Day 212 Today’s Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 5:20-6:30, 2 CHRONICLES 34:8-28, 2 KINGS 22:3-20 Jeremiah 6:15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,” says the LORD. When we are ashamed or embarrassed our natural inclination is to blush. So inversely if we do not feel ashamed or embarrassed there’s

Day 211 Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 2:23-5:19 Jeremiah 3:10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD.” Halfhearted efforts don’t usually pan out well. They often fail miserably. The expectation that one puts into them doesn’t typically come to fruition. Imagine a teacher that doesn’t have their “heart” in their teaching or a doctor who doesn’t put his “whole heart” into His procedures a

Day 210 Today's Bible Reading: 2 KINGS 21:1-22:-2, 2 CHRONICLES 33:1-34:7JEREMIAH 1:1-2:22 Jeremiah 2:13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. We make bad choices every day. When we look back on the decisions of our day we at times consider how rash and irresponsible that our actions were. We wish we had a makeover afford us to undo what o

Day 209 Today's Bible Reading: ISAIAH 63:15-66:24, 2 KINGS 20:20-212 CHRONICLES 32:32-33 Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Regardless of what happens to us or how we feel about it, we are all the work of His hands. We are the clay and He is the former of the clay. All of us whether we acknowledge the existence of God or not are the product of His creative handiwork. He shapes us and fo

Day 208 Today's Bible Reading: ISAIAH 58:1-63:14 Is 58:11 The Lord will guide you continually We all look for guidance. We hope for God’s clear direction for our life. We are often uncertain and unconvinced of the course we must take. We are often indecisive in our decisions. We at times are unwilling to step out into the unseen. We can often find ourselves hesitating to go forward in faith. We have no reassurance of the route we will take. We want to know that we are pur

Today's Bible Reading: ISAIAH 52:13-57:21 Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. There is so much discussion about what we declare as sin. It seems that what we have determined to be an act of sin has shifted over the centuries. What was declared to be sinful behavior in the past appears to have been downgraded to something far less sinister or offensive. But regardless

Today's Bible Reading: ISAIAH 48:12-52:12 Isaiah 49:14-16 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord forgotten me.” . . . Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palm of my hand. There are times in our lives when like the Israelites, “Zion”, we feel forsaken and forgotten by the Lord. Times when the dark clouds of despair roll over our life, seasons when the turbulent winds of trouble blow our way, and periods when we feel this deep abiding

Today's Bible Reading: ISAIAH 44:6-48:11 Isaiah 45:22 “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” So often we look in the wrong place for the right thing. We all want satisfaction, security and serenity. We seek for these in relationships, jobs, academics, self-awareness and many other pursuits. Yet we remain unsatisfied and unfulfilled. But we keep searching in hopes that one day we will find what we are looking and longing f

Today's Bible Reading: ISAIAH 40:1-44:5 Isaiah 43:1 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. There is something about knowing someone’s name. It is something that gives us significance. Reciting a name gives recognition to the hearer. Knowing someone’s name acknowledges them. It makes the relationship with them real and relevant. Here is a great pers

Today's Bible Reading: 2 KINGS 20:1-19, ISAIAH 38:1-39:8, 2 CHRON 32:24-31 2 Kings 20:11 And Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz. We live in a world of transition, especially in relationship to our wellbeing. We may feel fine one day and feverish the next, living life to the fullest then lingering at death’s door. We trudge along and then the traumatic hits. Hezekiah was feeling

Today's Bible Reading Isaiah 37:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. Bad news in whatever form you receive it can be disconcerting. It can suck the very life out of you and leave you drained and devastated. It is even worse when you can’t see any hope of resolving the situation. As we discussed in the previous devotional, the Assyrian army had embarked on a

Today's Bible Reading 2 Chronicles 32:7-8 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles." And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. There are crises in our lives that are so overwhelming we wonder how we will overcome them.

July 19 Today's Bible Reading Shall Return Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. If you know that there would be a light at the end of your dark tunnel of distress and despair then it would give you hope to bear through your difficulty. It wouldn’t really matter whether your trouble was brought about because

July 18 Today's Bible Reading Stubborn Is 30:1-2 “Ah, stubborn children," declares the LORD, "who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; 2 who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! It’s funny how we make plans without checking to see if others agree. Some of us seldom seek the advice of others. W

Today's Bible Reading Isaiah 26:3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. We live in a world without peace. With all the chaos confusion and unrest around us, it seems like peace is elusive. We find conflict within and conflict without, but can’t seem to find the peace that we really are looking for. Yet for some reason we’re peaceful. Those of us who know the Lord have a peace that the world doesn’t understand but we know because

Today's Bible Reading Isaiah 20:2 at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet," and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Sometimes we are interrupted by something that God wants us to do that seems irrational or illogical. Our peaceful comfort and serenity is disturbed by God’s directive. It might come through a sermon that we hear or a lyric of a song or something tha

Today's Bible Reading Psalm 146: 3-4 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. For most of us we have a plan for our life. We consider the possibilities and pursue our passion. We get educated. We get experience. We embark on our life’s adventure. The trouble is for most of us our plans are temporal. As the Psalmist states our plans perish when we take our

Today's Bible Reading Psalm 130:3-4 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. Imagine someone keeping track of every awful thing that you have ever done or said to them. Well multiply that by everyone you know and have ever known. Needless to say the record of your offenses would be enormous. If they were ever called into account, you would not be able to mount a defense and you wou

Today's Bible Reading Psalm 121: 1-2 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. The Christian life is not a straight smooth path, it is Riddled with steep climbs, rugged terrain, and dangers lurking along the trail. It is anything but easy. We cannot make the rugged assent and descend the dark valleys along the way without help to enable us to withstand all that we encounter. Fortunately, our hel

Today's Bible Reading Psalm 119:8 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. One of the hardest struggles we face as believers is keeping ourselves pure and holy. The world fights against us, our flesh rises up to defeat us, and sin wants to overtake us. All of these oppose any path that would purse purity. But God did not leave us helpless. He has given us a plan that will help us to guard our hearts and enable us to remain p