Philippians 3. The Apostle Paul had reason to brag about his perfect Jewish credentials, but he did not, he would glory only in Christ, and his resurrection. Let us press on towards the goal, after all, our citizenship is in heaven.
Isaiah 65 is rich. It tells of judgment and salvation, the new creation and the new Jerusalem.
Isaiah 66 speaks of judgement and hope, and true and false worship. Yet, the LORD will vindicate Zion; “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream“. Finally, God via Isaiah wraps up the scroll with a description of the Day of the LORD and its sobering aftermath.
Philippians 2:12-29. The Apostle Paul urged the believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Yes, salvation is past tense (for by grace have you been saved), present tense (work out your own salvation) and future tense (you will be saved). God is independent of time (He existed before time and space. Time and.. space only has meaning after creation of matter). Paul ended the chapter talking about Timothy and Epaphroditus.
Isaiah 63. The day of the Lord’s vengeance is coming where “the grapes of wrath are trod” and there was no one to help. Then God will show His mercy and provide salvation, but will people listen?
Isaiah 64. A prayer of petition and penance: “All our righteousness are as filthy rags”
Psalm 81, of Asaph. A Psalm for the Feast of Tabernacles.
Philippians 2:1-11. The Apostle Paul urged the believers to imitate the humility of Christ. Verses 7-11 are in the form of a hymn and shows how Jesus, even though he always is God, emptied himself and became obedient to the cross, even unto death.
Isaiah 61. This is the year of the Lord’s favor. Jesus started his ministry finding this prophecy in the scroll of Isaiah and read it but stopped mid-sentence. It also gives “beauty for ashes” and proclaims the good news of salvation.
Isaiah 62. Zion’s new name will be called Hephzibah and the land will be called Beulah, salvation is coming.
Philippians 1. After the customary greeting the Apostle Paul gave a heartfelt prayer for the believers. “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” (This was the verse given to my wife and me when we joined the church after our salvation). Paul was in prison and this worked in favor of the Gospel. He also encouraged them to behave worthy of the Gospel and follow Christ and be partakers with him in suffering.
Isaiah 59. We are hopelessly separated from God until we confess our sin, and even then we need a redeemer. He will come out of Zion.
Isaiah 60. Arise, shine, for your light has come. Gross darkness covers the people. It tells of the glory of Zion and ends with a millennial prophecy of the New Jerusalem.
Ephesians 6. Children: Obey your parents; bondservants (employees): Do everything as unto God, put on the whole armor of God and pray in the spirit always for all the saints. The Apostle Paul then added a final greeting, and so ends this inspirational letter to the Ephesians.
Isaiah 57. The LORD warned strongly against idolatry, especially the pagan god Moloch. There is peace for the contrite, but there is no peace for the wicked.
Ephesians 5. The Apostle Paul gave good advice: Walk in love, walk in light, and walk in wisdom, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” Then Paul gave Godly advice on marriage and likened it to the relationship between Christ and the church.
Isaiah 56. Salvation will be open to all. In Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial will be remembered “Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.” Yet, Israel still have wicked leaders.
Psalm 80, of Asaph. A prayer for restoration of Israel, mentioning the Shepherd of Israel, a heartfelt and urgent plea.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1)
The original location where the iron cross was found.
For Muslims the cross is an offense since it contradicts the Holy Quran. For them Jesus did not die on the ctoss but was directly translated to God. For atheists and humanists the cross is an offense since it is to them suggests we need a redeemer, and to them it is the stench of death. But to us who believe it is the symbol of redemption and new eternal life in Christ. If they were not pricked in their hearts when they see the cross they would not be offended.
Christ died on the cross at Ground Zero.
We have only one risen hero.
But the fools reject grace,
stay condemned, cannot face
The truth in The Cross at Ground Zero.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (St. John 3:16-17)
An intermediate location for the cross
The final place for the Iron cross near the 9/11 museum.
In 2015, the guest host on OAN shared these thoughts on Aug 28, in preparation for 9/11.
These were the final words of Governor Sarah Palin after a successful week anchoring “On Point” with the One America News.
Governor Palin is a true servant. Her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, worked at the stinky Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, New York in January and February 2002 as part of a federal Department of Agriculture program.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Heath said he and his wife had worked to keep sea gulls and rats from scavenging the human remains in the debris. Mr. Heath, then 70, a retired science teacher, and Mrs. Heath, then 68, a retired secretary, had worked for the Agriculture Department for 15 years. They traveled around the world dealing with “nuisance” animals like rats and bears.
“A lot of people just didn’t like the job, it was kind of a morbid thing,” he said of the work at the landfill. “But I thought it was part of history.”
This is the attitude of a servant.
After the 9/11 attack the country got together to rebuild the country again. Many quoted Isaiah 9:10 “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”
Isaiah 9:10 has been quoted by politicians as a message of resilience and hope. This message was scribbled by President Obama in 2012 on a building near Ground Zero. Other Politicians have quoted Isaiah 9:10. John Edwards quoted it directly on the third anniversary of 9/11, not realizing that the message is not one of hope, but of utter arrogance. Today’s message by President Biden is “Build back better”, same message, one of utter arrogance. It is clear from the context:
What comes before the message that came down on Israel? Of course verse 6 and 7:
Child born: Shows the humanity of Christ
Son given, shows the deity of Christ
It also shows the unity of God as Father, Prince of Peace as Son and Wonderful Counselor which is the Holy Spirit, three aspects of God, three in one, the triune God, the Trinity.
This message brings us full circle back to Jesus Christ, the one who died at the original Ground Zero, but rose again. There will be no “build back better” unless there is a revival, a return to God, a great awakening. This present government has by its actions shown that American Exceptionalism is dead, we will do better by abandoning our citizens and allies and negotiate with terrorists who will be fully installed in Afghanistan on 9/11. We will from now on be under Global Governance.
The aim of China is to be the dominant force in the world by 2030. Recent events have made them speed up the time table by at least 5 years after successfully interfering in the last election by openly favoring Joe Biden. The greatest fear of the Chinese Government are the 300 million or so closet Christians, a number that just keeps growing. The other fastest growing churches are the Christians in Iran and Afghanistan. In Myanmar Christians are now openly persecuted and some are killed, in Pakistan many are persecuted for blasphemy. There are now more Christian martyrs than ever in history, and even our own State Department considers evangelical Christians our greatest threat, greater than Taliban.
Pray for a worldwide revival of God’s people and an even greater awakening of Biblical Proportion!
Ephesians 4:17-32. The Apostle Paul reminded the Ephesians they are children of light, do not grieve the spirit, and “do not let the sun go down on your wrath“.
Isaiah 54. After the gigantic chapter 53, writing about the sin-bearing, suffering servant the narrative switches back to God’s servant, Israel, and the Covenant of Peace. It ends with “no weapon formed against you shall prosper”
Isaiah 55 gives the invitation to abundant life. Remember this: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Psalm 79, of Asaph. A cry for help, for the heathens were devastating Jerusalem, the Temple and the people. The Psalmist confessed their collective sins and pleaded for restoration, always with praise and thankfulness.
Ephesians 4:1-16. The Apostle Paul urged the believers to walk in unity, because there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God, even though there are different spiritual gifts.
Isaiah 53. No other chapter in the Bible has so many prophesies fulfilled in the New Testament. Because of this it had been “proven” that it must have been written and added to the book of Isaiah around 400 A.D. As proof for this was cited that the rabbis used to read Isaiah 53 in synagogues, but after the chapter caused “arguments and great confusion” the rabbis of the 17th century decided that the simplest thing would be to just take that prophecy out of the Haftarah readings in synagogues. (Haftarah consists of selections of the prophets, read after segments of the Torah.) That’s why today when they read Isaiah 52, they stop in the middle of the chapter and the week after jump straight to Isaiah 54. See! That is proof enough that it is a later addition to fit with Christian tradition! Then around 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found by some Arab Bedouins, and in them was a complete scroll of Isaiah and chapter 53 was in it, word for word identical with the Masoretic text! The find was announced in April 1948, right before the formation of the State of Israel. This had many years later a profound impact on me after having swallowed bible critical “truth” for many years. I came to realize that if all the book of Isaiah had been written centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ and has well over 50 fulfilled prophecies, both the book of Isaiah is true, and Jesus Christ, his death, burial and resurrection is true, and that changes things. Read it, think about it, and let it sink in!
Ephesians 3. “The meaning of the Greek word mysterion is a truth hitherto hidden from human knowledge or understanding but now disclosed by the revelation of God.” With that in mind this chapter reveals the mystery of Christ, its purpose and the appreciation of the mystery.
Isaiah 51 speaks of everlasting salvation out of Zion, via “the rock”. Wake up!
Isaiah 52. God prophetically redeems Jerusalem. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” Verse 13 and forward is the beginning of the prophecy of the suffering servant.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 
