Isaiah 11 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: What Are We Missing?

Jesus declared:  “I am in the father and the Father is in me.”  (John 14:10).  It was as if he heard a voice others were missing.

I witnessed something similar on an airplane.  I kept hearing outbursts of laughter.  The flight was turbulent, hardly a reason for humor.  But some fellow behind me was cracking up.  I turned to see what was so funny.  He was wearing headphones. Because he could hear what I could not, he acted differently than I did.

The same was true with Jesus.  Remember when everyone was distraught about Lazarus’s illness?  Jesus wasn’t.  Rather than hurry to his friends’ bedside, he said,  “This sickness will not end in death. It is for the glory of God.” (John 11:4).

Jesus knew something no one else did.  He had unbroken communion with his Father.  Do you suppose the Father desires the same for us?  God desires the same abiding intimacy with you that he has with his Son.

From Just Like Jesus

Isaiah 11

The Branch From Jesse

11 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
    and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together;
    and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush,[b] from Elam, from Babylonia,[c] from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.

12 He will raise a banner for the nations
    and gather the exiles of Israel;
he will assemble the scattered people of Judah
    from the four quarters of the earth.
13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,
    and Judah’s enemies[d] will be destroyed;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
    nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.
14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;
    together they will plunder the people to the east.
They will subdue Edom and Moab,
    and the Ammonites will be subject to them.
15 The Lord will dry up
    the gulf of the Egyptian sea;
with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand
    over the Euphrates River.
He will break it up into seven streams
    so that anyone can cross over in sandals.
16 There will be a highway for the remnant of his people
    that is left from Assyria,
as there was for Israel
    when they came up from Egypt.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Proverbs 3:1-8

Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart

3 My son, do not forget my teaching,
    but let your heart keep my commandments,
2 for length of days and years of life
    and peace they will add to you.
3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
    bind them around your neck;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good success[a]
    in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh[b]
    and refreshment[c] to your bones.

Rerouting . . . Rerouting

February 20, 2013 — by Randy Kilgore

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. —Proverbs 3:6

Don’t worry. I know right where I’m going,” I said to my passengers. Then an almost-human voice ratted me out: “Rerouting . . . rerouting.” Now everyone knew I was lost!

These days, millions of drivers recognize those words, or others like them, as a sign they’ve gone off track or missed a turn. The GPS device not only recognizes when a driver is off course, but immediately begins plotting a new path to get back on track.

Sometimes followers of Jesus need help to get back on track spiritually. We may intentionally veer off course because we think we know best, or drift away slowly, failing to notice we’re moving further and further from the walk God wants with us.

God has not left us on our own, however. He has given all believers the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17; 1 Cor. 3:16), who convicts us of our sin (John 16:8,13). When we’re going off course, He sounds the alarm and triggers our conscience (Gal. 5:16-25). We may ignore the warning, but we do so to our own detriment (Isa. 63:10; Gal. 6:8).

What comfort to know that God is at work in our lives through the convicting work of the Holy Spirit! (Rom. 8:26-27). With God’s help and guidance, we can continue on a path that is pleasing to Him.

Holy Spirit, we would hear
Your inner promptings, soft and clear;
And help us know Your still, small voice
So we may make God’s will our choice. —D. DeHaan
We’re never without a helper, because we have the Spirit within.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
February 20, 2013

Taking the Initiative Against Daydreaming

Arise, let us go from here —John 14:31

Daydreaming about something in order to do it properly is right, but daydreaming about it when we should be doing it is wrong. In this passage, after having said these wonderful things to His disciples, we might have expected our Lord to tell them to go away and meditate over them all. But Jesus never allowed idle daydreaming. When our purpose is to seek God and to discover His will for us, daydreaming is right and acceptable. But when our inclination is to spend time daydreaming over what we have already been told to do, it is unacceptable and God’s blessing is never on it. God will take the initiative against this kind of daydreaming by prodding us to action. His instructions to us will be along the lines of this: “Don’t sit or stand there, just go!”

If we are quietly waiting before God after He has said to us, “Come aside by yourselves . . .” then that is meditation before Him to seek His will (Mark 6:31). Beware, however, of giving in to mere daydreaming once God has spoken. Allow Him to be the source of all your dreams, joys, and delights, and be careful to go and obey what He has said. If you are in love with someone, you don’t sit and daydream about that person all the time— you go and do something for him. That is what Jesus Christ expects us to do. Daydreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Day After The End of The World - #6813

If people had been right about that Mayan prophecy, you wouldn't be listening to me right now. Remember, December 21, 2012? That was the day everybody was talking about as the predicted "end of the world." Apparently it didn't happen.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Day After the End of the World."

What was amazing is that a prophecy supposedly made by an ancient Indian tribe centuries ago (And actually many scholars claim there was no such prediction) was taken so seriously by so many people. It was all over social media; people all over the place were talking about it. It was even all the buzz at our grandson's middle school.

This fascination with the end of the world - that's not anything new. History's full of dates, come and gone, set by would-be doomsday prophets. Good thing we're not living in Old Testament times. One wrong prediction and it proved you were a false prophet, and you got stoned to death.

There seems to be this strange sense, though, somewhere in our soul that this world has an expiration date. And that sense is right. Because one day - on the day and in the way of God's choosing - this world as we know it will be done. God - the One who rules the future says this in His book, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare....That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat" (2 Peter 3:10-12).

So, yes, one day this world as we know it will end. But you won't. No matter how or when the world ends. What matters for us is not when the planet's time runs out; it's when our time runs out. We're created in God's image, so we're creatures of eternity. Oh, our bodies are made to wear out (and let's face it, they give us plenty of reminders of that!) - but our souls... oh, they're made to go on forever.

Whatever guesses people may float about what happens to our souls, only God knows. And in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, He says it's one of two destinations. One where, "He will be glorified in His holy people...and marveled at among all those who believed." And the other where people will be "shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power."

See, the destination isn't decided then; it's decided now. Based on what we do with God's Son, Jesus, because of what He did for us. When He, according to the Bible, "carried our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). God says, "Nothing impure will ever enter" heaven (Revelation 21:27). So we can't go there with our sins of a lifetime. And only Jesus can forgive them, because only Jesus died for them.

The Bible says, "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." You know, at Christmas time, if you leave someone's Christmas gift unopened under the tree, don't blame them if you never get to enjoy it. They paid the price for it. You've got to reach out and make it yours. That's Just like what Jesus did for us on the cross. He paid the price for us to go to heaven. We deserve the hell - the penalty for our sin. But you've got to reach out and make it yours.

End of the world? Not such a big deal. End of my time in this world? A very big deal. Next stop - appointment with Almighty God. There's nothing to fear about the end of life - about meeting God there - when you know every sin of your life has been forgiven by the One who died for them.

You could get that settled even today. Go to our website, YoursForLife.net and find out how to begin that relationship; how to be ready for eternity whenever it comes.