Posts with the category “christy-voelkel”
Isaiah 61:1-62:9 The Comfort of the Servant of Light
by Christy Voelkel on March 30th, 2025
Isaiah 61 opens with an address from her King, the Servant, who speaks a final comfort to His people on an individual level. Isaiah 62 wraps up the picture of glorified Israel with a cry to not keep silent. Read More
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Isaiah 60:1-22 Out of Darkness, Into Light
by Christy Voelkel on March 30th, 2025
Isaiah 60-62 bring us to the culmination of our theme of God's Highway Project. Having resolved the spiritual conflict between Israel and God, the Servant now ends the physical conflict between Israel and her enemies as He brings her into her final comfort and glorification. Read More
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Isaiah 59:1-21 Confession and Closure
by Christy Voelkel on March 23rd, 2025
Israel has made a show of contrition the way an alcoholic would, begging and pleading for forgiveness and grace, while still in bondage to the inner cravings of the flesh. Today will be a candid discussion of her need for rehab of a spiritual nature. Read More
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Isaiah 58:1-14 The Practice of Letting Go
by Christy Voelkel on March 16th, 2025
Fasting can be an outward appearance of a contrite heart that is actually driven by wrong thinking and motives. Israel misses the mark, and the LORD takes her to task for it. Read More
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Isaiah 56:1-12— Making Peace (pt 1)
by Christy Voelkel on March 9th, 2025
What makes for peace in a kingdom? Who enters the kingdom and on what grounds? Chapters 56 delve into a comparison of law-abiding citizens and lawless one. Read More
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Isaiah 57:1-21— Making Peace (pt 2)
by Christy Voelkel on March 9th, 2025
Isaiah 56 sets up a comparison between the law-abiding and the lawless. Isaiah 57 carries on in the same thread with a comparison between the righteous who find peace and the wicked idolators who don’t. How does this picture create a model for the End Times? Read More
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Isaiah 54:11-55:13 — Pursuing Abundant Life
by Christy Voelkel on March 2nd, 2025
How do you define abundant life? In this phase of God’s Highway Project, God begins to straighten out the crooked places by challenging His people to consider His vision of ideal life and how to achieve it. Read More
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Isaiah 54:1-10 — The Stumbling Block of Shame
by Christy Voelkel on February 23rd, 2025
When a victim has suffered shame and humiliation at the hands of an oppressor, facing conviction for her own sin and fruitless past can be an overwhelming obstacle to experiencing God's grace and blessing. Shame is the stumbling block God addresses today in Isaiah 54. Read More
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Isaiah 52:13-53:12 The Comfort of the Sacrifice
by Christy Voelkel on February 16th, 2025
In Isaiah 53, the sin-bearing Servant steps up to do His part of God's Highway Project. How do we take comfort in His sacrifice? How do we share in it? Read More
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Isaiah 52:1-12 The Comfort of the Good News
by Christy Voelkel on February 9th, 2025
We have become so skeptical in life. We get bombarded daily by ad campaigns, advice columnists, and health gurus telling us that they have the “miracle” solution to our ills and problems, and for the most part we tune them out. They sound too good to be true, anyway. So, we turn the channel, ignore the flashing ads on websites, and throw the mailers in the trash. But what if, in the middle of all ... Read More
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Isaiah 51:9-23 Facing Fury
by Christy Voelkel on February 2nd, 2025
Have you ever faced a furious person who is raging with an almost poisonous anger or indignation? It's pretty scary. Scary enough to make you want to do anything to appease them. What happens when the furious person is God? Read More
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Isaiah 51:1-11 The Pursuit of Righteousness
by Christy Voelkel on January 26th, 2025
Even strong believers can still grapple with despair. Knowing this from His own experience, the Servant delivers His strategy to strengthen the righteous who are struggling to stand against an angry world and maintain perspective. Read More
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Isaiah 50:1-11 The Comfort of One Who Has Been There
by Christy Voelkel on January 19th, 2025
God can move heaven and earth, but He can't seem to reach the heart of His despairing people to comfort them. Who will intercede? Perhaps she will listen to the wisdom of one who has struggled as she has. Read More
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Isaiah 49:14-26 The Stumbling Block of Despair
by Christy Voelkel on January 12th, 2025
Despair is a stumbling block that serves the purpose of bringing a person to the end of a reliance on themself and prompting a return to God. Hope comforts despair, but what happens when a person refuses God's comfort and chooses instead the comfort of self-pity? Read More
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Isaiah 49:1-13 The Comfort of the Reward
by Christy Voelkel on January 6th, 2025
As we move into Part 2 of God's Highway Project (Isaiah 49-57), we find the second stumbling block in the recovery process--despair. The Servant Himself suffers from it but He finds comfort by focusing on the future reward, which becomes a model for us to consider. Read More
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The Big Picture of Isaiah 40-48
by Christy Voelkel on December 4th, 2024
If you only study one chapter of Scripture at a time, you lose as sense of the continuity of the whole, as well as the themes and motifs that span multiple chapters. Let's take a holistic look at the chapters we have covered so far in our study of God’s Highway Project. Read More
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Isaiah 48:12-22 The Blessing of Peace
by Christy Voelkel on November 17th, 2024
Israel's season in the furnace of affliction draws a response of lament and rejoicing--lament over the blessing of peace that had been lost, but rejoicing for the hope of peace to come. What brings peace to a community or nation? It's not an easy solution. Read More
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Isaiah 48:1-11 The Furnace of Affliction
by Christy Voelkel on November 17th, 2024
Chapter 48 opens with a stinging rebuke to Israel for not having given God glory for the work He has done in their lives, and He sends her into a furnace of affliction. Even so, there is hope for her peace and restoration as the Servant now re-enters the scene. Read More
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Isaiah 46:1-13 Laying Down Burdens
by Christy Voelkel on November 3rd, 2024
Isaiah 46 opens with a third rebuke of Israel's idolatry. So far, God has made a case for the futility and the foolishness of idolatry. Now He makes a case for the burden of idolatry. What does it take for us to lay down the heavy burdens we carry? Read More
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Isaiah 45:18-25 The Glory of the Savior King (part 2)
by Christy Voelkel on October 27th, 2024
The beginning of Isaiah 45 focused on the commissioning of a messiah, Cyrus of Persia, in Israel's relatively near future. As the chapter wraps up, the picture of the near messianic figure begins to morph into a more distant picture of a Messiah with a greater tasking as the LORD's salvation plan now expands to include not just Israel but all the world. Read More
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Isaiah 45:1-17 The Commissioning of a Messiah
by Christy Voelkel on October 21st, 2024
The LORD's commissioning of Cyrus, King of Persia, is the high point of the chiastic structure of Chapters 41-48 in which the LORD builds a case for His power. On the surface, Isaiah 45 seems to focus on the figure of Cyrus, but Cyrus is only a tool and a small part of the much bigger picture. The overarching theme is that God is the only Savior, and not just of Israel but the whole earth. Read More
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