Saturday, April 6,
2013, 8:31 p.m. – the Lord Jesus has the song “Nothing Can Separate Us” going through my mind. Speak, Lord, for
your servant is listening. I read Ezekiel
2-3 (NIV). [I will summarize the passages.] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%202&version=NIV;
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%203&version=NIV
Ezekiel’s Call
God told Ezekiel that he was to stand up on his feet and God
would speak to him. To me, this is more than just a command to literally stand
on his feet, but it is a call to action – to get up, get ready, take a stand
and be ready to move out when God told him. This is not unlike a commanding
officer calling a soldier to battle. God told him he was sending him to his
people - his chosen ones - yet they were a rebellious (disobedient; defiant;
stubborn and obstinate) people. He was to speak God’s words to them whether
they listened or they failed to listen. Ezekiel was not to be afraid, “though
briers and thorns are all around you, and you live among scorpions.” In other
words, even if the people to whom he was being sent made life very difficult
for him, he was not to fear them or their words against him.
God said that Ezekiel must speak God’s words to the people.
It was imperative, necessary and essential that he speak God’s words to them. He
was to listen to what God said to him, which meant he had to spend time each
day in prayer and in listening to God’s words, so that he knew what to do and
what to say. And, then he had to obey what God showed him. God cautioned him
against rebelling like his other rebellious children were doing. The task
before Ezekiel was going to be hard. God was not sending him to people who
would listen, but who most likely would not listen and, in fact, would reject
the words Ezekiel spoke, and some of that rejection would also be most
unpleasant. Yet, he was not to reject the assignment just because it was going
to be difficult and unpopular.
Then, God told him to open his mouth and to eat what God gave
him. It was a scroll, and written on both sides of it were words of lament,
mourning and woe. He was to eat it and then go and speak to God’s people. The scroll
tasted sweet as honey in his mouth. This reminds me of words spoken in the
psalms: “How sweet are your words to my
taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Ps. 119:103). Even words of
mourning, woe, judgment, chastisement, correction, rebuke and calls to repentance
can be sweet as honey in our minds and hearts when we take them in, because
they are God’s words speaking, and because his words are filled with love,
compassion, mercy and hope, if we will but listen, will heed his words to us,
and if we will obey and submit to his will for our lives.
It was essential that before Ezekiel went and spoke to the
people that he “ate” the words of God. This was not a casual read of God’s
words or a five minute devotional and then “out the door.” Also, he could not
do all the talking and God do all the listening. For Ezekiel to be prepared
adequately for the task before him, he had to spend time with God drinking in
his words, meditating on them, thinking about what his words meant, responding
to them with his own heart, and making them personal in his own life. He had to
inquire of the Lord as to what truths God had for him personally and then for
him to share. And, he had to be in confession before God over any sin in his
own life so that he was a pure vessel God could use in taking his messages to
the ones to whom God would have him speak.
Then God said “Go now and speak my words to them.” He was
prepared. He was ready. Yet, God told him ahead of time that the people would
not listen to him, because they didn’t listen to God. The people of God were
hardened and obstinate, so God would make Ezekiel as unyielding and as hardened
as them, only not to the things of God, but to the resistance and rejection he
would face from the people to the messages. Again, God told him to not be
afraid of the people or to be terrified by them. So much of what God said to
Ezekiel here reminds me of God’s words to Jeremiah, too (see Jer. 1). Ezekiel
was to listen carefully to God’s words, take them to heart, and then go to his
countrymen and tell them what God said to say to them, whether they listened or
they failed to listen. And, Ezekiel did take God’s words to heart. He
personally felt God’s heart and emotions as though they were his own. And, in
the power and strength of the Lord he went forth and did as God directed him.
Ezekiel’s task was to be that of a spiritual watchman,
giving warning to those who were acting wickedly in order to turn them from
their evil ways, and to call the people to repentance. Each person was to be
responsible for his own actions. Ezekiel had the responsibility to speak God’s
words to the people, but each individual person was responsible to God for what
he or she did with the words spoken. Some would listen, and others would
refuse. Ezekiel was to accept that would be the case. He would not be held
responsible for those who refused to listen.
Disciples of Christ
Jesus commissioned his disciples to make disciples of Christ
(followers of Christ) of all nations, baptizing them in the name of God –
Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and teaching them to obey whatever Christ has
commanded us (see Mt. 28:18-20). He told them that when the Holy Spirit came
upon them that they would be his witnesses throughout the world (see Acts 1:8).
We receive the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior of
our lives. When we receive Jesus, we become his disciples. Making disciples
means more than just seeing people come to salvation, but it means helping them
to grow in Christ to maturity by teaching them Christ’s words to us, and by
teaching them to obey his words. This is the calling of every follower of Jesus
Christ. We are to be lights for the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world, yet we
are also to help our fellow believers grow in Christ.
Christ Jesus is calling us to stand on our feet - to get up,
get ready, take a stand and be ready to move out when he tells us to. We are to
go to whomever he specifically sends us, yet it is the commission of each and
every one of us not only to share the gospel with the unsaved, but to help
nurture our fellow believers to maturity in Christ through encouragement,
building one another up in the faith, edification, strengthening one another,
turning sinners from their sinful ways, and helping restore a fallen Christian
back to a right relationship with God. To encourage can mean to inspire,
hearten, cheer and reassure, but it also means to urge, nurture, persuade, admonish
and implore. As well, to edify means to inform, educate, instruct, teach and
help improve. To build up means to inspire as well as to help develop, expand
and enlarge. In other words, we are not here just to make everyone feel good,
though that is really nice, but we are here to help others live holy lives
pleasing to God, and we are to be Christ’s hands and feet in doing all the same
things Jesus did.
Not everyone will accept our words, because not everyone
accepts God’s words. We may face much opposition both from the unsaved and from
those within the church who are, perhaps, just as stubborn, obstinate and
rebellious as the people of Ezekiel’s day or, perhaps, we will face such disapproval
from those who sincerely have just bought into lies of the enemy and think that
what they have been taught is the truth. Yet, many of them stubbornly refuse to
find out what the real truth is, or they reject it even if you show it to them,
because they like the lies better. And, that is the sad reality of it all. Some
will listen, but many will fail to listen, yet we are still to speak God’s
words whether they listen or not, because we are not responsible for what they
do with what they hear. They are.
Yet, even if we face much opposition, persecution, or
rejection for sharing the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and for teaching
other believers to obey all of Christ’s commands, we are not to fear their
responses to us, their words which may be spoken against us, or their attitudes
and actions towards us, etc. We are to just listen to God speaking to us each
day, take to heart his words and apply them to our own lives, and then we are to
go and to share them with others in whatever way God would have us to share
them. And, we need to rely upon the strength and power of the Lord to speak through
us the words he would have us speak.
Jesus said we would be hated, rejected and persecuted just
like he was, so we should not be surprised if this is the kind of response we
receive for obeying our Lord. Yet, we should be encouraged to know that no
matter what, nothing can separate us from God’s love. If God is on our side,
then that should overshadow any who may be against us. And, we should know that
God will supply everything we need, so we never have to be afraid.
Nothing Can Separate
Us / An Original Work / March 28, 2013
Based off Romans 8:28-39
Nothing can separate
us
From Christ’s love now
within us:
Not trouble, hardship,
nor famine,
Nor danger, nor sword.
No, in all of these
things
We are more than
conquerors!
For your sake we face
hardship.
We are sheep to be
slaughtered.
I am convinced that
death,
Nor life, nor anything
else
Will separate us from
The love of God now in
Christ.
What, then, shall we
say to this?
God for us: who
against us?
He who did not spare
His Son
But gave Him for us
all –
How will He not, with
Him,
Graciously give us all
things?
Who brings a charge
against us?
God justifies His
chosen.
Who is He that
condemns?
Christ Jesus; died,
rose again.
He’s at the right hand
of God,
Interceding for us.
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