by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
Ezekiel 13-15
Do you have a pure heart? That’s what pleases God, and it is what will bring you to your best life.
So just what is a pure heart? It’s one which seeks God’s will and not its own. A pure heart is free from self-centeredness and strife and as such, can hear properly when God speaks.
Jesus said, “I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has sent Me.” (John 5:30) When we are willing to seek our Father’s will and not our own selfish one, we will hear clearly from Him also.
This is the key to what makes false prophecy. A man who selfishly seeks his own will doesn’t hear God’s voice clearly. He is busy running after his own desires, and his thinking gets to be contaminated. Thus he doesn’t hear clearly.
What is a false prophet? He is one who speaks out of his own mind, and doesn’t represent the Lord..
So this is what we see in Ezekiel. The prophets in Jerusalem are saying “peace, peace,” when there is no peace. They are speaking from their own minds and tickling ears – leading people astray.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
So let’s allow Him to strip away those preconceived ideas and selfish ideologies, and fill our hearts with His truth. That’s where His freedom lies – and that’s where we find the greatest happiness.
James 1
(Note: James, who wrote this book, was the natural brother of Jesus, but didn’t believe in Him until after His resurrection. James went on to be one of the early church leaders, a fact which should give us hope concerning our families who are not yet believers).
I like the way the Amplified Bible starts this book. “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into temptations, testings, or trials, knowing that the trying of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”(V 2-3)
Remember how Hebrews harped on endurance, or patience? Well, here we go again. Endurance is one of the most important factors in our faith-walk. We have to hold up our faith with endurance, or we will give up and miss out on the blessing.
But if we have endurance working on our behalf, we will receive the things we are believing for.
So when you come to testings and trials, don’t sit down on the job. Think of yourself as being in an intense workout, producing your endurance muscle. You are getting stronger, and closer to your goal, even when it doesn’t seem like it.
While we are waiting, we need to realize that it is not God who is testing us. “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” (V 13) Your own lust is tempting you and testing you. So as you are holding on to your promise, know that your heart is being cleansed by your resolve also. When you don’t give in, the devil starts losing his hold on you.
Hold fast. Endure. Be patient. You will receive, if you don’t quit! Faith and patience can accomplish wonderful things in your life.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
Ezekiel 10-12
Ezekiel gets discouraged. A small number of Jews have been left in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and they are continuing to go after other gods. The priests and prophets alike have given up on God and are “doing their own thing.”
In a vision, the Lord shows Ezekiel the dilemma, and it’s almost too much for him.
However, the Lord has a plan, as He always does. There will come a day when He will bring back the jews who have been scattered abroad.
“I shall gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I shall give you the land of Israel…When they come there, they will remove all the detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh”
Restoration, sweet restoration. Don’t we love it?
What our Father did for Israel, He does for all of us in this present day. He takes us from the land of the enemy and He brings us to His own land – His kingdom. Then he puts a new heart within us. No longer do we have the heart of stone which we once had. Now our hearts are soft and pliable in His hands.
Not only that, our Father is also bringing all of the prophecies to pass for the nation of Israel. In 1948, suddenly, as if hearing a drum beat beckoning them, Jews from all over the world began to go back to their original land. The nation was finally recognized as a country, and God’s plans were continuing to come to pass.
Stop and think about that tiny little country, in the middle of so many big countries. The whole nation is no bigger than one of our small states. Yet all of the world knows about Israel.
Sometimes huge ungodly countries act as though they fear Israel. Get a map and look at it. It’s really amazing that they have so much influence worldwide.
God’s hand has been upon them. The Jews, the children of Abraham, still are in covenant with God.
And then on a spiritual level, so are we. Yet our covenant is even better. Just hide and watch. We are going to see mighty things from the hand of God.
Hebrews 13
A couple of really significant points are in this final chapter.
First is the famous verse, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.”(V. 8) When some attempt to say that healing and deliverance have gone away, they have a hard time with this verse.
Jesus is the same today. He is still a healer. He still wants to bless us. And He still wants to show God’s plan of redemption through our lives.
When others look at our lives, hopefully, they will recognize that God is good and that we can expect miracles from Him.
Which leads me to the other point. This life we live is not necessarily popular. Even though we know that out in the world there is no peace which can compare to the peace we have, many who don’t know Jesus just don’t understand that. They think that we are superstitious or fanatical when we really do believe in our God.
That’s why we have to be willing to “go outside the camp, bearing his reproach, for here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” (V.13-14) We might not be doing what is popular, but we will be doing the right thing when we live our lives for our God.
And He won’t let us down.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
Ezekiel 7-9
The bottom line is this: there is only one way to God, and it is through Jesus Christ. Period!
To recap what we have been seeing and saying over the last few months, God found a man, Abraham, who would follow Him. He proved this man’s obedience over a period of about 25 years, and then God sent him a son of promise – and a promise that through that son there would be a multitude. Just as promised, the jewish people grew and flourished. They learned of this great God and they learned about what He exzpected of them.
The idea was to instill within this group of people enough knowledge of God and His ways that they would be able to eventually bring His own Son to the earth.
When we come to the time period of Ezekiel, God’s whole plan is in jeapordy. The Jews have gone their own way, and they are worshipping false gods. The less privileged nations around them have all sorts of idols, and this generation has thought it more sophisticated to blend in with their neighbors than to remain faithful to the one true God. (Unbelievers always think that it is more sophisticated not to believe).
So in His faithfulness to Abraham, God intervenes. He demonstrates to Israel that He is the true God, and that there is no other. Of course, at this point, most of the priests and prophets are so corrupt that they spurn God’s reproof. They stil don’t believe, and they suffer the consequences.
But there are a few. As we continue in the next few books of the Bible, we will see some who believe and remain faithful. These are the ones who will reap the benefits of a walk with their God. Even in a foreign land, God will be there with them.
Word after word and demonstration after demonstration will come from Ezekiel. God and His man have such an overwhelming deisre to see the people turn away from their error and back to the Lord.
Hmmm. Does it seem like that is happening today? Something to think about.
Hebrews 12
We have a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on as we run our race.
I love that concept, don’t you? Not only of the crowd cheering us on, but of running a race. I have often thought of our lives as a journey – a trip which we take. There are always twists and turns, surprises as we go along. Some are good and some bad, but they are part of the journey.
The idea is to run a good race. We want our lives to count for God’s kingdom. We want to have a good influence on our families and those around us, and we want to leave a legacy of God’s purpose in the earth.
So when we come to the twists and turns, we must be faithful to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He is the One who can keep us going and see us through the rocky spots.
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, always has the wisdom and strength available for us to finish well.
So let’s shed the encumbrances and run this race. We can do it! He promises that we can.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
Ezekiel 4-6
How would you have liked to be Ezekiel? He did what the Lord said to do, and said what the Lord said to say, but he couldn’t have been popular to the masses. In fact, many may have thought of him as a weird man.
God was using every means possible to get His message to the people. These Jews were His people, and they had a mission to accomplish still. They were to bring into the earth the Messiah, Jesus, and they were to have the history which would show God’s hand upon a nation.
However, at the time, it might not have seemed like it. They were in captivity in Babylon, and they were assimilating this new culture into their own routines.
But there were a few. There were a few who had not forsaken their God, and others who had turned back to Him because of their captivity. Those were the ones who would listen.
First Ezekiel used tremendous drama to show the plight of these people. They had turned their backs on God, and He had turned His back on them. How the mighty had fallen.
Soon he is going to begin to bring forth glorious words of hope concerning Jerusalem. The ones who believe God will grab hold of these words and feed on them.
But first he has to reiterate why they are in their current position.
Better days are ahead. Better days are always ahead when we walk with God.
Hebrews 11
“Without faith, it is impossible to please God. for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder for those who diligently seek Him.” (V. 6)
That’s what He wants from us: our faith. He wants us to believe Him. That’s the foundation for everything in our Father’s kingdom.
So what is this thing called faith? It’s the “assurance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” (V.1)
All of us exercise faith every day, whether we know it or not. Every night when we go to sleep, we “know” that the sun will be up again in the morning. Right? Do you ever wonder or worry about that? I hope not!
Every time we sit down in a chair and trust our body weight to that structure, we have faith that the chair will hold us. Every time we turn on a light, we expect the light to come on. Every time we go to work, we expect our job to be there. (Under ordinary circumstances).
All of these are examples of faith. We aren’t seeing something at the moment, but we know what the outcome will be. It’s easy to have faith in things which we have experienced over and over.
In the same way, as we walk with God and believe Him for things, we will see results of our faith. Then the results we see will increase our ability to believe next time. Our faith will grow from the experience.
However, if we say we are Christians and never believe God’s Word, our faith won’t grow. In fact, perhaps our doubt and unbelief will grow, because we will not see Him work as much.
There’s a key here, and it’s in verse 3. “By faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”
A mouthful, I know. What it is saying is that the way God created the world is the same way He creates things in our lives. He spoke the word in faith, and things appeared, which had not been seen before. They had been created out of the word of God and faith in that word – when it was spoken.
Are there some unseen things in your life? Things which you have seen in God’s promises, but you haven’t seen manifested in your life?
Find those promises and meditate on them. Roll them around in your mind and heart, and speak them out loud. As you do this, your faith will grow, and you will begin to see these promises manifest in the natural.
It won’t happen overnight. Yet if you continue in God’s Word, your faith and patience will bring you into a whole new territory. A new territory of believing and receiving.
As you continue to read about the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11, your faith will rise also. You will see that faith was an essential element of all of the heroes in the Old Testament. (In fact, when Abraham believed God’s Word to Him, he had righteousness granted to him as a gift).
Our faith is essential to a successful walk with our God. We must believe Him. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
by Suellen | Project 2013: Read The Bible
Ezekiel 1-3
You have to get your head in gear for Ezekiel. Some of the richest messages in the Bible – messages which are true for us today, just as they were when they were written – are found in this book. Ezekiel is a true prophet, and true prophets often “see” rather than “hear” things from God.
What do I mean? Well, Ezekiel sees visions which represent what the Lord is saying. You know the old Chinese proverb, “A picture is worth a thousand words?” Well, there is never a time when that can be demonstrated better than in the messages from Ezekiel.
So let’s go. To establish the background, Ezekiel is an exile prophet, meaning that he is writing from captivity in Babylon. The once mighty nation of Israel has been carried off to Babylon, but their God is still with them. He encourages the people with promises of an eventual return and rebuilding of Jerusalem. God is indeed faithful to His people.
Now for the visions. What do you see when you see the creatures with four faces which Ezekiel describes? I see the completeness of man, as God has designed him. The four faces represent differing aspects of God’s design. He is a man first and foremost, God’s man. When he walks in the fulness of God’s plan, this man will be as bold and full of authority as a lion, he will be willing to serve as the ox, and he will soar as an eagle above the rudimentary elements of the world. God’s man is a many-faceted man.
Then, as God’s man prophesying to God’s people, Ezekiel is required to eat the scroll first. This, too, is a principle which applies today. In today’s jargon, we would say, “Practice what you preach.”
If we are our Father’s representatives, we must do what we say, and we must do what we expect others to do. That’s integrity, and it’s what God requires.
Now Ezekiel is called to speak to the nation of Israel while they are in exile, so some of the messages will just seem for the moment. Yet if we look closely, we will have the opportunity to receive messages for us also.
Ezekiel can teach us a lot, if we will just listen
Hebrews 10
There is such a contrast between those who honor the Spirit of Grace and those who insult Him. Those who honor God’s precious Spirit have the privilege of entering boldly into the throne of grace to find help in time of need. That time of need could be a time when we have sinned, or it could be when we are in need of strength, wisdom, or provision.
The main thing here is that our Father is ever ready to help us, when our hearts are toward Him.
Yet there is another side of the coin; a side which isn’t as pretty.
Paul speaks of insulting the Spirit of Grace. That’s when we take Him lightly, and continue in a life of sin or apathy towards our God.
We all know people who have had God move mightily on their behalf, and who for a season have seemed to have changed lives, living for Him. Then when the shiny objects of the world have entered the picture, they have no time for their Savior. And some times, they have turned their backs on God completely.
Dangerous territory. I’m not saying that they have committed the unforgivable sin, but I am saying that they have insulted God. Repentance is there for them. But they do need to repent.
I am not talking about just making a mistake. i am talking about after knowing Him to choose a lifestyle which honors the devil rather than God. That’s the dangerous territory, and we want to avoid it at all costs.
Grace is such a terrific gift from our Father, and not one to be taken lightly. Our Father loves us, and wants us to live closely with Him. There is nothing that He won’t do for us when we walk closely with Him.
I pray that you and I will continue to walk with Him – closer and closer every day.
