Jesus follower

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 50 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will…

So here is the question of the week: Is the virgin birth for real, does it really matter? (Check out previous questions here)

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 49 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce ? But this is what the Lord says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save. [Isaiah 49:24-25] This chapter describes…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 48 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’ [Isaiah 48:5] God uses Isaiah to prepare His people for what is about to come; He predicts both the…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 47 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. [Isaiah 47:6] This passage describes how God uses a foreign power to punish His people for their sin, but that power…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 46 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared? [Isaiah 46:5] In this chapter Isaiah is exposing the folly of comparing God to idols, or to anyone else. Whether a hand-carved idol or a mighty king or warrior, neither can compare…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 45 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. [Isaiah 45:22] Isaiah makes the amazing claim that God is directing King Cyrus (of Babylon) to overcome the Assyrians and eventually restore Israel as a nation [read Cyrus’ decree in Ezra 1:1-4]. He…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 44 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, … who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says…

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 43 OBSERVATION/APPLICATION: The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you…