Isaiah 40 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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

Max Lucado Daily: God’s Workshop

I remember knowing kids whose fathers were quite successful.  One was a judge.  The other a prominent physician. I attended church with the son of the mayor.  “My father has an office at the courthouse,” he could claim. Guess what you can claim?  “My Father rules the universe!””

Scripture says, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies announce what his hands have made.”  (Pslam 19:1) Nature is God’s workshop.  The sky is his resume.  You want to know who God is?  See what he has done. You want to know his power?  Take a look at his creation.

How vital that we pray, armed with the knowledge that God is in heaven.  Pray with any lesser conviction and your prayers are timid, shallow, and hollow. But spend some time walking in the workshop of the heavens.  Seeing what God has done—seeing what your  Father has done and watch how your prayers are energized!

from The Great House of God

Isaiah 40

Comfort for God’s People

40 Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord[a];
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.[b]
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
    and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
    Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures forever.”
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
    go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,[c]
    lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
    say to the towns of Judah,
    “Here is your God!”
10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
    and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
    He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
    he gently leads those that have young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
    or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
    or weighed the mountains on the scales
    and the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Spirit[d] of the Lord,
    or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
    and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
    or showed him the path of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
    they are regarded as dust on the scales;
    he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
    nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing;
    they are regarded by him as worthless
    and less than nothing.
18 With whom, then, will you compare God?
    To what image will you liken him?
19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,
    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
    and fashions silver chains for it.
20 A person too poor to present such an offering
    selects wood that will not rot;
they look for a skilled worker
    to set up an idol that will not topple.
21 Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
    and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
    and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught
    and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted,
    no sooner are they sown,
    no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
    and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
    Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Psalm 139:1-12

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

No Substitute Needed

April 1, 2013 — by Dave Branon

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? —Psalm 139:7

While I was visiting my son in San Diego, we decided to go to Shadow Mountain Church to hear Dr. David Jeremiah preach. Steve and I got up early on Sunday morning and took the hour-long drive to the church. But our anticipation turned to disappointment when we discovered that Dr. Jeremiah was not there that day. “Some other guy”—a substitute—was preaching.

A couple of weeks later, I was scheduled to preach at the church in Grand Rapids where my wife and I attend. As I stood in front of the congregation, I realized that now I was “some other guy” and they might be disappointed because they had come to hear our pastor—not me—speak.

While we find comfort in the familiarity of those we depend on in life, we have to recognize that at times they can be substituted. But the One we need most—the One on whom we depend for life itself—is always present (Ps. 139:7-8). When we desire to enter God’s presence in prayer, He is always there: “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice” (55:17).

Looking for God? He’s always right there. No substitute needed.

Dear Lord, I am so thankful that You are always present.
I never need to make an appointment to speak to You,
the God of the universe. No matter where I go or what
time it is, I can depend on Your presence.
When you come to the Lord, there is no waiting line—His ears are always open to your cry.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 1, 2013

Helpful or Heartless Toward Others?

It is Christ . . . who also makes intercession for us. . . . the Spirit . . . makes intercession for the saints . . . —Romans 8:34, 27

Do we need any more arguments than these to become intercessors-that Christ “always lives to make intercession” (Hebrews 7:25), and that the Holy Spirit “makes intercession for the saints”? Are we living in such a relationship with others that we do the work of intercession as a result of being the children of God who are taught by His Spirit? We should take a look at our current circumstances. Do crises which affect us or others in our home, business, country, or elsewhere, seem to be crushing in on us? Are we being pushed out of the presence of God and left with no time for worship? If so, we must put a stop to such distractions and get into such a living relationship with God that our relationship with others is maintained through the work of intercession, where God works His miracles.

Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don’t worship God, and we fail to intercede. If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord.

Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit?


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

'Miracle' Baby - #6841

Monday, April 1, 2013

Our babies were all born in nice, warm hospitals. But with the frigid weather systems that blew across this country last winter, I can't imagine a baby being born outside...on a city street, no less. But that's exactly what happened in Toronto. As a 20-year-old young woman was trying to walk to the nearby hospital, she didn't get there in time - the baby came.

It couldn't have happened at a worse time; an extreme cold alert had come out from the city, the temperature was dropping below five degrees Fahrenheit. By the time an emergency team could get the fragile little newborn to the hospital, it was apparently too late. The baby was declared dead. Just even saying that makes me sad.

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

Two police officers at the hospital were asked to guard the baby's body while they contacted the coroner. And that's where it gets pretty incredible, because the policemen thought they saw movement under the sheet. They called for medical staff, who confirmed that the baby was alive! The police officers have been credited with saving that baby's life.

Medical folks speculated that it was a case of hypothermia slowing the baby's metabolism and brain activity to where it seemed like the baby had died. One way or another, it feels like a miracle to me. And a miracle that reaches into my soul and says, "Ron, can't you see yourself here?"

Yes, I can, because of the Bible's startling description of me. In Ephesians 2:1 it says, "You were dead." Yeah, lungs breathing, heart pumping but dead - spiritually dead. Because we're so much more than protoplasm and proteins. When God breathed life into man, Genesis says, "man became a living soul." Bodies die. Souls keep going - forever. And that's the part of me the Bible reveals was dead. Spiritually flat lined.

Oh, I didn't know it, but I was still dead. Because I've taken the life God gave me to live for Him and I've done with it what I wanted to do with it. Which essentially means enthroning myself as "God" for me. Cosmic rebellion. "Sin."

So God's diagnosis from the Bible says: "You were dead in your sins." Separated from the source of all spiritual life, away from God, living without any meaning here, and then away from God forever. I don't like God's diagnosis, but I can't change it.

Yet like that "dead" little baby in Canada, I'm miraculously alive. Here's the miracle in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 2:4-5, "God...loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead." That's what it took, and only God could do it.

If you're dead, you can't resurrect yourself. If we're just crippled by our sin-cancer, then a religion could get us to heaven. If we've just got defects, doing a lot of good things should balance heaven's scales. Right? But we're dead. There's not one thing a dead person can contribute. So anyone who's hopeful that being good will get them to heaven is depending on a life preserver that's got a fatal leak.

No, only God can give life. And this is where it gets amazing beyond words. Here's the Bible again: "God saved you by His special favor when you believed. You can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done" (Ephesians 2:8-9 - NLB).

The gift of eternal life was purchased at a hellish price - the brutal death of God's only Son. It was His sinless life, laid down for my sin-wasted life. There is no greater love. Then He blew death away; He walked out of His grave. There is no greater power.

Until I admit I'm dead, I can never be alive. I can't do a thing to resurrect my sin-deadened soul. Jesus did it all. It's got to be all Him and no me. But when you pin all your hopes on His life-giving sacrifice, oh man, that's when life really begins. If you've never done that, if you would like to make sure you've got this settled with God, I would invite you to join me at our website YoursForLife.net. I think it will help bring you home.