The Branch from Jesse

Prayer Practice

Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.

Daily Reading

Isaiah 11:1-9

REFLECTION

Fragrance of Love

 by Pastor Buff Delcamp

In this passage, one of the great Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, we hear that Messiah will be a God-man. He will be a descendant from Jesse, King David’s father (vs. 1). Yet He will be the Root of Jesse (vs. 10) and will manifest a seven-fold fruit of the Holy Spirit (vss. 2-3).

The beautiful image is one of growth. God has chopped the proud down as if they were mighty trees (10:33-34), and now He looks over the stumps and says a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse’s line.

We have just come from the Christmas season with some of the most beautiful music. One of the exquisite images of Christ is as The Rose. It is a great sign of His beauty. Let us turn to music as I invite you to follow this link to YouTube where a church choir in Nebraska sings the carol “Lo, How A Rose is Blooming.” The words are included for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz2H1VE7maU

The 3rd stanza says:

     This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,

     Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere.

     True man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us and lightens every load.

Don’t leave Christmas yet (it’s a 12-day season). Listen to this carol and today let Christ, like a rose, bloom in your home and in your heart. Let His fragrance fill you with joy and beauty and lighten your every load. Enjoy the picture of a blooming rose and how it points to this great miracle: The incarnation of our God who came to save us from sin and death. Here among us!

Father, keep us close to you and fill us with your hope and peace. Remind us to stop and smell the roses along the way and to seek your face in all situations.