Skip to main content

Our Daily Bread: The Ultimate Road Trip

By


Our daily Bread Daily devotional Monday 29th August 2016

In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Isaiah 40:3

Read: Isaiah 40:1-11
Bible in a Year: Psalms 126-128; 1 Corinthians 10:19-33

Madagascar’s National Road 5 offers the beauty of a white sand coastline, palm forests, and the Indian Ocean. Its 125 miles of two-track road, bare rock, sand, and mud, however, have given it a reputation for being one of the worst roads in the world. Tourists looking for breathtaking views are advised to have a four-wheel-drive vehicle, an experienced driver, and an onboard mechanic.
John the Baptist came to announce the good news of the coming Messiah to those traveling on rough roads and through barren landscape. Repeating the words of the prophet Isaiah written centuries earlier, he urged curious crowds to “prepare the way for the Lord” and to “make straight paths for him” (Luke 3:4-5; Isa. 40:3)

John knew that if the people of Jerusalem were going to be ready to welcome their long-awaited Messiah their hearts needed to change. Mountains of religious pride would need to come down. Those in the valley of despair because of their broken lives would need to be lifted up.

Neither could be done by human effort alone. Those who refused to respond to the Spirit of God by accepting John’s baptism of repentance failed to recognize their Messiah when He came (Luke 7:29-30). Yet those who saw their need for change discovered in Jesus the goodness and wonder of God. —Mart DeHaan

Father in heaven, we need You to do in us what we cannot do for ourselves. Please remove any mountain of pride or valley of despair that would keep us from welcoming You into our lives.
Repentance clears the way for our walk with God.

INSIGHT: This passage is not a message of hope only for exiled Jews. It is for us all. Isaiah is proclaiming a universal truth: “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” For Jesus’s followers, trouble, sorrow, and exile last only for a season. The hope of the Lord lasts forever. Dennis Moles
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

You've been blessed through this reading share with Others. Share the DO's and the DON'T.

Popular posts from this blog

Dominion Mandate Daily Devotional February 26, 2016

By
THEME: RETREAT TO REFRESH READ: Matt. 11:25-30 When some musicians want to release great songs, they retreat to secluded places where they can reflect, meditate and create. Some choose places overlooking the vast oceans, some choose where there are waterfalls, and some choose places with thick forestations.  As they observe the beauty of nature, the swift moves and songs of the soaring birds, the colourful flowering vegetations, the serene beaches and the unending waves of the nearby waters, they capture inspiration that helps them develop the hit songs they have been longing for. I met one of the world’s renowned musicians in Atlanta, USA a few years ago where journalist surrounded him and were asking what he had come to do and why his beards had grown so much. He said that his last album did not perform well enough and he was incubating another one he wanted to release that would perform better. He said that he needed to pull away from the Noise of New York and California ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A NEW MONTH OF DIVINE ANNOUNCEMENT

By
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. Luke 1:13 The Bible is replete of records on how God announced some events before they finally happened. Because you made it into the new Month, God will specially announce you in Jesus name.  Whenever God want to do something unusual, He first of all announce it, for instance, when He wanted to delivered the children of Israelite from the hand of the philistine whom He has delivered them to, He sent an angel to break the new to the parent of the deliverer - Samson. Judges 13.  When God wanted to turn the hearts of men back to Himself, He sent angel Gabriel to announced the birth of John the Baptist to his father, Zacharias. Also when God was fully ready for the redemption of man, He first announced it to the one whose body His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ will pass through to the earth. Luke 1:26-38. That was the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nothing To Do, Only Believe By Joseph Prince

By
Daily Grace Inspirations Thursday 11th August 2016 …“What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” - John 6:28–29 When I was a young Christian, I attended a seminar on what we must do to “work the works of God”. I was told that we had to pray more, fast more, know our enemy and so on. I came away from the seminar confused. Then one day, I found the same question in the Bible. But the answer was very different! In the Gospel of John, we find Jesus being asked the same question by the multitude who had been awed by His miracles—“What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” The people had seen Jesus healing the sick, and feeding 5,000 men with only five loaves and two fish. Notice how Jesus answered them: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” My friend, the greatest doing is believing—believing in Jesus the sent one, who has done it all ...
2 comments
Read more