Today's daily bible reading comes from the books of Isaiah chapters 37, & 38, and Mark chapter 9.  

We were left with a bit of a cliffhanger in chapter 36 of Isaiah yesterday. Luckily any negative suspicions were put to rest as the faith of King Hezekiah won the day. His prayers to the LORD for redemption were heard and God protected them from the Assyrian army. In fact, he sent an angel to wipe out 185,000 of the Assyrian army overnight! 

Again, as Hezekiah was facing death, he pleaded with the LORD (who had told him that he would die) and the LORD heard his prayer and granted him 15 more years of life.   Do you have that kind of faith to ask God to intervene in your life?  

In Mark, we witness with Peter and John an amazing event where Jesus is "transfigured".  Elijah (representing the prophets) and Moses (representing the Law) appeared with Jesus who glowed with light and whose clothes were brilliant white (whiter than any bleach possible). God then appeared in a dark cloud and declared that Jesus is His son, "LISTEN TO HIM".   

That's a good place to stop.... Listen to Him

Today's daily bible reading comes from the book of Isaiah chapters 34, 35, & 36. 

Here are some takeaways:  

Chapter 34) A judgment on all of the nations especially Edom  

Chapter 35) Amazing Messianic prophecy (a foretelling of Jesus the Messiah) that promises hope and salvation.       

Chapter 36) Storytime! A real-time telling of the events when the king of Assyria sent his commanders to take Jerusalem and conquer Judah. You'll really dislike the arrogance of Assyria... Leaves us with a cliffhanger though so you'll have to tune in to tomorrow's reading as 36-39 are one story together.

Today's daily bible reading comes from the book of Isaiah chapters 32 & 33 followed by the book of Mark chapter 8.

Today's daily bible reading comes from the book of Isaiah chapters 30 & 31 as well as Mark chapter 7.  

Takeaways from this reading:  1) Don't put your trust in earthly things (such as chariots or horsemen) for protection or comfort. ??Are there things that we put too much trust in, in this world?? ie the government, our jobs, etc. 2) Jesus is awesome! in Mark 7, we see Him cast out an unclean spirit of the daughter of a gentile woman "remotely"! He didn't need or chose to go see the girl in person.  What are your thoughts about their conversation?

Today's daily bible reading comes from the book of Isaiah chapters 28 and 29. 

In these chapters, we read about the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the Assyrians. We see that they had made a "covenant with death" but that covenant would not last. We also read about some of the practical wisdom that God had provided to farmers. 

The memory verse from this reading for me though comes from 29:16 where it says:  "You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, 'He did not make me'; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, 'He has no understanding'?  

Sounds a lot like the "wisdom" that is taught today huh?

Day 31 of our Daily Bible Reading. Today's reading comes from Isaiah chapters 26 & 27 followed by Mark chapter 6.

Today's reading is again from the book of Isaiah chapters 23, 24, & 25.   In these chapters we see prophecy about the fall of Tyre, a judgment for the whole earth, and a psalm-like praise for God and all of his greatness.

Today's reading comes again from the book of Isaiah chapters 20, 21, and 22. We continue to hear the proclamation of the prophet Isaiah regarding Assyria as well as the surrounding nations and the plans that God has for them. It's easy without a lot of in-depth study to get either bogged down with the details, or just plain confused. However, one piece of advice that I'll pass on is 1) Just keep reading! and 2) Just remember, God is in control! That's the biggest take away from this middle section of the book for sure.

In today's reading from Isaiah, the prophet continues to prophesy about neighboring kingdoms including Damascus, Cush, and Egypt.  

In Mark chapter 5 we experience more interactions of Jesus as well as miracles. We see how Jesus has mercy and kindness and is always willing to do for others what they cannot do for themselves. By casting out the legion of demons that were possessing that poor man, healing the daughter of the leader of the synagogue, and finally the woman who by faith received healing from Jesus for her disease without Him initiating it. The people who witnessed these things were often afraid, but the people seeking the healing, through faith and courage, all received a big blessing from Jesus

Today's reading is from the Book of Isaiah chapters 14, 15 & 16.   

This can be a challenging section of the book as Isaiah is going to be mentioning many of the surrounding nations/peoples and speaking about them. In these chapters, the peoples of Babylon and the king of Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, and finally Moab. Chapters 15 & 16 are dedicated to Moab.   

Interesting facts about Moab: 

1) Moab was the firstborn of the oldest daughter of Lot who was born through the incestuous relationship that she and her sister planned. So the people of Moab stem from Lot and his son. 

2) There is another famous person from Moab named Ruth a Moabitess who is in the direct lineage of Jesus.