The Family Bible Journey Podcast

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!

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.