Read the Bible in a Year (03AUG19)

DAILY REMINDER – Today, August 3’s Bible reading is Isaiah 28-30.

NEXT DAY REMINDER – Tomorrow, August 4’s Bible reading is Isaiah 31-35. May God bless you with the reading of His WORD.

ISAIAH MOMENT – (03AUG19) “…Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions” (Isaiah 28:7b). One of the worse things that can take place in the body of Christ is to have those, who are supposed to lead, fall prey to the same traps that those they are ministering to fall in. This is not to say that anyone is above sin, but God holds those who preach and teach to a different standard than those who are not in these roles. Many of the leaders of Isaiah’s day were no better than the people they were supposed to lead. They were drunkards, accepting bribes, and rendering injustice across the land. The people were blind as were their leaders who should have had the spiritual insight to see. They were caught up in all sorts of sin, and when someone their junior tried to correct them, they turned a deaf ear because of their pious attitude. The Apostle Paul addressed the traits that leaders of God were to possess. “This is a trustworthy saying: ‘If someone aspires to be a church leader,  he desires an honorable position.’ So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife.  He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money” (1 Timothy 3:1-3). The Apostle Paul is clear that leaders should be honorable and set an example for the people they lead. Unfortunately, this was not happening during Isaiah’s day, and neither is it taking place with many leaders in today’s pulpits.

Since Israel did not want to listen to the true prophets of God, He was going to allow the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to teach them a lesson in LISTENING. That’s right! They found it senseless to listen to the commands of God and thought of them to be repetitive, so God was going to allow their oppressors to give their rules and repetitive commands that Israel would be forced to adhere to. As a slave, you do not get to tell the master what rule and regulations he should make and what you will follow. Unfortunately, this was the route that Israel chose, which would be to the demise of many within their nation. Sometimes, we are so rebellious that God has to allow circumstances to come our way to get our full attention. Israel’s leaders should have pointed the nation to the Lord, but they were deaf and blind themselves where they could not lead anyone. God is calling people to leave the Babylonian church system (those churches who preach their own philosophies and not God’s true unadulterated Word), and to follow His voice. Some will respond, and others will stay in disobedience, which will result in their own spiritual death. If God calls you out of any situation, it is best to listen to His voice and not that of others or your own. “As has just been said: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion’ ” (Hebrews 3:15). Something to ponder….

QUESTION OF THE DAY - (03AUG19) The Lord warned Jerusalem to listen to Him and obey His ways so that they would receive His blessings, but they refused to do so. They thought that making an alliance with the Egyptians would save them from their enemies, but God had already warned them about this. God, in fact, was using Judah’s enemies to come against them to teach them lessons of humility and obedience. Judah figured that they could do it behind God’s back and that He would not see their plans, but they only managed to make fools of themselves. The Bible says, “What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their evil deeds in the dark! ‘The Lord can’t see us,’ they say. ‘He doesn’t know what’s going on!’ How foolish can you be?” (Isaiah 29:15-16a). They were foolish indeed to think that anything could get past the Lord’s view. The Lord despised the fact that Judah praised Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. If they had a heart for the Lord, they would not have been disobedient to His commands, and would have honored Him with their lives. How many people today are honoring God only through lip service as Israel did?

The Apostle James had this to say, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves” (James 1:22). We may be able to fool people regarding our walk with Christ, but God will never be fooled. He sees what we do in the secret places where we think no one knows, and He reads our minds and know our true intentions. God does not want us to act like we’re living for Him on Sunday, live like the devil on Tuesday, pretend to be saved on Wednesday, back to living like a demon on Friday, and the cycle repeats itself by Saturday. That is called being lukewarm and that puts a nasty taste in God’s mouth. The Bible says, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” (Revelation 3:15-16). Do you know that it is impossible to fool God? Why do so many of us try? He is our Creator and there is nothing that He does not know. Let’s be mindful to serve God fully with not only our lips, but with our lives. We are ambassadors for Christ, and just as an ambassador represents the nation that they come from, we are to represent Christ fully even when we think others do not see us. Something to ponder….