Isaiah 54, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD

When the cancer’s in remission, we say God is good.  When the pay raise comes, we announce God is good.  But is God only good when the outcome is?  Most, if not all of us, have a contractual agreement with God.  I pledge to be a good, decent person and God, in return, will: Save my child.  Heal my wife.  Protect my job.  Only fair, right?  Yet, when God fails to meet our expectations we’re left spinning in a tornado of questions.

In such times remember this: God is sovereign.  James 1:17 tells us He does not change like shifting shadows.  God does permit evil, but He doesn’t allow Satan, the father of evil, to triumph.  Isn’t this the promise of Romans 8:28?  “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Isaiah 54

 “Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby.
    Fill the air with song, you who’ve never experienced childbirth!
You’re ending up with far more children
    than all those childbearing women.” God says so!
“Clear lots of ground for your tents!
    Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!
Use plenty of rope,
    drive the tent pegs deep.
You’re going to need lots of elbow room
    for your growing family.
You’re going to take over whole nations;
    you’re going to resettle abandoned cities.
Don’t be afraid—you’re not going to be embarrassed.
    Don’t hold back—you’re not going to come up short.
You’ll forget all about the humiliations of your youth,
    and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.
For your Maker is your bridegroom,
    his name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
Your Redeemer is The Holy of Israel,
    known as God of the whole earth.
You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief,
    and God welcomed you back,
Like a woman married young
    and then left,” says your God.

7-8 Your Redeemer God says:

“I left you, but only for a moment.
    Now, with enormous compassion, I’m bringing you back.
In an outburst of anger I turned my back on you—
    but only for a moment.
It’s with lasting love
    that I’m tenderly caring for you.

9-10 “This exile is just like the days of Noah for me:
    I promised then that the waters of Noah
    would never again flood the earth.
I’m promising now no more anger,
    no more dressing you down.
For even if the mountains walk away
    and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won’t walk away from you,
    my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart.”
    The God who has compassion on you says so.

11-17 “Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:
    I’m about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise,
Lay your foundations with sapphires,
    construct your towers with rubies,
Your gates with jewels,
    and all your walls with precious stones.
All your children will have God for their teacher—
    what a mentor for your children!
You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,
    far from any trouble—nothing to fear!
    far from terror—it won’t even come close!
If anyone attacks you,
    don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them,
And if any should attack,
    nothing will come of it.
I create the blacksmith
    who fires up his forge
    and makes a weapon designed to kill.
I also create the destroyer—
    but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged.
Any accuser who takes you to court
    will be dismissed as a liar.
This is what God’s servants can expect.
    I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.”
        God’s Decree.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

Leviticus 23:33–36, 39–44

The Festival of Tabernacles
33 The Lord said to Moses, 34 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. 35 The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. 36 For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.

Insight
Leviticus 23 outlines the eight festivals in the Jewish religious calendar (including the Sabbath day of rest mentioned in verse 3). God instituted each of these festivals for the benefit and enjoyment of His people. Consider how the Festival of Tabernacles (v. 34) would have looked as it unfolded. The people constructed shelters from branches and foliage and then lived in the rudimentary structures. Although a solemn occasion, the festival was essentially a campout; hence, a time of great joy. How like our infinitely creative God to implement fun into worship and holy remembrance!

Sacred Gathering
Rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. Leviticus 23:40

Our group of friends reunited for a long weekend together on the shores of a beautiful lake. The days were spent playing in the water and sharing meals, but it was the evening conversations I treasured the most. As darkness fell, our hearts opened to one another with uncommon depth and vulnerability, sharing the pains of faltering marriages and the aftermath of trauma some of our children were enduring. Without glossing over the brokenness of our realities, we pointed one another to God and His faithfulness throughout such extreme difficulties. Those evenings are among the most sacred in my life.

I imagine those nights are similar to what God intended when He instructed His people to gather each year for the Festival of Tabernacles. This feast, like many others, required the Israelites to travel to Jerusalem. Once they arrived, God instructed His people to gather together in worship and to “do no regular work” for the duration of the feast—about a week! (Leviticus 23:35). The Festival of Tabernacles celebrated God’s provision and commemorated their time in the wilderness after leaving Egypt (vv. 42–43).

This gathering cemented the Israelites’ sense of identity as God’s people and proclaimed His goodness despite their collective and individual hardships. When we gather with those we love to recall God’s provision and presence in our lives, we too are strengthened in faith.  By:  Kirsten Holmberg

Reflect & Pray
Who can you gather with for worship and encouragement? How has your faith been strengthened in community with others?

Father God, thank You for the people You’ve put in my life. Please help us to encourage one another.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
“The Secret of the Lord”
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him… —Psalm 25:14

What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer— “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)— that we catch the secrets of God? What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us— He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.

“Him shall He teach in the way He chooses” (Psalm 25:12). At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices. And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never try to reason it out, saying, “I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?” God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, “Now, Lord, what is Your will?”

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R

Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 19-20; John 13:21-38

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
Big Wings - #8713

I've never been able to get this little four-year-old girl out of my mind. I never met her, but I'll tell you what, I saw her story and it really affected me.

She and her family only had moments to prepare before this F5 tornado hit Joplin, Missouri some years ago. Now, Mom and Dad battled fierce winds; they were desperately trying to shepherd everyone into the safest corner of the house, but not quite everyone. They couldn't get there in time. Somehow this little four-year-old daughter of theirs got separated from them, and those winds were so strong it was impossible to look for her any more. So, they huddled together as the tornado made a direct hit on their house. When they looked up, it had leveled everything almost instantly.

Now, I'm picturing a little granddaughter of mine and try to imagine this parents' panic as they're searching frantically - some reports said they looked for up to two hours. And they searched the rubble that had once been their home. And then they found her, hunkered down in one surviving corner of their house, but far from where the rest of the family had sought shelter. Miraculously this little girl was unharmed. The entire house was gone except for the family's safe spot and their daughter's one little corner.

They asked her, "Honey, how did you get here?" She said, "The man with big wings put me here."

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

The man with big wings! She got to see what actually happens all the time, but usually beyond what we can see. Our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 91:11-12 tell us that "...He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands..." Oh, and according to the book of Isaiah, they have big wings (Isaiah 6:2).

Every once in a while God will pull back the curtain between the world we can see and the spiritual world we can't see, so we can be reminded that the children of the Most High God are constantly under the protection of His "Homeland Security." The angelic security forces from what is the Homeland of those who belong to Jesus.

Now, some folks have made a really big deal out of angels. But they're not the big deal. They're just, according to Hebrews, "ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation" (Hebrews 1:14). It's the God who assigns them that's the big deal.

"My help comes from the Lord," Psalm 121 says, "the Maker of heaven and earth...He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."

So I can live without fear. My safety? My security? Well, it just doesn't depend on my situation. It doesn't depend on my surroundings. It depends on the powerful protection of a God who's promised it will be there. The important thing is that each day I seek to follow His leading and be in His plan. Then I'm as safe on a battlefield as I am in my living room, or in the path of a tornado, not because of where I am, but because of Whose I am. Yes, I should, as that family in Joplin did, take wise precautions. But ultimately, it's got to be God who keeps me safe.

Many of us decide we'll do what God wants based on what's safe or comfortable or secure. But the safest place on earth is to be in the center of the perfect will of God. There are no risky obediences to God, only risky disobediences.

Yeah, there will come a time when God will lift His protection and allow some instrument of His to bring me home to Him. But that will not happen until "all the days ordained for me" according to the Psalmist, are gone (Psalm 139:16) and my work is done. As the Apostle Paul said, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and then will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom" (2 Timothy 4:18).

Who knows how many times I've been rescued from danger I never even knew by "the man with big wings." The few I do know are just the tip of the iceberg of the countless times God has kept His rescue promise.

This little song our kids sang before they went to sleep each night says it all: "Safe am I, safe am I, in the hollow of His hands."