Battles

  Bow Down Isaiah 49:23 Kings will teach your children, and daughters of kings will take care of them. They will bow down before you and kiss the dirt at your feet. Then you will know I am the Lord. Anyone who trusts in me will not be disappointed.” A benefit of spending time in the Bible is that we learn about who God is and what God is all about. In short God explains Himself to us and makes His case for us to trust in Him. This always intrigues me because our God is the creator of the universe and does not have to explain anything to us. God could, if He wanted to, just demand we come and worship and serve Him but that is not the righteous and loving God that we have. This God we trust in wants us to know Him and to understand who He is. Instead of demanding we obey Him He explains Himself and then tells us what He offers. A central point that I have come to embrace is the place where God makes the covenant with the Israelites. There is no demand that the Israelites f...

 

   Jewels  Isaiah 49:18 Look up and look around you.  All your children are gathering to return to you.  The Lord says, “As surely as I live, your children will be like jewels that a bride wears proudly.” A hobby of mine is all about pushing little plastic soldiers around on a table to fight battles both historical and imagined. We call what we do miniature war gaming and it is a great learning tool to help people understand decision making and to see the effects that those choices have in a non-substantial environment. When I teach new people about our hobby, I have a saying I use to help people learn about missing what is important. I say, “Sometimes we get so caught up in killing alligators that we forget that our job is to drain the swamp.” The idea is that we start doing something that might be helpful but misses the point. You don’t have to kill the alligators if you drain the swamp because the alligators will just leave. This of course leads me into ...

  A Name Isaiah 49:16 See, I have written your name on my hand. Jerusalem, I always think about your walls. In Luke chapter eight there are two stories told that captivate me. The stories are told also in Matthew but we get more information from Luke. One of the things that I find interesting is that in both books these two stories are intertwined. First we have the story of the leader of the synagogue. Here we find a man whose daughter is dying and his only hope is Jesus. The problems this man has is that he has been informed to have nothing to do with Jesus if he wants to keep his position as leader of the synagogue. So now he has to choose his dying daughter or his job and of course he chooses his daughter. While this is going on another person, who is in the middle of a calamity seeks Jesus. This woman does not even feel worthy to speak to Jesus but she believes that if she can just touch Jesus’ coat she will find the healing she cannot find anyplace else. When I com...

 Hope Isaiah 49:9 You will tell the prisoners, ‘Come out of your prison.’  You will tell those in darkness, ‘Come into the light.’  The people will eat beside the roads, and they will find food even on bare hills.                          Someone once told me a truth that is very inconvenient but has proven to be true over and over.  I was reminded of this truth just recently and it has been on my mind ever since then.  The truth that I learned was that if something starts to leak it will never get better and almost always it will get worse over time.  That truth has helped me but it also has made my life harder.  In the years after I learned that truth I have had to deal with leaky faucets, washing machine pumps and broken pipes.  As much as I did not want to face the truth about those things I still dealt with them because I knew what was true and I knew what had to be done if I wa...