Isaiah 55, Bible reading and Daily Devotions

Max Lucado Daily: A Good Friend
A Good Friend

Posted: 11 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST

“The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends.” John 15:13

I like John most for the way he loved Jesus. His relationship with Jesus was, . . . simple. To John, Jesus was a good friend with a good heart and a good idea . . .

One gets the impression that to John, Jesus was above all a loyal companion. Messiah? Yes. Son of God? Indeed. Miracle worker? That, too. But more than anything . . . Jesus was a friend.



Isaiah 55
Buy Without Money
1-5 "Hey there! All who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Are you penniless?
Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
Buy without money—everything's free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I'm making a lasting covenant commitment with you,
the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.
I set him up as a witness to the nations,
made him a prince and leader of the nations,
And now I'm doing it to you:
You'll summon nations you've never heard of,
and nations who've never heard of you
will come running to you
Because of me, your God,
because The Holy of Israel has honored you."
6-7Seek God while he's here to be found,
pray to him while he's close at hand.
Let the wicked abandon their way of life
and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful,
come back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.

8-11"I don't think the way you think.
The way you work isn't the way I work."
God's Decree.
"For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
and don't go back until they've watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
not come back empty-handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
they'll complete the assignment I gave them.

12-13"So you'll go out in joy,
you'll be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and hills will lead the parade,
bursting with song.
All the trees of the forest will join the procession,
exuberant with applause.
No more thistles, but giant sequoias,
no more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me, to God,
living and lasting evidence of God."


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

1 Corinthians 1:10-17 (The Message)

The Cross: The Irony of God's Wisdom
10I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.
11-12I bring this up because some from Chloe's family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you're fighting among yourselves! I'll tell you exactly what I was told: You're all picking sides, going around saying, "I'm on Paul's side," or "I'm for Apollos," or "Peter is my man," or "I'm in the Messiah group."

13-16I ask you, "Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul's name?" I was not involved with any of your baptisms—except for Crispus and Gaius—and on getting this report, I'm sure glad I wasn't. At least no one can go around saying he was baptized in my name. (Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephanas's family, but as far as I can recall, that's it.)

17God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center—Christ on the Cross—be trivialized into mere words.

March 12, 2010
United Goal
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READ: 1 Cor. 1:10-17
I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you. —1 Corinthians 1:10

The spotted owl has been disappearing in the US. Originally it was believed that old growth logging was its greatest threat. But research shows that one of the owl’s relatives may be the problem. For the past 15 years, the barred owl has been rapidly migrating westward. Barred owls, which used to live exclusively east of the Mississippi, compete for the same food as spotted owls but are more aggressive and adaptable.

In a similar way, our greatest spiritual conflict often comes not from outside the church, but from other Christians. This was happening in the church of Corinth, and Paul took some time to address the divisive spirit that had grown in this congregation. This spirit threatened the unity of the church. Paul, with a pastoral nudge, encouraged the Corinthians to agree on the essentials and not be divided over the nonessentials. People were quarreling because they were aligning themselves with different Christian leaders—Paul, Apollos, Peter, and even Christ. In creating these divisions, they were valuing their favorite leader above unity in Christ.

Paul said the one essential that should unify the church is preaching the good news. That should be our united goal as well. — Marvin Williams

Lord, bless our congregation,
We humbly ask of Thee,
That we may walk together
In perfect unity. —Fennema

A united church is a strong church.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

March 12, 2010
Total Surrender
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READ:
Peter began to say to Him, ’See, we have left all and followed You’ —Mark 10:28

Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is "for My sake and the gospel’s" (10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, "I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy." Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, "No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ’This is what God has done for me.’ " Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.

Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse—"Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further" (see Luke 9:57-62 ). "Then," Jesus says, "you ’cannot be My disciple’ " (see Luke 14:26-33 ).

True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Grandeur of an Old Faithful - #6045
Friday, March 12, 2010


Our grandsons experienced an unforgettable vacation when Mom and Dad took them out West to see the Tetons, Big Sky country, and Yellowstone National Park. God made sure they got plenty of memories; the herd of buffalo that basically surrounded their vehicle, the moose that was right by the side of the road, the elk that posed patiently for all the pictures anyone wanted to take. But as impressive as all that was, nothing impressed them so much as this water that kept shooting high out of the ground. You guessed it - that amazing geyser known as Old Faithful. Our grandsons couldn't stop talking to us about it on the phone. In fact, our older guy told his mom, "I want a geyser." We're working on that. That geyser is really something to see. I mean, this tower of water and steam, exploding out of the ground, high into the air, and always at the same time intervals. Well, of course, it's Old Faithful.


I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Grandeur of an Old Faithful."

Our grandson says he wants an Old Faithful of his own. So does God. He's looking for some "old faithfuls" He can count on. The Bible makes it clear that a lot of the things we do don't really impress God much, if at all. But there is one trait that gets His attention and triggers His blessing. It is faithfulness. Like a certain geyser, always being there, always doing what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it. To all of us who know someone like that, those folks are the anchors of our life. To God, they are the folks He loves to reward.

God expresses what He values in a man or woman in our word for today from the Word of God. It's not flashiness. It's not friendliness. It's faithfulness. In 1 Corinthians 4:2, He says plainly: "It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." Notice, He doesn't say you have to be successful - faithful. A friend of mine said, "Ron, I think I've figured out your job description: stay pure and show up." That pretty much says it. Keep pure and keep showing up. Paul put it this way in his final challenge to his son in the faith, Timothy, "Keep your head in all situations, endure hardship...discharge all the duties of your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:5).

See, faithfulness is so valuable because it's so rare. Today people stick with a responsibility or a commitment as long as it feels good, as long as it's fun, until the novelty wears off, or so long as I'm being treated right or appreciated. But our Lord modeled something much more noble - seeing your job through, even when everyone deserts you, even when you want out, even when the world's against you, even when they nail you to a cross. He is faithfulness. That's why He wants faithfulness. The Book of Revelation says that when He makes His glorious appearance at His Second Coming, He will be the rider on the white horse who "is called Faithful and True" (Revelation 19:12).

I hope that's what they call you. Or they will start to call you as you move from being one who's in and out of commitments to becoming one of God's "Old Faithfuls." However small your assignment, however tired you may feel, however unappreciated you are - by people that is, stay faithful. What an honor to be a man or woman about whom Almighty God can say, "I can count on her. I can count on him." He is looking for warriors who will continue to stay at their post, whose commitments He and others can depend on, who will finish what they started. If that's hard for you, remember that faithfulness is part of what the Bible describes as "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22). You can ask God to produce His faithfulness in you!

And up ahead, there stands your Lord Jesus at the finish line, and listen to what He's going to reward. It's not success. He's telling His champions, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Oh, live for that, warrior!