Category: Band

There are probably as many different ideas about God and his relationship with his people as there are people on the earth. However, there is really only one who can tell us the truth about God and that is God himself.

In Ezekiel 24, God paints a terrible picture of his judgment and punishment for the unfaithfulness of his people. He has found Israel and Judah guilty and now they will be punished. Specifically in this case, Judah will be punished as Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem. The picture that God uses as he describes the scene to Ezekiel is that of a pot that is cooking over a fire. It is cooking the meat of the flock.

It is a terrible picture because the flock here represents the Israelites who are there in Jerusalem. God has stirred up the Babylonians against the Israelites and they are now the fire that is bringing the punishment against the Israelites. Want a picture of what God and his character for those that are unfaithful? This is about as bad as it gets.

Tell this rebellious people a parable and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“‘Put on the cooking pot; put it on
and pour water into it.
Put into it the pieces of meat,
all the choice pieces—the leg and the shoulder.
Fill it with the best of these bones;
take the pick of the flock.
Pile wood beneath it for the bones;
bring it to a boil
and cook the bones in it.

Ezekiel 24:3-5

This should be a warning to each of us. We like to speak of God’s love and mercy and grace and faithfulness to each of us. And that is all true. God is amazingly patient and merciful. In fact, he was patient for century after century with the Israelites. And he is even with us today.

But not forever. God also executes his judgement and brings a terrible punishment upon those who will not remain faithful to him. It is too terrible to even imagine, so we *must* find the way. We must stay on it, live in it, and truly live as His people. Not because we are afraid, but because we are in love. In love with the one that loved us so much that he gave us himself instead of putting the punishment upon us…if only we would humble ourselves and daily accept the gift that he has given to us!

God speaks to Ezekiel again and compares the two kingdoms of Israel (Samaria in the story, the capital of the kingdom of Israel) and Judah (Jerusalem in the story, the capital of the kingdom of Judah) to two sisters. However, these sisters are described as young virgins who wish to have their breasts fondled and enjoyed by the men (the nations) around them. In the case of Judah, the nation of Egypt and eventually also Assyria, and in the case of Israel, the nation of Assyria.

These ladies are described as prostitutes because they have gone to other lovers. They have looked to other gods. They have depended upon their own wisdom. But in the end it does them no good at all. These other nations do not want what is good for them. Instead, they leave them stripped naked, bruised and battered, and their nakedness and shame will be exposed to everyone.

As we run to other things aside from the one true God… as we go on to put our trust and dependency in these things… we are going in the same direction that Israel and Judah went. They wanted to run their lives their way, and so do we. They wanted to find their own solutions, and so do we.

But they also found out the true consequences to their actions, and if we do as they did, so will we.

But it is worse than that. God, as our original “lover”, just as he was with the Israelites, won’t stand by idly. He sees what is happening and will call out our actions. See what God says through Ezekiel:

The LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their detestable practices, for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them.

Ezekiel 23:36-37

God knows what is happening. He knew with the Israelites and he knows with us. And he will declare judgement. He is jealous and wants us for himself. He wants us to give glory and worship to him, not to other so-called gods. He wants us to run to him, not to other things for our safety and security. Not just loyalty, but fidelity. Completely in love, completely sold out to him.

Through Ezekiel, God gives us some hints on how he sees his relationship with his people. He recounts and explains what he has done for his people and also discusses why.

For example, in Ezekiel 20, he recounts the Exodus, the time that God moved to bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. Even though they were still worshipping idols and rebelling against him, God still brought the people out of Egypt. Why? Here is the scripture:

But for the sake of my name, I brought them out of Egypt. I did it to keep my name from being profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they lived and in whose sight I had revealed myself to the Israelites.

Ezekiel 20:9

God doesn’t just have grace and mercy on the Israelites because he loves them and wants to be their God. Even though they are worshipping idols and foreign gods, God is making sure that his name will not be profaned. He has brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery, and now he will carry them through his plan, even though they are rebelling against him. He does this because his name will be glorified. Despite the rebellion of the Israelites, the nations will give glory to the God of Israel because he is a powerful God, a mighty God, and clearly also a merciful God. He has done all of this in the sight of the nations so that they will glorify him. They, the nations, are his eventual aim, the people that he desires to reach. They must know his power and love for his people, and so it is for this reason that he will show this power and love in the sight of the nations.

We can relate this also to our times today. We should ask ourselves this question, I think: Why would God send Jesus to pursue us, to save us? Haven’t we been too much trouble? Every time he tries to pursue us, we rebel against him, we sin against him, running to other “gods”, other solutions. We are just like the Israelites!

I’ve heard many people say that God loves us. That is why he came for us.

Or that God is a God who wants to be in relationship. Look at the Trinity – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is a God who lives and works in relationship, so he must save us, his creation, so that he will be in relationship with us and we will be in relationship with him.

Those explanations may be correct. I wouldn’t say that they are incorrect, but at the least, I think we can say that they are incomplete. God came for us so that he would be glorified. It isn’t just about how valuable I am, or we are. It is more about how valuable God is and that he should be recognized for his worth and his value.

Jesus came to save us, despite our sin and rebellion, for the sake of the name of the Father. Take a look at this interaction between the Son and the Father just before Jesus is ready to head to the cross:

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

John 12:27-28

The very reason that Jesus is approaching this “hour” where he will be horribly killed by crucifixion is to bring glory to the name of the Father. And this is exactly God’s intention. He has brought glory to his name and intends to continue to do so.

We, therefore, must live to give glory to God. Our lives must be wrapped up in this plan. God intends to give glory to God. We must live for him, not for us, and do the same.

Ezekiel goes into a long explanation of how someone who commits sin will die for what they have done. In short, he is saying that the penalty of sin is death.

In fact, he goes further to say that a righteous person who turns to sin will, themselves, die. So if you think that you will be able to look back to your previous days and depend upon them for your justification…think again!

On the other hand, he does say that there is a way out. Someone who is living a sinful life but who will repent and turn back to God, away from his old life, will be allowed to live. This is the type of person that God wants. Someone who will, with humility, realizing that they have done what is wrong, turn away from their past and come to God.

Ezekiel wraps up this section by saying:

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

Ezekiel 18:32

Ezekiel pre-dates God coming to earth as a human being in the form of Jesus, but Jesus had a similar message. In fact, it was the first message that he preached:

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Mark 1:15

The first step to enter into the kingdom of God is that of repentance. When we realize that we have been wrong and done wrong, we must lay down our pride – something that is very difficult for must of us to do! – and instead humbly come to God in repentance. Only in this way can we come into the kingdom of God and live!

I’ve spent a fairly significant amount of time lately thinking about what Jesus said when he talked about the kingdom of God being like a man who found a treasure in a field and then sold everything he owned so that he could buy the field to be able to obtain the treasure.

Or in the parable immediately after that as the merchant of pearls found a very precious pearl and so, in the same way, goes to sell everything that he has to be able to return and buy the pearl.

I think this teaches us that obtaining, or we might say accessing or entering, the kingdom of God is worth everything. There is nothing that we have in this life that is worth anything more than being able to enter into the kingdom.

Of course, this has profound implications for us. If nothing is worth more, I should be willing to sell it all or give it all up: My home and all of my possessions, my relationships, my interests, hobbies, passions. Everything. Jesus says that it is worth it all to enter into the kingdom of God.

This morning, I read Ezekiel 13 and 14 and saw something similar in what I read there. Here is one of the verses that highlights the problem that God had with the people of Israel:

Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the LORD will answer them myself in keeping with their great idolatry.

Ezekiel 14:4

Some of the elders of Israel had come to Ezekiel to inquire of God and to hear from him. But they had other things, even idols, that they placed before their relationship with God. God was a connection that they had “bolted on”, let’s say, to their lives. They weren’t committed to God. They didn’t truly believe that he had all of the answers. They looked, instead, to other gods and other things in their lives.

Ezekiel continues later in chapter 14 by talking about how God says that he will destroy the land because of the people’s unfaithfulness to him. It is crucial that we understand this. God wants our complete fidelity, our whole lives, our minds, our hearts, our souls, and our strength. He wants it all and won’t accept anything less.

I think this is directly connected to what Jesus taught as he spoke of the people who would sell everything to “obtain”, or enter into the kingdom of God. He wants every part of us and so this is how we must dedicate our day today, to give it all to him!

I was reading through Ezekiel 11 and 12 today, according to the Bible reading plan that our team is using. The instructions for our time say that we should pick out the verse that speaks the most to us.

But today, instead of thinking about this, I was trying to think about what God was saying the most through these two chapters.

There is a famous section in Ezekiel 11 about God turning the peoples’ heart of stone into a heart of flesh, so I considered picking this, but I actually don’t think that this is the main message that God is trying to get across in these couple of chapters.

Instead, I think that the message that I see coming through Ezekiel is that the people of Israel have been disobedient and God will punish them. But even that declaration of punishment isn’t the main message.

In chapter 12, God says this:

The inhabited towns will be laid waste and the land will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’

Ezekiel 12:20

God wants his people to recognize him for who he truly is. He is the Lord. He is the one who brought them out of Egypt. The one who sustained them in the desert, who brought them into the promised land. He has been faithful to them, even when they haven’t been faithful to him. The people of Israel have gone and served other gods. They have not recognized God for who he is and what he has done for them.

So this is the reason for God’s punishment of the Israelite people. God wants them to know him for who he is. To glorify him for who he is, just as he intended from the beginning and wants them to do even now.

God wants his people to know that he is God and glorify him for who he is. And that is what I believe God wants to tell us even today. He wants us to recognize him for who he is and what he has done for us. And without this, in the same way that God punished the Israelite people, we can expect a similar wrath to come upon us. God has been patient and kind, and will continue to be, but he expects that we will acknowledge him for who he is: the God of the universe, the King above all kings, the One who loves us, who pursued us and even sacrificed himself for us. And he is the one who deserves the glory.

Yesterday, I created a post on the Search Party website describing a plan that we are adopting as a team here in Catania to stay connected to the Word of God and in prayer, both individually and as a team.

Our challenge has routinely been that we knew that we needed to make time as a team for staying connected to Christ, obeying Jesus’s command to abide in him, but we have had many starts and stops in terms of how to do it.

One of my teammates introduced a simple idea to follow a Bible reading plan together, connected to a regular meeting among a few people to check in on one another and our progress.

I put the details of what we are doing over on the website. Our hope is that we can continue to expand the idea by doing this amongst the people of the churches that we are planting, the visitors that come in to work with us, and possibly even have others who are not here following along with us. We’re looking forward to seeing what God will do through his Word and Spirit as he speaks to each of us on a daily basis.

Paul has been explaining to Timothy in his letter that there are people who desire to cause division, that like to quarrel and cause strife and constant friction between people. They value the things of this world such as money and power over the things of heaven.

But Paul warns Timothy that he should pursue a different life. He says:

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

1 Timothy 6:11

As a man of God, Paul calls Timothy to pursue something much greater: righteousness – to live rightly before both God and man. To live in faith and love, both for God and man. To endure through hardships and to be gentle with others.

This is the core of the decision that we have before us as well. What is it that I value? What is it that I consider worth spending my time on? Do I invest in the things of this world, or do I invest in the things of heaven? How will I live today, tomorrow, and each individual day after that? Will I pursue gain for myself or will I pursue gain for Christ with my life?

Paul addresses a challenging issue with Timothy in this chapter in that he points out which widows should be helped financially by the church and which should not. In this time, there isn’t a governmental support system or other programs, so the church would be the best opportunity for someone to receive support when they are in need.

Here is what Paul said and then I will list some of the principles that I take away from this below:

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. Give the people these instructions, so that no one may be open to blame. Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.

As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to. So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.

If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.

1 Timothy 5:3-16

Here are some of the important things that I see in this passage:

• It is important to meet the needs of those who are truly in need. The church’s resources should be used for this.

• There are a series of restrictions that should be considered based on a person’s situation. These include:
  • The person should care for their own family.
  • They shouldn’t just be living idly or for their own pleasure and not working.
  • Age as a consideration. Paul specifically mentions that the woman must be over 60.

I do also notice that Paul really only considers widows. He doesn’t even mention men in this case. I don’t know if this is because he believes that the men should all be able to work to support themselves or if that just wasn’t done in their case, but it is interesting that this is the case.

In the end, I don’t know that the church should consider these as **the rules** for giving. However, it does seem that there are principles here that we can use as we consider how the church should give to others and to whom funds might be given.

I don’t think that people necessarily would say this out loud, but I do believe that we certainly think it. The situation goes something like this:

• I made a sacrifice for God.

• I go to the church / mosque / temple every day / week / month / year.

• I read the Bible every day.

• I pray regularly.

• I fast and abstain from food / water / sex.

• I gave money to the church. I gave money to poor people. I’ve done good works to help others.

• I followed all of the rules…most of the time!

And so, therefore, God owes me. He owes me to get into heaven…right? Wasn’t that the deal? God gives me these rules, and I need to live like a good religious person, and then I get to go to heaven someday when I die.

Right?

God owes me.

Wrong. Not true. Incorrect.

Today, I read in Timothy 4 where Paul says this to Timothy:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

1 Timothy 4:1-3

In chapter 3, Paul explains again to Timothy that there is one God and one Mediator, Jesus Christ. And it is through Jesus that we are given grace and mercy.

But instead of receiving grace and mercy from God, we frequently choose to believe the lie that is taught by demons, that if we just follow some rules, or if we are just religious enough, or if we are a good person, then God will owe you.

Some people believe that he owes you some type of ease in this life. They read that God is going to bless his people and they interpret it as God owing them money…meanwhile conveniently skipping over the fact that Jesus says that we should expect hardship and persecution.

Or other people believe that God owes you heaven, that because you have been a good person, or even if not a good person, a religious person, then God owes them eternal life.

But what are they really doing? By buying into this idea of following the rules and being, in some way the one who controls their destiny, they are simply considering themselves to be like God. This is the original lie that Satan told to Eve in the Garden of Eden, that by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that their eyes would be opened and they would be like God.

But that is not at all the reality, and is certainly not the story that the scriptures tell. Instead, as those that have been created and who have rebelled against God, we deserve nothing more than punishment and death, but God gave himself as a sacrifice for each of us by sending Jesus Christ to receive the punishment of our sins. Therefore, we have before us an incredible gift of grace and mercy, and only through faith in this gift can we be saved.

God doesn’t owe me anything, but out of his love for me and for each of us, he has given me everything.