For Reading and Meditation:      Isaiah 51:1-16We spend one last day meditating on Jesus' words: "Blessed [or happy] are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Facing negative feelings such as grief, sorrow, hurt and emotional pain is essential if we are to know our Lord's purpose for our lives. When we are willing to go down into the hurt and feel it, then something glorious and transformative happens - we experience the loving comfort and compassion of our Lord. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Comforted? By whom? By the Triune God. He comes alongside us in our pain, and through the comfort He pours into our beings, enables us to become more sensitive to Him, to ourselves, and to others. After a lifetime of dealing with people and their problems, I have no hesitation in saying that the happiest people on earth are those who have been hurt but have had those hurts healed through the power of Christ's transforming love. They are what someone has called "wounded healers". Having been healed themselves, they go out to heal others. Going down into the pain of hurt feelings is not a very pleasant journey, but coming back from it with the comfort of God in your soul is an experience that is positively exhilarating and enriching. You return, not only with a new sensitivity in your soul, but with a new potential for ministering to others. Remember this: great sorrow leads to great happiness - and without the sorrow, there can be no genuine happiness. This might sound to many like a contradiction in terms. It is not a contradiction, but a paradox - and a blessed one at that! O Father, I take again this second prescription for happiness and ask that You will enable me to take the "medicine", not just today, but every day of my life. Then I will be whole - truly whole. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>2 Corinthians 1:1-7</li><li>Psalm 86:17</li><li>Isaiah 12:1</li><li>Isaiah 66:13</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What has God promised?</li><li>How are we to respond?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"I, even I, am he who comforts you '" (v. 12)

In its setting, this prophecy of Isaiah looked forward to the joyous return of God's chosen people from their seventy-year captivity in Babylon.It may also refer to Israel's still-future restoration when the Messiah will regather them to the land from all over the world. That too will be a time of great jubilation.But in its widest sense, we are justified in applying the verse to the rapture of the Church. Awakened by the shout of the Lord, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, the bodies of the redeemed of all the ages will rise from the grave. Living believers, changed in a moment, will join them as they ascend to meet the Lord in the air. Then begins the grand processional to the Father's house.It is quite possible that the entire route will be flanked by angelic hosts. At the head of the procession will be the Redeemer Himself, flushed with His glorious victory over death and the grave. Then come the ransomed throng, some from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, they are singing with all musical perfection, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."Every one in the multitude is a trophy of God's wonderful grace. Each was ransomed from sin and shame, and made a new creature in Christ Jesus. Some went through deep suffering for their faith, others laid down their lives for the Savior. But now all the scars and mutilations are gone, and the saints have their deathless, glorified bodies.Abraham and Moses are there, David and Solomon. There are the beloved Peter, James, John and Paul. Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Knox and John Calvin are there. But they are no more conspicuous now than God's hidden ones, unknown on earth, yet well-known in heaven.Now the saints are marching into the King's palace. Sorrow and sighing are gone forever, and everlasting joy is on their heads. Faith has become sight and hope has received its long-awaited consummation. Loved ones greet each other with fervent embraces. Overflowing gladness prevails. Everyone is awed by the amazing grace that has brought them from the depths of sin to such heights of glory.

With reverence, humor and skill, William MacDonald wove a daily devotional tapestry that challenges the reader to think deeply and Biblically, and apply God's Word to their lives.

Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time

"Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." (Isaiah 51:11)

Time and again the Lord brought back his ancient people from captivity, even those that valued the liberty of returning; and each time perhaps they thought it was the final redemption of which the prophets had spoken such glorious things, and were looking for crowns of everlasting joy. But in the times preceding the first advent of the Messiah they discovered by bitter experience that it was possible for them to be enslaved even in their own land, in the midst of Jerusalem, in the courts of the temple; to be enslaved by Jews, by high-priests; and to be as wretched in Zion as ever they had been in Babylon. In the days of Christ how sadly were they oppressed. Not by the Romans; Christ scarcely made any allusion to them, knowing that the Jews were suffering from a far severer bond age. He made known to them the true Zion of refuge and the true redemption, when he said " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." The redeemed of the Lord shall return, effectually redeemed from all iniquity, triumphant over sin and misery, crowned with glory, honor, and immortality. If you ask, when? I reply that it shall be in the day when the New Jerusalem cometh down from God out of heaven, and in the day when the manifestation of the sons of God taketh place. " Ye are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief."

A daily devotional written by a Baptist Missionary to India, Reverend George Bowen (1816-1888) over 150 years ago.

Bowen's Daily Meditations

" The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head." - Isaiah 51:11. 

11 <poetry>Those the <smallCap>Lord</smallCap> has rescued will return. <indent>They will enter Zion with singing; </indent> <indent>everlasting joy will crown their heads.</indent> Gladness and joy will overtake them, <indent>and sorrow and sighing will flee away. </indent><poetry></poetry>

Those the <smallCap>Lord</smallCap> has rescued<cr>1</cr> will return. <indent>They will enter Zion with singing;<cr>2</cr> </indent> <indent>everlasting joy will crown their heads.</indent> Gladness and joy<cr>3</cr> will overtake them, <indent>and sorrow and sighing will flee away.<cr>4</cr> </indent><pb/><poetry>

Isaiah 51:11

 11 Those the Lord has rescued   will return. They will enter Zion with singing;   everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy   will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.   

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. 

<poetry>Those the <smallCap>Lord</smallCap> has rescued will return. <indent>They will enter Zion with singing; </indent> <indent>everlasting joy will crown their heads.</indent> Gladness and joy will overtake them, <indent>and sorrow and sighing will flee away. </indent><poetry></poetry>

 Those the Lord has rescued   will return. They will enter Zion with singing;   everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy   will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.   

Bible Verse of the Day

June 25, 2022

Isaiah 51:11 NIV

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