The Peace of God

We love the prophecy in which Messiah is called Prince of Peace, whose coming will bring about endless peace. But when it's read in church, we're usually taken aback by this verse that is part of the same prophecy:

✙

All the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

✙ Isaiah 9:5

The Harry Potter Gospel

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

✙ Isaiah 64:8

✙

Today's Bible verse and teaching text make me think of Harry Potter—but not because the Isaiah passage talks about God as a potter. It's because the most compelling aspect of the Harry Potter story lies not in the magic, but in the fact that he was chosen. Here was this kid who was looked down upon by everyone around him, who had no idea that he was special.

The Heavens Are Telling

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

✙ Psalm 19:1

✙

There is certainly nothing so obscure—even in the smallest corners of the earth—in which some marks of the power and wisdom of God may not be seen. But as a more distinct image of the Creator is displayed in the heavens, David has particularly selected them for contemplation, that their splendor might lead us to contemplate all parts of the world.

Care for All

In the first chapter of the Bible, we're told that humankind was created in God's image. This teaching is repeated throughout both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament—though seldom as explicitly as it is in Genesis 1. Proverbs 17:5 comes close, when Solomon tells us that those who mock the poor insult their Maker.

✙

The value the scriptures place on human life is due more than anything else to the One in whose image we were created.

He Guides Us

Shepherd your people with your staff.

✙ Micah 7:14

✙

He guides us. He provides for us. He protects us from all forms of evil. If we wander, he seeks us out and brings us back. If we are broken, he binds us up. If we are wounded, he heals according to his own Word. The sheep is an animal of many diseases and many needs and so the Christian is an individual of many sins and many infirmities. But as the shepherd endeavors to meet all the needs of his flock,