Times Far Off

Reading:  Ezekiel 12
My Verse:  "And the Word of the LORD came to me:
                       "Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say,
                            The vision that he sees is for many days from now,
                             and he prophesies of times far off.'

                  Therefore say to them, 
                        Thus says the LORD God:  
                           None of my words will be delayed any longer,
                           but the word that I speak will be performed,
                              declares the LORD GOD"  (Ezekiel 12:26-28).

There is this mantra that goes about and occasionally becomes popular.

  "Live each day as if it were your last."

But to live in such a way is far too exhausting and one soon gives it up.

And yet, here is a warning you give to the people of Israel and to us, and in the giving of it is the implication that we do need to be aware - there is coming a time when we have to answer for how we live.   The people scoffed at Ezekiel saying, "The vision he sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of times far off."  They, like us, did not want to do the exhausting work of living an intentional life (Philippians 4:8), giving ourselves totally to You (Deuteronomy 6:5), and keeping ourselves apart from the ways of this world (Philippians 2:14-15, Romans 12:2).

It is just not easy.  And yet, LORD God, it is so much more satisfying.  Sadly many give up their walk with You - to live for themselves, thinking this will be easier.

My son and I were speaking of this very thing.  He is reading Jean-Paul Sarte and was speaking of what Sarte termed "bad Faith."  This is basically when one gives up what they believe to be truth and then tries to live as if they never believed that truth.  These individuals end up beating against an unmovable wall, which they cannot get past.  It is not a good place to be.

I like how John Piper points out that Christmas actually cuts history in half.

“What we need to remember is that with the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, the days of fulfillment, proclaimed by all the prophets, began. And ever since the first Christmas we have been living in those days. The “last days” foretold by the prophets are not the twenty-first century. The last days began in AD 1.  -Excerpt From: John Piper. “The Dawning of Indestructible Joy.” 

We live in the "last days."  The Coming of You LORD God draws nearer every day.  But, many would say it is so exhausting to live with that thought "live each day as if it were your last."  I really like this poem of an ancient man, Saint Nicephorus the Hesychast (c.1250-1280).  He clearly points out the only way one can do this.

New Knowledge

"Thereafter, you must see to it
that so long as your spirit bides
-that is, at home within the heart-
you must not stay silent nor idle,
you must not take this treasure lightly.

Have no other occupation, no other
meditation than the cry of

"LORD Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me!"

Under no condition acquiesce
to rest, but fix your heart solely
on this elevating work.

This practice will protect your spirit
from wandering, and will make it impregnable, wholly inaccessible
to the deceptions of the enemy.

the prayer will draw you every day 
more deeply into love, more fully
into love with and in desire for your God".   -from "Love's Immensity"
                                                                        Adaptations/translation by Scott Cairns.


That kind of sums it up.  We cannot stay the course on our own.  Your coming is really not so very far off and we must keep that at the foremost of our thoughts and our daily decisions, but we can do so only with Your constant help and mercy.  Thank You, LORD God, for Your mercy.

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!



  

God's Enabling & Our Free Will

Reading:  Ezekiel 11
My Verse:  "And I will give them one heart,
                         and a new spirit I will put within them.

                    I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh
                         and give them a heart of flesh,
                         that they may walk in my statutes
                         and keep my rules
                         and obey them" (Ezekiel 11:19).

This amazing statement is repeated in Ezekiel 36:28.  It articulates the tension between Your enabling, LORD God and our free will.  How and when do the two meet and mesh?

You tell us we, ourselves, must turn to You.

Ezekiel 18:31 "Cast away all your transgressions that you have committed, 
                            and make yourselves a new heart
                            and a new spirit!"

And You tell us that we cannot come to You unless You draw us.  As Jesus said in John 6:44.

"No one can come to me unless the Father draws him . . ."

In Philippians 2:12 Paul tells us we are responsible to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

This is a complex concept but vastly important - vital to our salvation.  There is so much I do not understand and yet You, LORD God gave me a brain and free will.  You draw me to you, and I am responsible to respond correctly to that drawing.

John Piper has a wonderful sermon on this.  It helps me to understand a bit better this whole tension between my free will and Your enabling, LORD God.

"If we come to Jesus, it is because the Father drew us — which none of us deserves. And if we don’t come to Jesus, it is because the Father left us in our rebellion — which all of us deserve. And there is no fatalism in the Bible. We are responsible to come to Jesus. He is calling you to come right now." -Piper

As I read and think on this I begin to see how this is really the way it has to be.  If we are able to come to You, LORD God completely on our own, then we would have something to boast of wouldn't we?  Pride would destroy us.  Thank You, for Your ultimate and complete wisdom!

"The drawing is the decisive impulse. We will see it again and again in this Gospel that this drawing is not at all in conflict with our choosing to come and our freely coming because we want to come. But his drawing is decisive. And without it no one would come." -Piper

Thank You, LORD God for Your mercy and grace.

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!

Deeds We Commit In the Dark!

Reading Ezekiel 8 - 10
My Verse:  "So I went in and saw.
                    And there, engraved on the wall all around,
                       was every form of creeping things
                       and loathsome beasts,
                       and all the idols of the house of Israel.

                      . . . 

                      Then he said to me,
                         "Son of man, have you seen 
                               what the elders of the house of Israel 
                               are doing in the dark,
                          each in his room of pictures?

                      For they say, "The LORD does not see us. . ."
                                                                             (Ezekiel 8:10 - 12).

It is so very sad and dreadful the things we do in the dark when we have convinced ourselves that You do not see us LORD God!

Some time ago I read this very interesting scientific article that premised that all inanimate physical objects actually record both the audio and visual of what occurs in their presence.  For example walls record the actions they see and hear!  What a thought!  To think that our every action and word is recorded in perpetuity - permanent records! The article stated that all that remained was to figure out how to retrieve the information!

And yet, with the internet, texting and email, Facebook, twitter, etc - all those things are out there.  People are so quick to put down things on their devices that they would be less likely to voice and yet all is recorded and it is actually possible to retrieve that stuff.  Wouldn't it be so different if everyone acted as though they knew that whatever they put on them would be read by You?

How different we are when in the presence of others, especially others that we respect and want to think well of us.  We temper our speech and behavior.  Would that we would do so always because we are ever in Your Presence, LORD God.

As a counselor at a teen camp we used this little booklet for a devotional, called My Heart Christ's Home.  It would go through all the rooms of the heart - and how we hide things(or think we are hiding things!) in these various rooms.  It spoke of and guided one to clean out all the rooms of one's heart.  I really liked it, it so simply and yet clearly spoke truth - spoke to our need to be free of dark things, things that needed to be hidden.

I just read  a review of a book entitled Talk to Your Wife About Lust by Jackie Hill Perry who posted a  "bold yet insightful" clip on twitter on the book.  John Piper, who wrote the review, stated that she brings a fresh look at a very old problem in marriages.  He went on to say that the basic problem is "unconfessed sin," dark secrets, darkness eats away at our souls.  He said Jackie Hill is on to something here by saying men should talk to their wives about those dark thoughts.  Piper used  James 5:16 to support this.

"Confess your sins to one another . . .
     that you may be healed"

Only Your healing bright pure light, LORD God, can clean away the darkest of deeds committed in secret.  And only Your pure light can heal the wounds caused by those dark deeds.

"This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you,
   that God is Light, 
   and in Him is no darkness at all"  (1 John 1:5).

"The Light shines in the darkness,
   and the darkness did not comprehend it"  (John 1:5).

"For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light
But he who practices truth comes to the light . . ." (John 3:20, 21).

"While I am in the world, I AM the Light of the world" (John 9:5).

"I have come as a light into the world, 
   so that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness"  (John 12:46).

Thank You, LORD God, that I do not need to scurry about in the dark, like a roach, afraid of the light, afraid of being "found out."
Thank You for coming and shining Your beautiful healing light on me, LORD God!
Thank You for Your unending mercy.

Ditat Deus - God Enriches!