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SEPTEMBER 18
“cheerful” is the word from which we get “hilarious,” which suggests that God loves a heart that is
enthusiastically thrilled with the pleasure of giving.
God possesses an infinite amount of grace,and He gives it lavishly,without holding back (v.9).
Here “grace”does not refer to spiritual graces but to money and material needs.When the believer
generously—and wisely—gives of his material resources, God graciously replenishes them so he
always has plenty and will not be in need (2 Chr. 31:10).“Always having all sufficiency.” In secular
Greek philosophy, this was the proud contentment of self-sufficiency that supposedly led to true
happiness.Paul sanctifies the secular term and says that God,not man,will supply everything need-
ed for real happiness and contentment (Phil. 4:19).“May have an abundance for every good work.”
God gives back lavishly to generous, cheerful givers, not so they may satisfy selfish, nonessential
desires, but so they may meet the variety of needs others have (Deut. 15:10,11).

When he makes all the stones of the
September 18 altar
Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,
Wooden images and incense altars
shall not stand.
Isaiah 27:1–28:29
10 Yet the fortified city will be desolate,
27 In that day the LORD with His severe The habitation forsaken and left like a
sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing wilderness;
serpent, There the calf will feed, and there it
Leviathan that twisted serpent; will lie down
And He will slay the reptile that is in 11 And consume its branches.
the sea. When its boughs are withered, they
will be broken off;
2 In that day sing to her, The women come and set them on fire.
“A vineyard of red wine! For it is a people of no understanding;
3 I, the LORD, keep it, Therefore He who made them will not
I water it every moment; have mercy on them,
Lest any hurt it, And He who formed them will show
I keep it night and day. them no favor.
Fury is not in Me. 12
4
Who would set briers and thorns And it shall come to pass in that day
Against Me in battle? That the LORD will thresh,
I would go through them, From the channel of the River to the
I would burn them together. Brook of Egypt;
Or let him take hold of My strength,
5 And you will be gathered one by one,
That he may make peace with Me; O you children of Israel.
And he shall make peace with Me.” 13 So it shall be in that day:
The great trumpet will be blown;
Those who come He shall cause to
6
take root in Jacob; They will come, who are about to
Israel shall blossom and bud, perish in the land of Assyria,
And fill the face of the world with fruit. And they who are outcasts in the land
of Egypt,
7
Has He struck Israel as He struck And shall worship the LORD in the holy
those who struck him? mount at Jerusalem.
Or has He been slain according to the Woe to the crown of pride,
slaughter of those who were slain 28 to the drunkards of Ephraim,
by Him?
In measure, by sending it away, flower
8 Whose glorious beauty is a fading
You contended with it. Which is at the head of the verdant
He removes it by His rough wind valleys,
In the day of the east wind. To those who are overcome with wine!
Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob 2 Behold, the Lord has a mighty and
9
will be covered; strong one,
And this is all the fruit of taking away Like a tempest of hail and a destroying
his sin: storm,
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