Day 250 - His Hand was Outstretched Still...

Today's Reading: Isa 10-12 and 2 Tim. 3

So many thoughts that I wish I had time to dig into deeper from today's reading... 

I've been really impressed in the last few chapters how, despite Israel's backsliding and sin, we see again and again the patience of God: "But His hand is stretched out still." This thought is repeated over and over again...

This reminds us that God desperately desperately loves His people and is doing all that He can to save them. It is not His desire to see them carried into captivity and to be destroyed... oh how His heart aches for His people. 

I was sobered by 2 Timothy 3 as I read about the condition of hearts in the last days: 

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, truce breakers false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Tim. 3:1-5)

Could we not get a better description of where our generation is today... Wow! We are living in a generation that has become content with a "form" of godliness... but we've lost the power and we are even now reaping the results.

Thankful for the day coming when God will wipe away tears... and when, as I read today in Isa. 11:9, "They shall [no longer] hurt nor destroy...for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord."

Ellen White writes, speaking of that land of no pain and destruction:

"There the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The tree of life yields its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations. There are ever-flowing streams, clear as crystal, and beside them waving trees cast their shadows upon the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord. There the wide-spreading plains swell into hills of beauty, and the mountains of God rear their lofty summits. On those peaceful plains, beside those living streams, God’s people, so long pilgrims and wanderers, shall find a home." (Great Controversy p. 675)

I'm sick of the sin and suffering and pain of this world. I'm ready to go home... How about you?!

Tomorrow's Reading: Isa. 13-14 and 2 Tim. 4