DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY JULY 31:
WORD OF WISDOM
Sometimes you just need to take the bull by the horns and handle stuff in
your life.
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DAILY DEVOTION
What Changes the World
"But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain
lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city
on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out
to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain
brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the
world upside down are come hither also; Whom Jason hath received: and these
all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,
one Jesus."
Acts 17:5-7
It's easy to see the problems in the world around us. It seems like every
news report brings a new reminder that we live in a fallen world. As
Christians, we are commanded to love those around us, but many churches are
confused about the best way to make a positive impact on society.
Ultimately, it is not through programs or politics that the world will be
changed, but through bringing men and women to Jesus.
Charles Spurgeon said, "We have only to preach the living gospel, and the
whole of it, to meet the whole of the evils of the times. The gospel, if it
were fully received through the whole earth, would purge away all slavery
and all war, and put down all drunkenness and all social evils; in fact, you
cannot conceive a moral curse which it would not remove; and even physical
evils, since many of them arise incidentally from sin, would be greatly
mitigated, and some of them for ever abolished."
We must never lose sight of the main thing. Eternity is the destination of
every person living on earth. Whether they are passed in wealth or poverty,
sickness or health, freedom or repression, the few years spent here are not
the focus of life. We must reach people with the gospel before it is too
late.
There is nothing more powerful to bring true change than the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Isaiah 34-36 New King James Version (NKJV)
Judgment on the Nations
34 Come near, you nations, to hear;
And heed, you people!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
The world and all things that come forth from it.
2
For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations,
And His fury against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to the slaughter.
3
Also their slain shall be thrown out;
Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4
All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as fruit falling from a fig tree.
5
"For My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
6
The sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made [a]overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7
The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust [b]saturated with fatness."
8
For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9
Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
10
It shall not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke shall ascend forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
11
But the [c]pelican and the [d]porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
12
They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.
13
And thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
14
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the [e]jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also [f]the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
15
There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.
16
"Search from the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
17
He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it."
The Future Glory of Zion
35 The wilderness and the [g]wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the desert[h] shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
2
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice,
Even with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
The excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
The excellency of our God.
3
Strengthen the [i]weak hands,
And make firm the [j]feeble knees.
4
Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
"Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you."
5
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
7
The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8
A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
9
No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,
10
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Sennacherib Boasts Against the Lord
36 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that
Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of
Judah and took them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent the [k]Rabshakeh with
a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by the
aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller's Field. 3 And
Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe,
and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.
4 Then the Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the
great king, the king of Assyria: "What confidence is this in which you
trust? 5 I say you speak of having plans and power for war; but they are
[l]mere words. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? 6 Look!
You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man
leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt
to all who trust in him.
7 "But if you say to me, 'We trust in the Lord our God,' is it not He whose
high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and
Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar'?" ' 8 Now therefore, I
urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give
you two thousand horses-if you are able on your part to put riders on them!
9 How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants,
and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 Have I now come
up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me,
'Go up against this land, and destroy it.' "
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to
your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in
[m]Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."
12 But the Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to your master and to you
to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat
and drink their own waste with you?"
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew, and
said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says
the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to
deliver you; 15 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, "The
Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of
the king of Assyria." ' 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the
king of Assyria: 'Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and
every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree,
and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 17 until I come
and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new
wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you,
saying, "The Lord will deliver us." Has any one of the gods of the nations
delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the
gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have
they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these
lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should
deliver Jerusalem from my hand?' "
21 But they [n]held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king's
commandment was, "Do not answer him." 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph,
the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the
words of the Rabshakeh.
Footnotes:
a.Isaiah 34:6 Lit. fat
b.Isaiah 34:7 Lit. made fat
c.Isaiah 34:11 Or owl
d.Isaiah 34:11 Or hedgehog
e.Isaiah 34:14 Lit. howling creatures
f.Isaiah 34:14 Heb. lilith
g.Isaiah 35:1 desert
h.Isaiah 35:1 Heb. arabah
i.Isaiah 35:3 Lit. sinking
j.Isaiah 35:3 tottering or stumbling
k.Isaiah 36:2 A title, probably Chief of Staff or Governor
l.Isaiah 36:5 Lit. a word of the lips
m.Isaiah 36:11 Lit. Judean
n.Isaiah 36:21 were silent
