Truth Encounter

09/04/2026

Dave’s Devo: God’s High Line Isaiah 35:8-10

When I was a kid, my dad had a nationwide radio program, Word of Life, every Saturday night in NYC from the old Gospel Tabernacle which is now a pizza place. My son, Josh, recently took us by the old spot, then we headed west toward the Hudson River, climbed in an elevator, and Josh introduced us to the High Line, a 1.45 mile elevated park. (Facebook homepage picture)

In the fifties when dad wanted to show me the dicey, dangerous side of New York, he took me to the waterfront controlled by the mafia, but as we looked toward the Hudson, all the piers and big ships of my childhood are gone. All these years later, Mary and I took in the spectacular views of the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings while kids ran ahead of their parents, playing on the High Line, safe and sound.

Just before Isaiah begins his historical narrative of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC, he takes us to God’s High Line Drive—a place where sorrow and mourning will flee away.

“And a highway will be there. It will be called the Way of Holiness. Nothing unclean will journey on it. It will be for those who walk in the Way. Hardened fools will not travel on this Way. No lion will be there. No ravenous beasts will climb onto this road. They will not be found there. Only the LORD’s redeemed will walk there and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing, and everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and mourning will flee away.” Isaiah 35:8-10

In my Old Testament Survey II class at Foster College, we began with the Psalms, Israel’s Hymnbook, and ended with the Major and Minor Prophets, including Isaiah’s masterpiece. Discussing the music we used in our different churches, a student commented, “Reading not only the Psalms but also the prophets, I’ve realized that a lot of the lyrics we use on Sunday morning are right out of the Psalms and the Prophets.” He’s right and one of my favorites uses these verses in Isaiah, giving all who are redeemed by the Messiah’s sacrifice the song we will sing as we walk on God’s ultimate High Line bursting with everlasting joy.

LORD, by faith today I sing out this hope.

And if you want to get a little feel for the joy we will enjoy when we finally get to take stroll on this Holy Highway

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09/03/2026

Jesus’ parable, the Wedding Feast, reveals an amazing twist in God’s plans. Are you sure you are dressed right for God’s kingdom? "Dressed For The Wedding"
Listen this week on www.truthencounter.com.

09/03/2026

Dave’s Devo: The LORD God And Those With Special Needs Isaiah 35:1-7

Years ago as we were remodeling the church and getting ready to build a new addition, one of my friends, one of the best construction guys in the Dallas area, insisted, “When a special needs person comes to our church, these buildings need to be user friendly. I’m not going to face Jesus and have him rebuke with ‘You didn’t care for the vulnerable.’”

When he lived here on earth, Jesus didn’t hob nob with the rich, beautiful, and strong. When a man blind from birth was brought to Jesus, his disciples immediately asked, “Who sinned? This man or his parents?“ Like Job’s friends, they had simple syllogism: All sin generates pain and suffering. Job was experiencing pain and suffering; therefore, Job had sinned.

Jesus rejected this judgmental, rejecting attitude. He told the disciples “This happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life (John 9:2-3).” And then Jesus spat on the ground, mixed the saliva with some dirt, and plastered it over the blind man’s eyes. When he washed it away, he could see.

Jesus’ power to give sight to the blind and legs to those who couldn’t walk demonstrated that he was one with the Creator, the LORD of history—the Messiah who would bring about the ultimate time of singing, dancing, and celebrating that Isaiah pictures for us.

“The wilderness will rejoice and the dry wasteland celebrate and blossom like the crocus. It will burst into bloom. Yes, into excited joy and great shouts of jubilation. The glory of Lebanon will be given to her—the splendor of Carmel and the Sharon plain. They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.
Strengthen the trembling hands and the knees giving way. Say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Your God will come—he will come with payback for the evil done against you, with divine retribution. He will come to save you.’
Then the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf will be opened. Then legs that couldn’t walk will leap like a deer and the tongue that couldn’t talk will shout for joy. Water will pour out in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool. The thirsty ground bubbling springs. And grass and reeds and papyrus will grow where jackals once lay.” Isaiah 35:1-7

LORD Jesus, I can hardly wait to hear the shouts of joy and the leaps of praise from some of my brothers and sisters who now still face struggle every day with special needs. Give us more confidence of this ultimate vindication of the weak and help us today to be right there with them in caring and loving and believing.

Are you sure you are dressed right for God’s kingdom? "Dressed For The Wedding" today on

Combining pastoral ministry with college and seminary teaching, Dave Wyrtzen, through Truth Encounter, challenges you weekly to understand Gods redemptive story

09/02/2026

Dave’s Devo: The Land Of Hawks, Owls, Jackals And Hyenas Isaiah 34:12-17

Suburban housing developments are going up all around where Mary and I live, but we can still sit out on our back porch at night and hear the coyotes and a little later the hoot of an owl. Then in the early morning, the hawks ride the drafts high in the sky.

In Isaiah’s time Bozrah, the capital of the Edomite Kingdom, was alive with people, not wild animals. But he prophesies that the LORD would turn the Edomite capital into a nesting place for all kinds of wild creatures, like jackals (a lot like our Texas coyotes), owls, and hyenas. On my Kenya trips I’ve seen hyenas lying and waiting to take apart their next meal.

Here’s how Isaiah pictured Bozrah after the LORD brought them down in defeat and partitioned their once glorious land and prosperous city into a place for the wild animals to take up residence.

“There will not be anything in Edom to rule for her nobles, and all of her princes will be non-existent. Thorns will climb up over all of her palaces, nettles and brambles over all her fortifications. She will become a haunt for jackals and a home for owls. Jackals will encounter hyenas and wild goats will bleat to each other.
There the night creatures will rest and find for themselves places to lie down. The owl will nest there and lay eggs, hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings. There also the hawks will gather, each with its mate.
Seek diligently in the LORD’s scroll and read: None of these animals will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is the LORD’s mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together. He is the one who apportions their lot. His hand distributes their share by his measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation.” Isaiah 34:12-17

In Isaiah’s time Bozrah, the capital of the Edomite Kingdom, was a powerful, bustling city. Located about halfway between the Dead Sea and Petra, the center of Nabatean power in Jesus’ time, Bozrah today is called Buseirah. All that’s there are about fifty houses and ruins.

In Ecclesiastes Solomon shares how he gave himself to great construction projects, planting beautiful gardens, amassing wealth and living for the pleasure all this power and wealth could give. Then he said, “Everything was meaningless, empty—all just chasing after the wind. The desolation of ancient Edom drives home the same lesson.

LORD Jesus, help me believe your words today, “What will it profit a person, if they gain the whole world and lose their own soul?” (Matthew 17:26). You are the one who oversees even where the wild animals get to settle down. If you come today, may you find me doing things for your kingdom and not living for positions and material stuff that will crumble and only be places for wild animals.

09/01/2026

Dave’s Devo: The Blood-Soaked Sword Of The LORD Isaiah 34:5-11

As World War I ignited there were over two million Armenians living in the core of the Ottoman Empire, Asia Minor. As leaders struggled to seize power in what would become today’s Turkey, the decision was made to destroy the Armenian minority living among them and the massacres began.

In the valleys where the Tigris and Euphrates begin, corpses piled up and those thrown in the river choked the water downstream. Women and children were forced to march over 620 miles toward the Syrian desert with tens of thousands of Armenians dying along the way.

In 1920 Ataturk, the new leader of Turkey, took the city of Mirash and slaughtered the Armenian population. When he drove the Greeks out of Smyrna in September of 1922, a fire destroyed the entire Armenian section of the city and any survivors fled the mainland, sailing into exile. A young Adolf Hi**er observed that the western powers did nothing to stop this attempted extermination of an entire race and the Final Solution leading to Auschwitz was conceived.

On the 106th anniversary, remembering the beginning of these atrocities, President Biden for the first time called it “genocide.” Predictably, the Turkish government denied the label and dodged all guilt, declaring “this will open a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship.” The war of words continues, but does simply giving a crime the right label actually bring about true justice?

Both the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Obadiah pictured a climactic future time when the Judge of the Universe will be presiding, and they used God’s historical judgment against the Edomites to foreshadow an ultimate time when the tyrants who commit genocide against his people will face God’s ex*****on of justice.

The Edomites were the descendant of Esau, the brother of Jacob and when their relatives on the eastern side of the Dead Sea were defeated by their enemies (the Assyrians and the Babylonians), they joined in the plunder of Israel, murdered fugitives, and turned over survivors to certain death. Both Isaiah and Obadiah use this divine judgment against Edom in the ancient world to take us to the end of history when the blood on God’s sword will be the blood of all those who arrogantly lie, steal, and murder as they seek to destroy God’s people. Jesus came the first time to lie down as a baby in a quiet stable. The next time he comes it will be on his war horse.

“For my sword has become intoxicated in the heavens. Look, it descends in judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted banned to destruction. The sword of the LORD is satiated with blood, fattened with fat—the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the mighty bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood and their dust soaked with fat.
For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to bring to a just conclusion the case of Zion. Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become ablaze with pitch! Day and night the fire will not be quenched. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate. No one passes through her. The desert bird and animals will take possession of the land. The great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom his measuring stick of chaos and the plumb line of desolation.” Isaiah 34:5-11

Usually the slaughter of animals, a daily routine in the sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple, moves us to face the reality that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. This is the message of the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 52 and 53. But here the blood and gore that was part of the animal sacrifice focuses us not on the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our sins, but the blood of those who defied him and committed genocide against his people (Revelation 19).

When Jesus returns he’s not going to have a ceremony to give the right name to genocide. He is going to condemn to eternal fiery death all those who committed evil unless they repent and allow Jesus’ death to cover their crimes.

LORD, help but all those who are being and have been abused by the arrogant, ruthless destroyers to know that Jesus is going to return and when he does, he will have a sword of righteous indignation coming from his mouth and just his word will destroy evil.

08/31/2026

Dave’s Devo: A Just Death Sentence Or The Gift Isaiah 34:1-4

When it comes to the 6th commandment, “Thou shalt not murder,” the claims that morality is relative and each of us can decide for ourselves what is right and wrong is exposed as a lie. The fact that we know deep inside that murder is wrong, especially when we witness it with our own eyes, proves that God’s command against murder is right and demands a payment consistent with the magnitude when the sixth commandment is broken.

So far in Isaiah the prophet has acted as God’s prosecuting attorney stating his case not only against the crimes of Israel and Judah, God’s people, but also against all the nations. As we begin Isaiah 34, he begins his closing arguments. He begins with a vision of an end time battlefield where all those who opposed God are slain and even this present universe is destroyed.

“Come near O nations, to hear! Give your attention, all people, listen and pay attention! Let the earth hear and everything that fills it; the entire globe and all that comes forth from it. For the LORD’s righteous wrath is against all the nations, against all their hosts. He has devoted them all to complete destruction. He has given them over to slaughter. Their slain will be cast away and the stench of their corpses will rise. The mountains will flow with their blood. And all the host of heaven will rot away and the skies will roll up like a scroll. All their host will fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.” Isaiah 34:1-4

Before we chalk this up to an angry, vindictive, Old Testament prophet, we need to remember that Jesus declared that “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn” (Matthew 24:29-30) . The Apostle Peter and the Apostle John built on these Isaiah prophesies to reveal the ultimate divine justice that will be poured out at the end of history (2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 20:11-15).

So, as we cry out for justice, we need to also face the rebellion and darkness lurking in our own hearts. For in Isaiah 53:6 God’s prosecuting attorney declares, “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.” The root of murder, stealing, sexual immorality, lying, and coveting is in that dominating, internal passion in the human heart that revolts against God’s command and declares that “I can do it my way,” and that following our own internal passions will lead to thriving, health, happiness, and peace. God lets us make this choice, but we don’t get to determine the results.

Isaiah tells the truth. Our human arrogance leads to death but Isaiah didn’t stop with the reality of our straying. He goes on to declare, “And the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.”

LORD, use the present passion for social justice to help many face the injustice, murder, lust, and deceit at the core of each of our lives that generates social evil. Move hearts to receive Jesus’ gift of forgiveness based on the justice that he paid for our sins in full.

Jesus’ parable, the Wedding Feast, reveals an amazing twist in God’s plans. Are you sure you are dressed right for God’s kingdom? "Dressed For The Wedding" this week on

08/29/2026

God doesn’t desire lip service. He wants obedience. Are you a “words only,” external religious counterfeit? Listen this week on www.truthencounter.com.

08/28/2026

Dave’s Devo: A City Free Of Disease Isaiah 33:17-24

All of us yearn for freedom. We want to go someplace free from disease and death, cares and responsibility. This powerful internal yearning is proof that we are made in the image of God, and Isaiah points us to a city in the future where because the LORD reigns as king, no one will say, “I’m sick!”

“Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty and see a land that stretches far into the distance. In your thoughts you will think about the former terror and ask, ‘Where is the one who counted? Where is the one who weighed things out? Where is the one who counted the fortified towers?’
No longer will you see this foreign people with their unfathomable language—words impossible to understand. Behold Zion, the city of our sacred festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a secure place, a tent that will not be moved. Its stakes will never be pulled up, nor its tent ropes snapped. Indeed, there in Jerusalem the LORD will be our Majestic One.
The city will be a place of wide rivers and streams. No galley oars will ride on those waters, no mighty ship will sail on them. For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king—it is he who will save us. Your rigging will be left hanging loose. The mast is not held secure, and the sail is not secured. Then an abundance of plunder will be divided and even those who can’t walk will carry off b***y. No one living in Zion will say, ‘I’m ill’ and the sins of those who live there will be forgiven.” Isaiah 33:17-24

Isaiah uses his prediction of the removal of the Assyrian threat in his day to challenge, not only his own people in Jerusalem, but us to get our eyes off our human rulers and get them focused on the Messiah, the ultimate king. He alone is the truly beautiful one, and his majestic power is proved by the fact that he will put all of the powerful empire builders who invade and shout their commands in an incomprehensible language, who count out populations and weigh resources to determine who and what gets destroyed and who gets exploited in the dumpster of history.

Isaiah pictures this ultimate Jerusalem, the city of the Messianic King, as having access to a wide river and abundant streams. But unlike Egypt where cities were vulnerable to enemies sailing up the Nile or the Assyrians vulnerable from enemies sailing up the Euphrates, this new Jerusalem will be totally secure. And the trade that has flowed on all the oceans and rivers of the world will no longer be enjoyed by the powerful exploiters, but by the most vulnerable and weak.

John the Apostle, in Revelation, uses all this imagery from Isaiah to picture Jesus’ final victory, his rule from a New Jerusalem, and all those who trusted in his death and resurrection prospering forever. In Jesus’ eternal city no one will ever have to say, “I’m sick.”

LORD, help us to see the beauty of Jesus, realizing that any sense of justice, moral standards, gracious forgiveness, and passion for the weakest to be cared for all comes from Jesus’ heart. He is truly the Beautiful One, and when spiritual leaders I looked up to and learned from get their focus more on political solutions and leaders, help me to keep my eyes firmly on the true Jesus.

God doesn’t desire lip service. He wants obedience that reveals itself in action. Are we the “words only,” external religious counterfeit? "Heavenly Authority" today on

Combining pastoral ministry with college and seminary teaching, Dave Wyrtzen, through Truth Encounter, challenges you weekly to understand Gods redemptive story