ARE YOU WEIGHED DOWN BY IDOLATRY? God gave Isaiah a prophecy against Babylon and its idol worship. It is sarcastic in its imagery, predicting that Babylon’s idols will “bow” down as they are lowered onto ox carts and carried away by the very people who used to “bow” down before them. Even the oxen are
WHAT MIGHT GOD DO THROUGH ONE WHO GIVES HIM ALL THE GLORY? The apostle Paul closed his prayer at the end of chapter three with a beautiful benediction. He reminds us that all the glory (credit, thanks, honor, worship) belong to our omnipotent God. When we are able to rightly give God all the glory,
GOD’S CHALLENGE TO OUR MATERIALISTIC IDOLS The idolatry of today is not unlike that of Isaiah’s day. Explanations of origins were offered by the prophets of Baal. They offered materialistic creation stories and led the people to “exchange the truth about God for a lie, so that they worshiped and served created things rather than
THE INCREDIBLE GREATNESS OF GOD’S POWER FOR BELIEVERS Paul prayed that the believers in Ephesus would understand the incredible greatness of God’s power. Why? That they might live by faith in His power rather than their own. Do you want to see the wonder-working power of Christ in our world today? Then put away human
SPREAD YOUR TROUBLES OUT BEFORE THE LORD When King Sennacherib sent a letter threatening Jerusalem, King Hezekiah put on burlap, went up to the Temple, and spread the letter out on the floor for the Lord to consider. God heard his prayer and defended him. What threat do you fear today? Have you brought it
CHRISTIANITY IS NOT A SELF-IMPROVEMENT COURSE The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia instructing them to be like executioners, dealing cruelly with their own sin. Our human tendency however, is to deal cruelly with the sin of others, rather than our own. For when we see sin in others, we do not hesitate
DAVID’S SWEET PSALM OF PRAYER AND PRAISE David made a commitment to praise and pray to the Lord all the days of his life. The superscription of this psalm states that David was in the wilderness of Judah when he wrote it. Many scholars believe it was written during the time he was hiding from
HOW DO WE LET ALL THAT WE ARE WAIT QUIETLY ON GOD? Do many opinions seem to be battling it out within your mind? You try to quiet the many voices, so that You can hear the most important One, but try as you may the cacophony remains. Ask the Lord to help you, so
TRUST IN THE LORD ALWAYS When all else fails, we tend to finally shift our trust to the Lord. Yet Isaiah calls us to a better way. Trust in the Lord “always.” Those who try to take a stand on sand soon discover it only seems to work on sunny days. As soon as clouds
LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, NOT BY HUMAN EFFORT The apostle Paul warned the believers in Galatia not to foolishly give up their freedom in Christ to be entangled once again under a yoke of slavery to religious rule-keeping. For if we are saved by faith, we must live and walk by faith. Self-effort neither saves