Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Chris McClarney singing … Beauty For Ashes … poignantly singing of the truth that our God can/does redeem the ash heap of our lives and brings us beauty for ashes.
=============
Highlight Verse[s]: Isaiah 61:3a [NLT] …
3 To all who mourn in Israel, He (the Messiah) will give a crown of beauty for ashes, …
… Messiah will bring beauty for ashes.
=============
Highlight Passage [context]: Isaiah 61:1-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s promise to His people that He would bring a Messiah to bring them beauty from the ashes of their sin-ridden lives.
=============
Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … Joel 2:25a [NLT] …
25 So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, …
… Another prophesy of God’s redemption for His people …
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … Luke 4:14-21 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 700+ years after Isaiah’s Messianic prophesy, Jesus read from Is. 61 and declared to God’s people that He was their Redeemer, … their Messiah.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Bill Crowder, used an allegory spoken by pilots to illustrate how we must, as Christians, live by faith and not by sight. The ODB author wrote: By its very existence, a ministry center in Rwanda called the “Lighthouse” symbolizes redemption [see photo above]. It sits on land where during the genocide in 1994 the country’s president owned a grand home. This new structure, however, has been erected by Christians as a beacon of light and hope. Housed there is a Bible institute to raise up a new generation of Christian leaders, along with a hotel, restaurant, and other services for the community. Out of the ashes has come new life.
Those who built the Lighthouse look to Jesus as their source of hope and redemption. …
We find the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide, when intertribal fighting cost more than a half-million lives, mind-boggling and harrowing, and we hardly know what to say about them. And yet we know that the Lord can redeem the atrocities—either here on earth or in heaven. He who bestows the oil of joy instead of mourning gives us hope even in the midst of the darkest of situations.
The Prophets Isaiah and Joel prophesied [see Scriptures above] the coming of a Messiah who would deliver God’s people from their sin-ridden misery to bring beauty into the ash heap of their lives. And now, we, who know Jesus as Lord, have been forever saved and redeemed by this same Messiah. He is King Jesus, … and the One Who shed His blood on the cross to accomplish all Isaiah and Joel prophesied. And the Ministry God’s people have constructed in Rwanda is a living picture today of how God can bring beauty from the ash heap of a sin-ridden world.
Perhaps, Yeshua Hamaschia, has redeemed your life and brought you beauty for ashes as Chris McClarney sings in today’s linked song. He certainly has in my life; and today I praise His Holy Name for that redemption and look forward to the ultimate beauty of His glorious heaven.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … HALLELUJAH! ... And Lord, ... thank You for leading me out of the ashes and giving me Your beauty. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
No comments:
Post a Comment