Month: December 2025

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Seeing what seems impossible.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Instead, you will see Zion as a place of holy festivals. You will see Jerusalem, a city quiet and secure. It will be like a tent whose ropes are taut and whose stakes are firmly fixed. The Lord will be our Mighty One. He will be like a wide river of protection that no enemy can cross, that no enemy ship can sail upon. For the Lord is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. He will care for us and save us.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭33‬:‭20‬-‭22‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Our eyes may not deceive us when we look around and see chaos and its cousins mayhem and misery. Yet, our eyes do not have the ability to see what is beyond their physical realties. How do we see what seems to be impossible? How do we direct our soul, mind and strength towards a future that currently projects itself as futile? This is faith which becomes reality, solid and secure enough to exchange a hellish existence for hope.

Faith believes, hope follows.

Earlier in this passage, Isaiah recorded the precision of which the Assyrians gained and gloated in their plunderous victories. The Assyrian officers took the time to record how many towers they destroyed and their bookkeepers followed up with scrooge-like glee recording each item in their piles of plunder!

Isaiah reminds the leaders and the people of God how far they have strayed that God would discipline them with these “fierce, violent people with their strange, unknown language.” He promises that the people of God would remember that “time of terror!” Isaiah tells them the truth of the days ahead before the truth was even a reality. Is God’s Word truth even before it’s experienced or even believed? Clearly that’s what history teaches us.

One of Isaiah’s famous phrases is “lift your eyes.” And, he’s not talking about physically looking up, but through faith, he encourages us to see with eyes of faith (Isaiah 40:26, 51:6, 60:4). Seeing the truth before us, means that we can, we must, see and understand what is happening around us. Discerning whether it is something of our own doing (sin and disordered desires), an attack from a very real enemy, who actively pursues our destruction, or from God as he lovingly corrects us, leading us to repent and move towards him rather than away from him. Then, the eyes of faith can look beyond current circumstances to see that God is faithful and forgiving.

Isaiah wrote that they “will see Zion,” in a completely new future. Jerusalem filled once again with feasts and festivals. To see it filled with peace and quiet because of the security with its gates, walls and towers!

This passage crescendos with, “The Lord will be our Mighty One” – Our “Yahweh addir.” Where Yahweh is our lawgiver, judge and King! He will “yasha” save us (where the name Joshua/Jesus comes from).

Within the context of what is happening in and around our life, we may only physically see that everything looks like it’s going wrong. My hope is that Isaiah’s words to Israel are a confrontational comfort to us – that things will not always be this way. For us to “lift our eyes,” to Yahweh with faith, like in Psalm 121:1; from where our help comes from!

Prayer

Dad,
So often I only see what is happening around me or to me, forgetting to lift my eyes to you! It always seems to be a challenge to pause and look up FIRST, before fear and anxiety sets in to steal faith, peace and even joy. Help me to prioritize my pause, remember your faithfulness and yield to your ways rather than my own.

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Small but significant.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“Then Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it? It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches.” He also asked, “What else is the Kingdom of God like? It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭13‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus, in speaking of the Kingdom of God, uses two words in his object lesson illustrations – tiny and little. Well, really he says it’s like a “kokkos” a grain and “zumé” yeast. The New Living Translation inserts the word “little,” but it’s not in the original language. Apparently yeast is so powerfully pervasive that it needs no modifier word.

Is Jesus saying that the Kingdom starts out small, but grows and expands to something much bigger and more powerful? That’s what it looks like. I don’t want to read too much into Jesus’ word-play here, but it’s interesting to think of God’s plans or His ways being anything but gigantic!

Are God’s ways subtle? I can see how they would be hidden, mysterious, even secretive in the way that would peek our curiosity. It’s hard for my brain to understand words like omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent by descriptions like a mustard seed or a smallest smidgen of yeast!

God does love to start small; creating humans from dust, choosing one unknown nomadic (Abram) to become a nation, a people that would become more populous than the sands of the sea or stars in the sky. And the most famous small to significant example, a chromosome supernaturally implanted into Mary’s ovum, where God takes on flesh and becomes a man. Yeah, this is how God has always approached us and world in which we experience life.

God comes like a grain, a smidgen of greatness, so small, so understated, that it can be easily dismissed or even entirely missed. But it does not remain small, nor nearly invisible. It grows exponentially larger than we can even imagine. Yeah, that sounds exactly like God, like Jesus’ birth, life and death, like what the Kingdom of God will become. It starts small, but hardly insignificant. To find it, to discover it, to live it, we must look for it, like a young child, so curious to touch everything, to exploring their environment constantly. God is not hidden, and neither is His Kingdom. He’s just waiting for us to find Him.

Prayer

​Dad,
It is an absolute wonder to know that, in all your magnanimity, you are still subtle when it comes to us! You still whisper to us. You still want us to come, taking a second look. You still wait to be big in our life and still patiently approach everything that exists in our world and beyond. Small enough, gentle enough for a child to see you and know you. Yet, big enough to be just, right and true above and beyond all other gods. You are enough.

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Global Justice Justified.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The Lord has spoken!” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭24‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Isaiah writes that things were not looking to good for the planet and its inhabitants. God was about to devastate and scatter. Wipe out the surface of the earth and scatter the people. Sounds apocalyptic and final doesn’t it!

What is Isaiah writing about?
Did it happen?
Is it still yet to happen?

Most scholars agree, this is a future evert known as the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21-22). This chapter is known as the “Isaiah Apocalypse.” Isaiah writes this in the 8th Century BC, almost 3000 years ago!

It is interesting that so many predictions by a man named Nostradamus pop up every so often, but virtually nothing is mentioned about the prophetic promises all through the Old Testament. Nostradamus, a 16th-century French astrologer and physician, is famous for his cryptic predictions, many of which have made their way into mainstream media. It’s estimated that hundreds of references exist across various media platforms. While Nostradamus wrote around 942 prophecies, the interpretations of these predictions are highly subjective, and few if any became a reality.

If we tracked Isaiah’s prophecies, around 20-30 percent of Isaiah’s prophecies are cited as having been clearly fulfilled historically. The remainder, roughly 70-80 percent, is seen as potential future fulfillments, especially regarding eschatological themes. Isaiah’s end-of-planet, is a massive doom-n-gloom prophecy, yet there are virtually no stories, no mad-max style scripts, no CGI/A.I. effects making to the theaters. The promise of the end of all ends, and there’s barely a peep about it out of Hollywood. There have been hundreds of apocalyptic films released in theaters since the dawn of cinema. Only four of them draw from the Isaiah style theme, The Book of Eli (2010), Knowing (2009), The Omega Code (1999) and the Left Behind Series (2000).

The point is this, God’s track record to fulfill His will, His way, His promises is flawlessly perfect, yet many still don’t take it seriously. Paul in the Book of Romans, uses the phrase, “without excuse” in Romans 1:20. Paul writes about how the invisible attributes of God are evident in creation, making humanity accountable for their disbelief. This implies that the evidence of God’s existence is clear in the world around us, leaving no justification for rejection of Him. So, just as clearly of creation leaving evidence for every human being to see and ask, we also have these prophesies tell of past events that have already happened and that yet unfulfilled ones that will absolutely take place. God’s mercy and love is absolutely long suffering and future events hold the finality of His justice which is also 100% love – evil cannot run rampant forever.

Prayer

​Dad,
I did not come to faith through the loud proclamation of creation nor the proof of promises fulfilled. I came to Jesus through the crushing reality of how my parents lived, knowing it would become my own life if I did not have help and make completely different choices. I came through faith! But, through Your Word, I learned about Your prophetic promises and the perfection of Your plans. I have come to believe there are no excuses, and there will be no excuses, as Paul said. Thank you for your patience and grace towards us.

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The huge life do-over.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Then God said to Noah, “Leave the boat, all of you—you and your wife, and your sons and their wives. Release all the animals—the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth.” So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat. And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.” Genesis‬ ‭8‬:‭15‬-‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

From the time the first rain fell to the earth to the time the waters receded enough to have dry ground, took a year. Noah began the journey at 600 years old and now he was 601 years old. Human evil had exponentially exploded over the 1,600+ years since creation.

After Noah had left the boat, he sacrificed some designated animals to the Lord. Had the family gone an entire year without an acknowledgment of their own sin? When Noah prepared and offered that sacrifice, it signaled that he understood the cost and consequences of sin. This pleased God. After a complete re-start of human history, God gives a chilling reality. “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done,” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭8‬:‭21‬. Every inclination, every thought and imagination is bent towards sin – since childhood!

Anyone that can’t see that we are still in a battle, does not understand the depth of our depravity. God constantly gets blamed for both being cruel and overbearing and, at the same time, blamed for not eradicating evil. Like we could have it both ways! What evil, whose evil should God start with? What’s the measurement of too much evil and who is qualified to judge it?

God told us, our choices came with consequences! It’s not just the first couple in the garden. It’s every couple, every person that was banished from the garden today. Noah’s sacrifice was critical to acknowledge that he understood this. God’s people were taught and respected the idea of temporary animal sacrifices as a means of obediently understanding the cost of their own sin. When Jesus became the final and perfect sacrifice for all humankind, it allows us to place our trust, our hope, that He is enough. Not just to cover our sin, but forever eliminate the judgment and justice due for us to pay. The escape from our sin, the guarantee of the biggest life do-over ever, is found, not just in believing in Jesus, but living in Jesus.

Prayer

​Dad,
I often think about what so many people seem to believe about you. Some want to just deny any and every idea of a creator, or a God to answer to. Others, want to pretend they are a god themselves, attempting to get the good life through a plurality of religious-like activities. And still others have declared themselves as your enemy, believing the lie that they can overtake your throne, side with the accuser and win. All of this is an impossible illusion of being in control of our sin and of our own destiny. I am so very thankful for your gracious life do-over found in Jesus. You alone have saved my life here on earth as well as my eternal life yet to come.