Whispers of Truth

If he had remained in Jerusalem, Ezekiel would have begun serving as a priest at age 30; instead, he finds himself a prophet at God’s command while in exile in Babylon. Ezekiel’s visions in chapters 8-12 of the book bearing his name are heartrending, especially the ones related to the departure of God from the temple. With the Spirit’s assistance (8.2-3), Ezekiel is snatched out of exile in his house near Babylon and taken to Jerusalem to the place where he beholds “the glory and brilliance of the God of Israel [who had loved and chosen them]” to reside among them and place His name (8.4, AMP). The extraordinary nature of the visions given Ezekiel seem fantastic, but our God is fantastically full of awesomeness we cannot comprehend. Come Dig and See the Horrors When Ezekiel gets to the courtyard entrance of the temple, he is shown a hole in the wall that he is commanded to dig into and gain entrance. When he breaks through and looks inside, he sees not only all the repugnant creep...

A man's farewell tour. An exile in Babylon. The Spirit moving, showing what one must suffer. Speaking truth to a hardened, stubborn, obstinate house. Commands not to be afraid or dismayed before people even when they don’t listen. Like often happens, my daily reading and my studying to teach collided today in Ezekiel 1-4 and Acts 20. A Farewell Tour Last night’s study was focused in Acts 20, and we read Paul’s farewell declaration to the elders of Ephesus that he had testified “faithfully of the good news of God’s [precious, undeserved] grace [which makes us free of the guilt of sin and grants us eternal life]” (v. 24, AMP). Paul refuses to cling so tightly to his life in this world that he would forgo finishing the course he understands God has set him upon. He knows through the Spirit’s witness what awaits him in Jerusalem, where he is headed. Paul knows he will never see these men on earth again, and he makes this declaration: “I testify to you on this [our parting] day that I ...

I can’t understand yours. You can’t fully understand mine. The way each of us deals with grief and the cut of grief’s painful knife through the tender meat of our hearts is always different. The depth of the grief varies as well. The pain of some griefs seem to hover at surface level; some cuts heal quickly and leave no scar and other seemingly surface scratches can bruise and linger although no stitches were required. Some griefs cut all the way to the bone and never really fully heal however long we live. They lessen in their intensity over time but never abate, always calling out to be seen, to be acknowledged because of the deepness of the curt and the roughly healed scar (even when others can’t see that scar). Some of us seem more anesthetized to the pain than others, less vocal, less tearful, but the grief is not any less real for an outward show of grief’s intensity—we all deal and cope with our griefs in varying ways. However, the Who behind the grief makes all the difference i...

Idolatry Vain repetitions. A deceived king. Inhabitants of a land willingly led astray again. Fire falling from heaven. Such is the familiar yet dramatic scene in 1 Kings 18 when God sends Elijah to face off with King Ahab of Israel and the false priests of Baal. Some 200-plus years later, God calls Jeremiah to warn the  people  Judah about presenting the same kind of vain repetitions to Him as are offered to the false gods/idols as they worship; when God's people choose to seek and serve idols and then turn around and apply their idol-worshiping techniques to their worship of  the one true God, their desperate requests become vain and ineffective.  In Jeremiah 7:4, God speaks specifically of the chants of the false prophets who think living in the place where God’s temple is protects them, and it is in this false security they chant:  “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” (AMP). This empty speaking of vain repetitions...

“ Known unto God are all his works  from the beginning of the world.” Acts 15:18        Nothing is hidden from God. Not only is He all-powerful (omnipotent), but He is also all-knowing (omniscient). Before He made anything, He already knew what it would become. Knowing this about His nature, it continues to astound me He made the world and all that is in it knowing what it would cost Him personally. But He did!       Nothing hidden. God knows what He is making before He makes it, and then He carefully bends it to His will to fit His design in the creation process. He sees.       Playing with clay (I say playing because I am an amateur by all definitions of the word) has helped me better understand the Potter in ways I never expected.  I quickly learned in that first wheel class that raising a vessel from a lump of clay is no easy task, especially for an inexperienced potter. What others made to look so easy, I soon learn...

Brian died this week, alone in his apartment. No one knows for sure which day he passed from this life into the next one, but regardless, the reality is that Brian is gone, and we are left with the many memories made during his lifetime. Like memories of anyone, some are good and others are hard, and I know that mine are somewhat warped by time and my penchant for drama as a child, which (of course, read as not really . . . ) I have TOTALLY outgrown, but they are mine, and I am glad to have them. My first memory of Brian was a few days after his birth, and my five-and-a half-year-old-self wasn’t the least bit impressed with the squirmy little bundle I could only see by standing on tiptoe through the window of the kitchen door because I had a horrible case of the mumps. Pretty sure that my parents driving away with my brother and leaving me with the grandparents I normally loved to be with was the lowest moment of my life up to that point. That was the unavoidable and unfortunate begin...

The Book of Isaiah is simultaneously familiar and incomprehensible, and I love reading it and seeing more and more of Jesus that is contained within it each time I do. It becomes hard to leave each chapter for the next in our daily, chronological reading schedule because of the richness contained. There are so many ties that I just want to sit and steep in each one and dig deeper to find even more. I know more is there, and I want to see it all now, but for now, in this reading through, two prophecies struck me most. 1. God's presence over Mount Zion will one day be a brilliant "canopy [a defense, a covering of His divine love and protection]," and in His love, the cloud by day and its smoke will also "be a pavilion for shade from the head by day, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and the rain" (Is. 4:5-6, AMP). 2. God's preparations at that time in spreading out His spiritual tent, enlarging it to include Gentiles as spiritual sons, disciples of th...