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I think it is fitting that Christmas falls at the end of the year. Life has a way of weighing us down. If we get caught up in the race of life throughout the year, it is easy for our attention to to be diverted from a Christ-focus to a life-focus. The inevitable result will be increased emptiness and weariness. Discontentment driven by a desire for more earthly comfort and gratification will soon leave us empty. Our fallen nature leaves us extremely susceptible to self-motivated living rather than faith motivated pursuit of God and His will. In Isaiah 7-8 we find the nation of Judah caught again in such a trap. Once again their own way leads to devastation and emptiness. Have you been caught in the same trap? Thank God He doesn’t leave us in our darkness! The story of Christmas reminds us that God shines the light of hope into even the darkest night!
Have you ever been caught in a situation that just seemed hopeless? Everywhere you look is a closed door, a dead end road, or a deep pit. Everything you try fails and leaves you even further behind. These elements are the components of a perfect nightmare! I need hope. I need to know there is a solution. Mankind is caught in such a nightmare. We are sinners by nature without any capability to solve our greatest problems. We are like a ship with holes in it that only continue to grow. We try to make patches and repair gaping holes only to find that the material we are working with is corrupt and worthless. The gash continues to grow! Without external intervention our destination will be doom. Thank God He offers hope to every sinner!
One of the most deceitful and undetectable sins is the sin of pride. Pride infiltrates to the inner core of our beings and sabotages the roots of our thinking. It reprograms our logical rationale and skews our self-perception. Pride is an unabashed self-seeker. Pride will not stop till we have dethroned God in our own minds and hearts and placed ourselves on His throne. Pride is crafty enough to let us believe that we honor God while in reality we have left Him as only a puppet to approve of our own sovereignty. Pride gives us the license to pursue all other sins. Because pride is a direct rival to God, He has placed it at the top of His enemy list (Isaiah 2:11-12).
It is almost impossible to keep up with how fast our world is changing. Some of the change is good, but it seems like the advance of ungodliness is accelerating rapidly. This reality does not come as a shock to Christians who read their Bibles (2 Peter 3:3-4; 2 Timothy 3:1-5). Should we live in fear? Should we join the world in living for ourselves? In the midst of a society very similar to ours, the prophet Isaiah sees a vision of the future that gives us solid hope and challenges us in the present to seek first the kingdom of God.
No relationship ever stays the same. Relationships are constantly changing because people are constantly changing. Friendships from school, or past employments that once were very close often drift apart due to the separation of distance and time. Our relationship with God is constantly changing not because God changes, but because we are always changing.
Dear River Reach Family, Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.” Isaiah 2:5 God’s plan for your life is filled with blessings so rich and sweet you cannot fathom them! The perfection of the world He originally created for us (Genesis 1:31) and the future glory of the…
Dear River Reach Family, Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation. Selah. 20 God is to us a God of deliverances; and to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.” Psalm 68:19-20 It has been quite a week! Praise the Lord for bringing us through hurricane Irma safely. I…
Dear River Reach Family, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” Psalm 91:1-2 Due to the impending impact of Hurricane Irma, we have decided to cancel all Sunday…
Dear River Reach Family, He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His lovingkindness and His truth toward my master; as for me, the LORD has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.” Genesis 24:27 Who would have imagined that a single storm could produce upwards of 50 inches of…
Dear River Reach Family, He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. 12 He said, “O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham.” Genesis 24:11-12 How…