Isaiah 12 is a short but fitting conclusion to the section pointing to Israel’s choice between trusting God or trusting Assyria. This chapter comes directly before the second section of the book’s first unit, where we see several judgments towards various nations. 1 Even before the judgements begin to come, we see a promise and anticipation of the song that the remnant will sing with joy over their salvation. (Isaiah 12:4) Even amid coming judgement, Isaiah gives a song of praise, pointing us to a God that will comfort and is worthy of trust. It is interesting to note that the references to ‘that day’ prior to this text are days that bring fear because of not trusting in God (cf. 2:20; 3:18; 4:1; 7:18, 20-21, 23) , but chapter 12 brings us a day of hope. A hope that is found only when the focus has been turned back to Him for help, and not looking for it in other places or other people. This hope is ultimately in the coming Messiah which brings us circling back to the beginning to

No matter what way you slice it, our definition of success is different than God’s definition of success. The problem that we run into with success, as with many other areas, is that we seem to lay our definitions over God’s Word. As churches, we often turn to different gimmicks to get some type of visible results, while the scriptures are clear that God will and is building His church. (Matthew 16:18) As individuals, we are constantly seeking steps into a so called ‘victorious’ Christian life, and quickly forget how Christ measures success in this life. CS Lewis emphasized this when he said, “It is not [our] business to succeed.” 1 This increasingly true with those that would proclaim that we can live a “victorious Christian life” over sin and become what is deemed a Spirit-filled Christian. While the fact of the matter is that this concept is not only foreign to scripture but has disastrous effects on the lives of believers. This mindset will inevitably lead to one of two desti

I don’t know how many grew up in the same way that I did but being typical boys me and my brothers would take sticks to about any plants that we could find in the forest behind our house. Obviously, this was the responsibility of an 8 and 10-year-old, right? Thankfully, Jesus is not like 10-year-old me, but even more thankfully He is not like many in the churches of our day. While likely with genuine intentions, many take it upon themselves to root out the problems that they perceive in the church. If they see weakness, we need to get it out post haste, right? Well not necessarily. Jesus gives us a parable about the wheat and the tares to help illustrate something that we need to understand. (Matthew 13:24-30) In this parable we find a group of eager servants that have discovered that the enemy has sown tares, or weeds, in with the wheat. These servants run to the master and are willing and ready to go pull up these weeds from the field, but the master gives them what may seem like

The apologetic and rhetorical function of Luke 24 can is summed up by the understanding that, “Luke's use of the Old Testament is best summed up as a prophetic and Christological use—all of the Scriptures point to Jesus and must be fulfilled by him”. [1] This prophetic and Christological explanation of the scripture that this couple of disciples knew was the whole point of Jesus conversation with them on the Road to Emmaus. It is said that beginning with Moses, or the Torah and following the paths through the prophets He interpreted the scriptures to them those things that were about him. (Luke 24:27) Ultimately, we can see this same apologetic theme played out again and again in the book of Acts, Luke sequel to his gospel. Peter walks through the scripture of the Old Testament showing Christ (Acts 2:14-41), Stephen does the same before the Pharisees (Acts 6), and Philip will preach Christ from Isaiah to the Ethiopian Eunuch. These accounts of Jesus throughout the Jewish scri

If we are going to understand discipleship in Mark, we must first understand what it means to be a disciple. The first time we find disciple (mathētḗs) ion Mark, is in chapter two. The word here means a learner or a pupil of someone.  It is said that in early Jewish writings the description of a disciple, or learner, was one who would  “cover himself in the dust of [the rabbi’s] feet”.  This basically meaning that one would follow the words and actions of their teacher so closely that the dust stirred up by them would cover their follower. So, what was it that Jesus did? The first teachings that we find from Jesus is that of the good news of the gospel. Jesus begins His ministry on earth by preaching that we should repent and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:15) This proclamation is the lesson that we should take if we are to be disciples of Christ. The first instance of the twelve going out, this is exactly what they are commanded. (Mark 6:12) Even later in the book of Acts tells us that P