[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR THURSDAY AUGUST 4

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR THURSDAY AUGUST 4

WORD OF WISDOM

I don't feel like I'm old enough to be my age.

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DAILY DEVOTION

Hard Truths


I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit
when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for
he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he
shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
John 16:12-14

It is natural for people to want to hear things that are encouraging,
uplifting, and happy. Certainly there is a time and place for those words.
Yet often what we need to hear instead is a hard truth-a word of correction
or instruction or reproof that will take us from where we are to where we
need to be. If we refuse to hear the truth because it is hard, we miss the
benefit that comes when we change our lives to match what God commands.
The problem of rejecting hard truths is not limited to other people. It can
affect any of us. When Jesus laid out God's design for salvation through
faith in Him alone, many people rejected the message. "Many therefore of his
disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can
hear it?" (John 6:60). These were not the Pharisees who found this teaching
hard to bear, but those who had up to this point been following Jesus.
If we refuse to hear and heed unpleasant truths, our lives can never become
what God calls and commands us to be. Just as a doctor performs surgery and
may even remove part of the body to save the rest, the truth may be cutting
and painful, but it is necessary. When we find ourselves responding badly to
something the Bible says, the solution is not to find an alternative voice
that is kind and soothing and does not demand change. Instead we must
conform our thinking, our beliefs, and our behavior to what God has said.
We must not adjust God's hard truths to make them more acceptable to us or
to others.

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DAILY BIBLE READING

Isaiah 46-48 New King James Version
Dead Idols and the Living God
46 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops;
Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle.
Your carriages were heavily loaded,
A burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop, they bow down together;
They could not deliver the burden,
But have themselves gone into captivity.

3 "Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
Who have been upheld by Me from [a]birth,
Who have been carried from the womb:
4 Even to your old age, I am He,
And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you.

5 "To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal
And compare Me, that we should be alike?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag,
And weigh silver on the scales;
They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god;
They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.
7 They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it
And set it in its place, and it stands;
>From its place it shall not move.
Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer
Nor save him out of his trouble.

8 "Remember this, and [b]show yourselves men;
Recall to mind, O you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, 'My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,'
11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.

12 "Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted,
Who are far from righteousness:
13 I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off;
My salvation shall not [c]linger.
And I will place salvation in Zion,
For Israel My glory.

The Humiliation of Babylon
47 "Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
Tender and [d]delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind meal.
Remove your veil,
Take off the skirt,
Uncover the thigh,
Pass through the rivers.
3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
Yes, your shame will be seen;
I will take vengeance,
And I will not arbitrate with a man."

4 As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name,
The Holy One of Israel.

5 "Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
For you shall no longer be called
The Lady of Kingdoms.
6 I was angry with My people;
I have profaned My inheritance,
And given them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy;
On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.
7 And you said, 'I shall be a lady forever,'
So that you did not take these things to heart,
Nor remember the latter end of them.

8 "Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,
Who dwell securely,
Who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
Nor shall I know the loss of children';
9 But these two things shall come to you
In a moment, in one day:
The loss of children, and widowhood.
They shall come upon you in their fullness
Because of the multitude of your sorceries,
For the great abundance of your enchantments.

10 "For you have trusted in your wickedness;
You have said, 'No one sees me';
Your wisdom and your knowledge have [e]warped you;
And you have said in your heart,
'I am, and there is no one else besides me.'
11 Therefore evil shall come upon you;
You shall not know from where it arises.
And trouble shall fall upon you;
You will not be able [f]to put it off.
And desolation shall come upon you suddenly,
Which you shall not know.

12 "Stand now with your enchantments
And the multitude of your sorceries,
In which you have labored from your youth-
Perhaps you will be able to profit,
Perhaps you will prevail.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels;
Let now the[g] astrologers, the stargazers,
And [h]the monthly prognosticators
Stand up and save you
>From what shall come upon you.
14 Behold, they shall be as stubble,
The fire shall burn them;
They shall not deliver themselves
>From the power of the flame;
It shall not be a coal to be warmed by,
Nor a fire to sit before!
15 Thus shall they be to you
With whom you have labored,
Your merchants from your youth;
They shall wander each one to his [i]quarter.
No one shall save you.

Israel Refined for God's Glory
48 "Hear this, O house of Jacob,
Who are called by the name of Israel,
And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah;
Who swear by the name of the Lord,
And make mention of the God of Israel,
But not in truth or in righteousness;
2 For they call themselves after the holy city,
And lean on the God of Israel;
The Lord of hosts is His name:

3 "I have declared the former things from the beginning;
They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.
Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you were [j]obstinate,
And your neck was an iron sinew,
And your brow bronze,
5 Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;
Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,
Lest you should say, 'My idol has done them,
And my carved image and my molded image
Have commanded them.'

6 "You have heard;
See all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have made you hear new things from this time,
Even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now and not from the beginning;
And before this day you have not heard them,
Lest you should say, 'Of course I knew them.'
8 Surely you did not hear,
Surely you did not know;
Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
And were called a transgressor from the womb.

9 "For My name's sake I will [k]defer My anger,
And for My praise I will restrain it from you,
So that I do not cut you off.
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For how should My name be profaned?
And I will not give My glory to another.

God's Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel
12 "Listen to Me, O Jacob,
And Israel, My called:
I am He, I am the First,
I am also the Last.
13 Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;
When I call to them,
They stand up together.

14 "All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
He shall do His pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken;
Yes, I have called him,
I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

16 "Come near to Me, hear this:
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
>From the time that it was, I was there.
And now the Lord God and His Spirit
[l]Have sent Me."

17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
"I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go.
18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants also would have been like the sand,
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;
His name would not have been cut off
Nor destroyed from before Me."

20 Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With a voice of singing,
Declare, proclaim this,
Utter it to the end of the earth;
Say, "The Lord has redeemed
His servant Jacob!"
21 And they did not thirst
When He led them through the deserts;
He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them;
He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

22 "There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked."

Footnotes
Isaiah 46:3 Lit. the belly
Isaiah 46:8 be men, take courage
Isaiah 46:13 delay
Isaiah 47:1 dainty
Isaiah 47:10 led you astray
Isaiah 47:11 Lit. to cover it or atone for it
Isaiah 47:13 Lit. viewers of the heavens
Isaiah 47:13 Lit. those giving knowledge for new moons
Isaiah 47:15 own side or way
Isaiah 48:4 Heb. hard
Isaiah 48:9 delay
Isaiah 48:16 Heb. verb is sing.; or Has sent Me and His Spirit