Author: Dave M Price

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The Applause of God

Daily Reading

Isaiah 31-35

Daily Thought

“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 33:14). Isaiah calls out against the godless, announcing judgment upon the nations. God is a consuming fire; his way is “the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it” (Isaiah 35:8). Isaiah appears a prophet of doom, but his question, “Who among us,” has an answer.  

He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil (Isaiah 33:15). 

Isaiah, prophet of doom, is a proclaimer of hope, “For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). He speaks of a people who walk with God, fight oppression, pursue righteousness. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1). Isaiah summons a people of God to reflect God’s glory. 

There was a concert at the shopping plaza down the street. The band played songs by Journey. Remember Journey? “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Any Way You Want,” “Wheel in the Sky.”  I closed my eyes and could hear Steve Perry on lead vocals. Except it was not Steve Perry. It was a guy imitating Steve Perry, and he sounded a lot like him. A LOT like him. They were reflecting Journey’s glory and they were good. I thought to myself, what if the real Journey band was in the audience listening to their songs being performed by this band? I bet they would have loved them. I bet they would have clapped. I bet they would have said, “Well done!” (Matthew 25:23).

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16). 

When we reflect the glory of God, we perform and God is applauded. 

Daily Prayer

Father God, when I think of Your Son, how He lived and how He died and how He rose again, I see a picture of You. He is the image, the perfect image of the invisible God. When we see Jesus, we see the Father, we see You. Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

May I be an imitator of You, as well, so that when people see me, they see what You are like. I won’t be perfect, but I will aim for it. You began the work in me, and I trust You will continue it daily. May I love like You love, forgive as You forgive, seek Your righteousness and Your ways, and follow Your steps wherever You lead. And may I live in such a way that You are forever and always praised.

Amen

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Cotton Candy

Daily Reading

Isaiah 28-30

Daily Thought

I admit, I like cotton candy. It is one of the childhood delights we keep as adults. It is fun food. Well, maybe not food–I looked up the recipe. The ingredients include 5 cups of granulated sugar, 1-⅓ cups of light corn syrup, 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of water, food color paste, flavored oil, and baking spray. It then listed serving size 28g, calories 180, carbohydrates 28g, dietary fiber 0, sugars 28g.

This all added up to the bottom line, “Nutritional Value: Zero.” It said that on the label. You cannot live on cotton candy. You will die if you try to live on cotton candy.

Prophets are not elected or appointed. They do not inherit the role or take it by force. They are assigned by God and their task is to tell the Truth. They speak the Word of the Lord, and for that, they are accountable only to God. This means they do not have to please the people, and often they do not. Isaiah has been speaking to “a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’ and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions’” (Isaiah 30:9-10).

Rebellious people want cotton candy. For dinner.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth” (2Timothy 4:3-4). 

We still do, and we are starving to death.

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, may I keep my eyes on You, the author of life. Because of my rebellion, You took the cross. You traveled the difficult road, You did not give in to the delightful temptations of Satan, but drank the cup of crucifixion. I have got to quit giving in.

There is this overflowing joy in Your Kingdom, and I long to drink from it, but I keep trading it in for things that are fun but don’t last. Yours is the Name above every Name, but not always the popular Name. No matter, I will at all times pursue the joy of heaven, even during the times it’s not fun on earth.

Amen

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Bee Stings

Daily Reading

Isaiah 23-27

Daily Thought

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Jesus prays what Isaiah prophesied, “In that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13). The kingdoms of this world illude power and pleasure, but deliver destruction and death. Isaiah declares a day to come when we will return to the mountain of God, where the Lord “will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:8). Isaiah is speaking of Jesus.

This world offers us pleasure today. We can hold it now, which is the power of temptation. It is in our grasp, but comes with a sting, the terror of sin and promise of death. At six years old, I was scared to death of bees, and a bee flew into the car. Dad rolled the car windows down, offering escape, but this bee was intent on terrorizing me. Finally, Dad reached over and caught the bee in his hand and held it. I did not see it sting, but I know it stung because he opened his hand and showed me the bee. Dead. Dad plucked the stinger out of his palm, and I was brave again. “’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Corinthians 15:55-57).

God offers us joy forever in a day to come. It comes with a cross, the triumph of sacrifice and the promise of life. We can be sure of it, which is the power of trust. That is the choice we must make, between today and tomorrow, between temptation and trust.

Daily Prayer

My Savior God, You warned me. You told me that sin leads to death, and yet I like to sin. And so, I deserve death because I choose a life of sin over a life of obedience. In astonishing love, however, You took the death I deserved, even while I continued to sin. No wonder I learn love only because You first loved me.

It’s an amazing grace You offer me. Through faith, I receive the righteousness of Your Son. I do not need to obey to earn Your love because You freely give it to me. So, now, I obey, not because I need to, but because I want to. You have changed my desires, God, and now I want nothing more than to follow You.

Amen

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Party On

Daily Reading

Isaiah 18-22

Daily Thought

Isaiah continues with chapter upon chapter of God’s judgment against nation upon nation; and so one may wonder why is God so judgmental? What have they done that is so bad?

Back in Genesis, the Garden, the beginning, God issued several commands to obey. They were God’s design for life on earth. First, he said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Mind you, he said this to a married couple, but he commanded them to have sex, and a lot of it. That does not sound like a mean God. Then he said, “I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food” (Genesis 1:29). He told us to eat, and to eat a lot. Not gluttony, but quite a feast. After that, he made a day holy, the seventh day (later, it would be called the Sabbath), to rest. Right off the bat he told us to take a break once a week. Again, not so bad. Finally, he said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). We can do a lot of just about everything. God lives large and his limitations are small. One tree, one piece of fruit. That is all.

We chose that tree. We keep choosing the forbidden tree. All sin is choosing the tree, and though it seems there are a lot of ways to sin, it is all the lone tree. We miss this feast for a piece of fruit. These nations are living small. They say, “There is joy and revelry,  slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! ‘Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die!'” (Isaiah 22:13). Turn out the lights, the party’s over. That is the fruit, party until you die. They allow what is unnatural and unlawful to become their norm, then wonder at the consequences.

But God says, “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine-
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
He will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces” (Isaiah 25:6, 8 NIV).

That is the feast. God is not mean; his judgment is his grace. If we listen, it will restore us to the life he designed for us. Both the ungodly and the godly party. The difference is one party ends when the other is just getting started. And lasts forever.

Daily Prayer

My God in heaven, Your Name is Wonderful. I put all my trust, all my life in Your Name. I gladly exchange anything life has to offer me today for eternity with You. I have only just tasted Your glory here on earth. What will it be like when I am in Your presence. What a party!

To You, all glory and majesty, honor and praise.

Amen

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The Rock of Your Refuge

Daily Reading

Isaiah 13-17

Daily Thought

Much of a prophet’s duty is the announcement of judgment, and for the next 12 chapters Isaiah will speak for God against nations, culminating in chapter 24 with judgment against the world. Their sin is our sin and is two-fold at its core: we forget our God and we take his place; “for you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge” (Isaiah 17:10).

It works for a time, we “plant pleasant plants” and “make them grow on the day that you plant them, make them blossom in the morning that you sow” (Isaiah 17:10-11), and we begin to believe only in ourselves. When all is sunshine, the world seems like a place we can manage on our own, but there is darkness in our heart, and rather than serve, we want to rule, to be our own god. It started in the Garden with Eve, “for God knows that when you eat of the tree your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). It is the sin of Satan, 

“You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:13-14).

It works during the day, and we desire to rule, but only one can rule and so we war, and then comes the night; “at evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more!” (Isaiah 17:14). We destroy ourselves.

The judgment of God is levied not to ruin, but to restore, to remind us of our God. “In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made” (Isaiah 17:7-8). His judgment lifts our eyes from the pride of our own hands and returns our gaze to the glory of the one who made everything.

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are the God most high, and yet you kneeled low so that we might be saved. Your Son came in humility, considering us better than Himself. You, God, showed that kind of humility for our sake.

I look forward to seeing You return again, in power this time. You have already demonstrated love to its fullest, dying for us even though we had turned out back on You. When You come again, we will see You in full glory, full power, full majesty, and still full of love.

Amen

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For Awhile or Forever

Daily Reading

Isaiah 9-12

Daily Thought

Midway through The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf is pulled off a bridge into a seemingly bottomless chasm. Frodo and his companions are certain he plunged to his death, but I did not think so. I tried to continue reading, turning the pages one at a time, but curiosity won and I peeked ahead, flipping through future chapters to see if the name Gandalf showed up again. I wanted to know if their leader would be with them to the end.

Prophets peek ahead. Israel will fall, seemingly to its death. “The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth” (Isaiah 9:12). God will use godless nations to punish sinful Israel; then God will punish the punishers for their arrogance. They think they are in charge. They are not; God is. This is his story.

God had promised a kingdom forever, but Israel fears its sin has been greater than God’s promises. So the prophet Isaiah flips forward the pages, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him” (Isaiah 11:1-2). Israel has a future in God’s story; from the family of Jesse, a King will reign. His name is Jesus. Nothing is greater than God’s promises.

There will come yet another day when “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” ~Isaiah 11:6-9

This day has not yet come. It will.

Daily Prayer

Righteous and mighty God, You created and called it good. Following You is good. But I keep following the crowd. And it works …for awhile, but not forever. I want forever.

I trust You, my God. Your Word is certain. You have kept and will keep Your promises, and I will rest in Your strength. May my own words reflect the faithfulness of Your Word.

Amen

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Grapes Gone Bad

Daily Reading

Isaiah 5-8

Daily Thought

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

Isaiah speaks for God to a nation in judgment. He sings a song to Judah of a beautiful vineyard full of grapes gone bad. Past the point of pruning, it is time to uproot:

And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed. ~Isaiah 5:5-6

God gives six reasons why, six woes delivered by his prophet Isaiah, “Woe to those who…” (Isaiah 5:8, 11, 18, 20 21, 22). Having rejected their God, they live in a world turned downside up, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20). God’s prophet speaks the truth.

There is a seventh woe and it arises not from God, but from Isaiah upon himself. A vision of the holiness of God confronts Isaiah with his own sinfulness, and he cries: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5). God’s prophet is humble, speaking not from self-righteousness, but of God’s righteousness.

Most importantly, God’s prophet knows grace. Isaiah’s unclean lips are touched by God, “one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for’” (Isaiah 6:6-7).

Truth must be spoken with courage and clarity, and always by a heart humbled by a soul touched with the grace of God.

Daily Prayer

Righteous God, You are good and Your Words bring life. May I be one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. May I live in peace, in so far as I am able. But, if something is wrong, may I be a defender of right, a defender of justice. May I be one who speaks up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of the broken and the poor and the needy.

Knowing Your goodness, experiencing Your grace, may I never wash my hands of what is right and just and good.

Amen

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The Prophet’s Cry

Daily Reading

Isaiah 1-4

Daily Thought

Everything begins with God, not only creation, but character and conduct. The nation of Judah is “a people laden with iniquity, children who deal corruptly” (Isaiah 1:4); Jerusalem “has become a whore” (Isaiah 1:21). This is how prophets talk. Isaiah cries against the sins of the people, the symptoms of destruction, but the sickness is deeper yet; “they have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged” (Isaiah 1:4). The first matter of a nation is her devotion to God.

A prophet mourns the day, but speaks a glorious future as matter of fact:

“It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills.” ~Isaiah 2:2 

A nation’s only hope, once she has abandoned God, is the cry of a prophet. Whether these are words of terror or hope is up to us. It is God’s grace that allows us to decide whether we are for him or against him before he decides whether he is for or against us. 

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ~Isaiah 1:18-20

Daily Prayer

Father God, I am so sorry for turning my back on You. Thank You for Your Son, my Savior. I wish I wasn’t so self-centered. Thank You for Your patience. I do repent, I have turned around. You are my Lord, my God, my heavenly Father. Thank You for Your grace.

I will follow You. Thank You for Your Word.

Amen

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Do Not Open Until Christmas

Daily Reading

Song of Songs 1-8

Daily Thought

How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
Your lips drip nectar, my bride;
honey and milk are under your tongue. ~Song of Songs 5:10-11

Solomon’s Song of Songs reminds us of God’s creative delight in fashioning the passions and pleasures of love and marriage. This is love at heaven’s height, the love we long for, to be cherished and savored and guarded. The world sings of love and celebrates sex in free-for-all fashion and you get what you pay for. Beware the ways of the world for they cheapen us. “Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom” (Song of Songs 2:15), Solomon warns the young virgins.

My cousin Jim would sneak under the tree a week before Christmas and open his big gift to see what it was. He would play with it and rewrap it and repeat the next night. By Christmas morning, the surprise was over, the wrapping tattered, and the joy of discovery lost. We were created with a powerful passion that must be protected. The young woman urges her friends, “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (Song of Songs 2:7). The purity of your youth is a precious gift; do not open it early. It belongs to someone special.

And there he is, “My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand” (Song of Songs 5:10). He notices her, too, “As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women” (Song of Songs 2:2). They each have found the other, their one-in-a-million, and there is a wedding, and they open the gift.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. ~Genesis 2:24-25

Daily Prayer

Loving Father, Thank You for Your goodness. You looked at Your Creation and saw that it was good. Except one thing. Man was alone. You made woman, brought them together, and it was very good.

God, may my life be holy, my love pure, and my marriage an example of all You had in mind when you paired man with woman and said, “This is very good.”

Amen

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Heavenly Minded

Daily Reading

Ecclesiastes 9-12

Daily Thought

The preacher of Ecclesiastes wishes to say that “wisdom is better than might” (Ecclesiastes 9:16), and it is, but truth is most powerful of all, and all must bow to it. Of a life lived under the sun, without reference to God, the truth asserts itself, and the preacher ends with what he began, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2; 12:8). If this seems dismal, blame truth–“the Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth” (Ecclesiastes 12:10). There is no turning from truth; it cannot be avoided.

Life under the sun is all we see, but it is not all there is, and thus the preacher’s purpose in his somber words is to lift the eyes of our youth to see what cannot be seen, to what is above and beyond the sun, to our Creator. Some are criticized as being so heavenly minded they are no earthly good, but the truth is we tend to be so earthly minded we are no heavenly good. This is a message best learned young, to dash our hopes early of ever finding meaning in the pleasures and pursuits of this life; “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Do not live for the moment, rather live beyond the sun, each moment for eternity.

Daily Prayer

God of eternity, unseen but more real than all I can put my hands on in this world, strengthen my faith. May I live in wisdom and truth. May all my days reflect all of Yours. 

My life is full of hope because of You. The more I live, the more I know what is truly important, and it is what I have but who I know. It is people and it is You. To love You and to love others, may that consume me, because that is forever. Everything is is chasing after the wind.

Amen