Reading your Bible for today May 3

May 3: Isaiah 56:1-2

Key Verse: Isaiah 56:1
Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed.

Devotion:
How many times have you been confronted with something unpleasant and you turn round and say something like “why me?” or “why now?”. And how many of those times have others been quick to tell you of the warning signs you should have seen, but ignored! Too many times we leave things to the last minute so we do not have to do things we don't want to. We put off homework. We put off telling someone the truth. We put off confronting someone who is doing wrong. We put off doing God's will.

The prophets and priests around the time of Isaiah (more than 700 years before Christ was born) knew the time was drawing ever closer when the Messiah would come. They taught, wrote things down and preached the truth. Yet most people put off listening to those words. Most people put off following the instructions. Most people were in a state of unbelief thinking nothing was going to happen for a long time (or at least that is what they thought). The instructions were quite simple: “keep judgement”, “do justice”. The reward was great: “salvation”. Yet people chose to ignore the instructions.

We may look back and ask what any of that has to do with us now because Christ has been born, has died and has risen already... It's not the fact that it happened, it’s the fact that people chose to ignore what ultimately came to pass. Today we have a similar problem as people continue to ignore God's Word. People continue to ignore what is going to happen. We do not know when it is going to happen, only that certain things will happen to show us when Christ is returning. Those things are happening now.

We have the whole Bible now which gives us a full history, present instructions and a future look at the world and us. We cannot accept one part and ignore the others. God wants us to be continuing His work all the time, opening others eyes to these facts. He has already shown us what He can do...

Points to Ponder:
How often do you put things off in your own life?

Did Christ put off His death because He did not like it?