When God Whispers Over Your Life

  Isaiah 9:6 6  For Unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (NKJV, emphasis mine)   In the Old Testament, in the first several books of the Bible, God made it plain that He wanted to be the king of Israel.   Their government would be a theocracy- meaning ruled by God. But the hardness of the Israelite’s hearts would not allow it.   They wanted an earthly king like all the pagan nations around them. When Isaiah pulled back the curtain and glimpsed the future, he foresaw the theocracy of God restored in His Son, the Messiah.   God would once again be the one who made the decisions.   He would guide and protect the people.   He would unite the kingdom into one everlasting government. (Fast forward approximately 700 years.) Jesus was born into a season of Israel being ...

    Isaiah 9:6 6  For Unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (NKJV, emphasis mine )   This passage is one of the most beautiful of the predictions about the coming Messiah.   It reads like pure poetry!   It is so good in fact, that we will look at it over several days.   Today, we will concentrate on the bolded portion: "Unto us a child is born"…   Normally a child is born “unto” his/her parents.   But Jesus would be born to us !   He would come to meet us at our point of need.   He would insert Himself into humanity because His love was too great for Him to remain at a distance.   He was unwilling to enjoy the glories of heaven without His beloved (you and me.)   "Unto us a Son is given" .. .    He had come in answer to the pra...

Isaiah 7:14 14  Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.   (NKJV)   The prophet Isaiah foretold three important facts about the coming Messiah that would help seekers to identify Him when He came: The child would be born of a virgin- a person who biologically was incapable of having a child. The virgin would not only conceive the child, but she would also bear and give birth to Him while still pure. (This is another signpost for humanity.) He would be called Immanuel. What an improbable birth story!  Who could possibly meet those requirements?  Matthew 1:18-25 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.  19 Then Joseph her husband, being  a just  man,  and not wanting to make her a public ex...

 I love looking for Jesus in the Old Testament.    It is somewhat like an Easter egg hunt at times, and like a child, I am filled with joy at the discovery! This time we see Jesus, the Reason for the Season, tucked inside a blessing from a dying man.    Jacob draws his sons near to bestow a blessing upon them- a blessing that is filled with prophecy, later to unfold.    Israel is the grandson of Abraham, the one with whom God made a covenant to bless the nations. The lineage through whom Christ, the Messiah, would come.  As Israel speaks to his son, Judah, he gives him an exalted position in the family- one normally reserved for the firstborn. Genesis 49:8-10 8 “Judah, you  are he  whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand  shall be  on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s children shall bow down before you.  9  Judah  is  a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, h...

  Merry and Bright: Christmas Advent Devotional Day 1     Ah, the season of Christmas where all is merry and bright!  Movies and carols would have you believe that is the case.  But if we are honest with ourselves (and each other), we know that the Christmas season often comes in the middle of hard seasons. Recently, I reflected on how many of my inner circle are fighting overwhelming battles.  Then it occurred to me- life is hard almost all the time, and Christmas is no exception. The earliest foretelling of a “Christmas to Come” was in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis 3:15 15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (KJV)   I don’t know about you, but to me this verse sounds a lot like a battle.  Christ would indeed come during the middle of a battle.  Because the sin choice Adam and Eve made, we are all fighting our way thro...