The Family Bible Journey Podcast

Here the prophet describes the depth of God's love by saying that He has "engraved us upon His Hands." This is one of the most explicit prophecies of the manner of Jesus's death on the cross, in the entire Old Testament. This vivid prophecy gives us great hope because we know that God is the Author of the future, because He told His people over 600 years before the fact, how Jesus would die for His people.

God uses even our stubborness to draw us back to Himself. He knows we are hard headed, so He gets our attention through the affliction and suffering we cause ourselves when we walk in our own way. But He also softens our hearts when He reaches out to us in mercy and love, because His love overcomes even our human obstinance.

This epistle contains some of the most disputed passages in the Bible, in particular, regarding the role of women in the Church. Instead of focusing on what we can't or shouldn't do, let's find the blessing of serving where God places us. Instead of trying to keep everyone else in their place, let us worry about our calling and service.

How great it is to know the blessings of the God who has told us the future, and it has come to pass! The Christian God clearly proclaims the future because He directs it. What confidence this gives us for godly living, knowing that our God will work everythying out for our eternal welfare.

There are many, even many "Christian" scholars, who deny that Isaiah could've known the name of the king who would allow Israel to return to Jerusalem. Faithful Christians cherish these passages, because in them, we see that God had all things planned to work together for His people back then. He also has all things planned to work for our benefit today.

Timothy is Paul's protoge, his child in the faith, whom Paul leans on throughout his missionary journeys. His Jewish mother and Greek father raised Timothy in a home where the best of Greek and Jewish traditions were woven together. This makes Timothy a great envoy for Christ in the ancient near east. In him, we see a great example to follow in godly and faithful Christian leadership.

Humans love to worship the work of their own hands. God discusses the foolishness of idolatry here, before predicting the name of King Cyrus, who approximately 140 years in the future, would allow Israel to return to Jerusalem. These things were foretold by Isaiah, so that when God's people compared human events to God's prophecy, they would return to the Lord in faith.

God has claimed us as His own, and He will not let the trials of this life, hard as they may be, deprive us of His love. Isaiah reminds us that God loves us for His own sake, and will send a Savior to show us the full extent of His love, once and for all!

Paul ends his letter by affirming the Thessalonians in the faith. They were rooted in Christ. They were protected by God's grace. We enjoy the same blessings of God's favor, so that we too can endure the test of time.

God chooses us in love and delights in us. We live with the blessing of His love and His Holy Spirit, both of which are given to us as a gift. Even the Old Testament saints and prophets such as Isaiah knew this!

God promises to hold on to us with His strength and love. We learn what the Hebrew idiom,"right hand," means, and why we have unshakable confidence in God. He holds on to us in love, in His Son Jesus.

The return of Christ has been a hot topic since Christ's ascension. Instead of wondering or worrying about it, we should be busy preparing others for His return by sharing His love with them. Don't worry about missing it. When Christ returns in glory, everybody will see and we will rejoice at the coming of the One who comes to save us!

You've got to love the specificity of the legal terminology when scripture says we are pardoned from our sin. This means that we're guilty, but He doesn't punish us. This great chapter also introduces us to John the Baptist 700 years before he is born!

Hezekiah, towards the end of his life, received two miracles that many seek. He was healed of a disease, and God gave Him a supernatural sign, to show that the promised healing was real. Even though Hezekiah received such blessings, he made a terrible mistake towards the end of his life as he bragged to the Babylonians about his wealth. God told Hezekiah that his pride and foolishness would lead to the demise of Judah, but Hezekiah seems to not care, because all will be well in his days.

All suffering has a spiritual root. We, as God's children can endure suffering because we know that God will rectify all things in the end. This gives us courage, faith, and affirmation, even when we suffer for our faith.

Hezekiah prayed for deliverance in the middle of an impossibly hard spot. Jerusalem was under seige with nearly 200,000 troops camped around the city. He prayed not to get the Lord on his side, but because the Lord was on his side, and the God gave him an unprecedented deliverance from his foes.

The crocus is often the first flower to bloom wherever it is found. In hot dry climates, and cold snowy climates, it is among the hardiest of flowers. The hope and the beauty of this little flower represents our hope that springs forth each day, because of the love that is ours as God's people.

Paul ends this epistle by reminding his readers to live their lives in light of eternity. He reminds them of the Holy Spirit's work in their lives. He builds them up by assuring them that the God Who called them to faith will bring them safely to their eternal home.

God promises to deliver us from all that assails and afflicts us. Because He is God, and reigns over all, we can laugh, even in the face of danger.

Israel thought she could be saved from the Assyrians by the mighty Pharaoh and his army. Their hopes were dashed when Egypt was defeated. Let us learn from their mistakes by not trusting in the people or powers of our day, trusting instead in the Lord, Who is powerful to save.

Christian living is not complicated. Love the Lord. Love your people. If we can keep our heads down while serving the Lord and others, everything will be just fine, even as we are being prepared for, and preparing others for eternity.

In a sin cursed world, God works in strange ways. We call this the "alien work" of God. Here we reflect on His ability to turn suffering into gladness and even death into life.

Isaiah told God's people, a hundred years before it would happen, that they would be exiled. He also told them, over 150 years prior to its fulfillment, that they would return to their land. What hope these passages must have given people who Isaiah would never know, because they weren't even born, when He recorded them.

When we follow the Lord in faith, we are a great encouragement to those around us. So let us encourage each other to faith by putting our faith into practice.

Isaiah is confident in the Lord's power to redeem even the hard stuff of this life. Why is it easier for us, sometimes, to trust the Lord with the stuff of the next life, than the stuff of this life? The longer we live, when we are looking for him, the more we understand how the Lord gives us ability to trust Him with the stuff of this life and the next.

We struggle with the twin realities of God's justice and love. His justice demands payment for sin, yet His love forgives sin. As His people, let us not take his love for granted. Instead, aware of his wrath, let us seek to live in righteousness.

If we put anyone other than Christ as our Number One, we will falter. There is tremendous pressure from the workplace, to the school yard, to the courthouse, to defer to the "great." Paul here encourages us to bow to none but Christ, as this is the only pure motive for any decision.

Tyre and Sidon were prosperous neighbors of Judah, who were economic and cultural influencers. Many were made wealthy from their trade. When they fell, all who based their lives on the profit and influence peddling of these kingdoms wound up no better than anyone else.

God's wrath falls on Jerusalem and Judah in this chapter. They were no better than their neighbors, and were equally desrving of God's condemnation. In the tail end of the chapter we are introduced to two historical characters, who teach us poignent lessons about God's judgment and mercy.

Paul was only in Thessaloniki for a short time. A few weeks, and he was run out of the synogogue. A few months, and he was run out of town. Nonetheless, he forged deep and meaningful relationships with the Thessalonians, that are a great encouragement to us today.

Babylon terrified all around, as the global power that put every other nation within her reach into subjection. She may be the most powerful of nations at the time, but she will fare no better than the rest when God's wrath comes to rest on her. Here we are warned not to trust in human strength. It cannot avail in God's sight.

Despite the historic and ethnic tensions between the people of the Nile and the Hebrew people, God's promised redemption is for all! The prophet describes, in denouncing Israel's nearest African neighbors, that even though these nations have been historically at odds, that they will be reconciled in His Savior.

Paul encourages us to make the best use of our time. We do that by investing in the welfare, especially the spiritual welfare, of others. When we as God's people take God at His Word, and try to make the best use of our time, we can't even begin to imagine how we will experience Christ, and be blessed in Him.

After many chapters of judgment and promised forgiveness of His own people Israel, the Lord's attention turns to their nearest neighbors. Even though Israel's neighbors had seen the Lord act mightily to save His people, and heard the words of the prophets, most of these people persisted in idolatry and ungodliness. Despite their persistent unbelief, God offers them hope in the same Savior He has promised His people.

Death and God's judgement will be the great equalizers of all. Earthly success is an illusion that will be shown as counterfeit if those who found it failed to embrace the Lord and His way.

"Living it up," usually means that someone has everything going their way. They are enjoying this life and the best of all that this life has to offer. It is an inherently selfish and superficial mentality. God offers us something so much more in Christ, that we can't imagine it, until He reveals it to us in Christ.

Babylon was but a representative of all oppressing and corrupt human power. When Isaiah prophecies her demise, he warns us all that judgement is coming. The theme of coming judgement resounds loudly through out many of the next 25 chapters of Isaiah, so that we may be warned and ready!

We rejoice in Jesus, our Savior, because in Him, God has become our salvation. When we are weak, He is strong. Even when we don't love or don't even like Him, or what He's doing in our life, He loves us still the same. So much so that He redeems even our weakest moments.

It's hard to tell the difference beetween the genuine article and a counterfeit, even when it comes to faith. Paul teaches the Colossians to find their stay in Christ alone, and to be firmly rooted in His work in their lives. We are also taught how to tell the difference between what is and is not important when it comes to our life in Christ.

In this chapter, we hear yet another bright and hopeful passage of prophecy that describes the gracious reign of Jesus in our lives. Living in a world of injustice and oppression, we hear how our Savior will exalt the downcast. Instead of being decieved by appearances, He will always judge in righteousness and truth.

The opening verses of Isaiah 9 are read each year by many Christians as a part of the Christmas Eve liturgy. We are reminded of the One who came from the Galilee, Jesus Christ our Lord. Our faith is strengthened when we hear these verses that so clearly describe our Lord, knowing they were written over 600 years before Jesus was born.

Colossians is written to a small, declining agricultural community that Paul never visited himself. He writes to encourage them in their faith, which was under atttack. Some were trying to get the Colossians to put their faith in something less than Christ. Paul's words encourage them, as they do us, by rooting us deeply in Christ, the Source of our love and life.

Judah and Jerusalem had no chance against the overwhelming power of her neighbors to the north who were conspiring against her. But God saved Jerusalem from destruction, as yet another example of His saving power. The idea of the prey escaping the jaws of certain death offers a vivid illustration of Israel's fate in this episode.

God offers wicked King Ahab the opportunity to ask for a sign of His divine power. In a false pretense of faith, Ahab rejects the Lord's offer. God, undeterred by the king's stubborned unbelief, gives the believing Jews the sign of Imanuel as assurance of His loving redemption.

Paul accomplished untold good for people who were blessed by His labors. We are encouraged to know that when we labor with the Lord and for the Lord, that He will prosper us. It may not look like it. It may not always feel like it. But we know that the Lord's purpose will endure at the end, so we do well to serve the Lord in boldness and love.

Isaiah recounts the day he was called into heaven's glory, and made a prophet of the Most High God. In one of the few places in holy scripture we get to see into heaven, we learn that God's prophets are His, not ours. Those whom God calls into holy ministry serve Him, not us. Their divine call carries great weight and tremendous responsibility for both the preachers and the hearers.

The parable of the vineyard is used by Isaiah, and at least three times by Jesus, as a warning not to use God's love and mercy as the excuse to indulge sinful selfish desires. We live in a world that celebrates ungodliness. We may be tempted to use God's forgiveness as an excuse to indulge our sinful desires. Resisting this temptation, let us strive to live in the Lord's way, as unpopular as that may be.

Philippi was a town full of citizen soldiers. They enjoyed the blessings of being citizens of a favored Roman colony. They also knew the price that must be paid, often by others in blood, for the blessings of citizenship. As we read this chapter, we are encouraged in our valiant fight for Christ, and encouraged by the promised resurrection and life everlasting that are ours in Him.

Despite Judah's rank idolatry, God still loved His people. He promised, in the midst of their spiritual rebellion against Him, that He'd love them. Instead of treating them as they deserve, He will would send a Savior to them.

By the time God sent Isaiah to Judah, they had fallen deep into spiritual depraivity. His judgment began at home, and extended to the godless nations around them. God had grown tired of their hypocrisy, which favored self and friends over foreigners and enemies.