Yes, I am still in Ezekiel… and will be for a while.

In my reading and study today my focus was on Ezekiel 6. God is still in the process of giving Ezekiel the instructions he needs to let the people of Israel know why the bad stuff is happening and that it’s going to get worse. That’s the way our God works. He is always perfectly clear with us before He judges us.

He will meet us face to face and eye to why through His Word, through our parents, through our teachers, through our friends, through our circumstance, even through complete strangers, via random conversations, blogs, books, songs, etc. When God’s judgment comes on us it never comes before He is perfectly sure that we perfectly should understand that it is our own disobedience that brought it.

I can tell you that has always been true in my own life…

I am always amazed at how much God will take until He finally has enough. Even with me… and especially with our world. I can think of the times when my heart has been broken or my spirit so angered by the lack of concern of Christ and for the truth and from the wave of sin that can seem to crash upon us at times that a tsunami would look small in comparison… and I can remember crying out that God would send Christ, that He would come now and just show everybody the truth, that He is real, that He will judge, and that they will be left here to deal with the consequences of their actions for choosing the world, flesh, and sin over Him…

but then a slight panic will rush through my veins as for a moment I wonder… wait I have messed up here a lot lately… maybe I’m not saved… maybe I would be left here… and what about that person that my heart is aching over and my prayers are crying out over… Okay God, never mind, don’t listen to me… I’ll wait. Thank you for Your patience and long-suffering with us…

As I read this morning and pondered my own sin, my own pursuit of holiness, and my own desire to live obedient to my God… I got to Ezekiel 6:9-10 and my heart stopped…

Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations. Then they will know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them.

We are such a selfish people. How many times have you experienced the consequences of your sin and had a pity party over it. Only concerned about the way your sin has affected your life… and your heart… and your end of the fellowship with God. I know that can describe my attitude many times…

How often do we stop and remember that our actions have hurt our Father?

Our actions have hurt our Savior.

Our God stands there with open arms, His heart wide open to be broken by us. He stands there and says, “here I am, take it, take another piece of my heart if it makes you feel that good… and when you are done taking… my arms are still here open to love you and draw you back into my embrace”  

 

How long would we allow someone to use us in such a way… I think of myself with my parents and me with my children and we do the same thing… we love in a similar way… but the truth is their always comes a point when enough is enough.

Here in the book of Ezekiel God has had enough.

In the book of Revelation God has had enough.

Sometimes in our own individual lives God has had enough.

I for one am thankful that God reaches a point that He has had enough. The point of enough is when I, like Israel, remember. When I remember I also loathe myself, because I know that what I am enduring is fully deserved and brought on by my very own choices and God in His mercy and grace has said

Enough, you will no longer walk this path and continue to break my heart as I watch you fall deeper and deeper into this pit that you have dug with your own two hands… I am laying a foundation of rock under you and you will hit it, you will hit it hard, you will think you are dying, but in truth I am giving you one more opportunity for life. When you get up on your feet and stand at the bottom of your pit and look up… then you will know that I am the Lord; you will know that this fall was not random and without purpose, but is indeed to save you and those watching you…

Our sin hurts our God.

If it didn’t Satan wouldn’t care if we sinned or not.

He’s really not after your heart… he just wants to use you to break God’s…

Satan can’t trample on the blood of Christ, or put under foot the Son of God, or insult the Spirit of grace… only we can do that.

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony oftwo or three witnesses.  How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?  

Hebrews 10:26-29

 

Oh Father,

Let not my adulterous heart hurt You… I know that I am prone to wander and my heart and flesh fail You so often, Oh God keep me on a short leash, let me not get to far out of Your sight before You have jerked me back into the safety of Your arms… It is not Your judgments that I fear, but Your heart that I do not ever want to break.

My Jesus it is in Your name I pray,

Amen