25 September 2016
Two-Minute Features | 02 October 2016 | 18 September 2016

Isaiah 53- God Forgives Us When We Mess Up (TMF:505)

Friday, September 30, 2016
Peace to Live By: Isaiah 53- God Forgives Us When We Mess Up (TMF:505) - Daniel Litton
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       And then someone shared the Gospel with us, and we believed it, and turned from following our own ways. And now, most of the time hopefully, we experience real life, true life. I think I myself heard it 8 or 10 times before I believed. And, we understand importantly that Jesus didn’t just save us from some of our sins, or most of them, but he saved us from all of them. But even after we become saved in our lives, we still find ourselves slipping into sin. But when we correct ourselves or are corrected by God, we repent of the sin. The Apostle John tell us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, ESV). Indeed, this is a continual process—for Jesus said and taught his disciples in the Lord’s Prayer to daily say to God, “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12, ESV).

Isaiah 53- All Have Sinned, So All Need Jesus (TMF:504)

Thursday, September 29, 2016
Peace to Live By: Isaiah 53- All Have Sinned, So All Need Jesus (TMF:504) - Daniel Litton
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       Next, we read, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6, ESV). It is true that everyone one us in the this world is a sinner—a person who does things against God. Sinning is in our nature; it is part of us. That’s why we have a great need for a Savior, and that’s why we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to others, so this sin problem can be corrected in each one of us. For many of us Christians, we can remember how we lived our lives before we became saved. We can recall that we went our own ways, as we did what we wanted to do in life without input from God and without input from his ordinances—his Word. And as we lived our lives, we realized that something wasn’t right, something was missing. The meaning to life wasn’t there. And then someone shared the Gospel with us, and we believed it, and turned from following our own ways. And now, most of the time hopefully, we experience real life, true life.

Isaiah 53- Jesus' Wounds Have Healed Us (TMF:503)

Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Peace to Live By: Isaiah 53- Jesus' Wounds Have Healed Us (TMF:503) - Daniel Litton
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        Jesus’ wounds—his suffering—has given us and continues to give us healing. His wounds heal us—all the regret, the wrongs, the mistakes, the things we could have done better, the immoralities, the hurting of others—whatever it be, whatever we bring to mind—he has truly healed us from those things. Now, we may carry them around on our backs as dead weight, refusing to let the past go, but God has let them go. If we confess our sins to him, he forgives us and remembers them no more, even if we bring them to mind or others remind us about them. They are no more in God’s eyes—and, my friend, that’s all that matters. Please see this; let us find rest for our souls. This is something we can have now, have today. As the writer of Hebrews has told us, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1, 2ex, ESV).

Isaiah 53- Jesus Gives Us Peace with God Himself (TMF:502)

Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Peace to Live By: Isaiah 53- Jesus Gives Us Peace with God Himself (TMF:502) - Daniel Litton
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       And this brings up our next point, for Isaiah says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5, 6, ESV). As I talked about last time, and as we see here again today, God slew Jesus on the cross for our sins—for the sins of the whole world, every sin that had ever been committed to that time and all future sins that would occur. He suffered for the transgressions that belonged to us, and God bore down his wrath upon him for our iniquities. It was all collectively God’s punishment—his chastisement—for our wrongs. And, in only a way God could accomplish, this brought peace for us who trust in this sacrifice on our behalf. He brings us peace within ourselves, but more importantly, peace with God himself. He no longer counts our inquiries against us. For those of us who believe in him, we can have ‘real’ peace, and live by this peace within ourselves.

Isaiah 53- People Thought God Was Against Jesus (TMF:501)

Monday, September 26, 2016
Peace to Live By: Isaiah 53- People Thought God Was Against Jesus (TMF:501) - Daniel Litton
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       At the time of Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Israelites had surely “esteemed him stricken, smitten by God.” But that wasn’t the beginning of these harsh feelings against Jesus. One dramatic and pinnacle example of this can be seen in Matthew’s Gospel, in chapter 12. The Pharisees by this time resented Jesus so much that the said his ability to cast out demons had come from “Beelzebul, the prince of demons” (Matthew 12:24, ESV). Of course, this wasn’t the case as Jesus’ power was coming from God himself, and he was God. But if we fast-forward to the scene at the cross at Calvary, we see the Israelites, most definitely Pharisees included, shaking their heads at him as they passed by the cross from which he was hanging (see Matthew 27:39). The Jewish people thought God was against him. They thought he was altogether stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God himself. And, in a way, they were right because he was baring our sins.