“PROGNOSTICATORS” OR “A MORE SURE WORD”
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 47-48
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
A young man embraces God’s Word while standing in front of the Colosseum in Rome. Over and over in recent readings, the words, “Thus says the Lord,” appear. God desires to communicate with His human family. Romans 10:17 tells us that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verses: Isaiah 48:17-18
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go.
Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea…”
Chapter 47 prophesies the fall and humiliation of Babylon years before it rose to become a world power. The polar opposites of God’s Prophetic Word are the efforts of astrologers, stargazers, and monthly prognosticators (47:13). The horoscopes in our newspapers contain clever generalities, as does the slip of paper inside a fortune cookie, but, as Isaiah points out, these things cannot “stand up and save you.” Babylon’s eventual destruction is inevitable as prophesied by Isaiah.
Chapter 48 prophesies that God, who has allowed His people to go through the “furnace of affliction” in order to refine them, will not forsake them. When these prophesied events come to pass, as they did, God’s people will know that their God is the “First” and the “Last” and is the One and Only God!! Isaiah 48:16 gives us a glimpse into the nature of God, One God in three Persons, “Lord God” (the Father), “His Spirit,” and “Me” (the One sent by God, God the Son). The Hebrew scholars point out that in 48:16 the singular verb, “Have sent,” is used with the plural subject. Is this a mistake in grammar or is this the verbal inspiration of the Word of God pointing to the Trinity? We see this in other places in the Hebrew Scriptures. For example, in Genesis 1:1, God, (Elohim, a plural word) “created” (a verb which is singular). Isaiah says that “The Lord your God”…”teaches” and “leads.” We should experience the result, “peace… like a river” and “righteousness like the waves of the sea.”
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Again today, Lord God, I ask for continued effectiveness in doing as Isaiah 48:20 urges me to “declare, proclaim…With the voice of singing,” and to “utter it to the end of the earth.” I pray that this blog, along with a multitude of other ministries, will be more and more effective than ever in convincing people everywhere that You exist and that You “are a Rewarder of them that diligently seek” You (Hebrews 11:6). I ask for these opportunities in the Name of the One Who has fully communicated Who You are, Father God, Your Son and my Saviour, Jesus Christ! Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
A while back Norma-Jean and I had dinner at a Chinese food buffet restaurant in Brantford, Ontario. I opened the fortune cookie and discovered a generality on the paper inside which could apply to anyone. It said that I would meet someone that would change my life for the better. Actually that has happened many times during my many years on earth, but the most far-reaching and forever change happened when I met Jesus Christ through believing His Word (John 6:37-40), and my life was forever and ever altered! When I saw the word “prognosticator” in today’s reading, I thought of that cookie. I also thought of what the Apostle Peter has written to us in 1 Peter 1:15-21. He declares, “We also have the prophetic word made more sure!”
Yours for reading, underlining, understanding, digesting and then with the spiritual energy derived from all this, proclaiming God’s message to the “end of the earth,”
David
P.S. Over 25 years ago, Crossroads began working with a group of Toronto Pastors from Chinese language churches. We produced, financed, and released weekly telecasts on Toronto’s multilingual TV station. After about two years, we encouraged the pastors to incorporate, raise their own finances from the Chinese churches, and strike out on their own, with God’s enablement. Today, this television ministry, called “Showers of Blessing Evangelistc Ministry” (SOBEM), is reaching multiplied millions all over the world, providing a mighty utterance to “the end of the earth” to all those who understand the languages of China. At the 20th anniversary of that great ministry, I was given the plaque pictured below. Here is a musical sample of this ministry. The song is called “There is a God!” With the official atheism of the People’s Republic of China, this message is so very powerful! (click here).
Click on photo to enlarge.
Father God, thank You that You are there, here, available to us, inviting us and all people to know You. Help all those who know You share Your Word with all people everywhere! Thank You for Peter, who wrote,
“And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.” For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.”
Give us wisdom as to how best share Your Word with others, and help us to do it, in Jesus’s great and faithful name, amen
Amen, Rob
Use us oh Lord, that we might be a witness to You. All for Your glory. Amen.
Such profound wisdom from Streams in the Desert, Cowman, January 11th:
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God (Isaiah 40:1).
“Store up comfort. This was the prophet’s mission. The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere. Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy God wrapped around thee, in the eager look and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness.”
–Selected
“God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.”
–Dr. Jowett
“They tell me I must bruise
The rose’s leaf,
Ere I can keep and use
Its fragrance brief.
“They tell me I must break
The skylark’s heart,
Ere her cage song will make
The silence start.
They tell me love must bleed,
And friendship weep,
Ere in my deepest need
I touch that deep.
Must it be always so
With precious things?
Must they be bruised and go
With beaten wings?
Ah, yes! by crushing days,
By caging nights, by scar
Of thorn and stony ways,
These blessings are!”
Something I have been enjoying of late:
Canterbury Cathedral
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cM5Bg9siQQ
Thank you Beverlee for your postings today. Enjoyed ready them.
Sorry meant reading them.
Wow! Amazing ministry of God’s plan that David and his family have carried out through the years. I hadn’t realized this achievement of helping an Asian church (& it’s worldwide scope). I’ve known the family for years & volunteered @ Crossroads for 26+ years but I didn’t know that. So thankful that the ministry is still very active. We bloggers benefit from that. Very cold here in S Ontario. Blessings all.
I am so thankful today for the blessings of God, and I’m recognizing clearly how this blog is helping and strengthening me. The photos, the teachings, the prayers, the links to songs and testimonies that you all share. Thank you all.
An acronym for the war on stress:
S – send
T – trouble
R – regularly
E – elsewhere
S – singing
S – songs of Praise
Blessings Wendy! I agree with you. Keep close to Him and receive His blessings.
Amen Rob!!!
Amen to above prayers and statements. They are all a help to me.
God bless you all