Isaiah 14:27

Isaiah 14:27

"For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?"

God does what He plans, and nothing can keep Him from it!

Think about who God is. He's the Supreme Being of the universe, the Creator of everything besides Himself, the Author of life. He's omnipotent, all powerful. If God decides to do something, what could possibly thwart His purpose? Nothing!

Some Christians are afraid of God's power, as if it could mean disaster for them. But only those who are opposed to God's purpose need to fear His power. If you're building your life around God's purposes in this world, then you can be sure that all of God's power stands behind you, ready to support His work through you.

If you don't have a clear sense of what God's purpose is for you, then build your life around the purposes of God that are true for everyone. He wants you to honour Him with your life, to speak of Him to others, to give Him the credit for what He does in your life, and to pursue a deeper relationship with Him each day.

God is reassuring you through this verse today that He's dependable; His promises are reliable; and you don't need to be nervous about following His will in your life. If He is for you, who can be against you?

Watch and Pray

Watch and Pray
Monday, May 28, 2007

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
Mark 14:38 NIV

“Watch.” They don’t come any more practical than that. Watch. Stay alert. Keep your eyes open. When you see sin coming, duck. When you anticipate an awkward encounter, turn around. When you sense temptation, go the other way.

All Jesus is saying is, “Pay attention.” You know your weaknesses. You also know the situations in which your weaknesses are most vulnerable. Stay out of those situations. Back seats. Late hours. Movie theaters. Whatever it is that gives Satan a foothold in your life, stay away from it. Watch out!

“Pray.” Prayer isn’t telling God anything new. There is not a sinner nor a saint who would surprise him. What prayer does is invite God to walk the shadowy pathways of life with us. Prayer is asking God to watch ahead for falling trees and tumbling boulders and to bring up the rear, guarding our backside from the poison darts of the devil.

1 of 365 devotionals in Grace for the Moment, Volume 2
Originally printed in No Wonder They Call Him the Savior

Perfect Love

Monday, May 28, 2007

“Perfect love casts our fear.”
I John 4:18 NKJV

Have you ever gone to the grocery store on an empty stomach? You’re a sitting duck. You buy everything you don’t need. Doesn’t matter if it’s good for you—you just want to fill your tummy. When you’re lonely, you do the same in life, pulling stuff off the shelf, not because you need it, but because you are hungry for love.

Why do we do it? Because we fear facing life alone. For fear of not fitting in, we take the drugs. For fear of standing out, we wear the clothes. For fear of appealing small, we go into debt and buy the house. For fear of going unnoticed, we dress to seduce or to impress. For fear of sleeping alone, we sleep with anyone. For fear of not being loved, we search for love in all the wrong places.

But all that changes when we discover God’s perfect love. And “perfect love casts our fear.”

1 of 365 devotionals in Grace for the Moment, Volume 2
Originally printed in Traveling Light

Beauty for Ashes...

Saturday 5/26/2007

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes....
—Isaiah 61:3 KJV


Multiplied thousands of people have been hurt severely in their lives. They come from broken relationships or abusive backgrounds that are still producing bad fruit in their personalities.

God wants to send the wind of the Holy Spirit into our lives (Acts 2:1-4), to blow away the ashes that are left from Satan's attempt to destroy us, and to replace those ashes with beauty.

The Lord has taught me that consistently bad fruit comes from a bad root. No matter how much we may try to get rid of the bad fruit, unless the root is dealt with, more bad fruit will crop up somewhere else.

God created us to be loved. He wants to love us; He wants us to love each other, and He wants us to love and accept ourselves. Without this foundation of love and acceptance, there will be no joy and peace.

Some of us need to be transplanted. If we started out in the wrong soil, Jesus will transplant us so that we can get rooted and grounded in His love, as the Bible teaches.

Know that you are valuable, unique, loved, and special. When this is your foundation and your root, you will produce good fruit.

Ask God to give you beauty for ashes.

Say This:

I was created for love. God loves me and wants me to love Him, love others, and love and accept myself."

Isaiah 6:6-7

Isaiah 6:6-7

“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, `Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven’.” (please read vv. 5-7)

Brokenness and confession from me lead to forgiveness and restoration from God!

The angel touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal from the sacrificial altar. God gave the people of Israel the sacrificial system as a symbol of what Christ would do for them at the cross. Jesus had not yet come and so God gave them the symbol of the substitutionary death of an animal as payment for their sins. But really it was the great sacrifice of Jesus for us that would make a way for our sins to be “taken away” and “forgiven”.

After Isaiah’s heart cry of brokenness and despair over his own sin, “then” came God’s forgiveness.

God’s reminding you today that He doesn’t want you to downplay your sin and make it seem not so bad. What He responds to in your life is open confession and grief in your heart about your sin against Him. And He’s also assuring you that when you see your sin the way He sees it and come to Him with it, He’s so ready to restore your relationship with Him to relational closeness.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and downloadable in the Audio Lounge.

Isaiah 6:5- His personal Encounter with God!

Isaiah 6:5

"Then I said, `Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.'"
(please read vv. 1-5 again)


You'll only really understand yourself when you have a personal encounter with God!

Isaiah's immediate response to his personal encounter with God wasn't great joy, excitement and vigour. No, Isaiah was devastated. He'd thought quite well of himself. He had a good self-image.

But suddenly that self-image was shattered by his exposure to God. In the face of God's presence, holiness and glory, Isaiah suddenly realised that he wasn't the centre of his own existence, that his sense of his own goodness was a delusion in the face of God's holiness. Here was this unfallen, perfect angel covering his face in the presence of God. What hope did Isaiah have?

Isaiah fell before his great God a broken man, aware of his weaknesses, failings and sins. That is just where he needed to be; it was where God wanted him. That brokenness was God's goal in Isaiah's life.

It is God's goal in your life too. Brokenness comes first; anointing comes later. Tears come first; joy comes later. Confession comes first; healing comes later. God comes first; then He makes you what you need to be. But you'll never find that brokenness until you encounter God Himself.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and downloadable in the Audio Lounge.

Inspiring Prayers

I have often wondered what or how other devoted followers of God would pray to him... or say... I have found this website that is just that... their thoughts, snippets of inspirational prayers. click here for more.

Its great to know that there are those that have gone before us that are bold enough to speak out God's truth and what he has done in their lives. It is truly powerful... and a power not to be underestimated!


What you need to do, is to put your will over completely into the hands of your Lord, surrendering to Him the entire control of it. Say, "Yes, Lord, YES!" to everything, and trust Him to work in you to will, as to bring your whole wishes and affections into conformity with His own sweet, and lovable, and most lovely will. It is wonderful what miracles God works in wills that are utterly surrendered to Him. He turns hard things into easy, and bitter things into sweet. It is not that He puts easy things in the place of the hard, but He actually changes the hard thing into an easy one.

Hannah Whitall Smith

Isaiah 6:1-2

Isaiah 6:1-2

"I saw the Lord.Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." (please read vv.1-5 again)

A personal encounter with God removes all your pride!

There are many different kinds of heavenly beings, which we lump together and call "angels". The Bible talks about angels, archangels, principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim. These that Isaiah saw were the seraphim, which means "burning ones". Their name implies that they have a brilliance and glory about them.

These are probably the same beings that appeared to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus. When the first one appeared, Luke tells us (Luke 2:9) that "an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened".

The appearance of one of these angels brought awe and fear to those who saw them, and yet the far greater brilliance and glory of God causes even these great and amazing beings to cover their faces. They also covered their feet, a sign of deep humility before God.

If you find yourself thinking that maybe your opinion is almost as significant as God's opinion, or placing a low value on God's place in your life, then you need to set aside some time simply to ask God to reveal Himself to you in a greater way.

Isaiah 6:1

Isaiah 6:1

“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.” (please read vv.1-5 again)

God’s glory always accompanies His presence!

The “train” of a robe is the long part of the robe that trails behind the king. It represents the king’s glory and majesty.

When Isaiah saw the Lord in all His beauty and greatness and magnificence, the train of God’s robe filled the temple. That is, there was an overwhelming sense of the glory of God!

This is the same thing that happened when Solomon first dedicated the temple. 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 tells us: “Then the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.”

When you have a personal encounter with God, you too will begin to see His glory — the evidence of His presence — in everything. In the circumstances of your life, in the Bible, in your prayer life, in your worship, in your fellowship with other believers, in your ministry to others, in God’s provision of your needs.

At every turn you will find reasons to honour and praise God for His kingly presence filling every corner of your life.

Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah 5:20

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

There is such a thing as absolute truth, despite how `good’ and `sweet’ popular opinion may seem!

God is not just a power that can be bent in whatever way suits us. God will not be what we want Him to be or what we think He should be. He will not behave according to our plans; nor will He adjust His morality to fit our expectations.

Remember, God was here long before humanity existed. God is who He is, not who we want Him to be.

Our job is not to decide what God is like, but to find out what He is like. He has a moral nature that defines morality in His universe. He has revealed His moral guidelines in the Bible and in His Son Jesus.

When we start redefining what God has said about morality, or sexuality, or spirituality, or marriage, or love, or any other area of right and wrong, we are setting ourselves against who God is and how He has revealed Himself.

Today the Lord is reminding us to go to His word for our guidance on the issues of life. It makes life so much simpler and ultimately sweeter when we trust God’s wisdom and obey Him.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ for FM103.2. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and in our Audio Lounge.

who are these goofy kids? :D

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
- Nelson Mandela

Forgiveness Follows Failure

Forgiveness Follows Failure
Thursday, May 10, 2007

In the past God spoke... many times and in many different ways. But now... God has spoken to us through his Son.
Hebrews 1:1-2

God, motivated by love and directed by divinity, surprised everyone. He became a man. In an untouchable mystery, he disguised himself as a carpenter and lived in a dusty Judaean village. Determined to prove his love for his creation, he walked incognito through his own world. His callused hands touched wounds and his compassionate words touched hearts....

But as beautiful as this act of incarnation was, it was not the zenith. Like a master painter, God reserved his masterpiece until the end. All the earlier acts of love had been leading to this one. The angels hushed and the heavens paused to witness the finale. God unveils the canvas and the ultimate act of creative compassion is revealed.

God on a cross. The Creator being sacrificed for the creation. God convincing man once and for all that forgiveness still follows failure.

1 of 365 devotionals in Grace for the Moment, Volume 2
Originally printed in No Wonder They Call Him the Savior

Isaiah 3:10-11

Isaiah 3:10-11

Isaiah 3:10-11

"Say to the righteous that it will go well with them,
For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,
For what he deserves will be done to him."

God cares what you do!

Salvation - being forgiven for your sins and welcomed into God's family forever - is a free gift. It was purchased for you by Jesus when He went to the cross for you.

You don't earn your salvation by being good enough. You don't lose it by being bad enough. It's entirely dependent on what Jesus did, not what you do. You simply receive God's gift by faith. No wonder the Apostle Paul exclaims, "thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15).

But God is reminding us today that although salvation is a free gift, it does not mean that God doesn't care how we live after we're saved. Just the opposite - the terrible price Jesus had to pay for our forgiveness shows just how much God hates sin.

Today, Isaiah is telling us one of the basic truths about how God has set up this universe. Those who do what's right will ultimately be blessed for it and those who do what's wrong will experience negative consequences. Any actions that seem to have escaped their consequences in this life will find justice in the next. It's never a mistake to do what is right.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and in our Audio Lounge.

Gratitude for Ungrateful Days

Gratitude for Ungrateful Days
by Max Lucado
“Always be joyful. Pray continually, and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus”
(I Thessalonians 5:16-18 NCV).

Look at the totality of those terms. Always be joyful. Pray continually. Give thanks whatever happens. Learn a lesson from Sidney Connell. When her brand-new bicycle was stolen, she called her dad with the bad news. He expected his daughter to be upset. But Sidney wasn’t crying. She was honored. “Dad,” she boasted, “out of all the bikes they could have taken, they took mine.”

Make gratitude your default emotion, and you’ll find yourself giving thanks for the problems of life. Need spice in your day? Thank God for every problem that comes down the pike. Is any situation so dire that gratitude is eliminated? Some of the ladies at the Women of Faith Conference thought it was. This great organization fills arenas with women, and women with hope. The president, Mary Graham, told me about one particular weekend in which a shortage of space tested everyone’s patience.

The floor had 150 fewer seats than needed. The arena staff tried to solve the problem by using narrow chairs. As a result, every woman had a place to sit, but everyone was crowded. Complaints contaminated like feedlot fragrance. Mary asked Joni Eareckson Tada, a speaker for the evening, if she could calm the crowd. Joni was perfectly qualified to do so. A childhood diving accident has left her wheelchair-bound. The attendants rolled her onto the platform, and Joni addressed the unhappy crowd. “I understand some of you don’t like the chair in which you are sitting. Neither do I. But I have about a thousand handicapped friends who would gladly trade places with you in an instant.”

The grumbling ceased.

Yours can too.

Impossible, you say? How do you know? How do you know until you give every day a chance?

From Every Day Deserves a Chance
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2007) Max Lucado

Use doubt to Deepen your Faith

Use Doubt To Deepen Your Faith

John 20:26-29

"Then He said to Thomas, 'Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing! Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (vv. 27-28)

Imagine what it must have been like for the other disciples, being in that room, hearing Thomas say he wasn't going to believe something was true until he saw it for himself? And can you imagine what it must have been like seeing Jesus appear in that room eight days later, speaking directly to Thomas about his doubts?

Jesus didn't lecture Thomas for having doubts because He knew the doubts would result in a strong belief.

The Lord is reminding us through Thomas that some people need to doubt before they will believe. Doubt can be healthy if it leads to questions. Then, if questions are honestly researched they can lead to answers. If the answers are accepted, then doubt has done its work. But when doubt results in stubbornness, and stubbornness becomes a lifestyle, that doubt is useless and harms the hope for faith.

When you have doubts, that's OK. But don't let doubts grow into stubbornness. Use those doubts to deepen your faith, as you search for the truth.

And notice that Thomas never reached his hand out to touch Jesus, he accepted Jesus as Lord by faith. Have you?

living in a temporary world...

Living in a Temporay World

2 Peter 3:11-12

“Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!”

One of the most foundational beliefs we hold as Christians is also one of the things we forget most easily, and that is the truth that this world is temporary!

God is allowing the fallenness of this world to continue because He is not finished with the people in the world. But one day God will come and close down this world and everything in it. Everything temporary will be destroyed. The only things that will make it out of this world are the spiritual things: people, the Word of God, the spiritual fruit of our lives, the things of God.

When that day comes, it will be so obvious to us that we have wasted so much of our lives and so much of our energy on things that really don’t matter. We will wish that we had lived full-on for God, that we had focused our lives on the things that last forever.

In today’s passage God is reminding you to live today for what will matter then! What sort of person ought you to be?

Saturated in Love

Saturated in Love
Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Where God's love is there is no fear, because God's perfect love drives out fear.
1 John 4:15

We fear rejection, so we follow the crowd. We fear no fitting in, so we take the drugs. For fear of standing out, we wear what everyone else wears. For fear of blending in, we wear what no one else wears. For fear of sleeping alone, we sleep with anyone. For fear of not being loved, we search for love in all the wrong places.

But God flushes those fears. Those saturated in God's love don't sell out to win the love of others. They don't even sell out to win the love of God.

Do you think you need to? Do you think, If I cuss less, pray more, drink less, study more... if I try harder, God will love me more? Sniff and smell Satan's stench behind those words. We all need improvement, but we don't need to wood God's love. We change because we already have God's love. God's perfect love.

1 of 365 devotionals in Grace for the Moment, Volume 2
Originally printed in Come Thirsty

A Tree in Healthy Soil

A Tree in Healthy Soil

Colossians 2:6-7

"Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."

When you receive Christ as your personal Saviour, He becomes Lord of your life. You must then choose to continue to follow His leadership through being a disciple and learner.

Jesus is not here physically, but you can still learn from Him and follow His lead in life by reading His Word and listening to wise Bible-based teachers. This helps you become firmly rooted like a tree that is planted in healthy soil.

The process continues as you need to be built up and established in your faith. You grow in your faith as you respond to what God says to you as you read and study His Word. If you reject what God is saying to you, you won’t grow. But if you respond, you will grow.

If you pursue this path of spiritual growth in your life: learning from Jesus, responding to His leading in your life, growing in your relationship with Him, learning some more, responding, etc., then God will bless you so much in your heart and your life, that you will find yourself “overflowing with gratitude”. You’ll praise Him because it feels your heart will burst if you don’t. What a great way to live!