Isaiah 31 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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

Max Lucado Daily: Good Luck Charm

For some, Jesus is a good luck charm. The “Rabbit’s Foot” Redeemer. Pocket sized. Handy. His specialty?  Getting you out of a jam. Need a parking place?  Need help on a quiz?  Pull out the rabbit’s foot.  No need to have a relationship with Him.  No need to love Him.  New jobs. New and improved spouses. Your wish is His command. Few demands, no challenges.  No need for sacrifice. No need for commitment.

That’s not the Redeemer of the New Testament. When the disciples were in the storm, He rescued them. When the multitudes were hungry, He fed them. Prayer, service, and instruction all mattered to His ministry but they fell short of a higher call.

“The Son of Man” scripture says, “came to serve others and give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)  The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them!  Rabbit charm…hardly. Savior…absolutely!

from Six Hours One Friday

Isaiah 31

Woe to Those Who Rely on Egypt

31 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
    who rely on horses,
who trust in the multitude of their chariots
    and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
    or seek help from the Lord.
2 Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster;
    he does not take back his words.
He will rise up against that wicked nation,
    against those who help evildoers.
3 But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God;
    their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand,
    those who help will stumble,
    those who are helped will fall;
    all will perish together.
4 This is what the Lord says to me:

“As a lion growls,
    a great lion over its prey—
and though a whole band of shepherds
    is called together against it,
it is not frightened by their shouts
    or disturbed by their clamor—
so the Lord Almighty will come down
    to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.
5 Like birds hovering overhead,
    the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem;
he will shield it and deliver it,
    he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.”
6 Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against. 7 For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.

8 “Assyria will fall by no human sword;
    a sword, not of mortals, will devour them.
They will flee before the sword
    and their young men will be put to forced labor.
9 Their stronghold will fall because of terror;
    at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,”
declares the Lord,
    whose fire is in Zion,
    whose furnace is in Jerusalem.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 Chronicles 28:5-10

English Standard Version (ESV)
5 And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me many sons) he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6 He said to me, ‘It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. 7 I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues strong in keeping my commandments and my rules, as he is today.’ 8 Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.

David's Charge to Solomon

9 “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. 10 Be careful now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”

First Things First

March 19, 2013 — by David H. Roper

Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind. —1 Chronicles 28:9

When our granddaughter Sarah was very young, she told us she wanted to be a basketball coach like her daddy when she grew up. But she couldn’t be one yet, she said, because first she had to be a player; and a player has to be able to tie her shoelaces, and she couldn’t tie hers yet!

First things first, we say. And the first thing in all of life is to know God and enjoy Him.

Acknowledging and knowing God helps us to become what we were meant to be. Here is King David’s counsel to his son Solomon: “Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind” (1 Chron. 28:9).

Remember, God can be known. He is a Person, not a logical or theological concept. He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, and desires as any person does. A. W. Tozer writes, “He is a person and can be known in increasing degrees of intimacy as we prepare our hearts for the wonder of it.” Ah, there’s the rub: We must “prepare our hearts.”

The Lord is not playing hard to know; those who want to know Him can. He will not foist His love on us, but He does wait patiently, for He wants to be known by you. Knowing Him is the first thing in life.

He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joys we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.
—C. Austin Miles © Renewal 1940. The Rodeheaver Company
The thought of God staggers the mind but to know Him satisfies the heart.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
March 19, 2013

Abraham’s Life of Faith

He went out, not knowing where he was going —Hebrews 11:8

In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26.

Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason—a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.

The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day—in and day—out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith—a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God. . .” (Romans 4:3).


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Someone Else Shuts the Door - #6832

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

It might actually be an unwritten rule of flying commercially. The person who has the window seat in a row always seems to get there last. It's just got to be a rule; seems to always happen. It happened one day to me. I was lucky enough to be in the center seat. There was someone to my left sitting on the aisle seat, and we were all buckled in because they were about to close the door and begin the flight. I said, "All right! I'm going to get an empty seat next to me." No!

All of a sudden, huffing and puffing down the aisle comes a man who I would say didn't sit in his seat. He more collapsed into his seat, and I said, "Oh, it was a close call." And he said, "Oh, I already missed one." And I said, "Tell me the story." He said, "Well, the plane was there and I thought, 'I'm going to make it' as I ran through the airport. And I made it, but they'd just closed the door on the passageway out to the plane - the jet way." He got there and the agent said, "You know what? I think we can still make it." She opened the door and he said, "Wouldn't you know, just at that minute the plane just started to inch away. The jetway was just pulling in." He said, "I almost literally had one foot on the jetway, but I was a split second too late." Well, he missed his chance. It was close, but he missed it. I'm afraid you will.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone Else Shuts the Door."

Our word for today from the Word of God is in Genesis chapter 7; it's the familiar story of Noah. It says in verse 7, "Noah and his sons and his wife and his son's wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood." Verse 10 says, "After seven days the flood waters came on the earth." And we know that all of mankind was destroyed. But up until that time, for many, many years there had been opportunities to avoid that coming judgment. All you had to do was get into the ark.

Verse 16 says these sobering words, "Then the Lord shut him in." God shut the door on the place where they could avoid the judgment. This is more than ancient history we're

looking at here. This is an eternally important picture of someone who's listening today - maybe you. God offers to each of us a way to escape the judgment for our sin that we deserve. It's a penalty, though, that Christ took; a death penalty that He took on the cross. He's the ark.

There's an ark available to all of us sinners. Now, how do you get in? You go to the cross where Jesus died and you say, "Jesus, for me. I believe You died for me. Like those people who got into the ark, this is my only hope of safety from God's judgment. Not my religion, not my good works; nothing else will do it." But see, you can only come as long as God leaves the door open.

In John 6, Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him." You won't come to Christ; you can't unless God's Spirit wakes you up inside, pulls you toward Jesus, and gives you the faith to do it. Haven't you experienced that tug? What have you done with it? Postponed dealing with it, pretended you have, played along, agreed? Agreement isn't commitment.

Once again today, through this broadcast, He's stirring you. Some time will be the last time, and then the door is closed. It isn't smart to procrastinate when eternity is at stake. I know a man who very much wanted to be on an airplane, who went to the destination he wanted, but he went to the door too late. For him there was another flight, but if God shuts the door of grace because you've refused to respond, there's not another flight. Your only hope is gone.

Today if you want to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want to invite you to join me at a website called YoursForLife.net. There you will find in simple terms how you can be sure you have been forgiven of your sins, you'll go to heaven when you die, and you have begun your relationship with God.

Today the door is open! God paid with the blood of His Son for you to go to heaven, but you've got to come while He's calling. You can meet Jesus at His cross today. He's been waiting for you there.