An Everlasting Covenant

Prayer Focus: Mexico

Bible Reading: Ezekiel 13-16

Scripture

"'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you. So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign Lord.'"  (Ezekiel 16:59-63)

Observation

Today’s reading has four chapters long of God telling the people the shape and form of his wrath.  What he will do, when he will do it, and how many will survive.  At the end of it, in Chapter Sixteen, God says:

“Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.”

So much promise packed into this one sentence.  I wish that he’d unpacked it better for them, especially on the heels of all doom he was pronouncing.  In fact, it’s pretty easy to skim over it, while you are still emotionally throbbing from the terrible things coming.

But I don’t want you to miss it.  Let’s slow it down.

Application

The application for us is contained in that second part of the verse, “and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.”  There are many places we can go in scripture to explain this covenant.  One of my favorite is here in Ephesians 2:22.  “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”  I couldn’t possibly say it any clearer.

Prayer

Father God, you worked through time and circumstances to reveal your nature to us.  You labored over a faithless nation, and remained faithful in order to show us who you are, and how much you love us.

Rock Bottom

Prayer Focus: Mali

Bible Reading: Jeremiah 51, Psalm 137

Scripture:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.  (Psalm 137:1)

Observation:

The Israelites were captives of Babylon.  Exiled, some served in chains, some in forced labor, some in poverty at the edges.  God was not some tame idol they could carve from wood and and sit on a shelf.  He was a living being, who loved, got angry, fought protectively for them, was jealous.  He demanded that they follow HIM, not use him to serve themselves.  There was a bond, vows between them that neither party could dissolve.

Now that they'd hit their Rock Bottom, the people turned to one another in a unity of heritage.  After so long of a split, they had a common foe.  And they turned to God.

In this verse above the Babylonians commanded that the musicians, conscripted to service, play their harps and sing songs about Zion.  They contemptuously rubbed their noses in their captivity and worked at breaking their spirits.

This served only to unite them even more.  It caused them to remember their vows.  It reawakened in them the hope of a deliverer.

Application:

I know what it's like to have all the supports knocked out from under you.  I know what it's like to feel alone and treated with contempt.  Though my experience is nothing compared to what the Isrealites went through, I am aware of the rock-bottom feeling when you realize all the things you'd counted on fall away.

And maybe that's the point.

God pulled them down to that rock bottom place to prove to them that they were chasing the wrong things.  The New Testament has a parable about a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and how it didn't survive the storms.  As a nation, the people needed to build their house on the rock.  In the thing that can't be knocked out from under them.

Most of us don't realize what kind of ground we've built our foundations on.  Maybe it's a faith built from what our parents gave us or from what was handy or near by.  The storms come (and they always do) and they reveal what we cling to.

I don't often look directly into the audience of those who read this blog.  It feels safer to point the lens at myself, and work at a transparent growth.  But today I am asking you directly what you cling to.  What is your foundation built on?  If you find yourself at rock bottom, my heart aches for your circumstances.  It's not a comfortable place to be.  But like the people of long ago in our reading, they found that when they were at rock bottom, they could be assured  that that ground would not shift and turn on them.  They remembered, the verse says.

Prayer:

Lord, I ask you to stand watch here at this blog, to speak directly to the people who stumble in and read.  You know their circumstances, what they cling to, and where their foundations are built.  For those who are at their rock bottom, Lord I ask that you show them that there is deliverance.  I pray that you increase their hope, and draw them unto yourself, like a mother does her child.  Rock bottom is the best place to meet you.  It's the best place to start over.  Amen.

Then They Will Know

Prayer Focus:Latvia

Bible Reading: Jeremiah 13-16

Scripture:

Do people make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!"

"Therefore I will teach them—
this time I will teach them
my power and might.
Then they will know
that my name is the Lord.

(Jeremiah 16:20-21)

Observation:

A prophet’s calling was to speak words of the Lord.  Among them, Jeremiah is referred to as the weeping prophet, because God was mourning over his people.  The Israelites had turned their back on Him.  They worshiped hand-crafted idols and, through the influence of their king Manasseh, performed despicable acts in the temple – yes, that’s right – IN THE TEMPLE.  God’s anger burned because of what his people were doing.  He had held his wrath a time or two for an upright king like Josiah or Hezekiah.  Finally, the time had come.

Sometimes we wonder, “What does God hope to accomplish by unleashing His wrath?”  In today’s passage, we get a glimmer of understanding.  His anger doesn’t flare as an uncontrolled tantrum.  Instead, it burns with a Holy purpose.  Although the effects of His wrath were awful, it served to draw them back to Himself.  He needed to break them and their bondage to sin, so they could again be followers of the one living God.

Application:

The Israel nation didn’t fall into idol worship over night.  How did they arrive at this awful place?  Did they slip by degrees, like the proverbial “frog in a kettle?”  Is it possible they took offense at anyone telling them what to do or how to live?  Did they claim those who were holding to a standard were intolerant?

How can we, as a people of God, learn from their mistakes?

Prayer:

Lord, help me have my eyes open.  Help me see the places where I let myself compromise to the world.  Amen.

NoteBored Lives Again!

I don't have time to write a real post here today, because I'm working on a revision and shouldn't even be here now... but I just wanted to say it out loud and with much excitement...

NoteBored Lives Again!

I"m so excited about it I had to come and do a happy dance where I wasn't pestering anyone else.

We are now located at www.notebored.proboards.com

We have a workshop to peer review works of fiction (including novels).  We also have a challenge section to generate new ideas and stories.  We have polls set up to vote, reward pips to brag and track your strengths, and feedback on your story to know if you have something you can refine into a novel or short story or if you need to pare it down into a flash.

That's what I am doing today: the first challenge generated a short story that I've found a market I want to submit for.  The deadline is August 15th.  So I'm working on polishing that story to submit it in time.

Meanwhile the second "Timed Challenge" trigger and due date is posted.

Notebored lives and I am thrilled to be writing again!

Purging Idols

Prayer Focus: Kenya, Kiribati

Bible Reading: 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chron. 34-35

Scripture:

Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curset and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. (2 Kings 22:18-19)

Observation:

The OT story we just read shows the uncovering of the book of the law from the temple that the previous king, Manasseh, desecrated.  At this time Josiah ruled, a king of whom the bible says  "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left." His response to finding the law was to gather all the people together to hear the law of the Lord read aloud.

After hearing how far off they were from what God's law commanded, he wept and tore his clothes in distress.  Further, he went on to clean out all traces of idol worship in their temple, their land, and their homes.   He also reinstated the observance of Passover; something that no king had done since the time of Samuel.  Even though the wrath of God was coming, he spared Josiah from having to see it in his lifetime.

Today, the temple (the place where God dwells) is in our own hearts.  Like Josiah of his time, God desires to show mercy to us when we turn from evil and follow Him.

Application:

I challenge you to look in your life for areas where the world has encroached and you've let the idols of this age have more of your time, energy or talent than you should.  If you find that you have; purge them from your life, and get back into the Word (his law) where the truth is found!

Prayer:

LORD, search me and know me.  Speak into my life and show me what has become as an idol to me.  I want my heart, clean.  I want you at home with me so that I can obey with gladness.  Give me the courage to look where you point, purge where I should, and embrace what you have for me!