Snapshots and Synapses

Death passes over Resurrection life revealed Future Hosanna One of my favorite story-tellers is also one of my lease favorite poets: J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord Of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. As I understand it, Tolkien longed to be a poet, but when I read the LOTR years ago, I learned to skim over the stanzas of embedded poetry, wishing the author had only written in prose. Yet here I am writing a haiku to summarize the poetry of Passover Palm Sunday. Today is that day. April 13, 2025 is both Passover and Palm Sunday, and to some small degree I can appreciate the artistry of the Ultimate Poet, Who is Sovereign and for Whom nothing is merely coincidental. The Author of our lives has carefully chosen each of us to live at this time in history, and He reminds us that the feast days of Hebrew Scriptures shall be the feast days of Jesus’ Millennial reign.   You see, Passover is a celebration of Yahweh’s protection for God’s people in Egypt; the blood of a lamb caused the Angel of ...

With the growing conflict in the Middle East, the eyes of the world have been turning toward Israel. So it was no surprise when I was asked the question: do I believe that Modern Israel is the same Israel that’s talked about in the Bible. That question is slightly complicated and one that causes some debate in Christian circles. Understanding the complexity of the question To answer this question some people may argue that we must first draw a distinction between Modern Israel and Ancient Israel. There is no doubt that Ancient Israel is all throughout Scripture, and we know historically it was destroyed as a nation. The people of that ancient nation were scattered throughout the world just as God foretold as early as Deuteronomy, one of the first books in the Bible. God warned that this would happen to Israel as consequence of their sins. Known as the diaspora, the Jewish people wandered for thousands of years without a land to call their own and yet they maintained an identity. I don’...

From its origins, Christianity has seen a connection between Passover and Resurrection Sunday, commonly known as Easter. At a minimum, Christians acknowledge that Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection occurred during the Jewish Passover celebration. The Bible clearly tells this story through the lens of the Passover Meal that Jesus had with His closest friends, commonly referred to as the Last Supper. It’s the night that Jesus is handed over to be scourged and crucified; we recall Jesus’ death on Good Friday, called good because He paid the price for our sins on that terrific day, fulfilling the law (Matt 5:17) and demonstrating a divine love.   Did you know however that Passover and Easter were linked from the Israel’s origin?  Recall as Abraham was ready to sacrifice his first-born son on Mt. Moriah. Abraham told Isaac that God would provide the sacrifice, most likely not knowing how true his words were. However, it was not Isaac who was sacrificed on that hill; it w...

Thirty-five years ago this month, I was commissioned as a naval officer and reported to my first duty station in Pensacola, FL, and today my oldest son reports for active duty as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. My heart swells with pride in his decision to serve, knowing that these are indeed uncertain times. The world has changed dramatically over the past year, and I have no doubt that we will see changes over this next year like no other time in history.  If I could go back to my younger self, there's so much I would try to teach him, things that I have tried to pass on to my children, some of which they've internalized and some things that cause smiles, jokes and eye rolls. I'm glad to have the transparency with my kids and glad to have them challenge my thoughts as they form their own. Even if they disagree on certain things, they know my beliefs and even how to finish my dad-isms that I've learned and repeated through the years: A smart man learns from his mist...

Continued from The 70th Week and 2021  - Part 1  As Jesus explained the End Times to His disciples in Matthew 24, He referenced chapter 9 of the prophet Daniel. Looking to that book, we find Daniel in a prayer forgiveness for his people, basing his petition upon God’s name and not anything that Israel deserved. Israel had sinned and was deserving of God’s judgement, and the historical tendency of Israel to turn away from God and His ways burdened Daniel just as our own tendency toward selfishness should bother us. In today’s environment, we would do well to imitate Daniel’s prayer for Israel  and apply it to the Church and to our country. Take a look at Daniel 9:3-20 and consider how to imitate Daniel’s example in prayer and supplication.  So Daniel prayed, and as he did, he was visited a second time by the angel Gabriel ( v21 ), who told him: 24 “Seventy sets of seven time periods have been assigned for your people and your holy city. These time periods will serve t...

The prophet Daniel had a vision of 70 weeks, where each “week” was a period of 7 years. All but one of those weeks has been accounted for in history, leading up to the time of Jesus. Then the clock stopped, leaving a remaining week, which many believe to be the seven-year Tribulation period. That remaining week remains a divine mystery, tied to the end of this age. Jesus’s disciples asked about the end, and He explained in detail, referring to the vision God gave Daniel. So understanding that God’s timing is different from our timing, yet His timing is always perfect, I’d like to take you through Jesus’ answer, considering what we know and prayerfully exploring what may be. The first thing Jesus said, when answering His disciples’ question was “Be careful not to let anyone deceive you.” (Matt 24:4b) He said that many would come claiming to be Him, (Matt 24:5) which we have certainly seen. He warned that there would be wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes, and these were the...