Isaiah 11:6,9, “The wolf shall lie down with the lamb….They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of YHWH as the waters cover the sea.” A few thoughts…. First, the Branch is, of course, Jesus Christ (Rev.5:5). He is the Shoot […]
Mark 12:27, “He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” Those who have the Father of Jesus as their God cannot truly die. Why? Because death—true death—is not severance from the body or severance from biological function (biological function being only the “shadow of life” just as its cesssation is the
Zechariah 9:11, “…because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.” See also Luke 22:21 and Hebrews 13:20 Long Thoughts: I was reading in Zechariah 9 this morning and noticed again the similarity between verse 11 and Hebrews 13:20, “…the God of peace…brought again
1 Corinthians 15:28, “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all.” At first the “when / then” logic in this verse can be a bit confusing. It makes it sound
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Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” I realized after I’d already started in on today’s picture that it is almost an exact duplicate of a picture I created last March….ah, well….what I like about this particular set up (and I remember now, what I liked about
Romans 8:28, “…we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”
Psalm 126:5–6, “He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” When God the Son was sown in the dust of the earth, He carried every tear of His Bride in Himself; and when He rose again, He reaped for her
Romans 8:36-37, “As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” First, notice that I translated the word immediately following the citation of Psalm 44:22
Romans 9:25, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call, ‘beloved.’” Short Thoughts: Anyone who bows their soul to the risen Lord has been transformed from the core…no longer “not beloved,” but “beloved,” no longer in exile but welcomed home. Long Thoughts:
John 20:16, “Mary.” Short Thoughts: Because He has gone before them through suffering into glory, when the Risen Christ calls His sheep by name, He turns their mourning to joy, their sorrow to laughter, and their death into life. Long Thoughts: John 10:3-4, “…He calls His own sheep by name and leads them
Revelation 5:9, “…for you were slain…” Short Thoughts: The events of Revelation transpire because the scroll is opened. The scroll is opened because the Lamb is worthy. The Lamb is worthy because He was slain. One implication we can draw from this is that, as the Beloved Son hung naked and beaten and shamed
John 16:20, “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” Short Thoughts: As Christ turned water into wine at a wedding (John 2:9), so too —at the wedding supper of the Lamb—the slain and risen Bridegroom will turn the “water“ of His Bride’s sorrow into the “wine” of her eternal joy.
Romans 8:28, “…for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” A truth invincibly secured by and supremely expressed in the crucified and risen Christ.
Psalm 90:6, “…in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers…” Psalm 90:14, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love…” Short Thoughts: Because our Lord and God passed through the night of death and secured the morning of resurrection life, we who sojourn in the night of
Isaiah 46:4, “…I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” Isaiah 53:4, “Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…” A song for today’s picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c26hIle6lKY I’m currently working on a script for a new animation that I plan to make the first or
Numbers 24:17, “…a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab…” Revelation 22:16, “I am the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star.” Numbers 24:17 combines a number of images that are and will become important in the symbolic grammar
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Psalm 71:20, “You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.” As with all Psalms, and really all the promises of scripture, these words are true of Christians—even on their deathbed—because they were true of Christ—even on
Hebrews 2:14-15, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Here are some
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Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Often this verse has been watered down to mean little more than “Jesus will help me be all I can be.” Paul is emphatically not teaching that Jesus is the genie in our corner, ready and willing to give us the extra
1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” What exactly does this verse mean? Why does John say that “fear has to do with punishment”? Really? Fear has to do with
