Seeking the Gospel Truth

This is the question of the ages. Interestingly enough, one of the Old  Testament prophets, Habakkuk doesn’t actually prophesy, but asks God,  “Why?” Consequently, he recorded God’s answer that still holds true  today. We ask, “God, if you are in control, why is the world in such a  mess? God gives us an answer. Let’s dig in… Keep reading in my blog where there are links to dig...

Judgment Day is coming — whether you believe in God or not. God is going  to judge the whole world — every single person — believers and  non-believers both. This is a warning to everyone! It’s the same message  over and over again. Different voices, same song. Today we hear from  the prophet Joel. His name means “Yahweh is God”. It’s not known when  exactly his book was w...

Look around the world today and you can describe  the majority of it as “godless”. Most people have grown complacent and  far from God. Everything’s fine in their lives. Sure, there’s a problem  once in a while, but they manage to make it through on their own. Many  people don’t pay attention to the news because it’s too depressing or it  doesn’t affect them or where they...

Family feuds are tough. Unfortunately, it all centers on pride. For many  years, my mom’s sister refused to communicate with me or my parents.  All over a disagreement my aunt had with my dad. I had nothing to do  with it, yet, I was also shunned. Both very prideful, neither would  apologize, neither would back down. Even after I moved to Miami, just a  few miles away from...

Friend, if you haven’t realized it by now, we are living in the last days .  These last 2 chapters of Isaiah are very timely. Written in 700 BC,  Isaiah foretells the end times. Not only that, he tells us, very  clearly, who is a friend and who is an enemy of God. He also includes 3  traits of “the friend of God” that go together. Here, too, we get a  description of the Ne...

The Book of Isaiah is called the “mini-Bible”. It has 66 chapters. The  Bible has 66 books. As we dig into the last chapters of Isaiah’s  prophecies, we find that the Book of Revelation reflects, even confirms,  what Isaiah prophesied in 700 BC. Almost 800 years before John wrote  the Revelation of Jesus Christ .  In these next 2 chapters, we have Jesus speaking, then Isai...

We find the story in Luke 4:14-28. Jesus spent  the 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, led by the Holy Spirit, yet  being temped by Satan. Of course He didn’t fall for Satan’s deceptions.  He then started going from town to town, synagogue to synagogue,  preaching the Good News .  Then He arrived in Nazareth, where He was raised. Remember, that’s  where both Mar...

No matter how much we try to deny it, no matter how much we try to sweep  our sins under the rug, no matter how many acts of goodness we do, our  sin, blocks salvation .  Our sin, separates us from God. The more we sin, the further away we  get from God’s Glory. We fall deeper and deeper into the darkness of  this world. In these next 2 chapters, Isaiah lists 32 sins that...

How do you worship God? Do you worship God? Or  do you take Him for granted? I did for a long time. I knew He existed. I  knew Jesus was His Son and part of the Holy Trinity, but I had better  things to do. Things that I thought were more  important. Lots of things that I put first. You can say I worshiped them  before God. Like career, money, travel, entertainment, partyi...

Yesterday we met Jesus, the Messiah, the suffering servant in Isaiah’s moving prophecy .  In today’s chapters, the tone changes to hope and promise. Even though  God’s Son was rejected by the people He came to save, God still has a  love for Israel and Jerusalem. In the end, Israel has time to repent and come back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob .  Furthermore, they will...

These next scripture verses can be called “The  Gospel According to Isaiah”. These words were written 7 centuries before  Jesus fulfilled them. 200 years before crucifixion was invented by the  Persians and 500 years before the Romans adapted it as their main form  of capital punishment. Isaiah describes in great detail what Jesus  experienced in His trial, torture, and cr...

Have you ever been in a mess of your own making?  Sure there are tough times brought on by natural disasters and our  fallen world. But what about the times when you’ve neglected something,  then realize you shouldn’t have. For instance, with my previous car, I  never really paid attention to the tire pressure. I didn’t realize that  one front tire was getting dangerously...

Have you ever looked back at your life and  thought, “What if?”. You usually think about those forks-in-the-road  where you made a life-changing decision. What if you took the other  road? I have 2 of those that I think are significant. The first one was  when I was in 3rd grade. My parents told me to decide if I wanted to  take piano or dance lessons. They couldn’t afford...

Idolatry is the worship, veneration and/or idolization of anyone or anything other than the One True God . That is the Trinity: God, the Father – Yahweh God, the Son – Jesus, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach, the Messiah God, the Holy Spirit or Ghost God laid down this law clearly in the 10 Commandments found in Exodus 20: 3 “You must not have any other god but me.4 “You must not make for yourself an...

So far, we’ve been traveling through the chronological accounts until  the Babylonian exile of the Jews which happened in 3 waves, from 605-586  BC. Today we’re jumping ahead to the 300s BC, then even further to  175-167 BC to yet another attack which led to the miracle of Hanukkah .  Why should Christians understand the Jewish Hanukkah celebration?  Because 1. Jesus celeb...

Are you as sick of this old world as I am? I don’t know about you, but I  stopped watching the news — even the local stations. It’s bad out  there, that’s for sure. There is a lot of uncertainty. What is certain is that God is still in control, He does have the whole world  in His hands! This next chapter of Isaiah is an assurance chapter. He is  assuring Israel that their Baby...

Previously, Isaiah warned the Jews of the coming judgment — that they  will be attacked and taken in to exile by the Babylonians. As we saw in yesterday’s chapter ,  Isaiah now starts comforting Israel with God’s promises of deliverance  from the Babylonians. See, God warns, He is patient, He judges the  unrighteous, delivers judgment, then comforts the people with Good News an...

Several times, years ago, I had the pleasure and honor of singing Handel’s Messiah in a mass choir. That’s a choir of 30-40 people, along with a local  symphony orchestra and professional soloists. What an experience!  Technically, I’m a 2nd soprano singing between alto and soprano.  Sometimes, I could manage the soprano part if it didn’t go too high. I  would have loved to sin...

While the Assyrians scattered the people of the northern kingdom of Israel, the Babylonians took the Jews captive back to Babylon. Hence, for 70 years the Hebrews lived in exile. These last 2 chapters of 2 Kings tell the gruesome story. King Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Judah came in 3 waves: First, in 605 BC, that’s when he captured Judah’s best and brightest, Daniel along with his 3 friends, Han...

History is full of stories of nations who rise up in power. They all hit  a peak, then they start a steep downfall to their extinction. Before we  go on to the rise of the Babylonian empire, we have to hear what the  prophet Nahum has to say about the fall of the Assyrians. The Assyrians,  remember, were the first superpower nation. 150 years earlier, Jonah was sent to set Nine...

Have you ever sat down to watch a video or streaming a movie and after  10 minutes realize that you’ve seen it before? That’s what happened when  I started reading the next chapters of Isaiah (36-39). They are the  exact duplicate stories of 2 Kings 18-21. Since we’ve recently covered  them, you can recap, but we’re going on to finish 2 Kings and then  continue with Isaiah...

We are living in the end times! We are living in biblical times! The exact times that Isaiah prophesied 2700 years ago! We’re in the middle of the Book of Isaiah and today we see him transition from warning the people of his time to warning us. Yet he always adds hope. We have hope  because we have a Mighty Savior whom we know, wins in the end! Let’s dig in… Keep reading in my blog where ther...

There’s no doubt that the world today is broken, fallen, in a horrible  state. Some may think it’s irreparable — beyond repair, beyond hope. Not  so. That is why God gave us prophets. They are His spokespersons. He  shows them what will happen within their lifetimes, as well as a far  distant future. Today’s prophecy goes further on past the impending  threat to Hezekiah’s...

In times of trouble, like when an enemy attacks, we’re supposed to turn  to God and trust Him. On the contrary, when the Assyrians were coming to  attack Judah, whom did they turn to? Not not God, who brought them out  of slavery in Egypt. They turned to Egypt! In this lesson, you’ll see  that when trouble comes, and it’s going to come, God wants us to turn to  HIM not mer...

We’re back in Isaiah’s book of prophecy today — and we’ll be here for a  few more days. Then we’ll finish 2 Kings, as the Israelites are taken  into exile in Babylon. We’ll, then return to finish Isaiah, then we’ll  cover each of the prophets as they write about the Hebrews’ time in  exile. All of these stories and prophecies are important as they lead us  to Jesus and the...