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Day 207, or July 26. There is no alternative. Our thoughts today are rooted in Isaiah chapter

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45 verse 6. So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting, people may

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know there is none besides me. I am the LORD and there is no other.

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The big picture surrounding this verse. Isaiah underlines the certainty that God's judgment

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is coming to the most powerful empire of its day, Babylonia. Not only that, but we have

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a reminder that God is so much more powerful than any human empire that Isaiah goes on

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to repeat God's intention to use Cyrus, who is yet to be born. He repeats it just in case

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this amazing claim was missed the first time. God even uses unborn unbelievers.

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And now today's action step. Do you get confused when you have to choose? It's so much easier

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when there is only one, isn't it? Well, God knows us so well that He gives us only one

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viable alternative when it comes to God worship. In several verses in our chapters today, Isaiah

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reminds us what God first said in Exodus chapter 20. The essence of the first two commandments

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is this, I am the LORD your God. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not

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make for yourself an image. In other words, we are not to worship anything else that we

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perceive as a god or that we make ourselves. I hear you protest. I don't think I do. Actually,

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many of Isaiah's hearers would have said the same. They were wrong, and so are we, if we

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think we can keep the first two of the ten commandments by our own willpower. I don't

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know about you, but I need all the help I can get if I am to get anywhere near achieving

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this. Throughout today, whenever you use your two hands to type or text or work in your

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home or workplace, why not thank God for His first two commandments that confirm only that

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He deserves such worship? Like Peter put it in John chapter 6 verse 68, Lord, to whom

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would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. It really is no contest.