Isaiah 62:6,7

O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls;
they will pray day and night continually.
Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.
Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work,
until he makes Jerusalemthe pride of the earth.

Isaiah 59:14, 16

Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found
Truth stumbles in our streets, and honesty has been outlawed.
(...)
The Lord looked and was displeased to find there was no justice.
He was amazed to see that no-one intervened to help the oppressed
SO HE HIMSELF STEPPED IN TO SAVE THEM WITH HIS STRONG ARM
and his his justice sustained Him.

Isaiah 58:9-14

If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins,
If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
(...)
You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
(...)
If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don't use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God's holy day as a celebration,
If you honour it by refusing 'business as usual', making money, running here and there -
Then you'll be free to enjoy God!
Oh I'll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.


in a way, the 'Sabbath' should really be a day of fasting - cutting back on 'things of the world', anything which distracts me from my first Love.
fasting is not just giving up a meal or three
it's so much more
it's about laying down the things that make me 'too busy for God' for a while, for however long He decides, so that i can once again have my focus sharpened by Him

Isaiah 57:5-12

You worship your idols with great passion beneath the oaks and under every green tree.
(...)
Your gods are the smooth stones in the valleys, you worship them with liquid offerings and grain offerings. They, not I, are your inheritance. Do you think this makes me happy?
(...)
You have commited adultery on every high mountain. There you have worshipped idols and have been unfaithful to me.
(...)
You have traveled far, even into the world of the dead, to find new gods to love.
You grew weary in your search, but you never gave up. Desire gave you renewed strength, and you did not grow weary.
(...)
Now I will expose your so-called good deeds. None of them will help you.

i am rebuked...
i am convicted...
i know that NOTHING in this world can take the place of God my Saviour
He is the One who helps me

Isaiah 57:1,2 & 13

Good people pass away;the godly often die before their time. But no-one seems to care or wonder why.
No-one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come.
For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die. (1,2)

Let's see if your idols can save you when you cry to them for help. Why, a puff of wind can knock them down! If you just breathe on them, they fall over!
But whoever trusts in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain. (13)

i'll never know why the Lord chose to take my little sister home when He did; but maybe there is a bit of a clue in these verses?...
He knows - and that's enough.

'surely i have a delightful inheritance!' O Lord, keep me holy..., keep me grounded in You, my rock.

Isaiah 56:8

The Sovereign Lord declares - he who gathers the exiles (...)
"I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered"

my God is a gathering God
and i am no longer an outsider
for He has made me His own