The way Jesus cared for people, healing their sickness and freeing them from bondage, not only demonstrated His great love for them. It also fulfilled Isaiah’s 600 year old prophecy that he would heal our diseases and make us well. It was another sign that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.
Read More Jesus, prophecy, commitmentWe come to this passage with joy and our hoorays because we know even more fully what the palm branch wavers were celebrating with their hosannas. It looked to them like Zechariah’s prophecy (Zech 9:9) was being fulfilled and their prayers for liberation by a king were being answered. We know that this was the King of Kings coming to set in motion the next piece of God’s plan of salvation – expressed through unconditional, self-giving love on the cross.
Read More prophecy, Palm SundayMany people, even non-Christians, appreciate Jesus the teacher, Jesus the healer, Jesus the provider, even Jesus the Saviour. But Jesus the end-time prophet is another matter altogether. Jesus who heals, feeds, teaches beautiful Kingdom of God principles and who redeems by his death on the cross is attractive to many. But when he speaks about what is going to happen generally in the world, and specifically to his followers, it can be shocking.
Read More persecution, prophecy, prophet
Do you believe in prophecy?
Psalm 22 is the most graphic description of Christ’s crucifixion found anywhere in the Bible. Yet here it is, tucked away among the Psalms, written 900 years before the birth of Christ.
How could this be? During David’s time, crucifixion as a form of execution had not yet been invented.
Read More prophecy, crucifixionPsalm 24 is a psalm of anticipation. David, the shepherd king, is anticipating the arrival of the Lord. The Lord is coming to his city, to His temple. Have you prepared your heart and your mind for the moment of his arrival? He often shows up at the moment we least expect him.
Undoubtedly, David, the warrior King, was reflecting on his own triumphant entry into the city after the defeat of his enemies in battle.
Read More prophecy, Palm SundayLuke is a good story teller. He intertwines the stories of Elizabeth and Mary so that we read one in the light of the other. Mary’s experience was similar, but significantly different to Elizabeth’s. Unlike Elizabeth, she was not married, and had not lived a long life of childlessness.
Read More angel, supernatural, prophecy, faithProbably it’s both.
This section in the Gospel of Luke reads a bit like a modern day newspaper. A temple is destroyed! Ominous trouble clouds with threats of trials and jail! Cities destroyed forcing refugees to take cover! And finally the need to pray for a spectacular escape and rescue!
Read More prophecy, Temple, religious practice
Ahab was a firsthand witness of the power of God at Mount Carmel and the recipient of God’s mercy after he’d murdered Naboth and his sons. You’d think that would be more than enough for Ahab to devote himself wholly to the Lord. But he didn’t. He surrounded himself with 400 pseudo-prophets and looked to them exclusively for guidance.
Read More truth, false prophets, prophecyAt first they did not understand.
But they went ahead and did the right thing anyways.
The story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is familiar to us—the cries of praise and welcome, the breaking off and waving of palm branches,
Read More prophecy, faith, Palm SundayToday’s reading is one of the greatest prophecies in the Old Testament. If you are familiar with Handel’s Messiah you will find yourself singing it.
But don’t miss the first verse. The tribal lands of Zebulun and Naphtali were in the fertile farmland in the north of Israel, a multi-ethnic area where many Gentiles had settled. The description of it here extends it all the way west to the Mediterranean Sea and east to the other side of the river Jordan.
Read More light, prophecy, peace, Gentile