death, the smell of death, the habits of the dead, the walking dead that we see each day and LIVE!  Believe is Jesus who is LIFE.  Jesus in us is the secret to LIFE! 

LIFE is the heart cry of Isaiah to a people who thought death might be the only option for them.  But then God stepped in and saved the remnant who believed.  Isiah writes a prose of praise for this new life that will come for the never giving up on God remnant. 

Let us join Isaiah in being grateful to God for all He has done, is doing and will do in our lives as we live abundant lives because of His love, mercy and grace.

Isaiah 26, The Message

Stretch the Borders of Life

^1-6 At that time, this song
    will be sung in the country of Judah:
We have a strong city, Salvation City,
    built and fortified with salvation.
Throw wide the gates
    so good and true people can enter.
People with their minds set on you,
    you keep completely whole,
Steady on their feet,
    because they keep at it and don’t quit.
Depend on God and keep at it
    because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.
Those who lived high and mighty
    he knocked off their high horse.
He used the city built on the hill
    as fill for the marshes.
All the exploited and outcast peoples
    build their lives on the reclaimed land.

^7-10 The path of right-living people is level.
    The Leveler evens the road for the right-living.
We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger
    in the path sign-posted with your decisions.
Who you are and what you’ve done
    are all we’ll ever want.
Through the night my soul longs for you.
    Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you.
When your decisions are on public display,
    everyone learns how to live right.
If the wicked are shown grace,
    they don’t seem to get it.
In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living,
    blind to the splendor of God.

^11-15 You hold your hand up high, God,
    but they don’t see it.
Open their eyes to what you do,
    to see your zealous love for your people.
Shame them. Light a fire under them.
    Get the attention of these enemies of yours.
God, order a peaceful and whole life for us
    because everything we’ve done, you’ve done for us.
O God, our God, we’ve had other masters rule us,
    but you’re the only Master we’ve ever known.
The dead don’t talk,
    ghosts don’t walk,
Because you’ve said, “Enough—that’s all for you,”
    and wiped them off the books.
But the living you make larger than life.
    The more life you give, the more glory you display,
    and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!

^16-18 O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble,
    when your discipline was so heavy
    they could barely whisper a prayer.
Like a woman having a baby,
    writhing in distress, screaming her pain
    as the baby is being born,
That’s how we were because of you, O God.
    We were pregnant full-term.
We writhed in labor but bore no baby.
    We gave birth to wind.
Nothing came of our labor.
    We produced nothing living.
    We couldn’t save the world.

¹⁹ But friends, your dead will live,
    your corpses will get to their feet.
All you dead and buried,
    wake up! Sing!
Your dew is morning dew
    catching the first rays of sun,
The earth bursting with life,
    giving birth to the dead.

^20-21 Come, my people, go home
    and shut yourselves in.
Go into seclusion for a while
    until the punishing wrath is past,
Because God is sure to come from his place
    to punish the wrong of the people on earth.
Earth itself will point out the bloodstains;
    it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Warren Wiersbe said it best, “Israel sings once more, but this time the emphasis is on righteousness and peace. We cannot experience true peace apart from righteousness (being made right with God in our relationship with Him), and we can have no righteousness apart from God’s salvation in Jesus Christ (See Romans 3:21–31). It is at Calvary that “righteousness and peace have kissed” each other (Psalm 85:10).

Jesus came to earth as the only Way to Truth about God who gives LIFE!  Jesus is the true King of Righteousness and King of Peace! 

“But the living you make larger than life. The more life you give, the more glory you display, and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!”  Isaiah 26

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”  John 3:16-18, The Message

Believe and be saved—for Life!

Lord,

Thank you for the words of Isaiah to remind us of the life abundant we have with You!  Life with you gives victory over death.  Our final destination is life forever with you! Thank you for all you have done, are doing and will do in and through my life.  More and more life because of your amazing love!

In Jesus Name, Amen