This Is The Way... Walk In It

This Is The Way... Walk In It

"Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right or to the left" Isaiah 30:20-21.

God's covenant people knew hardship and deprivation resulting from their disobedience. Generations of Jews spent years in captivity under extreme adverse conditions. The God who seemed so silent and absent during such times promised that it would not always be so. They would behold Him, and they would hear His voice as they turned right and left, directing them to the path they should walk.

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They Key To Everything

They Key To Everything

"Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open" Isaiah 22:22.

The key to everything is God's Messiah, Jesus. With Him, everything is literally an open and shut door. And it is interesting that He identified Himself by these words to the church at Philadelphia: "He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: 'I know your deeds Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name'" Revelation 3:7-8.

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Yahweh is my Father

Yahweh is my Father

"O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness" Isaiah 25:1.


If Yahweh is not my God and your God, then little else matters. The same is certainly true of His Son, Jesus. It's not what we know ABOUT them that ultimately matters; it is that we know them personally. Jesus makes this abundantly clear in Matthew 7:21-23.

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Life Without Fear

Life Without Fear

"And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea" Isaiah 11:3-9.

It is hard to imagine life without fear. There are so many varieties of fear that we've neatly labeled them, "phobias." From acrophobia to xenophobia, fear is pervasive. Can you imagine what would life would be like without fear? I

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Moment of a Lifetime

Moment of a Lifetime

The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them" Isaiah 9:2.

It was the moment of a lifetime; an event never to be again. My wife and I, and a couple who have been friends for many years, stood in a motel parking lot a mere ten miles from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Even from that distance, we could hear the countdown via the NASA public address system. The Space Shuttle's main engines momentarily turned the night sky into dawn as it roared from the launch pad.

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Jesus Speaks to the Disciples

Jesus Speaks to the Disciples

Matthew 5:1-12

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Jesus actually told the disciples what kind of attitudes they should have and why.  If it was good enough for the disciples, then it should be good enough for us as well.

We may not always understand why we should act this way.  However, we can see where it is in the bible, and how Jesus himself was told his disciples about being blessed.  Many of us refer to these as the Beatitudes: the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.  Some of these are not always easy to understand...

Temptation

“Pray, then, in this way … ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil’” Matthew 6:13.

You’ve heard it said, I can resist anything but temptation. Why is temptation so … tempting? Doing that which is right seems so very difficult, whereas nothing is easier than doing wrong.

I’ve often wondered why Jesus would have us pray and ask the Father not to bring us into temptation. James 1:13 states, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”

The word for temptation, from the original language, is closely associated with trials. Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan (Mark 1:13), and Abraham was tested by God (Hebrews 11:17). God certainly was not enticing Jesus, Abraham, or anyone else, to succumb to sin and wrong. So, while God leads us into refining circumstances, He would never lead us to moral and spiritual failure. The fact that we are taught to pray to be delivered from evil and the evil one may indicate that the real intent of the model prayer is that we be saved from our tendency to yield to temptation. The Psalmist says it well: “Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing or perform wicked acts with men who commit sin” Psalm 141:4. Father, save us from ourselves.

There will be temptation traps along the way today. Some may seem small and inconsequential, whereas others hold potential for serious damage to relationships and reputations. Whatever form temptation comes in, the results of yielding are the same: leading us down a pathway away from our Father and our Lord Jesus. The choices we make are really much simpler than they may seem when viewed properly: they lead us closer or further away spiritually; they are either acts of obedience or disobedience.

How we respond to temptation is determined in large part by how faithful we are to pray as Jesus instructed. Father, save us from our tendency to temptation, and deliver us far from the one bent on our own destruction.

©Steve Taylor, 2022 --Used by permission

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