Those of you who know me well -- or who just read yesterday's post -- know that I am a super-disciplined person.

I complete projects well in advance, I show up to meetings and events early, I live by my routines, and I follow rules.

Yet I am an undisciplined leader.

That's right.  While focused on a personal level, I can be guilty of fuzziness on the congregational level.

That's why earlier in the history of Good Shepherd we would follow the latest trend, embrace the most recent fad, and follow a season of blessing with a season of anarchy.  Our "wins," when we had them, were disconnected from whatever came before or after them.

There's some good news in all this.  Once Will Mancini and his team at Auxano helped us unearth the mission of inviting all people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ in 2011, I suddenly had a leadership focus that didn't mimic anyone else but came from within our community.

So these days we are resistant to trends, fads, and anarchy.  We much better able to connect one ministry "win" with the next one.  Everything we do, from evaluating facilities to hiring staff, now gets filtered through the grid of inviting all people.

I even know that whatever sermon series I preach -- whether it is Defining Moments, The Shadow Of A Doubt, and even Food For Thought -- will somehow reinforce what it means for people to have a living relationship with a returning King.

The discipline that brings such comfort in my personal life can now bear fruit in my leadership life.

When you focus on your mission, you can flourish in your discipline.

I learned something phenomenal this week.

Something that I could have/should have learned earlier had I been paying closer attention to the nuances of Romans 4.

Back to the question that is the title of today's post:  Who in the Hebrew Scriptures Points To Jesus?

Most of us would give a variety of answers, including . . .

Moses -- the way he liberated the people from slavery is a foreshadow of what Jesus does to sin.

David -- Jesus comes from the "house of David," after all, and David's Psalm 22 is the grid through which Jesus understands his passion and crucifixion.

The Suffering Servant Of Isaiah 52-53 -- not just a "type" of the agony of the cross, but a remarkably accurate prediction of it.

And none of those answers are wrong . . . there are hints of Christ in each of those Old Testament characters.

But I learned this week that perhaps the most compelling Hebrew foreshadow of Jesus is . . . Isaac.

Look at the fascinating-yet-overlooked analogy Paul makes in Romans 4:19-24:

¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, [Abraham] faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²² This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³ The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

What's the comparison?

That at the age of 100, Abraham's body was "as good as dead."  At the age of 90, Sarah's womb "was also dead."  And yet what came out of the union of the dead body and the dead womb? Baby Isaac. Laughter.  An appetizer for one who is coming, one who will also bring life out of death.

And thus Jesus emerges out of the depth of death -- the tomb -- as the risen Savior who has the last laugh on Satan.

Isaac anticipates Jesus.   Never heard of that, never thought of that, never considered that, and there it is, right before my eyes.

The bible is so interesting when you actually read it.