Isaiah 17 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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

Max Lucado Daily: Know Your Strengths

When you teach, do people listen? When you lead, do people follow? Identify your strengths, and —this is important—major in them.  Singing for others would give me wonderful satisfaction. The problem is, it wouldn’t give the same satisfaction to my audience.  I’m what you might call a prison singer—I never have the key, and I’m always behind a few bars.

Paul gives good advice in Romans 12:3: “Have a sane estimate of your capabilities.”

Be aware of your strengths. Take a few irons out of the fire so one can get hot. Failing to focus on our strengths may prevent us from accomplishing the unique task God has called us to do. We cannot meet every need in the world. But some of us try. In the end, we run out of fuel. So, have a sane estimate of your abilities—and stick to them.

From Just Like Jesus

Isaiah 17

A Prophecy Against Damascus

17 A prophecy against Damascus:

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
    but will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted
    and left to flocks, which will lie down,
    with no one to make them afraid.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
    and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
    like the glory of the Israelites,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
    the fat of his body will waste away.
5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,
    gathering the grain in their arms—
as when someone gleans heads of grain
    in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet some gleanings will remain,
    as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
    four or five on the fruitful boughs,”
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day people will look to their Maker
    and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars,
    the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles[a]
    and the incense altars their fingers have made.
9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

10 You have forgotten God your Savior;
    you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
    and plant imported vines,
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
    and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
    in the day of disease and incurable pain.
12 Woe to the many nations that rage—
    they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
    they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
    when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
    like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror!
    Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
    the lot of those who plunder us.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Matthew 5:1-14

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

The Beatitudes

He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

God’s Lighthouse

February 24, 2013 — by Dennis Fisher

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. —Matthew 5:14

The Mission Point Lighthouse was built in 1870 on a peninsula in Northern Michigan to warn ships of sand bars and rocky shores along Lake Michigan. That lighthouse got its name from another kind of lighthouse, a mission church, which was built 31 years earlier.

In 1839, Rev. Peter Dougherty answered the call to become pastor of a church in Old Mission that was made up of Native Americans who lived farther south on the same peninsula. Under his leadership, a thriving community of farmers, teachers, and craftsmen worked side by side to build a better life for the community.

When believers in Christ work together in unity, their fellowship of faith provides spiritual light in the world’s darkness (Phil. 2:15-16). Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. . . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16).

The Mission Point Lighthouse warned ships of danger, but the original Old Mission Church provided spiritual direction to all who would listen. Believers do the same individually and through our churches. We are God’s lighthouse because Jesus lives in us.

You are called with a holy calling
The light of the world to be;
To lift up the lamp of the Savior
That others His light may see. —Anon.
Believers help the lost to find their way home when their life shines brightly.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
February 28, 2013

“Do You Now Believe?”

’By this we believe . . . .’ Jesus answered them, ’Do you now believe?’ —John 16:30-31

Now we believe. . . .” But Jesus asks, “Do you . . . ? Indeed the hour is coming . . . that you . . . will leave Me alone” (John 16:31-32). Many Christian workers have left Jesus Christ alone and yet tried to serve Him out of a sense of duty, or because they sense a need as a result of their own discernment. The reason for this is actually the absence of the resurrection life of Jesus. Our soul has gotten out of intimate contact with God by leaning on our own religious understanding (see Proverbs 3:5-6). This is not deliberate sin and there is no punishment attached to it. But once a person realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and caused uncertainties, sorrows, and difficulties for himself, it is with shame and remorse that he has to return.

We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus on a much deeper level than we do now. We should get in the habit of continually seeking His counsel on everything, instead of making our own commonsense decisions and then asking Him to bless them. He cannot bless them; it is not in His realm to do so, and those decisions are severed from reality. If we do something simply out of a sense of duty, we are trying to live up to a standard that competes with Jesus Christ. We become a prideful, arrogant person, thinking we know what to do in every situation. We have put our sense of duty on the throne of our life, instead of enthroning the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to “walk in the light” of our conscience or in the light of a sense of duty, but to “walk in the light asHe is in the light. . .” (1 John 1:7). When we do something out of a sense of duty, it is easy to explain the reasons for our actions to others. But when we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation-just obedience. That is why a saint can be so easily ridiculed and misunderstood.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

A Parent You Can Be Proud Of - #6819

Thursday, February 28, 2013

I guess parental pride comes with your baby's birth certificate. You know, you brag about their first word, their first steps. We show off pictures of our babies, and then if they're ever selected for a solo or starting position later in life, or they get a part in something, or an award, we'll be there with our camera, our video camera, whatever loaded. A parent has a special glow when his son or daughter makes him proud. Of course, it's supposed to work the other way, too.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Parent You Can Be Proud Of."

Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Proverbs 17:6. It says, "Children's children are a crown to the aged...and parents are the pride of their children." Now, it doesn't talk about children being the pride of their parents. This is the other way around. Parents are supposed to make their kids proud according to God's Word.

Not so much that the kids are running around showing off pictures of Mom or Dad, or taking lots of photos at some public event where Mom and Dad are on the platform. No, see, parents tend to be proud of their children's achievements; kids tend to be proud of their parent's character. It's not so much what Mom or Dad do that makes a young person proud, it's what they are.

You see, our kids know the realities behind the image everybody else sees, and they're proud of us if the reality - that is the real person that they know they are in a day-in and day-out basis when nobody's looking - if that person is a person of quality, consistency, compassion, selflessness and character. Now, what kind of a parent fulfills this Proverbs profile and makes their son or daughter proud?

First of all, I think it's one who treats their friends with respect. You may or may not like all the choices of friends that your child makes, but you make them proud when as their friends come and go, their friends are treated specially, they're given good treatment; they're given royal treatment. They get a sense of how valuable they are to God. By the way, if you want to have influence over your child's friends, well you win the right to comment on their friends as you treat them special when they're with you.

I think another way to be a parent they can be proud of is to treat them with respect in public. Discipline them, correct them in private; praise, brag about them, build them up when you're in public.

Thirdly, I think you can be a parent to be proud of when you treat their views with respect. Hear them out; don't respond like you know what they're going to say or you don't value it. Hear the whole paragraph, the whole page, not just a sentence. And respect their privacy. I think a parent to be proud of has a positive attitude, you're not a complainer, a whiner or a critic. And you respect other views, but you take a stand for your own.

When my daughter was in college, she was homesick one time, and somebody said, "Why?" She said, "Because I miss talking to my best friend." They said, "Who's that?" She said, "Oh, that's my Mom." See, it may not be cool to advertise that your best friend is your Mother. My daughter has in her Mother a parent to be proud of. I can only hope the same is true for my sons with their Father.

God intends that your character, your attitude of respect and love, be a source of pride to your son and daughter. So, I hope your child has a parent to be proud of.