Isaiah 15 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: Worship Changes Our Face

Exactly what is worship?  I like King David’s definition in Psalm 34:3:  “Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”

Worship is magnifying or enlarging our vision of God. Of course his size doesn’t change, but our perception of him does. As we draw nearer, he seems larger. Isn’t that what we need?  A big view of God?  Don’t we have big problems, big worries, and big questions? Of course we do.  So, we need a big view of God. Worship offers that.

A vibrant, shining face is the mark of one who has stood in God’s presence.  He wipes away the tears.  Not only does God change the face of those who worship, he changes those who watch us worship!

From Just Like Jesus

Isaiah  15

A Prophecy Against Moab

15 A prophecy against Moab:

Ar in Moab is ruined,
    destroyed in a night!
Kir in Moab is ruined,
    destroyed in a night!
2 Dibon goes up to its temple,
    to its high places to weep;
    Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head is shaved
    and every beard cut off.
3 In the streets they wear sackcloth;
    on the roofs and in the public squares
they all wail,
    prostrate with weeping.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
    their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,
    and their hearts are faint.
5 My heart cries out over Moab;
    her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,
    as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.
They go up the hill to Luhith,
    weeping as they go;
on the road to Horonaim
    they lament their destruction.
6 The waters of Nimrim are dried up
    and the grass is withered;
the vegetation is gone
    and nothing green is left.
7 So the wealth they have acquired and stored up
    they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.
8 Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;
    their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,
    their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.
9 The waters of Dimon[c] are full of blood,
    but I will bring still more upon Dimon[d]—
a lion upon the fugitives of Moab
    and upon those who remain in the land.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: John 1:6-13

 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own,[a] and his own people[b] did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Always Accepted

February 25, 2013 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. —John 1:11

Financial expert Warren Buffet, one of the richest people in the world, was rejected by Harvard’s Business School at age 19. After a failed admissions interview, he recalls a “feeling of dread,” along with concern over his father’s reaction to the news. In retrospect, Buffet says, “[Everything] in my life . . . that I thought was a crushing event at the time has turned out for the better.”

Rejection, though undeniably painful, does not have to hold us back from accomplishing what God wants us to do. The citizens of Jesus’ hometown denied that He was the Messiah (John 1:11), and many of His followers later rejected Him (6:66). Just as Jesus’ rejection was part of God’s plan for His Son (Isa. 53:3), so was Jesus’ continued ministry. Enduring earthly rejection and knowing that the Father would turn away from Him at Calvary (Matt. 27:46), Jesus went on to cure the sick, cast out demons, and preach good news to the masses. Before His crucifixion, Jesus said, “[Father], I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).

If rejection has become a hindrance to the work God has given you to do, don’t give up. Remember that Jesus understands, and those who come to Him will always be accepted by Him (6:37).

No one understands like Jesus
When the days are dark and grim.
No one is so near, so dear as Jesus;
Cast your every care on Him. —Peterson
by John W. Peterson. © Renewal 1980. John W. Peterson Music Company.
No one understands like Jesus.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
February 25, 2013

The Destitution of Service

. . . though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved —2 Corinthians 12:15

Natural human love expects something in return. But Paul is saying, “It doesn’t really matter to me whether you love me or not. I am willing to be completely destitute anyway; willing to be poverty-stricken, not just for your sakes, but also that I may be able to get you to God.” “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor . . .” (2 Corinthians 8:9). And Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s. He did not care how high the cost was to himself— he would gladly pay it. It was a joyful thing to Paul.

The institutional church’s idea of a servant of God is not at all like Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of others. Jesus Christ actually “out-socialized” the socialists. He said that in His kingdom the greatest one would be the servant of all (see Matthew 23:11). The real test of a saint is not one’s willingness to preach the gospel, but one’s willingness to do something like washing the disciples’ feet— that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God. It was Paul’s delight to spend his life for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. But before we will serve, we stop to ponder our personal and financial concerns— “What if God wants me to go over there? And what about my salary? What is the climate like there? Who will take care of me? A person must consider all these things.” All that is an indication that we have reservations about serving God. But the apostle Paul had no conditions or reservations. Paul focused his life on Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint; that is, not one who merely proclaims the gospel, but one who becomes broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Slamming the Window On a Refreshing Wind - #6816

Monday, February 25, 2013

Not long ago I was at a conference in a beautiful mountain setting. We had our work all spread out across the tables we were working on. The tables became messier and messier as the day went on. You know how those meetings go. And, after several hours of our, shall we say hot air, the room was ready for some ventilation. So a couple of fellows went over and opened the windows real wide, and oh did that felt good. And then, a big mountain breeze came up and blew through the room. Some people thought the wind was just what we needed. But some of our work started to blow around, and some thought it was suddenly too cool. One man got up and loudly slammed those windows shut! It seems as if there are always those who want to shut the window when the wind is starting to blow.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Slamming the Window On a Refreshing Wind."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Isaiah 43, and beginning at verse 18. God says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Now, it seems like what God is saying here is, "Don't get stuck in the past. Don't get stuck in the way God has 'always done it'." He says, "Don't dwell on the past; forget those former things. I've got a whole new thing I want to do. I've started doing it. Can't you see it?" He often has this new thing He wants to do because He's very creative. He doesn't stay inside our boxes we build for Him. He seldom repeats himself. The problem is that we are what I call "rutnicks". We get into a rut and we stay there.

I heard about a road in Northern Canada once. It's actually kind of where the roads run out and there's a big sign there that says, "Choose your rut carefully; you will be in it for the next 50 miles." Well, that's pretty much like we are. We get in this rut, and we stay in it for at least 50 miles. We're "rutnicks".

We get into a way of thinking that God is always going to work. We get into a status quo and we hang onto it for dear life. The problem is that the wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing through, trying to rearrange things and refresh things. We get a wind of change and we get up and shut the window. Maybe God's trying to do a new thing in your life and you're still trying to hang on to the status quo. At one time that status quo was God's new thing. But now He's got something different. He's got greater plans for you now. It might be a little risky, but it's so much bigger, so much better.

I know that God is trying to stir His people right now for revival, but we've got Him in our denominational boxes, our theological boxes: He's always going to sound like this. We've got methodological boxes: He's always going to operate like this. He's going to operate within these boundaries. I think God wants to explode into our lives as believers in powerful ways that we've never dreamed of or we've never experienced. In worship He wants to do a new thing. In your family He wants to do it a new way. In our witness He wants to wake us up to the lost. In supernatural results He wants to deliver something new instead of the best that man can think up with a little assist from God. He wants to take us into a new significance of our life, as our life becomes more eternalized as we become involved in His rescue mission on earth. He's saying, "I don't want you to just sit around and be a receiver. I want you to be a giver. I'm doing a new thing."

Be open to that new wind of the Holy Spirit. "Forget the old things" He says, "and open up to the streams that He wants to make in the desert. Is the Spirit trying to blow through your life, your church, your organization with a bold, new breeze? Well, don't slam the window!