Category Archives: Christian Life

SPEAK TO THE BONES

Christian Life, ,

SPEAK TO THE BONES

Imagine how Ezekiel felt when he gazed on a scene of utter desolation; thousands of human bones, bleached white in the sun, lying scattered across a valley of desert sand. Could anything be more dead? His own nation was as dead and unproductive as a boneyard, as rotten with sin and rebellion as a decaying, stinking corpse.

God speaks softly to him, “Ezekiel, what do you think? Can these bones live?” Ezekiel thinks for a moment. Of course, in the natural, his mind can only answer, No! But he is not dealing with “natural”! He’s in conversation with GOD.

“Only you know, God” he replies. “Good answer, Ezekiel,” God commends him. “Now, this is what you must do. Speak to the bones.”

“What! What good will that do? These are dry, dead bones. I’ll look like a fool, lost it, speaking to bones!”

“Just do it Ezekiel.” So Ezekiel just did it. He spoke to the bones,

“‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Ezekiel 37:4-6 NLT

Ezekiel was shocked, gob-smacked, when the bones did exactly what he commanded them to do. With an ear-splitting noise of rattling and clattering, the bones began to reassemble into an army of human bodies, clothed in flesh and skin but still dead… just as lifeless as they had been, scattered bones on the desert floor.

Again God spoke. “Speak to the breath.” Emboldened by the bones’ response to his instruction, Ezekiel responded, “What must I say?”

“Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”

Ezekiel 37:9 NLT

So Ezekiel spoke to the winds… the mighty, divine force, energy, power, Person, who gives life to all. As he spoke, breath entered the bodies lying in the dust, and they stood up, breathing and alive, a vast army of people ready to do battle.

We are all confronted with our “valleys of dry bones” – relationships, businesses, finances, families, health… as dry and dead as the bones in Ezekiel’s vision. In our grief and despair, God asks us, “Can these bones live?”

Ezekiel’s vision, and God’s astonishing response,  reassure us that there is nothing beyond God’s power to undo. Our circumstances, whatever they are, may seem too far gone to save. Yet, there is always hope.

What is God’s answer to His own question, “Can these bones live?”

1. Speak to the bones. Address the situation from God’s perspective. Ask God for the word you must speak, then speak it with boldness and confidence.

2. Speak to the breath. God’s Spirit, His breath of life, will enter death, as He did the body of Jesus, to bring back life into that which is “dead” to you.

3. Watch and wait with expectancy to see what God can do. Dry bones are never God’s last word.

MOLLY AND ME – NEVER APART AGAIN

Christian Life, ,

MOLLY AND ME – NEVER APART AGAIN

I’ve recently returned from a five-day visit to my family in Johannesburg. Just as much as it was a blessing to be with them and to meet my six-week-old great granddaughter, it was severely traumatic for Molly.

I told her many times that I would be away for five days. Unfortunately, our level of understanding didn’t accommodate such intricate information. Instead, as when my friend and I make our short trip to buy our Sunday roast, she expected my return within an hour.

For five days, I was missing. She did not know where I was, and she could not find me. She lived through those days, tenderly cared for by a loving substitute mother, in the company of her best furry friends but, at the same time, so alone.

Then the moment came when she heard my voice…

Molly hailed my return with ecstatic joy. Her wriggling dachshund body and violently-wagging tail told me that she was delighted to have me home. She could not have told me more visibly that she was pleased to see me.

I assured my little dog that I would never leave again!

Before His departure via the cross, Jesus told His disciples that He was going away. Unlike Molly, they understood the ominous words He spoke but, at the same time, they had no idea what He meant by “going away” or where He was going.

“There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?… And you know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
John 14:2, 4-5 NLT

We are also, like Molly waiting for our Beloved’s return. We sometimes feel lonely and abandoned. We are busy with His work but feel the pain of His absence and, yet…

Unlike my absence from Molly, Jesus is with us always and even more. By His Spirit, He is in us. We cannot feel or hear Him, but He speaks in ways we can understand. His love and peace steady us in life’s storms. His Word guides in the darkness. His presence surrounds and protects us in a dangerous world.

Molly needed to see me and hear me to know I was here. We know the presence of Jesus by faith in His promises. He said He was going away but, He also promised us a representative exactly like Himself to be with us forever.

Do you know His presence? Take heart. He is Yahweh Shamma… The God who is there!

“And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20 NLT

MOLLY AND ME – BOLDNESS

Christian Life, ,

MOLLY AND ME – BOLDNESS

Molly and me… it’s been quite a while since I wrote about my little teacher and the lessons I learn about our relationship with one another. In her irrepressibly cute “dog-ness”, she has opened my understanding to the intricacies of life with the Father, and the deeper meaning of being a “pet” in God’s household.

Molly fervently believes that what’s mine is also hers. So, when I put a bunny blanket under my bedclothes in preparation for another cold night, she immediately took possession of it. No sooner was she under the blankets when she promptly scraped the bunny blanket into a nest for herself. I was free to sleep under what was left of my blanket!

“What a cheek!” I thought, and then I realised that what she is, I made her, trusting me and being confident in my love for her. I have shared with her whatever is appropriate (and sometimes not so appropriate) and now she is simply taking for granted that she can also share my bunny blanket.

God has assured us time and again in His Word that He has given us everything we need and some, which He calls “all things” to enjoy because of His love for us in Christ Jesus.

“Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”

Romans 8:32 NLT

“Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.”

1 Timothy 6:17 NLT

Why is it, then, that I often hesitate to believe that God is good, that He has planned good things for me, and that I can trust Him to give me everything He has promised?

Perhaps this hits me the hardest when I struggle with issues that require faith and obedience. Why don’t I, like Molly, just take hold of what is mine through Jesus?

When temptation tries to lure me or entangle me, I have recourse to the power of the Spirit in me.

“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.”

Romans 8:12-13 NLT

When I go out into a hostile and unfriendly world, I have God’s favour as a shield.

“Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favour as with a shield.”

Psalms 5:12 NIV

My trust in God is my protection in danger, my hiding place, my Rock of strength and security.

“I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” … If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;”

Psalms 91:2, 9-11 NIV

So, thank you. Molly, for showing me just how easy it is to take hold of what is mine in Jesus. In the future, I’ll do what you did, wrap myself in the blanket of God’s faithful promises and enjoy the warmth and protection of all that He has given to me.

I HAVE LOVED YOU….

Christian Life, ,

I HAVE LOVED YOU….

Without the awareness of the greatness of God’s love for us, living in His kingdom would be just another set of rules to obey. This love of God binds our hearts to Him in a powerful union of trust, submission and obedience which are the hallmarks of a true son.

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.”

John 15:9 NLT

“But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.”

Jude 1:20-21 NLT

Can you see how important it is that we understand that all we experience as believers in Jesus must be filtered through this love of God? His love underpins everything that has happened and will happen to us because He is “passing by”, to reveal Himself to us, in each situation, according to their need.

To put our trust in and root our lives in God’s love means that NOTHING can get between His love and us. Paul assures us, based on everything God did for us through Jesus…

“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:38-39 NLT

God’s love for us didn’t begin when we came to faith in Jesus. God loved us before He made the world.

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”

Ephesians 1:4 NLT

God was watching and intimately supervising the formation of the unborn child and setting out the days of its life before it came into the world.

“You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

Psalms 139:15-16 NLT

He loved us even when we were living in sin in our unregenerate days.

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Romans 5:8 NLT

The Old Covenant was an interim covenant given to Israel to teach them that God is holy, and that sin separates sinners from a holy God and is punishable by consequences. To apply the consequences of sin, which Jesus atoned for by His death, to believers in Jesus in the New Covenant is to cancel what Jesus did on the cross.

So, believers cannot be rooted in God’s love and be subject to generational curses at the same time.

I found another contradiction in the context of deliverance in general. Isaiah prophesied that Messiah would set His people free…

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the broken-hearted and to proclaim that captives will be released, and prisoners will be freed.”

Isaiah 61:1 NLT

Jesus confirmed that He was the Anointed One…

“The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

Luke 4:17-21 NLT

… and that it was His role to set captives free.

Free from what?

Free from sin and all its effects.

Jesus is passionate about setting His people free from everything that opposes, contradicts, or attempts to replace God’s grace and that has any control over them other than the Holy Spirit. God gives His grace freely to those who realise they are nothing and depend on Him for everything that enables them to live free… from sin, and from self – effort.

Jesus sets us free when we realise that real freedom us living in the absolute confidence of God’s love for revealed and confirmed in the death of Jesus.

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”

Romans 8:31-32 NLT

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

Colossians 2:6-7 NLT

HOW DO WE PRAY FOR OUR ENEMIES?

Christian Life, ,

HOW DO WE PRAY FOR OUR ENEMIES?

Sometimes our emotions drive us to wish that they would die. If only God would remove the one who causes me so much pain. I would be much better off if I didn’t have this huge obstacle in my life.

Jesus instructs us to pray for our enemies. Does He join us in wanting them out of the way so that we no longer must deal with this trial? Will He conveniently remove the one who offends us in answer to our prayers?

It’s not our prayers He hears as much as our hearts. Perhaps we even pray hypocritical prayers like – “Lord, bless my enemy! “, with the unspoken words, “… by moving them out of my way.”

What does God think of a situation like this? Would it really help if He took that person out of my life? Would it change my heart if I no longer had to wrestle with anger, resentment, and bitterness? Would God’s peace be restored to me?

Strangely enough, it’s not my enemy who is the problem. I have become my own enemy. My attitude is destroying me. Only grace can rescue me from the pit of sin I have fallen into. My unwillingness to forgive, to cancel the debt and let my offender go free, makes me a guilty offender.

What does grace do?

Grace, first, reveals the greatness of the mercy God has extended to me through Jesus. Apart from grace, I am as guilty of sin as my offender.

Second, grace reveals God’s heart to me. He does not delight in punishing but in saving all those who come to Him. He forgives and restores the repentant heart.

Third, how does He bring a sinner to repentance? Not by beating him over the head with his sin! Not by turning up the heat of his guilt! Not by hammering him with condemnation!

“And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”

Romans 2:3-4 NKJV

That’s it, dear brothers, and sisters! It’s God’s goodness, not judgment or condemnation, that leads us to repentance. His ways are not our ways… His thoughts are not our thoughts!

Can you, then with a sincere heart, pray that God would shower His goodness on your offender? That’s God’s way of bringing him/her to his/her senses. Let God be the judge and the redeemer.

PRAYER

Father, forgive me for taking on myself the role of judge and executioner. Forgive my arrogance, that I dared to think that I am above the one who offended me. I repent of the foolish notion that I can set the standards of right and wrong for others and excuse myself.

Change my heart by your grace, O God. Give me the heart of Jesus who prayed that you would forgive those who unjustly condemned Him to death. I ask you, Father, to shower your goodness on……. and help me to pray your blessing on…… with a sincere heart.

Teach me, Holy Spirit, to see the enormity of the debt of sin I owe you, and the greatness of your mercy to me. Help me to see clearly that I am not the judge of those who sin against me but one who stands with them to receive your mercy and forgiveness.