Isaiah 52 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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

Max Lucado Daily: Dealing with Debt

Doesn’t someone owe you an apology?  A second chance?  An explanation? A thank you?  A childhood?  A marriage?  Your parents should have been more protective. Your children should have been more appreciative. Your spouse should be more sensitive. What are you going to do?  Few questions are more important.

Dealing with debt is at the heart of your happiness. Jesus speaks of the grace we should share.  He says: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14).

It reminds me of the story of a huge grizzly bear in the center of Yellowstone Park feeding on discarded camp food.  No one dared draw near. Except a skunk who walked toward the food and took his place next to the grizzly.  The bear didn’t object.  He knew the high cost of getting even! We’d be wise to learn the same thing.

from The Great House of God

Isaiah 52

Awake, awake, Zion,
    clothe yourself with strength!
Put on your garments of splendor,
    Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled
    will not enter you again.
2 Shake off your dust;
    rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.
Free yourself from the chains on your neck,
    Daughter Zion, now a captive.
3 For this is what the Lord says:

“You were sold for nothing,
    and without money you will be redeemed.”
4 For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“At first my people went down to Egypt to live;
    lately, Assyria has oppressed them.
5 “And now what do I have here?” declares the Lord.

“For my people have been taken away for nothing,
    and those who rule them mock,[b]”
declares the Lord.
“And all day long
    my name is constantly blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people will know my name;
    therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it.
    Yes, it is I.”
7 How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
    who bring good tidings,
    who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
    “Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
    together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
    they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together,
    you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.
11 Depart, depart, go out from there!
    Touch no unclean thing!
Come out from it and be pure,
    you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.
12 But you will not leave in haste
    or go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you,
    the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
The Suffering and Glory of the Servant

13 See, my servant will act wisely[c];
    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him[d]—
    his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
    and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,[e]
    and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
    and what they have not heard, they will understand.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Job 42:10-17

10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver[a] and a gold ring.

12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

From Bleak To Beautiful

April 18, 2013 — by Julie Ackerman Link

The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. —Job 42:12

Spring is the time of year when God reminds us that things are not always as they seem. Over the course of a few short weeks, what appears hopelessly dead comes to life. Bleak woodlands are transformed into colorful landscapes. Trees whose naked arms reached to heaven all winter, as if pleading to be clothed, suddenly are adorned with lacy green gowns. Flowers that faded and fell to the ground in surrender to the cold rise slowly from the earth in defiance of death.

In Scripture, we read about some apparently hopeless situations. One example is that of a wealthy man named Job whom God described as having integrity (Job 2:3). Disaster struck and Job lost everything important to him. In misery, he said, “My days are . . . spent without hope” (7:6). What appeared to Job and his friends as evidence that God had turned against him was just the opposite. God was so confident of Job’s integrity that He trusted him in this battle with Satan. Later, Job’s hope and life were renewed.

The faithful arrival of spring every year comforts me when I’m in a situation that seems hopeless. With God, there is no such thing. No matter how bleak the landscape of life may look, God can transform it into a glorious garden of color and fragrance.

Dear God, we pray for faith anew,
For greater trust in all we do,
For hope that never knows defeat,
For victory at Thy mercy seat. —Brandt
With God, there is hope even in the most hopeless situation.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 18, 2013

Readiness

God called to him . . . . And he said, ’Here I am’ —Exodus 3:4

When God speaks, many of us are like people in a fog, and we give no answer. Moses’ reply to God revealed that he knew where he was and that he was ready. Readiness means having a right relationship to God and having the knowledge of where we are. We are so busy telling God where we would like to go. Yet the man or woman who is ready for God and His work is the one who receives the prize when the summons comes. We wait with the idea that some great opportunity or something sensational will be coming our way, and when it does come we are quick to cry out, “Here I am.” Whenever we sense that Jesus Christ is rising up to take authority over some great task, we are there, but we are not ready for some obscure duty.

Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing— it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready. Whenever any duty presents itself, we hear God’s voice as our Lord heard His Father’s voice, and we are ready for it with the total readiness of our love for Him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us just as His Father did with Him. He can put us wherever He wants, in pleasant duties or in menial ones, because our union with Him is the same as His union with the Father. “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22).

Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A ready person never needs to get ready— he is ready. Think of the time we waste trying to get ready once God has called! The burning bush is a symbol of everything that surrounds the person who is ready, and it is on fire with the presence of God Himself.



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

A Whiplash World - #6331

For some reason, this drunk driver decided that he liked my side of the road better than his side. He suddenly crossed the center line and he plowed headlong into our car. Well, I had the whole family with me, and our car was totaled. But thankfully, none of us was totaled. Our injuries were miraculously minor in light of what happened to our car. Now, a friend offered to drive me to the youth retreat where I was speaking that weekend. Well, that night of the accident, the doctor put me in a neck brace for a few days, so I got a lot of sympathy at that retreat! I almost decided to wear it permanently! But I had a little whiplash, actually, from the force of the hit that we took. That's the damage to your neck when you get whipped around violently and suddenly.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Whiplash World."

Now, these days, you can get whiplash just watching the evening news. Events are exploding across the country, around the world. Most recently, we've seen upheaval and change in the Middle East - most of it without warning; some uprisings in places we thought we'd never see them.

And we might as well fasten our seat belts for a crazy ride ahead; this isn't going to change. A couple of years ago, America's financial world was rocked to its core. We've had two radical swings of the political pendulum in just two years. There are well-armed nations that seem beyond any restraint from the rest of the world - dangerous wild cards in our world.

But I'm OK, no matter what bombshell flashes on the "breaking news" today or any day. Here's the big picture behind whatever disturbing news - personal news, world news - that explodes today: "The nations are in chaos," the Bible says, "and their kingdoms crumble! God's voice thunders, and the earth melts! The Lord of Heaven's Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress" That's our word for today from the New Living Bible, Psalm 46 , verses 6 and 7.

You know, for thousands of years, the prophecies of the Bible have predicted a world like ours. Just before the King of all kings returns to take charge. Here's the words of Jesus: "There will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again" (Matthew 24:21 ). "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom...Nations will be in anguish and perplexity...Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming in the world..." (Luke 21:10 , 25-26).

Now, that's the bad news. You ready for some good news? Well, it's great news! Listen, here's what Jesus said right after that, "At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke 21:27 ). Jesus said when you see a whiplash world and everything is going crazy, He said it's into that kind of world I am going to return. I will come back; I will take charge; I will keep My promises. Wow!

I'll tell you, any time's a good time to belong to Jesus. But this time is a really good time to belong to Him. Because behind all the exploding events of our time, there is a plan. There is a God; there is a Savior; there is a King. There is a divinely orchestrated, humanly untouchable countdown to the coming of King Jesus.

I guess the question is has there ever been a day when He's come into your life and into your heart, because that's where the anchor is for times like ours. If you never have, this might be the day for you to say, "Jesus, I want to be sure I belong to You; I'm anchored to You. I believe that some of those sins You died for on that cross were sins I have done - the wrong things I have done. And today I accept the forgiveness that You bought on the cross for me. Beginning today I'm Yours."

I hope you'll go to our website today. And if you're at this point of saying, "I really need to get this settled. I need something solid to hang onto in this kind of a world. Things have been happening so fast." Well, you can go to our website. It's YoursForLife.net, and I've laid out there as simply as I can how you can be sure you belong to Him.

The bottom line in the Bible is this: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are safe" (Proverbs 18:10 ). I'm there, and I pray you are.