Isaiah 45: 22-24
Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the Earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn, My mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before Me every knee will bow; by Me every tongue will swear. They will say of Me, "In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength."
Romans 14: 10-12
... For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: "As surely as I live," says the Lord, "every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God." So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Philippians 2: 9-11
Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Revelation 5: 12-13
In a loud voice they sang, "Worthy is the Lamb, Who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
Then I heard every creature in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To Him Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever!"
When Jesus explained to Cleopas and his companion what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), I'm sure He connected all the dots for them to see the Big Picture, and their "hearts burned" within them.
Because from the first chapter of Genesis to the final chapter in Revelation, the whole story is the story of the Lord God of the Old Testament, revealed as Jesus the Christ in the New Testament; the Creator, the Lawgiver, the Benefactor, the Finisher of everything He began. He is the One Who has dealt with Mankind from the very beginning, and He will be the One Who will even all the odds, reveal all the mysteries, solve all the problems, heal all the wounds and sorrows, and wrap everything up neatly into a New Heaven and New Earth.
And every creature that has ever been created, everywhere, will give Him all the credit He deserves.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Monday, April 17, 2017
He Makes Us Able
Isaiah 40: 27-31
O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say that God ignores your rights? Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the Everlasting God, the Creator of all the Earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of His understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
How can we ever say that God does not see what is happening in our lives, or that He doesn't care what happens to us? How could He not see? How could He ever not care? He is the Everlasting, Omnipotent, Wise, Compassionate Creator and Controller of this whole Universe! He is the One Who imagines us, we are His imagination! If He were not thinking of us, we would not exist!
It is His Plan that is being carried out; His will that desires to grant forgiveness, and will punish the wicked who reject His goodness and beauty. It is His strength and His wisdom that enables us to do the things that carry out His Plan, and that gives Him pleasure!
And God will receive all the credit for all He has planned out and achieved, all the honor and glory.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say that God ignores your rights? Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the Everlasting God, the Creator of all the Earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of His understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
How can we ever say that God does not see what is happening in our lives, or that He doesn't care what happens to us? How could He not see? How could He ever not care? He is the Everlasting, Omnipotent, Wise, Compassionate Creator and Controller of this whole Universe! He is the One Who imagines us, we are His imagination! If He were not thinking of us, we would not exist!
It is His Plan that is being carried out; His will that desires to grant forgiveness, and will punish the wicked who reject His goodness and beauty. It is His strength and His wisdom that enables us to do the things that carry out His Plan, and that gives Him pleasure!
And God will receive all the credit for all He has planned out and achieved, all the honor and glory.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Resurrection Day
John 20: 8b-9
... And he saw and believed--for until then they still had not understood the Scriptures that said that Jesus must rise from the dead.
When John saw the wrappings that had been wound around Jesus' body, that's when he finally understood that Jesus had not been stolen away, for the wrappings were still there; He hadn't revived, or the wrappings would have been unwound; they were lying there still intact, still wound up as around a body, but empty of the body! Physical evidence of the actual Resurrection! And John saw the evidence, he believed and knew that Jesus was Resurrected, and he understood the Scriptures that foretold that the Christ must rise from the dead! First-hand, eye-witness testimony--so I can believe, too.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
... And he saw and believed--for until then they still had not understood the Scriptures that said that Jesus must rise from the dead.
When John saw the wrappings that had been wound around Jesus' body, that's when he finally understood that Jesus had not been stolen away, for the wrappings were still there; He hadn't revived, or the wrappings would have been unwound; they were lying there still intact, still wound up as around a body, but empty of the body! Physical evidence of the actual Resurrection! And John saw the evidence, he believed and knew that Jesus was Resurrected, and he understood the Scriptures that foretold that the Christ must rise from the dead! First-hand, eye-witness testimony--so I can believe, too.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, April 15, 2017
What Was Jesus Doing?
Ephesians 4: 8-9
What was Jesus doing while His body laid in the tomb, dead? Paul tells us in his letter to the saints in Ephesus:
This is why it says, "When He ascended on high He led captives in His train and gave gifts to men." What does "He ascended" mean except that He descended to the depths of the Earth?
Paul is quoting Psalm 68:18 here, and telling us that on His way to Heaven, Jesus went into the Realm of the Dead, Sheol, and gathered all the Old Testament saints who were in the Paradise side, that He called "Abraham's Bosom." They were there because until Jesus shed His blood, their sins could only be covered by the blood of the animals God told them to sacrifice; only God's own Blood Jesus sprinkled on the sides of His altar, the Cross, could actually take away sins. Covered sins are still there, but only taken-away sins are gone. This is what is needed to qualify to dwell in the Presence of God in Heaven.
Colossians 2:15 tells us that having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross.
So Jesus went down into Paradise to gather all His saints there, and paraded them in a show of victory in the sight of all the demons and rebels who were in the Hell side of Sheol, as He led them into Heaven.
Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament laws, starting with the first, most fundamental sacrifice, the personal one, that Leviticus begins with. It must be first, because without it we do not have a chance of ever getting close to God or learning His ways.
The individual would bring the animal to the priest and lay his hand on its head putting his sins on the animal, then the priest would sacrifice the lamb on the altar, dying instead of the person. Then he would splash the lamb's blood on the sides of the altar to cover the sins, and the person could then be forgiven and have a relationship with God. But he still went to Sheol when he died. Until Jesus died.
In the same way, we each need to figuratively lay our hand on the head of the Lamb of God, letting Him take our sins upon Himself, taking our death for us, His blood splashing the sides of His altar, the Cross to wash away our sins.
If our sins have not been washed away by Jesus dying in our place, then when we die we'll still go to Sheol; but the Paradise side was taken to Heaven, so there's only the other side there now.
If you've not been able to let Jesus take your place in death, then I would advise you to pray and ask God to give you His gift of saving faith.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
What was Jesus doing while His body laid in the tomb, dead? Paul tells us in his letter to the saints in Ephesus:
This is why it says, "When He ascended on high He led captives in His train and gave gifts to men." What does "He ascended" mean except that He descended to the depths of the Earth?
Paul is quoting Psalm 68:18 here, and telling us that on His way to Heaven, Jesus went into the Realm of the Dead, Sheol, and gathered all the Old Testament saints who were in the Paradise side, that He called "Abraham's Bosom." They were there because until Jesus shed His blood, their sins could only be covered by the blood of the animals God told them to sacrifice; only God's own Blood Jesus sprinkled on the sides of His altar, the Cross, could actually take away sins. Covered sins are still there, but only taken-away sins are gone. This is what is needed to qualify to dwell in the Presence of God in Heaven.
Colossians 2:15 tells us that having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross.
So Jesus went down into Paradise to gather all His saints there, and paraded them in a show of victory in the sight of all the demons and rebels who were in the Hell side of Sheol, as He led them into Heaven.
Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament laws, starting with the first, most fundamental sacrifice, the personal one, that Leviticus begins with. It must be first, because without it we do not have a chance of ever getting close to God or learning His ways.
The individual would bring the animal to the priest and lay his hand on its head putting his sins on the animal, then the priest would sacrifice the lamb on the altar, dying instead of the person. Then he would splash the lamb's blood on the sides of the altar to cover the sins, and the person could then be forgiven and have a relationship with God. But he still went to Sheol when he died. Until Jesus died.
In the same way, we each need to figuratively lay our hand on the head of the Lamb of God, letting Him take our sins upon Himself, taking our death for us, His blood splashing the sides of His altar, the Cross to wash away our sins.
If our sins have not been washed away by Jesus dying in our place, then when we die we'll still go to Sheol; but the Paradise side was taken to Heaven, so there's only the other side there now.
If you've not been able to let Jesus take your place in death, then I would advise you to pray and ask God to give you His gift of saving faith.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, April 14, 2017
Good Friday in Isaiah
Isaiah 53
(V. 3-5) He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Jesus was not a handsome man among men, He was ordinary-looking.
Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
When Jesus died, He paid our debt of human death, with all its sorrows and griefs and regrets, but until we see Him with eyes of faith, it looks like God is against Him.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
Jesus had no charges against Him, the criminal charges are against each one of us. We have transgressed, and He paid the consequences for our sins.
(V. 7, 10) He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet he opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not his mouth.
Jesus is the Lamb of God set aside for Sacrifice (the Greek is very specific). Sheep don't bleat when sheared, and Jesus did not answer the false accusations lodged against Him.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his Hand.
It was the Triune God's Plan before He created any of this Universe that the Son would be the One to come to us in our humility to pay our debt, so that we would be able to be with Him in His glory. It's the only way we can. That is the joy that enabled Jesus to endure the Cross (see John 17:24).
(V. 12b) He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
The "sin-nature of the many" all those who have been born with the sin-part of Adam's DNA that we all inherit; and "made intercession for the transgressors," all of us who have deliberately made wrong choices in defiance of God's rules.
Jesus didn't leave anyone out from ability to be saved, from the innocent babies to the most hardened criminal. The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.
Today, Good Friday, is the day we remember the Passion of the Christ. The day mankind executed God, the worst day in the history of the World, we call Good, because what man intends for evil, God intends for good; and the most evil of all God uses for the unimaginable best for each of us. All written down in detail hundreds of years before it happened.
Today's Friday, but Sunday's coming!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
(V. 3-5) He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Jesus was not a handsome man among men, He was ordinary-looking.
Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
When Jesus died, He paid our debt of human death, with all its sorrows and griefs and regrets, but until we see Him with eyes of faith, it looks like God is against Him.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
Jesus had no charges against Him, the criminal charges are against each one of us. We have transgressed, and He paid the consequences for our sins.
(V. 7, 10) He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet he opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not his mouth.
Jesus is the Lamb of God set aside for Sacrifice (the Greek is very specific). Sheep don't bleat when sheared, and Jesus did not answer the false accusations lodged against Him.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his Hand.
It was the Triune God's Plan before He created any of this Universe that the Son would be the One to come to us in our humility to pay our debt, so that we would be able to be with Him in His glory. It's the only way we can. That is the joy that enabled Jesus to endure the Cross (see John 17:24).
(V. 12b) He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
The "sin-nature of the many" all those who have been born with the sin-part of Adam's DNA that we all inherit; and "made intercession for the transgressors," all of us who have deliberately made wrong choices in defiance of God's rules.
Jesus didn't leave anyone out from ability to be saved, from the innocent babies to the most hardened criminal. The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.
Today, Good Friday, is the day we remember the Passion of the Christ. The day mankind executed God, the worst day in the history of the World, we call Good, because what man intends for evil, God intends for good; and the most evil of all God uses for the unimaginable best for each of us. All written down in detail hundreds of years before it happened.
Today's Friday, but Sunday's coming!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, April 13, 2017
God Cares For The Animals, Too
Isaiah 34: 16-17
Search the Book of the Lord, and see what He will do. Not one of these birds and animals will be missing, and none will lack a mate, for the Lord has promised this. His Spirit will make it all come true. He has surveyed and divided the land and deeded it over to these creatures. They will possess it forever, from generation to generation.
O my Father, You are so good, such a good God to us all, including the animal kingdom. You will make sure that no species of animal will become extinct that is needed on this Earth for its ecology. You have promised that, "Not one of these birds and animals will be missing (extinct), and none will lack a mate (endangered)." You, Father, have even determined and set aside the land area that is suitable for each species, that they will be able to flourish, as well as the remnants of the peoples all over the Earth who will survive.
Father, You will send Your Son, our King and Lord, to restore all things and establish His thousand-year rule. It will be this Earth's "Golden Age," before the final end of this order of being.
You are such a good God to everything You have made!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Search the Book of the Lord, and see what He will do. Not one of these birds and animals will be missing, and none will lack a mate, for the Lord has promised this. His Spirit will make it all come true. He has surveyed and divided the land and deeded it over to these creatures. They will possess it forever, from generation to generation.
O my Father, You are so good, such a good God to us all, including the animal kingdom. You will make sure that no species of animal will become extinct that is needed on this Earth for its ecology. You have promised that, "Not one of these birds and animals will be missing (extinct), and none will lack a mate (endangered)." You, Father, have even determined and set aside the land area that is suitable for each species, that they will be able to flourish, as well as the remnants of the peoples all over the Earth who will survive.
Father, You will send Your Son, our King and Lord, to restore all things and establish His thousand-year rule. It will be this Earth's "Golden Age," before the final end of this order of being.
You are such a good God to everything You have made!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Morning By Morning
Isaiah 50: 4-5
The Sovereign Lord has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know what to say to all these weary ones. Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will. The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I do not rebel or turn away.
Isaiah was used mightily by God because he had a right attitude before God. O that we who are His would learn to hear His voice speaking to us quietly in our spirits, or by dreams or visions, or by the reading of His Word. May we listen intently to what He says to us in order to obey and follow completely.
Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus ("Not My will, but Yours!") be in each of us. May He awaken us morning by morning to open our understanding to His will for us. May He grant us His wisdom in how we speak to one another, with His law of kindness under our tongue, that our words will be gracious, kind, sweet, and Truthful. May His integrity rule over our lives binding all its parts into one whole. May He help us to continually listen to our Father's words, and strengthen us to follow Him faithfully, not rebelling or turning away regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in.
Then we will know the way in which we are to walk, the path He has planned for each of us before the World began; that we each will accomplish our parts in His great Plan of the Ages and rule with Him in His Kingdom.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
The Sovereign Lord has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know what to say to all these weary ones. Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will. The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I do not rebel or turn away.
Isaiah was used mightily by God because he had a right attitude before God. O that we who are His would learn to hear His voice speaking to us quietly in our spirits, or by dreams or visions, or by the reading of His Word. May we listen intently to what He says to us in order to obey and follow completely.
Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus ("Not My will, but Yours!") be in each of us. May He awaken us morning by morning to open our understanding to His will for us. May He grant us His wisdom in how we speak to one another, with His law of kindness under our tongue, that our words will be gracious, kind, sweet, and Truthful. May His integrity rule over our lives binding all its parts into one whole. May He help us to continually listen to our Father's words, and strengthen us to follow Him faithfully, not rebelling or turning away regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in.
Then we will know the way in which we are to walk, the path He has planned for each of us before the World began; that we each will accomplish our parts in His great Plan of the Ages and rule with Him in His Kingdom.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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