Maranatha Grace Church

Brothers and Sisters,
² “Enlarge the place of your tent,
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.
³ For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
    your descendants will dispossess nations
    and settle in their desolate cities. (Is. 54)

In 1 Chronicles 4:10 we find that short prayer of a man called Jabez, "¹⁰ Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would indeed bless me and enlarge my border [property], and that Your hand would be with me, and You would keep me from evil so that it does not hurt me!” And God granted his request."  This morning, at church, I heard two beautiful testimonies of God's goodness and faithfulness toward his children. God is still granting the requests of those who call on his name.

I believe God when he tells us, "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. (Is. 54)". I have the feeling that something great is happening in our lives. 

Please read Isaiah 54-58.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed. (Is. 53)

Jesus provides healing for us on the cross. I receive my healing by faith. Receive your healing by faith.

Please read Isaiah 51-53.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.” (Is. 49)

²⁴ Can plunder be taken from warriors,
    or captives be rescued from the fierce^[d]?

²⁵ But this is what the Lord says:

“Yes, captives will be taken from warriors,
    and plunder retrieved from the fierce;
I will contend with those who contend with you,
    and your children I will save.

One of the greatest gifts that parents can receive from the Lord is to see their children doing well.  Parents also can experience great pain  through the suffering of their children. A parent can die of a broken heart because of a child. The Lord tells us that even if Satan makes a captive of your child, the Lord himself will free that child.  This is what the Lord says: "Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save."

Please read Isaiah 48-50.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

I will give you hidden treasures,
    riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
    the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (Is. 45)

Are you a receiver? In Mathew 6:11 Jesus taught his disciples to come to God with their daily needs, "Give us this day our daily bread," Jesus instructs us to pray. Not only God is willing to satisfy our daily needs, he wants to give us more than enough, he wants to give us hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places. Are you willing to receive? Then ask!

Please read Isaiah 45-47.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

“I, even I, am he who blots out
    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more. (Is. 43:25)

A lot of people will not be saved because they are too proud to receive the free gift of salvation in the name of Jesus. In Romans 4:7 we read, "Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered."  God does all this for his own sake. 

Please read Isaiah 42-44.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures forever.” (Is. 40)

The word of God is the surest foundation on which to build one's life. "God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19)".  I believe with all my heart that what God says he will do, he will do. No one who believes the word of God should live in despair. God gives us hope, the essence of life.

Please read Isaiah 29-41

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ³ “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: ⁵ “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. ⁶ And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

⁷ “‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: ⁸ I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down. (Is. 38)

I mainly think of one verse when I read the account of Hezekiah’s Illness, Psalms 50:15 "and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” We can give God a call.  

You may be wondering, what is God's phone number?  Is it 911, 311? A few decades ago if you have said to someone that one day he will be able to talk to another person in any country of the world at any time using a cellphone, he would not be able believe you. But, now we can talk to anyone in the world. 

Faith is the cellphone that we use to give God a call.

Please read Isaiah 26-38. 

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer,
    and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
    and streams in the desert. (Is. 35)

The Bible is an optimist book. Are you an optimist? In God there is always hope, the expectation of a great future. Everyday that you wake up, do you expect something great to happen into your life?

Please read Isaiah 33-35.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

¹⁹ Though hail flattens the forest
    and the city is leveled completely,
²⁰ how blessed you will be,
    sowing your seed by every stream,
    and letting your cattle and donkeys range free. (Is. 32)

In a situation of desolation and destruction, the Lord promises blessings to his people. Right now , we are going through one of the most painful inflation in the United Sates. People are panicking wondering how they will provide for their family. But God says that you are still blessed, he will provide for your needs. Continue sowing your seed, do not restrain your imagination, let your dreams lose and free. You are blessed. 

Please read Isaiah 30-32.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

⁹ “Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.

¹⁰ For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little.”¹¹ For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people,¹² to whom He said, “This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest,” and, “This is the refreshing” — yet they would not hear.

¹³ But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little, that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken. (Isaiah 28)

You don't really know something until you teach it, again and again, repetitively.  Do you take seriously every opportunity that presents to you to teach something that you know.  The more you teach something, the more you understand it, "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." The more you give, the more you receive.

Please read Isaiah 27-29.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:3-4)

What you focus on magnifies. If you focus on your problem, your problem will become bigger. If you focus your mind on the Lord, God will be magnified in your life,  and all your problems will melt away. You don't have any problems, what you need is trust in the Lord.

Please read Isaiah 24-26.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

Gratitude is the key to life. You increase in your life what you are most grateful for. We cannot be counted among the people who stop short their blessings because they are short on their gratitude toward God and toward men.

¹¹ You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. (Isaiah 21:11)

Do you give yourself credit or do you give credit to God for all you have accomplished, for all your success? Do you "look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago?"

Please read Isaiah 21-23. 

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. (v. 20)

I believe that this prophecy speaks to all oppressed people, "When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them." Have we cried out to the Lord because of our oppressors? Yesm we have but we must remember the words of Jesus in  Matthew 7:7,  "Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you." 

Please read Isaiah 18-20.

May the Lord richly bless you!

Brothers and Sisters,

Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;
    be their shelter from the destroyer.”

The oppressor will come to an end,
    and destruction will cease;
    the aggressor will vanish from the land. (Isaiah 15:4)
 

I see a kind of desperation in the prayers prayed by the Haitian people in churches and in social media because of the situation of lawlessness in Haiti for the moment. 

All of us have a role to play in making the world a better place. It starts with our desire for a better world, and the faith that no matter how desperate the conditions of the world seem to be, "the oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. "(Isaiah 15:4)

Please read Isaiah 15-17. 

May the Lord richly bless you!