Jesus in the Old Testament

In his new book, The Bible Overview, Steve Levy offers a few examples of how the Old Testament is about Jesus:

• Through Jesus the world is made. (Genesis 1:1-3; John 1:1-3)
• The gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to Abraham. (Genesis 15:1-4; Galatians 3:8)
• Jesus is the ‘I Am’ who redeems Israel. (Exodus 3:13-14; John 8:58)
• Jesus gives the inheritance of the land. (Judges 2:1-4; Hebrews 9:15)
• Jesus is the Son of David who brings a kingdom that will not end. (Psalm 2:2-7; Luke 1:32-33)
• Jesus is the servant who explains the exile and brings its end. (Isaiah 42:1-9; Matthew 1:17)
• The Spirit of Christ testifies to the prophets about Jesus’ suffering and the glories that will follow. (Isaiah 53; 1 Peter 1:11)

[from page 24 of The Bible Overview]

The Bible Has One Subject

The Bible obviously covers a great deal of ground.  But there is one supreme subject that binds it all together: Jesus Christ and the salvation God offers through him.  That is true not just of the New Testament, but of the Old as well…

Many Christians have an idea that God decided to send Jesus to earth only after his first plan had failed; his original idea (Plan A) was to give people an opportunity to become his people by obeying his law.  But they failed, so he scratched his head and came up with another idea (Plan B): to save people by grace through the death of Jesus.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  God had always planned to send Jesus.  The whole Bible points to him from beginning to end.  In the Old Testament God points forward to him and promises his coming in the future.  In the New Testament God promclaims him to be the one who fulfills all those promises.

~ Vaughn Roberts in God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible, page 17.

What God Sometimes Does To Build Our Faith

…He knocks the props out from under our lives.  If you’re like me, and God has been knocking some props out from under your life, then take 2 minutes to watch this encouraging video from John Piper:

Thanks be to God for loving me enough to knock the props out from under my life in order to build my faith on and in Christ alone.

[HT:  Vitamin Z]

Really At War…Really

In yesterday’s Crossfigell, T. M. Moore reminds us of the spiritual battle that is raging around us.  You can sign up to receive these daily devotions at T. M.’s website MyParuchia.com.

Really at War – Really

26 November 2008
Hamilton, VA

He, one man alone, with God’s aid repulsed innumerable hostile bands of demons making war against him, visible to his bodily eyes, and preparing to inflict deadly diseases upon his community of monks; and they were thrust back from this our principal island.

- Admomnan, Vita Columbae, Irish, 7th century

Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

- Revelation 12.17

Spiritual warfare is very real. It’s just that it’s not always very obvious. Columba had the benefit of what was called “second sight.” He could see spiritual realities more clearly than most of us do by looking at ordinary circumstances through eyes greatly steeped in the faith of Christ. A threat of plague to the island of Iona was, to Columba, not just an historical circumstance. Columba saw anything and everything that threatened the progress of the Gospel as a demonic strategy to thwart the Kingdom of Christ. And, whenever he sensed such threats, he turned to fervent prayer and other spiritual practices to protect his monks and their work from the ravages of the devil.

Most Christians live in two worlds rather than one. Columba lived in one. Most of us don’t see sickness, deprivation, everyday trials, and so forth as anything other than a nuisance or an inconvenience. I wonder: If we believed these were strategems of the devil, would we apply ourselves more earnestly in prayer and other spiritual exertions to overcome them? Be sure of this: when we begin living like true followers of Christ – loving Jesus, professing and proclaiming His Kingdom, and walking according to God’s Law – the climate of war will gather around us like never before. When that begins to happen, we’d better know how to pray, we’d better know how to persevere in obedience and witness, and we’d better have mastered the use of all the weapons of our warfare (Eph. 6.10-20). Otherwise, we’ll just be one more casualty among many whom the devil renders ineffectual in seeking the Kingdom because we have failed to recognized his wiles for what they are. Because, beloved, we are at war, we really are.

Lord, I need your strength, each day, to go beyond myself, my own abilities, my vision, in order to serve You as fully as possible – even in the face of Satan’s attacks – in the progress of Your Kingdom.

T. M. Moore

Thanks Be To God

I found this post from Ann at the Holy Experience blog to be quite moving and insightful.  I’ll give you enough to get started, but be sure to visit her site to read the rest.

Thanksgiving Rightly Addressed

I see him through the kitchen window on Tuesday at twenty-three minutes past nine, later than usual. He’s clanging open the mailbox at the end of the lane, jarring off its blanket of snow. I watch.

But he’s paused. The naked branches of the sumac finger across the window, but if I arch on tiptoes – isn’t he laying envelopes, flyers into that steely cold dark?

He’s heading to the door.

The dog barks and the kids dash to greet mailman first and I run fingers through hair and the back doorbell chimes.

“Sorry, Mrs. Voskamp,” he’s reaching through a tribe of kids with a handful of mail. “But we didn’t see any address on this letter. Without an address, we can’t recognize it as post. It’s undeliverable.”

I take the offered stack, glance at envelope on top. A celebratory card I’d slipped in the mailbox to be sent to my grandmother stares blankly back at me.

I hadn’t written any address on it.

Winter gusts in and my cheeks ignite.

“Oh, I’m the one who’s sorry.” Why do I laugh with such a pitch when I’m on fire?

“If I’d written a recognizable address on it, it would have been a good idea, yes?”

A friendly nod and he’s gone back through the snow to his pick-up, the children calling, waving, bye after him, dog wagging tail, me just smoldering.

The envelope lies on the mudroom sideboard all day.

I walk by it several times.

I check it every time: No, I really didn’t address it.

The letter lies there undelivered. Like generic thanks, acknowledging no one in particular. Like generic, unaddressed thanks, returned to sender.

I pause once, finger its edge. Granny never received our heart on paper.

Yes, that too: if gratitude is sensed only as a global, vague feeling, addressed to no one in particular, it’s as good as not sent. Non-existent.

Ann has more to say here.  It’ll be worth your time to read it.