Isaiah 35 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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

Max Lucado Daily: Just for You

What is the fruit of sin?  Step into the briar patch of humanity and feel a few thistles.  Shame. Fear. Disgrace. Discouragement. Anxiety.  Haven’t our hearts been caught in these brambles?

The heart of Jesus, however, had not.  He had never been cut by the thorns of sin.  What you and I face daily—he never knew.  He never worried. He was never guilty.  He never knew the fruit of sin until he became sin for us.  And when he did—all the emotions of sin tumbled in on him like shadows in a forest.  He felt anxious, guilty, and alone. Can you not hear the emotion in his prayer?

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  This prayer is one of the most remarkable parts of his coming.  But there’s something even greater!  He did it for you…just for you!

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:24).

from He Chose the Nails

Isaiah 35

Joy of the Redeemed

35 The desert and the parched land will be glad;
    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom;
    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
    the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
    the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
    steady the knees that give way;
4 say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
    he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
    he will come to save you.”
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
    the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
    grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
8 And a highway will be there;
    it will be called the Way of Holiness;
    it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
    wicked fools will not go about on it.
9 No lion will be there,
    nor any ravenous beast;
    they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
10     and those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion


Read: Psalm 32:1-6; Matthew 11:28-30

Blessed Are the Forgiven

A Maskil[a] of David.

32 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
    and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
    my strength was dried up[b] as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is godly
    offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
    they shall not reach him.

Matthew 11:28-30
English Standard Version (ESV)
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Too Heavy

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. —Matthew 11:28

March 25, 2013 — by Cindy Hess Kasper

As I started up my car in the dark hours of early morning, I noticed a seatbelt light on the dashboard. I checked my door, opening and pulling it shut again. I tugged on my seatbelt to test it. But the sensor light still beamed. Then, in slow realization, I reached over and lifted my purse a few inches above the passenger seat. The light clicked off.

Apparently, a cell phone, three rolls of quarters, a hardcover book, and my lunch stuffed in my very large purse had equaled the weight of a small passenger, thus setting off the sensor!

While I can easily empty out a handbag, other weights are not so easy to shed. Those burdens of life involve a heaviness of spirit.

Whether the burden that weighs us down is one of guilt such as the one that consumed David’s thoughts (Ps. 32:1-6), the fear Peter experienced (Matt. 26:20-35), or the doubt Thomas carried (John 20:24-29), Jesus has invited us to bring them all to Him: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

We are not built to bear burdens alone. When we cast them on the One who wants to bear our burdens (Ps. 68:19; 1 Peter 5:7), He replaces them with forgiveness, healing, and restoration. No burden is too heavy for Him.

Lord, thank You for lovingly carrying our burdens.
In times of trouble, help us to leave those burdens
in Your strong hands and to find our rest in You.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Burden God with what burdens you.


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

Maintaining the Proper Relationship

. . . the friend of the bridegroom . . . —John 3:29

Goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to themselves, but should simply be magnets that draw people to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing others to Him, it is not the right kind of holiness; it is only an influence which awakens undue emotions and evil desires in people and diverts them from heading in the right direction. A person who is a beautiful saint can be a hindrance in leading people to the Lord by presenting only what Christ has done for him, instead of presenting Jesus Christ Himself. Others will be left with this thought— “What a fine person that man is!” That is not being a true “friend of the bridegroom”— I am increasing all the time; He is not.

To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience. At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God’s will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship— being the “friend of the bridegroom.” Christian work can actually be a means of diverting a person’s focus away from Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends “of the bridegroom,” we may become amateur providences of God to someone else, working against Him while we use His weapons.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

How Habits Inhibit - #6836

Monday, March 25, 2013

For the first sixteen years of my life you could pretty well guess what I would order in a restaurant. If it wasn't a hamburger, it was fried chicken. If it wasn't fried chicken, it was a hamburger. Now, people - especially my parents - tried to get me to try other foods, but eating out meant two things and only two. Did I mention that was hamburgers and fried chicken? Yeah?

Well, somewhere along the way, someone encouraged me to try a little pasta, and I don't know why I took the risk, but I liked it. After all those years I could have been eating it and I didn't know. Now you can't get me to stop eating it. Someone encouraged me to try certain vegetables prepared in creative ways. I had avoided those vegetables. I love them now. Even casseroles. Oh, I avoided casseroles like the measles. I thought casserole was a naughty word. I love casseroles. I used to hate it when my Mother made them; I never tried them. Spoiled brat, huh? Today there are just too many foods I like: Chinese, Italian, Mexican, you name it. I can't believe what I was missing all those years because I was sure food meant hamburger or chicken. I can't believe what I missed because I was such a creature of habit.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Habits Inhibit."

In our word for today from the Word of God in Mark chapter 2, Jesus is talking to religious folks; Pharisees, scribes, people who had ways in which they thought God would always work. They couldn't accept the fact that there might be some new things God wanted to try. Now, Jesus came along and blew the walls off the narrow box that they had God in. He wasn't working in any of the ways that they were used to, and they kept saying, "Well, I don't know, God never did it this way before. I'm not sure it is God." And Jesus had a whole new way of doing it.

In Mark 2:22, Jesus said, "No one pours new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins and both the wine and the wine skins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wine skins." See, Jesus is talking to people who were hide-bound in their traditions; sure that God was going to work just like He always has. They've got God in a box, and maybe He's talking to the people of our day that say maybe to us, "Maybe He's saying, 'You know, I've got something new I want to do among you, but it can't happen if you insist on the same old ways of doing it.'"

As a teenager I got in my eating rut and I stayed there and I missed all kinds of great experiences that were outside of my rut. We tend to be that way with our Lord. There's a place in Northern Canada where the roads run out and I've heard there's a sign that says, "Choose your rut carefully; you'll be in it for the next fifty miles." It probably doesn't say miles; it says kilometers, but let's go with it. We're sort of like that spiritually. We have a tendency to say, "This is how God did work, and He always will work." Could it be that it's time for new wine skins in your life? The Lord is trying to open you up to some new worship or new ways of studying His Word, or new ways of praying, new avenues of service, new steps of faith. And you're saying, "Hamburgers or chicken! Hamburgers or chicken! That's the way it's always been."

Churches and ministries often wither to ineffectiveness because they will not change. Methods and approaches that once were the new wine skins are now brittle, tired and irrelevant. I know you're restless for God's best, and often God's best is in a surprising new package. We get too tied to the formula and we miss the Lord.

Don't let your religious habits inhibit the exciting new thing God wants to do. You'll never taste the gourmet menu if you limit God to the same old choices on His miracle menu.