Spend a little time with this passage today. Reflect on the events leading up to the cross. Imagine the crown of thorns being crushed down upon Jesus’ head. See the blood running down His face. Picture Him as He’s forced to His knees, with His arms wrapped around a pole. Watch His body wince every time the whip straps, laced with hooks, snap across His back and rip out strips of flesh. Time and again, they strike until there’s nearly no flesh left. Then they force Him to stagger through the streets in public humiliation. People laugh and catcall as He passes. They spit in His face and mock Him. And they lead Him away to a waiting cross. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is crucified like a common criminal.
As you imagine this, say these words out loud. “He chose to do that for me.” Isn’t that unbelievable? First, that He CHOSE it. Look again at what Isaiah reminds us about. “I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting.” “I OFFERED my back…I DID NOT HIDE my face.” Jesus didn’t have to go through any of it. He was clear about this when He said, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down.” He reminded Peter and His disciples in the Garden that He didn’t need their protection. He was the Commander of the Armies of Heaven and could call legions of angels to defend Him. But He didn’t. Though He was powerful beyond measure, He willingly and thoughtfully chose not to stop what was happening or even resist. He chose it.
But He didn’t do that without reason. He did it for YOU. He did it for ME. When the crown of thorns pierced His scalp, when the whip shredded His back, when He tolerated the mocking and spitting, when He allowed them to drive spikes through His hands and feet, He did it with us in mind. His pain would be for our healing. His humiliation would pave the way for our glory. His blood would pay the penalty for our sin. And His death would give us LIFE! Say it again and let it humble you to your knees before Him today. “He chose to do that for me.” That’s God’s Word for you today.

Most commentators agree that these words in Isaiah are spoken about Jesus. It becomes especially apparent when you read the verses just after these. But it’s easy to see the connection to Jesus all through this passage. Jesus spoke the words that His Father gave Him, didn’t He? In fact, in John 8:28, Jesus says, “I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me.” He also certainly declared His ministry to “comfort the weary.” In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Jesus spoke the words that people needed to hear and lived with a compassion and empathy for people that brought people comfort, encouragement, and strength.
But sometimes we forget where the secret to Jesus’ impact on people came from. It came from spending time with His Father! Look again at what Isaiah tells us. “Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. The Sovereign LORD has spoken to me, and I have listened.” His alignment with His Father became the conduit through which Jesus carried out His ministry. Mark 1:35 tells us “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Even when ministry got really busy, maybe ESPECIALLY when ministry got busy, Jesus made time to seek His Father’s presence and guidance. Look at Luke 5:15-16: “…vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.”
The secret to Jesus’ success is the secret to ours. We can’t speak God’s words to others until we’ve allowed God to speak to US! We need HIS wisdom, HIS insight, and HIS guidance. We also need His power flowing through us if we’re going to be His comforters, encouragers, and healers. It is our time WITH God that gives us what we need to live FOR God. Let the key to our lives for Christ flow out of the wisdom of Isaiah. “Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. The Sovereign LORD has spoken to me, and I have listened.” Amen. That’s God’s Word for you today.

What a beautiful reminder today of how precious we are to God. And we NEED to be reminded of that sometimes! When life gets overwhelming or when we’re going through suffering or troubles, we sometimes think that maybe God has forgotten us or maybe He doesn’t care. But He hasn’t forgotten. And He ALWAYS cares!
Isaiah’s reminder to the people was to give them hope and call them to faith. It would be easy for them in their time of exile to slip into a “Woe is me” mode. Had their sin taken them too far for God to forgive? Had their circumstances become too difficult for God to undo? Had God finally had enough and turned His back upon them forever?
God’s response to this is so endearing. Not only does God say, “No, I won’t forget you.” He says, “No, I CAN’T forget you!” God uses the image of the bond between a mother with a nursing child and says, “Do you think that mother could forget the child at her breast?” You can almost hear the laugh in His voice as He says, “Even if that was possible, I CAN’T FORGET YOU!” That is how bonded God is to YOU!
God has engraved your name on the palm of His Hand. Your face is always before Him. God is fully aware of where you are and what you are going through. Even on those days when you don’t see Him and can’t feel Him, He is right there with you, and His eye is upon you. He will NEVER leave you or forsake you. Call out to Him today. Ask Him to draw near and give you a sense of His grace and His love. Ask Him to wrap His great arms around you and hold you close. You’re not just engraved on His Hand, you are tattooed on His Heart. He is with you ALWAYS! That’s God’s Word for you today.

Can you imagine how this prophecy of Isaiah hit the people of Israel? As God’s “Chosen People,” it would be extremely difficult for them to wrap their minds around God loving and choosing the Gentiles of the earth. They were an “unclean” people. They had habits that were disgusting and lifestyles that were appalling. How could God care about them with all the other “gods” they had in their lives?
But there it was. Written hundreds of years before Jesus came, God foretold His mission. Not just to reach out to the comfortably religious, but to reach out to the unworthy and unlikely. All you have to do is look at the ministry of Jesus, and you see that it’s true. Tax collectors. Prostitutes. People possessed by demons. Roman officers. Samaritans. A woman caught in the act of adultery. A thief on a cross. Cowards like Peter who denied Him. Doubters like Thomas, who didn’t believe. Persecutors and blasphemers like Paul. Dangerous people. Horrible people. Sick people. The kind that needs The Doctor, The Savior, The Liberator, The Redeemer.
In my sermon on Sunday, I reminded our people that sometimes the people we find the most unlikely are the very ones that God is working on their hearts. Like the man in my church many years ago, who was fresh out of prison. He was big, gruff-looking, and intimidating. He looked like the kind of man you’d meet on the street who would cause you to start running the other way. But I watched God melt him, change him, shape him, and work through him. He was the kind of person people wouldn’t want to come to their church. He was also exactly the kind of man Jesus came to be a light to and to die for. And exactly the kind Jesus wants us to reach out to.
I say this because most of us have these unlikely people around us. They’re the obnoxious worker that no one can stand. They’re the annoying neighbor who complains about everything. They’re the foul-mouthed guy at the gym. They’re the person that you believe wants absolutely nothing to do with God, the church, or even decent people. But inside, they’re just lost souls who need to be found and hurting people who need to be healed. So be a light to them. Be kind to them, regardless of how they treat you. And when God nudges you, reach out to them. Because God knows something we often forget. It’s unlikely people who have the most amazing testimonies! That’s God’s Word for you today.

Sunday in my sermon, I challenged our people to seize the “higher calling” that God has on our lives. Like Peter, He has called us all to be “fishers of men.” But I’ve found, as many of you have, that being used by God can be both scary and frustrating. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I don’t know enough? What if someone asks me a question that I can’t answer? At times, it seems as if it might just be easier to leave the work of God to the professionals. Or at least, leave it to people who are smarter or better than ME!
But we make a big mistake when we think that way. We forget that the work we do isn’t really about what WE can do. It’s about what God can do THROUGH us! I can’t make people see the light. Only God can do that. I can’t bring conviction to people’s hearts. Only God can do that. I can’t save a soul, change a life, or set a person free. Only God can do that. God just needs vessels to pour Himself through. Not experts who are full of themselves.
Another mistake we make is focusing on the visible results that we see or don’t see. We forget when we teach, share, or witness that sometimes we are planting seeds. At other times, we’re watering seeds that someone else has planted. And then there are those rare, precious moments where we see our words stick or we get to witness the miracle of transformation in someone’s life. Sadly, many of us give up, get frustrated, or just quit trying when we don’t see the results we want.
We have two big, beautiful trees in front of our home. They are not only pretty, but they also give us nice shade for our driveway and the western side of our home. But they weren’t big, beautiful, and shady when we moved in 16 years ago. In fact, they weren’t there at all. A neighbor gave them to us when they were just sticks. We planted them, and God’s sunshine, rain, and dirt gave them life, growth, and health. We knew nothing about growing trees. But we faithfully put two sticks in God’s Hands and let Him do the work.
Don’t grow weary in well doing. Teach that class. Lead that group. Preach that sermon. Talk to someone about Jesus. And do it even if you don’t see any immediate return at all. Let your approach to your “higher calling” be the philosophy that Isaiah teaches us. “I leave it all in the LORD’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.” That’s God’s Word for you today.

Take a deep breath and let it out. Today is a New Day. It is a Clean Slate. You can’t do anything about yesterday, and tomorrow is not here yet. But today is YOURS. And it is a GIFT. How will you use it? What story will you write? How will you use it to become the person you know God wants you to be?
These were the thoughts that flooded my mind when I read our verse today. Take another look at those first three words. “Yet even now…” Do you understand the power behind them? God is telling His People that He has not given up on them. He’s letting them know that their failures and their sins of the past do not have to be the final chapter of their story. He’s letting them know that He is still FOR them and not AGAINST them. He’s reassuring them of His constant presence, His relentless grace, and His everlasting love. There is still time to embrace His forgiveness and open themselves to all He has for them. Today is a New Day. And God’s mercy is the ink with which we can begin to write a New Story.
Don’t live in the failures of yesterday. Don’t let the shame of where you’ve been rob you of where God wants to take you. You don’t have to be who you’ve been. You don’t have to do what you’ve done. Yes, you’ve made mistakes. Yes, you’ve let yourself and others down. Yes, you can look back and realize what you could’ve done, should’ve done, and wish you’d done. But none of that will do anything but make you miserable. Holding onto the past only keeps you from seizing the present.
Take a moment to let yourself bathe in the grace and mercy of God. Let Him remind you that He has redeemed you and believes you to be of infinite worth. Lay all of your yesterdays at His Holy Feet and watch as He throws them into His Sea of Forgetfulness. Now open your hands and your heart to the treasure of today and commit yourself to treating it as the most precious gift you can be given. “Yet even now,” means that God has not given up on you. Don’t you dare give up on Him. Now go write your story! That’s God’s Word for you today.

I was talking with a man this week who has been struggling. As we talked about his problems and how he was dealing with them, he used a phrase that I hear from time to time. “Generational curses.” It’s a phrase that’s used to describe the destructive tendencies and issues that seem to be passed on from one generation to the next, time and time again. They’re not genetic. They are patterns of behavior and personal and family dysfunction that are learned and repeated, over and over again.
For example, people who abuse children tend to come from families where they were abused. People who deal with alcohol and chemical addiction tend to come from families with parents and grandparents who struggled with those addictions. People who are incarcerated often come from homes where there were other family members who were incarcerated. Poor money managers are often that way because they had no models of good money management. Get the picture?
But it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s what God is pointing out in our passage today. Just as there are “generational curses,” there are “generational blessings.” When we face our addictions and break the chains of their bondage, we break the curse for our family lineage. When we own our dysfunction, bring healing to our past woundedness, and establish healthy patterns of relating to one another, we breathe life and health into the next generation. When we obey God, serve Him faithfully, and seek after Him with all of our hearts, we set our kids and grandkids up to receive the blessings that come from serving the Lord.
What I told the man I talked to this week was that you can’t do anything about the life you inherited. But you can do EVERYTHING about the life you’re living and the one you’re going to pass on. Let’s stop being victims of the generations behind, and let’s commit to being victors in the generation that’s ours! Let’s do more than just break the curse. Let’s become Generational Blessings! That’s God’s Word for you today.

“Jesus replied to Simon, ‘Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!’ And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.” – Luke 5:10-11 (NLT)

One of my favorite stories to tell on myself is when my wife bought a bookshelf years ago and asked me to put it together. I’ll confess from the get-go that I am NOT a handyman. Tools and I have an understanding. I leave them alone, and they leave me alone. But this was just a bookcase. It’s just a hammer and a screwdriver. No big deal. I slid all the boards and parts out of the box, along with the instructions. Being a “man,” I tossed the instructions aside. “Who needs detailed instructions to put a bookcase together?” I thought to myself. As the event would prove, I did.
I laid the boards out and began to screw the shelves in. It seemed to come together easily, and I was pretty impressed with myself when I was done. I stood it up and called Wanda in to look at it. I realized, standing there, that I had made a mistake. I had put the two middle shelves in upside down. I took the bookcase apart, flipped the shelves, and called Wanda in to have a second look. “Something doesn’t look right,” she said. We then saw that I had the top part where the bottom belonged and the bottom part where the top belonged.
Once again, I took the entire bookcase apart, got the top and bottom on correctly, and stepped back to look at it by myself. It looked good. So I nailed on the back, stood it against the wall, and called Wanda in one last time so she could tell me how well I did. She put her arm around me and said, “Nice job, Honey!” I beamed. Then she said, “Oh.” She wasn’t going to say anything, but when I forced her to tell me what was wrong, she said, “You nailed the back on with the wrong side showing. The woodgrain faces the front, and the plain wood faces the wall.” I had to undo what I’d done. One. More. Time.
Life’s easier when we follow the instructions. It’s true in pretty much every aspect of life. It’s especially true when it comes to God. God sadly reminds His People in our passage today what they could have had if they only listened. They could have lived in the Promised Land in peace and been filled with the joy and satisfaction that only His Righteousness can bring. Instead, they did things their way. Though God didn’t abandon them, it certainly took them on a path they wished they would have never had to take. Including a 70-year exile to a foreign country.
God loves us so much that He gave us the Bible. Also known as “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.” We do ourselves a favor to read those instructions. We do ourselves an even bigger favor when we FOLLOW them! If God is speaking to you through His Word or touching your heart with His Spirit, I’d encourage you to listen and obey. Not because God will forsake you or abandon you or even stop loving you. He won’t. But you WILL make life harder for yourself by doing things your way. Take it from a guy who has learned the hard way. Life is better when we follow the instructions. That’s God’s Word for you today.

GPS is wonderful. Until it’s not. Most of us who have used it have had the frustration of following it to a place that was not our destination, even though the GPS was telling us it was. Two years ago, a couple was following their GPS in Isle of Palms, South Carolina. They got turned around a few different times until finally the GPS led them down a boat ramp and into the water! Fortunately, with the help of some bystanders, they were able to evacuate the car and get safely onto dry land. The car had to be pulled out of the water.
Who are YOU following these days? Advice is everywhere, isn’t it? AI will be happy to advise you. There is more advice than you can ever digest on Social Media outlets. Then again, there are the well-intentioned friends, family, and co-workers who stand ready to add their two cents. Voices that are ready to tell you what to do. Voices that are ready to tell you what decisions you should make. Voices that are ready to tell you how to live, how to act, and how to speak. Voices that are confident that they know what kind of person you should be and what is best for you. Who are you listening to?
God reminds us in Isaiah that HE wants to be our Guide. Take another look at what He says in our passage for today. “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow.” The God who made us doesn’t just leave us to ourselves. He wants to be actively involved in walking with us and show us the way we are to go. Just look at the names God is called by in Scripture. Teacher. Rabbi. Shepherd. Lord. Father. All of those titles are endowed with the idea of someone who advises us, guides us, mentors us, and teaches us.
Amidst the plethora of voices that are clamoring for your attention today, I encourage you to seek the Lord. God is the one who KNOWS you best. God is the one who LOVES you most. And God is the one who knows the paths that are RIGHT for you. Seek His guidance and His wisdom above all others. Not that God won’t lead you into water, He might. He’s done that with His People before. But if He does, He’ll part those waters for you! He always gets His People to where they need to be. That’s God’s Word for you today.

Jack Whittaker was one lucky man. That is, until he wasn’t. On Christmas of 2002, he won $315,000,000 in the lottery. He opted for the lump sum payout, as many people do. After taxes, he received $113,000,000. He thought his problems were over. But they had actually just begun.
Jack liked to live large and decided to carry a large amount of cash on him wherever he went. Because of that, he ended up getting robbed multiple times. One time, he had $545,000 stolen out of his car while he was in a strip club! As you can imagine, he was bombarded by scam artists and people trying to get their hands on his money.
The money didn’t help his family life either. His granddaughter’s boyfriend died of an overdose at Whittaker’s house. Later, his granddaughter died as well. Then his daughter died from cancer. Finally, his marriage collapsed. Jack eventually referred to winning the lottery as a “curse.” He said that he wished he had torn up the ticket and that it had done nothing but “poison” his life.
Gold and silver can’t save you. Whether you fashion them into idols or turn them into houses, cars, clothes, and exotic living, they are gods without power. They can’t bring your life healing, wholeness, or peace. Often, as in Jack’s case, they only make your life worse. And they certainly can’t save you from the troubles life brings your way.
Put your trust in the Lord today. All the lesser gods that this world holds up before us have no real power. They can’t save our souls, mend our relationships, comfort us in our losses, or break the chains of our addictions. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.” Open your heart to Him and allow Him to give you what you’re truly looking for. It isn’t even a gamble. Jesus is a Guaranteed Win! That’s God’s Word for you today.

The other day, as I was walking and praying, I was thanking God for His faithfulness and protection throughout my life. I thought about two different times in my life when I could have drowned. I thought about a time I lost control on a minibike, zoomed across a busy highway, and could have easily been hit and killed. I thought about the times that at least twice while riding my bicycle, I could have been struck by a car and killed. Then there are the car accidents I’ve had. If I’ve got a Guardian Angel, I sure kept them busy!
I thanked God also that day for the times He saved me from myself. I’ve made more than my share of bad decisions along the way, but there were times that, without God’s grace in my life, I could have gone down paths that would have forever changed my life. And not in a good way. It’s actually pretty scary to think about.
As I spent time just thanking God and praising Him for His grace, mercy, and faithfulness, my heart was overflowing with gratitude and thankfulness. I didn’t deserve a single one of the gifts He’s given me, but He gave them to me just the same. I was overwhelmed.
But then, something else happened. Peace. As I thought about where my life is today and where it is headed, I had this amazing realization. The same God who was with me through all of that is with me STILL. I know that sounds like one of those “but of course” statements, but it was so powerful in its effect upon me. I’m not young anymore. I’m old. I don’t take stupid chances anymore, but nonetheless, I’m closer to death now than I’ve ever been. I’m heading toward retirement in a matter of months—a place I’ve never been before. But I felt a strange peace about it all. And today’s verse sealed it in my heart. “Until your hair is white (or gone!) with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.” The God who WAS with me walks beside me TODAY. He had me THEN, and He has me NOW.
I hope this blesses you today. Wherever you are on your journey, whether you’re young, middle-aged, or older, let this truth give you peace and confidence. God WAS with you. He IS with you. He WILL BE with you. He is an amazing and faithful God. All the way to the end. That’s God’s Word for you today.

As I sat with our verse for today, it resonated deep within me. God is speaking through Isaiah about a time when everyone on the earth will ultimately bow before Him. It’ll be the time when there will be no doubt who God is and that He is the King over all. Some people will be filled with dread and fear. Some will be filled with sorrow and shame. But others will be filled with gratitude, awe, and joy. And we will declare exactly what God has spoken. “The LORD is the source of all my righteousness and strength.”
Yesterday in my message, I was talking about how part of going “deeper” with God makes us more aware of who WE are as well as who God is. That means, as I spend time in His Word and time with Him in prayer, He makes me more aware of my flaws and sins. His Word becomes a mirror where I see myself for what I am rather than what I would like to believe I am. His Spirit brings conviction to my heart to want to grow, change, and become more like Him. But no matter how much I do that, I still fall short. That’s when I hold onto this important and amazing truth: HE is my righteousness! When God sees me, He doesn’t see all my flaws and failings. He sees His Son. My growth may make me a better man, but it is only as He envelopes me in His Son that I become a righteous one.
The second part of that verse is one I’ve learned the hard way. The Lord is the source of my strength. I used to lean on myself a lot. My wisdom. My ability. My willpower. My tenacity. My fortitude. But what I discovered was that my strength is never enough. I don’t have what it takes to be a good pastor. I don’t have what it takes to be a good husband or father. I don’t even have what it takes to be a good man. I need the strength that only the Lord can provide. Through Him, I can lead and shepherd with wisdom, courage, and compassion. Through Him, I can love selflessly and care for my family with both strength and gentleness. Through Him, I can live by what I say I believe. Through Him, I can BE the man God’s called me to be.
Jesus said, “I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Apart from me, you can do nothing. But if you abide in me and I in you, you can bear good fruit.” Amen, Jesus, we have found your words to be true. And one day, when we stand before Him, God will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” And we will declare, “All glory is yours, Lord, because the LORD is the source of all my righteousness and strength!” That’s God’s Word for you today.

I saw a documentary some years ago that was really disturbing.  It was an Eastern religious group that had a very unusual ritual/celebration.  They paraded from the center of their village to a temple in honor of their god.  But the parade was one of self-mutilation and pain.  Some cut themselves as they walked.  Some walked through glass, shredding their feet.  Some were crawling, leaving their knees and feet bleeding.  The most startling were those who had hooks in their backs pulling carts.  All of them were hoping to gain favor, forgiveness, or right standing with their god by punishing themselves in the pilgrimage.
As I watched, I felt horribly sorry for them.  All that pain.  All that sacrifice.  All that suffering.  And all for a god that doesn’t exist.  They didn’t find favor.  They didn’t find forgiveness.  They didn’t find peace, wholeness, healing, or satisfaction.  They only found pain.  They didn’t have to suffer at all to find what they were looking for.  They only had to recognize and receive the truth that God had actually done all of the suffering for them!
What God declared in our passage today, Jesus declared in John 14.  “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me!”  People have often said that to believe Jesus is the only way to salvation or heaven is being exclusive.  But one, since God is the Only True God, He can determine whatever path He wants as the right one.  That’s one of the perks of being “God!”  
And two, God wasn’t trying to be exclusive.  He was trying to be CLEAR.  God didn’t want to leave any doubt about how to connect with Him.  He didn’t want people out there just floundering away like this group I watched trying to figure out how to be “right with God.”  God didn’t want people to go through the frustration and emptiness of religious hoops and hurdles only to end up exhausted and unfulfilled.  So God sent His One and Only Son that people might not only find forgiveness and freedom, but that they might also enter into an exciting, eternity-lasting relationship with Him.
So if you’re wondering if there is a God, there is. But there is Only One.  There is no other.  And that God loves you more than you can possibly imagine.  You don’t have to punish yourself for Him.  He came to show His love by dying for YOU!  Open your heart. Accept the love and grace He so freely offers you today.  His salvation is not a prize you have to earn.  It’s a gift you only have to receive.  There is only One God and One Way to be right with Him.  And it’s “No Pain, All Gain!”  That’s God’s Word for you today.

Today is a Sunday. In fact, it’s Mother’s Day. And even though it’ll be a more highly attended Sunday than usual for most churches, there will still be many more people who won’t attend church than do. I find that really sad. But I think that just as sad is the reality that many of the people who DO attend church won’t get a whole lot out of it. Not because there won’t be good teaching, powerful worship, and certainly not because the Spirit of God won’t be there. He will. No, many people will go home exactly the way they came in, unchanged by God for one primary reason. They aren’t looking for Him.
Please hear my heart. God isn’t hiding. Take another look at what God says in our passage today. “I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner. I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found.” God CAN be found. In fact, He WANTS to be found! He’s like my 5-year-old grandson Adrian, who is HORRIBLE at Hide-N-Seek. The moment you walk in the room, he pops out and says, “Here I am!” God is everywhere, all around us, all the time. But we have to be LOOKING and LISTENING.
God wants to be found so badly that He had people of old write down His words and the stories of how He works in the lives of His People so that WE could read them. Including the amazing account of how He came to earth as Jesus Christ! He called men and women to be teachers and preachers, gifting them to explain and expound upon His Word and encourage and challenge us in our Christian lives. He gifted worship leaders and musicians to inspire us and lead us into His Presence to praise Him, adore Him, honor Him, and thank Him. God seeks to make Himself known to us through conversations, through the wonder of His creation, and through the God-wink moments we call “coincidences.” But none of that matters if we aren’t SEEKING.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” Take a deep breath and ask yourself an important, honest question. When was the last time you could say you truly sought God with that kind of intensity and passion? You see, God’s not hiding. We are. We hide in our busyness. We hide in our preoccupation with other things. We hide in our obsession with our phones. Like one recent songwriter wrote, “We got dust on our Bibles and brand-new iPhones. No wonder that we feel this way.” God’s not hiding, my friend. All you have to do is seek. That’s God’s Word for you today.

“The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” – Psalm 51:17 (NLT)

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that, left to themselves, things tend toward disorder and chaos. It’s called entropy. You see it all around you. Let me give you some examples. Let a yard go. What happens? Weeds. Overgrowth. Vines and all kinds of hard to get rid of plants. In other words, if you see a nice, well-trimmed, edged yard with neatly mulched areas with flowers, you know it didn’t “just happen.” An outside force was at work.
Or take relationships. Have you discovered what happens when you don’t pay attention to relationships? They begin to fall apart. Lack of communication causes two people to drift apart. Hurt feelings happen as two people just naturally exist in the same vicinity. And if those hurt feelings aren’t tended to, resentment builds, trust erodes, and people pull away from each other. Lack of caring causes even the best of relationships to disintegrate.
The same thing that happens to yards and relationships happens to us. God didn’t just create the world. He created it to be lived under His care and according to His plan. Take another look at our verse for today. “For the LORD is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos.” So when we decide we’re just going to live any way that we want to live, guess what happens? You got it. Chaos.
From time to time, I get people whose lives are a mess who come to see me. Their drinking is out of control. Their marriage is falling apart. They feel empty, lost, and alone. Often, reflecting on their lives, they will say something like, “I have no idea how I got here.” That’s when I have the privilege of sharing with them what they're missing. A life lived without God is a life without a Guiding Hand. A person who simply chooses to follow their own passions, desires, and pleasures is identical to the drug addict who is oblivious to the fact that the very thing that’s making them feel so good is killing them. Sadly, it’s only when the chaos becomes unbearable that most of us decide to act.
But here’s the good news. It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to wait until the weeds have taken over to give some attention to our yards. We don’t have to wait until our relationships have dissolved to give them some proactive attention. And we don’t have to wait until our lives fall apart to give them over to God. God is ready whenever we are to take the lead, bring the healing, and begin to restore our lives to order. Why not invite Him in today to do His restoring work? Stop the slide into chaos. Let’s surrender our lives to the love and leadership of our Creator King! That’s God’s Word for you today.

In February 2013, 18-year-old Casey Charf and two of her friends were driving to a gathering when a skunk walked across the road in front of them. Casey swerved to miss the skunk, causing the car to flip over and roll several times. The teens survived but were pretty banged up. Casey ended up with a broken neck and broken back. Not exactly the way you want to spend your last semester in high school. She had no idea that it would be the very thing that would save her life.
As the doctors ran scans on Casey to determine the extent of her injuries, they noticed a spot on one of her kidneys. It looked suspicious. So they ran further tests and scans. What they discovered astounded them and shocked Casey and her family. Casey had a 5-inch by 3-inch tumor hiding in her body. She had no symptoms and no pain from it. If it hadn’t been for the accident, she likely would not have discovered it until the tumor had invaded several major organs. By then, it would have most likely been too late. As crazy as it might seem, Casey and her family thanked God for that accident. What was originally thought to be the worst day of her life turned out to be the most blessed.
Take another look at our verse for today. “Truly, O God of Israel, our Savior, you work in mysterious ways.” Have you ever experienced some of those “mysterious ways” in your own life? Let’s be honest. God doesn’t always make sense to us. Sometimes we ask for one thing, and God gives us another. And we don’t know why. Sometimes things happen, and we don’t understand why God didn’t intervene. Though Casey survived the accident, I’m sure there were questions as to how God could let her get hurt like that. After the cancer was discovered, Casey and her family were THANKING GOD for the car crash! They got an insight into a truth we all need to rest in. God is ALWAYS at work. I’m not saying that everything that happens is caused by God, but I am saying that Paul reminds us that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.” Even though many times in ways we don’t understand.
Isaiah reminds us that it’s not our job to understand God. It’s just our job to trust and obey Him. God loves you, wants what’s best for you, and is always working on your behalf. Even when He’s being mysterious about what He’s up to. That’s God’s Word for you today.

I was watching a movie the other night that broke my heart. A father who had two sons was being really harsh with the younger son. He put him down. He called him names. He told him he was weak, pitiful, and useless. He simply shredded the poor young man’s self-esteem in front of a whole group of people.
What’s worse, the younger son BELIEVED what the father was saying. He believed he was a bother. He believed he had no usefulness or value. He believed he was a MISTAKE. The only saving grace of the scene was the older brother who came to him, put his arm around him, and told him not to listen to their dad. He assured his brother that he was loved. He reminded him of the gifts and talents that he had. And he told him that he meant the world to him and that he would always be there for him. You could see how desperately the younger brother wanted to believe it.
I thought of that scene when I read our verse for today. I thought about how many people I’ve met along the way who have felt like that younger brother. Somewhere along the way, they were beaten down to a point where they accept the harsh treatment from other people as something they deserve. They not only struggle to find purpose and meaning in their lives, but they also struggle to understand why they were even born. So they question God’s Sovereignty. They question their created value. They question whether God really cares about them at all.
But He does. God cares about every single one of us. Some people, in their insecurity, may feel the need to put us down. But that doesn’t change our status with God. Some people, who have been through pain of their own, may seek to wipe that pain off on us, but that doesn’t mean we deserve it. We don’t. And some of us may grow up in places where we’ve been called every ugly name in existence. But those names are not who we are. Only God, who created us, gets to define us. And He calls us His Precious Children. So if you’re struggling with your identity today or thinking your life is a mistake, take a moment to pause. Let Jesus, your Big Brother, who loved you enough to die for you, come alongside you and remind you who you really are. You are not a mistake. You, my friend, are a MASTERPIECE. Created by the Hands of Almighty God. And His opinion of you is the only one that matters. That’s God’s Word for you today.

Several years ago, I took a church plant that was struggling for survival and did a restart with it. We started getting traction and began to grow. We had some amazing leaders who had great hearts for God and great hearts for our community. What we DIDN’T have as a church was a lot of money. In fact, we lived on a shoestring budget with no surplus.
One day, I had what I believed to be a “God-idea.” It was an idea for outreach that I truly believed would have a significant impact in our area. The only problem was that it was going to cost $1500 ($3500 in today’s money). We didn’t have that kind of money anywhere, so I simply made it a matter of prayer and filed it away.
Shortly thereafter, the mother of a man in our church passed away. A few days after the funeral, he called me to ask if Wanda would like to look through his mother’s clothes to see if there was anything she might want since they were about the same size. He gave me the address where his father lived, and a few nights later, we met them there. Since this man was a board member in our church, I thought I’d tell him about my outreach idea. His father, whom I met for the first time that night, listened intently while I shared my idea. When I finished sharing, I told my board member to be praying with me about it, and maybe we could kick it around at our next board meeting and brainstorm some fundraising ideas.
When Wanda finished trying on clothes, she packed up what she wanted, and we thanked my friend and his father. We walked out to the car, where I began putting the clothes in the trunk. When I closed the trunk and turned around, there was my friend’s father. He said, “Pastor, if your church decides to do that outreach idea, I’ll pay for it.” My mouth hit the ground. This man had never been to our church. He’d never heard one note of our music or one word from my sermons. Yet God had touched his heart to provide for us what we needed to make it happen. God moves through the most unlikely people sometimes!
That’s the point God makes through Isaiah in our passage today. God used Cyrus, the Persian king, as an instrument to return His People back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the Temple. In fact, God refers to Cyrus as His “shepherd.” Let this both amaze you and motivate you today. God isn’t limited to whose heart He can touch or who He might use to accomplish His will. When I prayed for the provision for our outreach event, I never dreamed the money would come from a man I’d never met or who had never attended our church. Israel never dreamed that God would use a pagan king to facilitate their deliverance from exile. And you have no idea who God might use to answer YOUR prayers as well. All I can say is thank God for His Unlikely Blessings! That’s God’s Word for you today.

I was reading a testimony today of a young man who went down a dark path. At the encouragement of some friends, he did things he knew he shouldn’t do. He confessed that his desire to please his friends and be counted as one of the “cool kids” was stronger than his desire to do what was right. That is, until afterward.
He discovered that the aftermath of sin is never satisfaction. It’s shame. He didn’t feel proud of himself. He felt worthless. He wasn’t happy to be “one of the gang.” He felt lonelier than ever. He was disgusted with himself and felt dirty, repulsive, and sickened. He said that he felt too embarrassed to even pray.
His story is a great picture of what the Enemy does with sin. He turns guilt into shame. Make no mistake, the young man was certainly guilty. What he did was a direct violation of God’s commands—commands he KNEW he was disobeying. But the Enemy took that guilt and turned it inward. He made the boy believe that what he did was a declaration of who he WAS, what he was WORTH, and how he was looked at by God. Thankfully, someone responded to the boy’s post about his shame with a great reminder of God’s love and grace. And the boy turned his eyes away from His sin and refocused them on God’s amazing offer of forgiveness.
Maybe the Enemy has been playing the shame game with you lately. Perhaps he’s reminded you of something you’ve done in your past that was a heartbreaking failure on your part. Maybe he’s brought up a lifestyle you’ve lived, or reminded you of sins you’ve committed, or shown you again the people you’ve hurt in the past. Or perhaps, like the young man, you’ve recently fallen. You’ve done what you know you shouldn’t have done or been on a path you know you shouldn’t be on. And today, maybe you, too, find yourself shackled in shame.
If any of that fits for you, read the words of the Lord spoken to us in our verse today in Isaiah. “I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.” Let this verse sink in, all the way to your soul. Jesus Christ has already paid the price for your forgiveness and freedom. If you’ve sinned, then confess and repent and accept the grace that God offers you to wash away your sin. If you’ve already confessed and repented and the Enemy is just playing mind games with you, then CLAIM the forgiveness that God has given you and DECLARE the freedom that you walk in today. When the Enemy tries to shackle you with shame, remember: God’s Grace is the key that sets you FREE! That’s God’s Word for you today.

Today’s verse is such an interesting contrast. In the first couple of verses, God talks about how He made a dry path through waters. In the last couple of verses, He talks about how He would make a waterway through the desert. He also talks about how the water of the Red Sea became a grave for the army of Egypt. But the waters in the dry wasteland would be waters of LIFE!
When I read this passage today, I thought of Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in John 4. Remember the story? Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water, and that engages them in a religious conversation. Jesus seeks to reveal Himself to the woman by telling her that if she knew who He was, she would ask Him for a drink—and He would give her Living Water. After a confused response, Jesus says to her, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) Eventually, the woman discovers that Jesus is the Real Water she’s looking for. Someone who can quench the thirst in our souls and bring life to our dry, dying hearts.
I offer this thought to those of you who may feel like you’ve been living in a barren wilderness. Like the woman at the well, you need more than just one more “quick fix.” You need LIFE. Jesus is who you are looking for. I offer this as well to those of you who are going through a dry season of life. If your walk has grown weary and your spirit is feeling empty, maybe what you need isn’t more ritual, routine, and religion. Maybe you need to reconnect with the Jesus that Isaiah prophesied about, The One who quenched the thirst of the woman at the well. Jesus didn’t give her more hoops to jump through or more rules to obey. He gave her a Savior to love and be loved by. Because He is the River of Life that we are all looking for. That’s God’s Word for you today.

When I was walking and praying the other morning, I thought about how it must have been for Adam, getting to walk with God every day. As I dwelled on that image, I asked God, “What did you and Adam talk about?” I can’t say I heard this from God directly, but the thought I had was, “Adam asked a lot of questions.” I laughed when I thought about it. Of course, he did. Adam had no context or history for life. God was his Teacher, Father, and Friend. When you know nothing, you tend to ask a LOT of questions! I pictured Adam like a small child pointing at things and saying, “Tell me about that!”
Then I had another thought. A more disturbing thought. When I’m with God, I usually DON’T ask a lot of questions. I tend to do a lot more TELLING. I tell God what I want or think I need. I tell God who needs help and how to help them. I tell God how our church is doing and who or what needs to be fixed. I literally shook my head and laughed out loud as I pictured ME as Adam telling God all the things He needs to fix in this amazing world that He created. Here I am, a self-focused, half-a-brain, dummy walking with the smartest Being in the universe, and I’m doing all the talking. It was EMBARRASING.
God reminds us in our passage today that HE alone is God. Not me. Not you. HIM. He’s not just smart. He is All-Knowing. He’s not just capable. He is All-Powerful. He invites us to bare our hearts, share our needs, and cry out to Him as our Friend and Father. But He is also our Teacher. I’m not sure exactly how it’s supposed to work, but I know that my resolve is that I have to find a way to do more asking, seeking, and knocking than telling. I’m sure that God has a whole lot more to say, and I’ve not been shutting up enough to hear it. I need to be more “Adam” and less “Advisor.”
How about YOU? Are you taking advantage of the greatest opportunity in the world to walk and share with Almighty God? If you are, who’s doing most of the talking and telling, and who’s doing most of the listening? Though it seems funny, it’s easy to forget sometimes who is God and who is not. Let’s begin our prayers with, “You are God, Lord, and I am not!” More Adam, less Advisor. That’s God’s Word for you today.

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” – Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)

When I was in junior high and high school, there was a group of us neighborhood boys who used to hang out together. We played ball, traded comics, and often stayed over at each other’s homes. But in early high school, a few of the gang began to move into stuff that a couple of us couldn’t go along with. They would steal stuff from stores. They started getting older guys to buy alcohol for them. A few started getting into drugs.
It wasn’t long before the “bad boys” of the group started putting pressure on the rest of us to go along with them. When we wouldn’t, they would laugh at us. They weren’t over the top with their pressure, but they would call us “goody-goodies” and a few other names that weren’t so nice. They made it clear that they didn’t think we were “real men” because we wouldn’t do what they did. As you can imagine, as teenage boys, none of us liked having our masculinity challenged like that. But no matter how much heat they put on us, for the most part, we stood strong. Have you ever been in scenarios like that?
The final part of the verse from Isaiah that we’ve been examining addresses dealing with this kind of pressure. “When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” This verse reminds us of the three Hebrews in the Book of Daniel. They wouldn’t bow down to the king’s image, so they were thrown into the fiery furnace to be burned up. But they weren’t burned up. When the king looked in the furnace, he saw FOUR men in the fire. And he describes the fourth man as someone who looked like a “god.” When they told them to come out of the fire, the three Hebrews not only weren’t burned, they didn’t smell like smoke! God was in the furnace with them.
Maybe you’ve been feeling the heat for your faith. Perhaps you work around people who engage in conversations or activities and pressure you to join in. Maybe you have a friend or two who tries to join in with them to cut corners you shouldn’t cut or do things you shouldn’t do or watch things you shouldn’t watch. Listen very carefully to this next one. Maybe some of you have been tempted to join in with church gossip that is being framed as “sharing.” It’s when the heat is on that we discover who we really are in Christ. Don’t compromise who you know God wants you to be. Stand up. Stay strong. And be firm in your faith. The same God who got you through the deep waters will see you through the fire as well! That’s God’s Word for you today.