Friday, February 27, 2015



Isaiah Chapter 27 - Israel; A Land of Fruit and Flowers

In that day sing to her, “A vineyard of red wine! I, the LORD, keep it, I water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day. Fury is not in Me. Who would set briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. (Isaiah 27:2-6)

Isaiah chapter 27 contains a very interesting prophecy about Israeli agricultural and wine production - a prophecy that until the past 20 years would have been considered one of those "errors in the bible."

Prior to it’s rebirth as a nation in 1948, the area that would become Israel was a barren wasteland. In 1867 Mark Twain traveled to the area of modern-day Israel, and noted the condition of the land:

“The Land of Israel is a wasteland and devoid of delight. The Land of Israel is no longer to be considered part of the actual world. We did not see a soul during the entire journey, everywhere we went there was no tree or shrub.” (which incidentally also discounts the claim that the land was the “homeland" of the Palestinian people as parroted by so many)

So what has happened? The prophecies of the bible concerning Israeli fruit, flower, and wine production have come to pass in our lifetime!

“A vineyard of red wine!” (vs 2)

I will bring back my exiled people Israel [1948]; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. ~ Amos 9:14

After many years where in Israel the wine industry was almost non-existent, over the last twenty years the Israeli wine industry has grown tremendously. Today there are around 300 wineries of different sizes in all areas of Israel.

"Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” (vs 6)

Today Israel is one of the world's leading fresh citrus producers and exporters, including oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and the pomelit (a hybrid of a grapefruit and a pomelo developed in Israel). In 2013 Israel exported 601 metric tons of fresh fruit. The area of irrigated farmland in Israel has increased from 74,000 acres in 1948 to some 460,000 acres today. Between 1999 and 2009 Israeli agricultural production rose 26%.

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. ~ Isaiah 35:1

Today Israel produces vast quantities of flowers for export, and has become a major player in the global floral industry, especially as a supplier of traditional European flowers during the winter months. In 2013 Israel exported over $80 million dollars of flowers, putting it in the top ten flower exporters in the world. 

I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops… ~ Ezekiel 34:29-30

So, what does that matter if Israel grows a bunch of fruit and flowers? From an economic perspective, it’s just good news for the nation of Israel. But from a biblical perspective, it tells us two very important things:

#1 - God’s word will stand
Isaiah 40:8 tells us;

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

When God promises to send an army to correct His people; He does it.

When God promises to regather His people to their land; He does it.

When God promises to send a savior that will reconcile man to His God; He does it!

So saints, when we look at the prophecies in the bible that have come to pass, we can be encouraged that God isn’t going to stop halfway - He will complete all that He promises!

#2 - Israel is a picture of us

When I see the way God has taken a land that was forgotten, destitute, dry and barren, and He has filled it with life and abundance, it reminds me of what God promises to do in our life through Jesus Christ! Jesus declared:

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."  (John 6:35)

"I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 6:10)

In other words, the gospel message of Jesus Christ changes everything! He takes our life that was dry and desolate, and He fills us with life, life abundant!

Pastor Clay

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Today's devotional from Pastor Clay: Isaiah Chapter 26 - The City of God, the Resurrection, and the Rapture

Thursday February 26, 2015
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Isaiah Chapter 26 - The City of God, the Resurrection, and the Rapture

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city; God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in." (Isaiah 26:1-2)

While Isaiah chapter 25 spoke to the judgement that God will bring upon an evil and unbelieving world, chapter 26 speaks of three promises of God to His people

Note: "His people" are all people of faith, Jew and Gentile...

"…just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham."  (Galatians 3:6-7)

The City of God
If you think about it, the earth has never known a true "city of God." We could point to Jerusalem in King David and Solomon's day, or Constantinople, or Vatican City, however these cities could never claim to be perfect and without sin. Even if a godly king were on the throne, somewhere in the city sin would be found. 

But Isaiah 26 speaks of the future city of God, Jerusalem, that will be ruled by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who will rule in perfect righteousness! Revelation 21 describes this city:

But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. (Revelation 21:22-27)

In this city will be perfect peace, the mind of God, trust (vs 3), everlasting strength (vs 4), uprightness and justness (vs 7). 

But, what is a city without inhabitants? Who will be the inhabitants of this "City of God?" Isaiah 26 tells us...

Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. (Isaiah 26:19)

The Old Testament had a shadowy understanding of the life to come. There were only glimpses of the future promise of resurrection. King David spoke of it after his son by Bathsheba died (2 Samuel 12:23), the prophet Daniel spoke of it (Daniel 12:2), and here Isaiah proclaims it! Paul told the Corinthian church:

And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. (i Corinthians 15:19 NLT)

But resurrection isn't the only end-times doctrine that Isaiah reveals, he also speaks of the rapture:

Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past. For behold, the LORD comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will also disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain. (Isaiah 26:20-21)

This is a time when God's people are carried away and securely hidden, from the judgment that the LORD brings upon the earth. This could be the deliverance of the Jewish people from the fury of the Antichrist described (Revelation 12:6 and 12:13-16), but remember that Paul clearly taught in Galatians that all who trust in Christ are God's people, spiritual children of Abraham.

In Mathew 24:37 Jesus spoke of the Tribulation being "as it was in the days of Noah." What happened in the days of Noah? God placed Noah and his family in the ark, protecting them from the flood. Noah and his family were above the flood, safe and secure.

Saints, that's were we'll be when the great judgment of God is poured out upon this earth - safe and secure above the destruction. 

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Pastor Clay

 

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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Today's Devotional from Pastor Clay: Isaiah 25 - The death of death.

Wednesday February 25, 2015
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Isaiah Chapter 25: The Death of Death

Isaiah chapter 25 contains a promise that God will one day do away with the bane of mankind: Death.

And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken. And it will be said in that day: "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." (Isaiah 25:7-9)

Death, the final frontier. The dirt nap. The trip we never return from. Death is the seemingly final stop for all life. And interestingly, death seems to be programed into our DNA.

Our body, by design, continuously replaces cells that die off. Every seven years or so we get a completely new body! Humans would live forever except for the fact that our DNA is programmed such that after 70+ years, cell replacement slows to a crawl, causing a slow degradation of the body, until finally it shuts down. (Psalm 90:10) Then, we die. Or do we?

The scientific community, no friend of the Christian world-view, has begun to question the reality of death. Granted it's not widely accepted, but many are starting to conclude that not only death, but our entire universe of matter is merely a type of conscious reality created by our brains. In other words, based on sensory input, our brains create our reality. Not only that, they've also proven that our presence alters reality. Advances in quantum physics research seem to validate that sub-atomic particles actually change their behavior based on whether they're being observed by humans or not.

Bizarre? Consider the famous two-slit experiment. When scientists watch a photon particle pass through two slits in a barrier, the particle behaves like a bullet and goes through one slit or the other. But if they don't observe the experiment, the particle acts like a wave and goes through both slits at the same time.



So how can a particle change its behavior depending on whether it's being observed or not? Apparently our awareness of the particle's activity has an affect on how it behaves. Experiments consistently confirm these observer-dependent effects on matter.

OK my brain hurts already - where are we going with this? The point I'm trying to make is that scientists are beginning to nibble at the edges of our existence, and its becoming clear that not only the material world, but our very existence in what we perceive as reality is infinitely more complex than we could ever imagine. To some it's science. To me it bears the stamp of an all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal creator - God!

It tells me that what God put into man, the breath of life (Genesis 2:7), is more than just a spark that makes our cells move around and reproduce.

It refutes the all-too-simple concept that once our physical body deteriorates, we go into nothing. There is more to us than living cells that will one day die. 

It tells me that if God is capable of creating this universe made up of subatomic particles of energy that interact with their environment, it is quite feasible, even practical, to accept that God is able to re-create reality, and design it according to His will. In other words, it removes the fairy-tale aspect of Heaven. Whether they realize it or not, scientists are proving the existence of God!

And finally, it adds a scientific confirmation to the belief that we as Christians hold, that there is life after death, and that God is fully capable of ushering us into a new reality called Heaven, where there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying. He will truly make all things new. 

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."  Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." (Revelation 21:1-5)

Isaiah chapter 25 gives us a glimpse into this new reality that God has for us!

And when we are brought into that new reality, what will we say?

"Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." (Isaiah 25:9)

Pastor Clay

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