All Things New

“Let everything that breathes praise the LORD. Hallelujah!” (Psalm 150:6) I’m not sure there could be a more appropriate place to end a week about the Kingdom of God than Psalm 150! There are no long dissertations about theology, no lofty academic speech, just a summons to all creation: “Hallelujah!” Over and over again, the Psalmist bids us rejoice in the glory of the Lord. So much time is spent ...

“So he replied to them, ‘Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news.’” ( Luke 7:22) Pressure and suffering have a way of pushing into the soul like nothing else really can. John the Baptist wasn’t a casual observer of the life of Jesus. He ...

“The LORD reigns forever; Zion, your God reigns for all generations. Hallelujah!” (Psalm 146:10) In the western world, and particularly in America, it’s easy for us to fall prey to placing our hope in the wrong things. Compared to the rest of the world, things are pretty good here. (and thank God for it). But Psalm 146, which begins in praise, quickly turns to a lesson in trust. The Psalmist isn’t...

“The LORD reigns forever; Zion, your God reigns for all generations. Hallelujah!” (Psalm 146:10) In the western world, and particularly in America, it’s easy for us to fall prey to placing our hope in the wrong things. Compared to the rest of the world, things are pretty good here. (and thank God for it). But Psalm 146, which begins in praise, quickly turns to a lesson in trust. The Psalmist isn’t...

“Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” (Isaiah 35:5) So many times we think salvation is limited to just us “not going to hell” or some variant of that. While that’s true, it’s just a hint of the cosmic impact of the salvation of God. Isaiah 35 opens with even the wilderness and dry land rejoicing for the coming of the Lord. The desert blooms, weak hands a...

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) If ever there were an action-packed chapter in the Bible, it’s Mark 1. He doesn’t slow roll the opening or gradually unfold the story. Oh no, Mark hits the ground running! In this one chapter John the Baptist calls Israel to repentance, Jesus is baptized, God audibly speaks, the heavenly ve...

May his name endure forever; as long as the sun shines, may his fame increase. May all nations be blessed by him and call him blessed. (Psalm 72:17) Something people hear me talk about a great deal is the response people had when they came in contact with God in the Old Testament. One phrase appears over and over; “and they fell down as dead men” or some derivative of it. There’s really no other a...

Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” (Matthew 4:10) Our current culture seems to have a healthy disdain for anything remotely resembling a wilderness experience. It’s harsh, dry, and fraught with danger and discomfort. Yet, this is precisely where we see one of the major victories of Good versus evil play out. Matthew tells us Jes...

Your throne, God, is forever and ever; the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice. (Psalm 45:6) I must admit, when I first read through Psalm 45 I found myself feeling a bit detached from its message. I mean, I don’t spend a great deal of time thinking about royal weddings, ancient thrones, or love songs. But my heart knew what it was getting at. It’s a Psalm, a royal song, full of beauty...

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:19–20) Most of us very naturally, and easily, see the world around us in fragments or compartments. We divide our lives into spiritual and ordinary, sacred and secular, persona...

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) Unlike the other Gospel accounts, John doesn’t open with Jesus in the manger, a village, or even with Mary and Joseph. He begins before the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word.” Before creation brought shape and order to the chaos, before ...

“I wait for the LORD; I wait and put my hope in his word.” (Psalm 130:5) One of the things I love about the Psalms is their honesty. This entire week has been focused on waiting, and waiting well, through the darkness in anticipation of His marvelous light. Psalm 130 begins in the deepest depths. The writer cries out from a place of desperation, guilt, weakness and abject need. I love that he make...

“Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:25) All this talk about waiting could have us fall back into a dark place where the Christian life seems to be just a gigantic game of surviving the wait, but it’s not. It’s about the HOPE we can and do experience while we wait for the Lord’s return.Romans 8 helps us zoom out and see the much larger story. Ear...

“I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.” (Psalm 62:1) Waiting has a particularly strong way of exposing what’s in the heart. If you don’t believe me, watch a small child in line for an amusement park ride! When the answers we are seeking take longer than we like or are delayed indefinitely, we discover where we’ve really been looking for security. We reach out for control, approva...

“Those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31) Waiting can take on many different faces, and it often feels much harder when our view of who God is becomes too small. Our family has become accustomed to waiting.Having a physically and mentally disabled child turns the life you thought you’d have into one where things just don’t happen as you thought they would. There are l...