Category Archives: The Gospel

Ezekiel 45-48; Sweet and Salty

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My favorite dessert.

But I’m not going to talk about the gigantic piece of chocolate cake with thick fudge frosting, drizzled with hot fudge, a scoop of ice-cream, and peanuts that my friends and I shared last night at dinner. Give me a second…

Ok. I’m back. 🙂

I live on an island in the Atlantic, surrounded by beautiful, mysterious marshland. There are several rivers near me that flow through the marshes and into the ocean. You can take your boat from the salty waters of the Atlantic, right into fresh flowing water that comes from the mainland. And vise versa.

Sometimes those rivers overflow their banks and pour their sweet water into the marshes before rushing into the ocean. That is quite a sight to see. Really, the marshland scenery changes all the time. I love it.

The water from these rivers never stops flowing. Every minute of every day, thousands and thousands of gallons of fresh water pour into the ocean Yet with all that fresh water, the ocean is still salty. That’s a fact.

So when I read chapter 47 I was a bit confused. Water from a river making salty water fresh? That’s not the way it works.

So as I sat here considering how this passage could be true, God reminded me that this is a vision, Connie. Not a science lesson.

Oh right. A vision!

So – what does the fresh water represent?

Jesus! The Gospel!

What is described in Ezekiel’s vision is so true in the life a believer. This water we know as Jesus Himself, changes our saltiness, uselessness, our guilt, into something refreshing, and fruit-bearing. Sin cannot do what Jesus can do. The Gospel is life-giving! It’s a miracle.

Then I thought back to chapter 46 where God tells Ezekiel that people must come into the temple by one gate, walk straight through, and exit through the opposite gate. No turning back. It speaks about we who come to know the Lord, and leave our past behind to follow Him. That’s what God demands:

“Don’t look back, Lot’s wife. Don’t look back. Keep going.” (Oh, she turned to salt when she disobeyed, didn’t she? She didn’t accept the fresh water of salvation that was hers for the taking. And she died in her sin.)

Keep moving, Christian. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep sharing the Gospel and allow God to do the impossible – changing salt water into fresh, changing sinners into saints through the blood of Jesus as people confess their sins and repent.

Now that’s sweet.

Ezekiel 26-30; Take That, Satan

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Ezekiel shares that God likened the king of Tyre to Satan. A model of perfection, adorned with beauty, guardian of cherubs, blameless until the day he chose wickedness. His heart became proud, corrupt, and dishonest, so God threw him out of His Presence. And Satan landed on earth.

Who of us has not been prideful, corrupt, or dishonest ourselves at one time or another? A flash from my past came to mind as I sat here thinking about this. Forty-some years ago, when ATM’s first came on the scene, I pulled up to the ATM of a bank near the grocery where I was heading. I put my card in, punched in $40.00 from checking, then took the money from the machine. It was like magic!

I immediately realized it had given me one too many $20’s. I remember sitting there for a second, before driving away.

I stole that $20.

I even remember rationalizing my sin by telling myself God must have wanted me to have it, seeing that I was living paycheck to paycheck with a few unpaid bills sitting on my desk at home.

Wow. Hadn’t thought about that in years. But I realize how much Satan’s influence is here on earth. He whispered the same lie in my ear that he whispered in Eve’s. “You deserve this.” And I fell for it just like Eve did.

I’m not the same person I was in my twenties, thankfully. Not too long ago I was putting groceries in my car when I realized a jar of onion powder was not in a bag. I checked the receipt and realized the cashier had not charged me for it. I found myself beginning to rationalize not paying for the onion powered. “It wasn’t my fault she didn’t see it.” “I want to get home to put the frozen stuff in the freezer,” “I don’t want to walk all that way back into the store for a measly buck and a half.” But I shut out those thoughts, and I took the jar back into the store to pay for it.

Now, I’m not saying that so you’ll think I’m some kind of saint. I’m not. But I share that to make the point that, even though Satan’s influence is as strong today, God is still stronger.  God gives His children every weapon we need to resist the devil. And God wins every time we allow Him to fight the battle.

Satan won’t stop shooting arrows, but we can put on the armor of God and not allow those arrows to penetrate. When Jesus places His righteousness on us when we repent of sin, His righteousness lives in and through us. We  begin to think, and act, like Jesus. And Satan has no power against Jesus! That’s great news!

And there’s more! Ezekiel reminds us that Satan is already defeated. God speaks outside of time, telling us:

… So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more. (28:18b-19)

Take that, Satan. You are already toast. God wins. You lose. And those of us on God’s side win with Him.

Who’s side are you on?

 

Ezekiel 1-5; Not A Suggestion

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Ezekiel’s encounter with the Living God changed him. We find him sitting by a river with the rest of the exiles when “the Lord came expressly” to him. Awesome.

I will say Ezekiel’s encounter with God, with the vision of four creatures, and God Himself, was a bit more dramatic than my encounter with God. That’s why I’m glad God inspired Ezekiel to write it down for me to read. Because that same God who revealed Himself to Ezekiel in a fantastic, over-the-top vision, revealed Himself to me in the fantastic, over-the-top person of His Son Jesus Christ.

No, I haven’t seen His face yet, or heard what His voice sounds like. But that doesn’t mean He’s any less real to me than God was to Ezekiel after his vision.

But what stood out to me today wasn’t in the details of the vision. I understand the vision was to show Ezekiel (and me) that God is real, and we should hear Him. What stood out to me was God’s demand to be obeyed.

Here is the Truth, Ezekiel. Go and tell my people.

That’s what God is still telling us today.

3:17-21 is sobering. We who know the Truth do not have the option of keeping it to ourselves. God tells Ezekiel (and me) to tell the wicked they are wicked and need to turn from their wickedness. Sinners need to repent or die.

Don’t we know that already? If you’ve been a follower of Jesus for more than a minute, you probably know He commanded us to go and preach the Gospel. It wasn’t a suggestion. Here in Ezekiel we hear Him say if we don’t, and wicked people die in their wickedness, we’re to blame. God sounds pretty serious about us sharing the truth with lost souls.

But God pointed a verse out to me today that I wish he hadn’t. 3:20 tells me I have a responsibility to tell a righteous man who turns away from his righteousness to stop sinning, too. If I don’t, and this person dies in his sin, his blood will be on me every bit as much as the blood of the outright wicked man who I neglected to tell.

I think sometimes we think a brother or sister  in the Lord knows they are sinning and what to do about it, so I don’t need to say anything. They’ll figure it out, because you can’t lose your salvation, and if they don’t they were never saved in the first place.

3:20 has me questioning that. It makes me realize I shouldn’t assume anything.  Because if I don’t share what I know to be true with a non-believer OR a believer I will be held responsible if they die without confessing their sin. 

The point God is trying to get me to see is that I have a serious responsibility to share the Gospel with sinners. Sinners in the street and in the pews. We’ve begun to believe that people are entitled to believe what they want to believe and live like they want to live.

God seems to have a different view of that. And He tells us to do something about it.

It’s not a suggestion.

Jeremiah 46-52; When It’s Close To Home

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God had given Jeremiah a word, and Jeremiah was faithful to relay the message as it was given. It started out with a prophecy against Egypt, then against the Philistines. God continued to give prophecies against Moab, then Ammon, Edom, Damascus, and the Arabians. These nations, these people had rejected God, had fought against God’s people, and God let them know the consequences they would pay for going up against Him.

But then God gave a prophecy against Babylon, and I have to think this message wasn’t as easy to deliver for Jeremiah. The Babylonians were enemies of Israel, just like Egypt and the rest of them. But Matthew Henry reminded me that the king of Babylon had been kind to Jeremiah. There was a personal connection between the prophet and the king.

This is what Henry says about Jeremiah 50:1ff:

“Here is a word spoken against Babylon. The king of Babylon had been very kind to Jeremiah, and yet he must foretell the ruin of that kingdom; for God’s prophets must not be governed by favor or affection. Whoever are our friends, if, notwithstanding, they are God’s enemies, we dare not speak peace to them.” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary of the Whole Bible; Zondervan Publishing,1961; page 1018)

I don’t know about you, but as much as I appreciate Matthew Henry’s insight into God’s Word, sometimes reading him is like reading a foreign language. I guess, if you were born in 1662 like he was, his vocabulary wouldn’t sound so strange. But for those of us living in the 21st Century, here’s what I get out of Henry’s old world vocabulary:

It’s not always easy to talk to the people closest to us about sin, about their need of the Savior. It’s not always easy to tell someone they are wrong, especially if that person is a really nice, good, upstanding person. And it’s hard to speak the Truth when we know we might offend someone we have a personal relationship with.

But Henry reminds us that all unbelievers, everyone who rejects God or ignores Him, anyone who thinks they are ok on their own, are enemies of God. The Bible is clear; you are either for God or against Him. There is no category of “nice guy” that cancels out our guilt of sin, and our need of Jesus.

Did you get what Henry said? God’s prophets, those of us entrusted with the Truth must not let our affection for someone prevent us from sharing the Truth. And if our loved one, or our sweet friend, or our kind neighbor, has not confessed sin and accepted Jesus as their Savior, WE MUST NOT TELL THEM EVERYTHING WILL BE OK.

We must not say of someone who rejects Jesus and dies, that they are in a better place. They are in a horrible place. More horrible than we can imagine. We must not say of an unsaved person who suffers a painful death that, well at least they are not in pain any more. Because the reality is they are in more pain than they ever experienced in this life. If we say otherwise, what message are we giving to those of our friends and family who have yet to accept God’s grace?

We must not tell someone who is rejecting Jesus, ignoring Him, living in sin, that their choices aren’t carrying severe, eternal consequences. We must not speak peace to a non-believer because, no matter how nice they are in this life, they are without hope without Jesus. They have no promise of peace, so we must not pretend that they do.

It’s not easy sharing the Gospel when that lost person is close to home. But aren’t those the people we love the most, the people we care for above all people?

Do you believe lost people go to hell? Look into the eyes of that lost loved one and see their eternity. Can you be as faithful as Jeremiah to deliver the Truth in spite of your personal feelings for that person?

Can I?

 

Jeremiah 30-31; Freedom

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The United States of America is celebrating our independence today. A relatively young nation compared to others in the world, we have had our share of successes and failures. We’ve done some things really well. We’ve also made some major mistakes. But this nation, founded as a nation under God, is still the greatest nation in the world. Our freedom, bought at great sacrifice, is nothing to take for granted.

Jeremiah speaks of another freedom not to be taken for granted. As he was writing about Israel’s enemy, the fact that Israel’s allies had forgotten them, and the realization that their enemy had delivered an incurable wound, I am reminded the same is true for us.

Satan has declared war on our souls, and would inflict injury beyond healing (30:12). In fact, left to our own devices, that wound is fatal. (the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23) But God, through Jesus, has set us free from the bondage of sin and death!

Jeremiah goes on to tell Israel how God will rescue them, and in doing so tells us the spiritual victory we have over Satan. If you have a few minutes, look up these verses which reinforce the freedom we have in Christ Jesus:

John 8:36; Galatians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 3:17; John 8:32; Romans 8:2; Romans 6:16; Romans 6:6-7.

Don’t these verses thrill your soul and cause you to want to celebrate your freedom in Christ with fireworks? Remember, the freedom we enjoy in the USA was anything but free. Countless man and women have shed their precious blood so that we can enjoy life in the US as free citizens. And remember, the freedom from the power of sin was bought with the precious blood of Jesus, once and for all.

It would be silly to live in the US and reject the freedom that being a citizen affords us. It’s tragic to live in the world and reject the freedom that accepting Jesus’ work on the cross affords all who believe.

Happy Fourth of July. God bless America. God bless you!

 

Jeremiah 16-20; And Yet

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Have you ever felt you can’t win for losing? That if it weren’t for bad luck, you’d have no luck at all? That no matter what you do, someone is going to be mad? I think Jeremiah was right there.

God gave him a message for the people. And the people wanted to kill the messenger. Shouldn’t God give him success if he was only doing what God told him to? Hear what Jeremiah tells us the people said about him for telling the truth:

So come, let’s attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says. (18:18b) (Sometimes it seems the Bible could have been written in 2018)

Reading these chapters, you can feel Jeremiah’s despair, his frustration. He was ready to cash it all in.

And yet, he said something in chapter 20 that convicts me:

But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more of his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (20:9)

That begs the questions: Am I ingesting God’s Word to the point where I’ll just burst if I don’t tell someone? Is God’s Word like heartburn that can only be belched out to bring peace? Am I aching to tell someone the good news of Jesus? Am I tired of holding it in?

So last night, I went to Chick fil A and ordered a spicy chicken sandwich and fries. I ate the whole thing and loved every bite. But about 45 minutes later, I had such heartburn I thought I was having a heart attack. It hurt so bad. I was bloated, and miserable. (this is no reflection on Chick fil A. It has everything to do with the fact I didn’t take my acid reflux medicine yesterday. Ahh, love the aging process)

That’s when I started burping. I will confess that, being the classy lady I am, I let ’em rip loud and long. 🙂 I live alone so I didn’t hold back. (I just hope my neighbors didn’t hear) Sometimes the belch itself hurt, but after a while the pressure in my chest and stomach calmed down.

Sorry for being so gross, but I thought of this while reading Jeremiah’s words this morning. And I can’t help but be convicted that my love of God’s Word doesn’t always burn within me like that, until I let it out.

The liberal media, false teachers, people who don’t want to hear from God because it doesn’t fit their agenda want us to shut up about Him. These bullies threaten to attack us with their tongues, and ignore what we have to say. They have the power to shut down businesses, or refuse to serve us in their restaurants. They call us names from their talk shows, and ridicule us to our faces.

So many of us are being intimidated to keep quiet. Who needs the aggravation? Right?

And yet, God is worth the aggravation. If I get my feeling hurt when ridiculed or challenged for following Jesus, so what? I am reminded God died for the person giving me a hard time. People gave Jesus a hard time. And He died for them, too.

I need to be reading and thinking about God’s Word every day. I need to be learning, growing, allowing Him to fill me to the point where I have to tell people or die.

God, thank you for your Word that is so personal, I can get a lesson from You out of heartburn. I love You! I do love reading Your Word. I do love the time I spend with You, allowing You to share Your heart with me through these pages. God, give me heartburn, and may it burn with the good news of Jesus Christ for those who don’t know Him. May You find me faithful.

 

 

 

Jeremiah 7-10; Are You Religious?

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The children of Israel were feeling pretty comfortable. I mean, they were God’s chosen people. The Ark of God was right there in a temple in their capital city. King Josiah had just led a revival, and the people were once again worshiping God like their forefathers had.

But Jeremiah burst their bubble.

“You might look like you’re obeying God to the rest of the world,” he says. “But God sees those idols hidden in your homes. God knows what’s in your hearts, and He sees as much evil in you as He does in the hearts of the pagan people around you. You might point to them and say, ‘well, at least we’re circumcised.’ I’m here to tell you God is more concerned about your uncircumcised hearts.”

I hope you went to church yesterday. I hope you opened your heart to God and worshiped Him among a fellowship of believers worshiping Him, too. To your neighbor and friends you might be the picture of a religious person. But how’s your heart?

The problem with being a religious person is that too many think going through the motions on Sunday somehow balances out the sin they commit on Monday.

It doesn’t.

God isn’t impressed with religiosity when the idols of jealousy, unforgiveness, self, dishonesty, or whatever a person thinks he’s hiding, are being hoarded. Those “hidden” sins indicate an uncircumcised heart. And Jeremiah will tell you God’s opinion of that.

Don’t think your religion is going to save you. Until you give God your heart and allow Him to cut out the sin you’re holding onto, you are as lost as the atheist or the Muslim.

When you stand before God on that day, He’s not going to ask you what church you belonged to. He’s going to look deep into your eyes, straight to your heart. And unless your heart is covered in Jesus’ blood, you will face eternity without Him.

Please. Don’t go there.

Jeremiah 5-6; You Can Believe What You Want To Believe

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“How many times do I have to tell you…?”

I bet you’ve said that more than once in your lifetime. We humans can be slow learners. We humans don’t like to be told what to do. We humans like to do what we want to do, say what we want to say, live like we want to live, believe what we want to believe.

And we humans would be wrong to believe that’s ok,

God, through Jeremiah, gives His people repeated warnings. You don’t ever have to guess what God demands. He spells it out clearly. Then He spells it again.

But:

A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end? (5:30-31)

I read a thing on FaceBook this morning about prayer. It’s beautifully written and tells us prayer is thinking positive thoughts, it’s hugging a friend, or cooking a meal for someone, it’s when we say, “drive safely,” it’s “an expression of your silent being,”

Come on, people. Really? That’s just stupid. And stupid is contagious:

“DNA doesn’t determine gender.” “Homosexuality is not a sin.” “Abortion is not murder.” “Rich people are evil.” “God is love and accepts everyone.” I could go on but I’m getting angry,

You can believe what you want to believe. That’s your God-given ability. But believing something doesn’t make it true. There is one Truth. There is one Way. There is one God. That’s not something I’ve come up with on my own. It’s been true from the beginning.

You can believe what you want to believe. But your belief won’t change the Truth. Understand that what you believe will land you either in heaven or hell. There is no third option.

That’s the truth. And with Jeremiah I ask,

But what will you do in the end?

Isaiah 65-66; A Beautiful Church

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Isn’t it amazing to be part of the Church Isaiah describes in these chapters? The whole world is blessed because of us, and we who are faithful produce the fruit of eternal souls saved when God’s children allow Him to work through us to reveal Himself to those who need Him.

From the moment the Holy Spirit came upon His people with a mighty wind and tongues of fire, God Himself became available to anyone anywhere; Jews, Gentiles, men, women, young, old, rich, poor. He doesn’t live in a house made my human hands. He lives in all of us, His workmanship through the blood of His precious Son Jesus Christ.

Ministry is no longer confined to Levites, or priests. All believers have a ministry, we are all to go into all the world and make disciples.

Belief in Jesus makes everything new. The old passes away, the new comes, and we will live forever with our Creator God, our Savior.

These last chapters in the book of Isaiah remind me what a privilege it is to be a part of God’s family, His Church on this earth. And it convicts me to do my part to care for His Church, to help it grow, to show the world how beautiful it really is.

Isaiah 50-53; Read It Again

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Isaiah 53 always stops me in my tracks. It is one of those passages in Scripture that I can’t just power through. In fact, it’s one of those I have to read, and reread so I don’t miss a word of it. I love it so much. It amazes me and blesses me every time.

If you ever doubted the supernatural power of God’s Word, read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ last days on this earth in bodily form, AFTER you read Isaiah 53. It is an amazingly accurate description of your Savior.

And it was written hundreds of years before Jesus’ humble birth, before He experienced the rejection of His people, before His trial when He stood absolutely guiltless and didn’t open His mouth to defend Himself, before He let them pierce Him without resisting, before He was crucified between two thieves, buried in a rich man’s tomb, and before He rose again. Everything Isaiah said would happen, happened. How can anyone deny the facts?

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6) (emphasis mine)

Jesus did that for you. He did that for me. I am so thankful that I have humbled myself and accepted God’s amazing grace, the forgiveness of my sin, paid for by the death of His Son Jesus. I love Him so much.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to read Isaiah 53 again and love on the One who loves me much more than I deserve.