Casey Taylor

“From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden things which you have not known. They are created now... Before today you have never heard of them." (48:6-7)
Notice the most radical announcement here. "Before today you have never heard of the things that God will do. They are not accessible to human imagination. "They are created now." They are "hidden things which you have not known." This feature of Second Isaiah is what has led interpreters to call this prophet the first apocalyptic theologian - meaning, the first to show in an unmistakable way that God will interrupt the normal progression of things by arriving in - indeed, invading - the midst of human events from a sphere of power capable of calling into existence the things that do not exist (as Paul says in Romans 4:17).”
― Fleming Rutledge, And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament

“If you and I are resting or shirking or slacking, his Spirit is nevertheless on the move with somebody else somewhere else, for "behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 121:4). God is always accomplishing his purposes.”
― Fleming Rutledge, And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“Paul the apostle, dictating his fierce message to the Galatians, writes, "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings
that by nature are no gods; but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more?" (4:8-9). Notice how he quite deliberately changes the sentence so that God is not the object, but the subject. Wouldn't that make a tremendous difference if preachers everywhere did that?”
― Fleming Rutledge, And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament