March 5
FOLLOW
I keep coming back to this major deal:
of all the cultures and times and places Jesus could have entered to live His life and complete that most critical, instructive portion of His great mission on earth...He chose the first century, in Israel.
How He actually lived and what He modeled...is not just 'a life well lived that finally saw it's point in the cross, resurrection, and ascention.'
What I am seeing more clearly all the time, is that there are huge lessons for us in the culture He chose to live in and the way He discipled His followers.
For instance...
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (Jesus' 4 biographers and close associates) all record Jesus saying frequently (19 times) that one of the key's to getting life with God started and walking it out entirely well is to "follow Me."
"Follow Me"....I think about what that short directive actually means.
I used to think of it in rather strange terms: "follow Me" gradually became "take the broad strokes of My words and apply them as you can." And that has ended up for lots of us in - "go to church once a week, give up a small portion of your earnings, read the Bible every day and pray."
But as I ponder this clear, insistent call of Jesus to those who would be close to Him, I am seeing some things I have often missed:
1.
Jesus wants us to be with Him....not just to believe in Him and (hopefully) see him in eternity. He wants us to be with Him now...follow me means at minimum I want to be with you, stay close to Me, let's travel together, let's be best friends.
2.
Jesus, in asking us to "follow," implies that He will always be in front of us. His call for us to follow is a promise to always be leading us.
He will always have already gone into the places where we now find ourselves.
The key to our lives then, will be learning to tune into His presence in places where we often might not be thinking about Him.
Like disciples in the storm....we tend to get so overwhelmed by the potentials of what this storm could do to us....We tend to forget to focus on what Jesus can do through the storm and that He is only just feet away from us, getting sprayed by the crests of the waves too. (See Luke 8:22ff) I know that I tend to do the fear thing frequently....and need to be reminded, I am a follower of Jesus, and He is right there just in front of me right now, right here. Oh God, open our eyes.
3.
Jesus, in asking us to follow, asks us to walk....not run. He asks us to pace ourselves. His pace is the model, not ours. Our pace is to be taken directly from His. We are followers.
And this is where so much of His choice of this culture, place and time hits me. Literally, if you said "yes" to Jesus call back then to "follow," it probably led to a three mile walk today....and a ten miler tomorrow....you were always walking!!
Ever try to hold on to the frantic feeling that life often brings to us while you are walking?
I have found often that taking a walk is a wonderful way to calm down.
So I wonder that Jesus was in fact saying: "Follow me. I'll show you how to live with me and stay calm and get what I think is important done today. Follow Me...let's go."
4.
Jesus, in asking us to follow, invites us into relationship with Himself. Walking with a person is a wonderful way to learn how to open your hearts to one another. Some of the deepest times I had with my Dad - the sex talk :) - were while we walked.
Too many times, contemporary versions of Christianity have turned us into sitters - passive disciples - and note takers...
but Jesus turned His followers into walkers and open-hearted people, living out their days close to Him. Hmmm....
"Follow Me."
I heard that call over 50 years ago....and I am still learning what it means.
Welcome to the long walk.
May we all measure whether we are truly followers of Jesus by an increase continually in open-heartedness, careful pacing, and confident closeness in our relationship with Him.
A follower - with you.
David
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Anger
March 4
ANGER
Bottom line for me through most of my life: anger is wrong.
When people get angry it is because they have a problem inside. ("So, get over it!")
Anger hurts people.
God doesn't like anger.
So...avoid anger, don't explode, walk away and cool down, get yourself under control.
Stop it before it hurts someone.
So...I am a simmer-for-a-long-time guy - I'm a bury-your-feelings-and-hope-they-go-away guy.
And then
I am reading through the Bible and come to the book of Numbers and in just over one chapter (11-12:9) I read -
"his (God's) anger was aroused,"
"the Lord became exceedingly angry,"
"the anger of the Lord burned against the people,"
"the anger of the Lord burned against them."
And when that deep emotion comes from God....people are turning white, falling down, dying, repenting, going in new directions and acting really humble. (Read it in these chapters for the full context.)
A key tempering insight comes out in a prayer in chapter 14 - "the Lord is slow to anger."
And how many of us have read it too often with an internal edit: "the Lord is NO to anger."
That last statement is untrue.
God gets angry.
Not just "back then" - but now.
And His white-hot fury fries our pride, and bends our knees and drives back the darkness and evil in our world.
When anger finally breaks out in me it is sometimes the selfish kind - I am just put off greatly by something - but more often, it is the kind that is accompanied by tears, the tears of deep longing and sadness, the anguish of hope unfulfilled, the rage against injustice. And I often feel that the second kind is beginning to approach God's kind of anger.
So the word today might be this - be slow to anger too, but be angry at the right things. Quit always holding this deep well of feeling and action in check.
Let your heart be stirred up and your mind race with the rage of the way things are around you.
Get mad at the victories of the enemy...and the weaknesses of the church.
Let the tears flow too - and let the change come that only passionate responses can bring.
Oh God, may our anger be Yours.
Selah.
David
ANGER
Bottom line for me through most of my life: anger is wrong.
When people get angry it is because they have a problem inside. ("So, get over it!")
Anger hurts people.
God doesn't like anger.
So...avoid anger, don't explode, walk away and cool down, get yourself under control.
Stop it before it hurts someone.
So...I am a simmer-for-a-long-time guy - I'm a bury-your-feelings-and-hope-they-go-away guy.
And then
I am reading through the Bible and come to the book of Numbers and in just over one chapter (11-12:9) I read -
"his (God's) anger was aroused,"
"the Lord became exceedingly angry,"
"the anger of the Lord burned against the people,"
"the anger of the Lord burned against them."
And when that deep emotion comes from God....people are turning white, falling down, dying, repenting, going in new directions and acting really humble. (Read it in these chapters for the full context.)
A key tempering insight comes out in a prayer in chapter 14 - "the Lord is slow to anger."
And how many of us have read it too often with an internal edit: "the Lord is NO to anger."
That last statement is untrue.
God gets angry.
Not just "back then" - but now.
And His white-hot fury fries our pride, and bends our knees and drives back the darkness and evil in our world.
When anger finally breaks out in me it is sometimes the selfish kind - I am just put off greatly by something - but more often, it is the kind that is accompanied by tears, the tears of deep longing and sadness, the anguish of hope unfulfilled, the rage against injustice. And I often feel that the second kind is beginning to approach God's kind of anger.
So the word today might be this - be slow to anger too, but be angry at the right things. Quit always holding this deep well of feeling and action in check.
Let your heart be stirred up and your mind race with the rage of the way things are around you.
Get mad at the victories of the enemy...and the weaknesses of the church.
Let the tears flow too - and let the change come that only passionate responses can bring.
Oh God, may our anger be Yours.
Selah.
David
Monday, March 2, 2009
March 2, 2009
Ahh....
I am reading and greatly enjoying Eugene H. Peterson's CHRIST PLAYS IN TEN THOUSAND PLACES - 2005, Eerdmans. It is a treasure of how to think about your spiritual person.
Tucked in along the way are great numbers of references to literary sources.
This one was an "ahh" moment for me a day ago...
It is from lines written by a great poet - W.H.Auden...
"I love to sin; God loves to forgive;
The world is admirably arranged."
"I love to sin."
...that made me smile. Not thinking of a sin...but reveling in his simple honesty. Had I ever heard anyone admit that before? Had I ever admitted that to myself?
So, in four short and direct words, Auden has put a smile on my face....a smile of relief....and I wish that I could read more of him right away. With that kind of candor, I could learn much.
"God loves to forgive."
...that made me want to shout. I have always known that God forgives, if...... I have known that God has made a way for forgiveness......that His forgiveness is forever and that His forgiveness comes with gifts attached....most noticeably, peace, and joy and heaven.
But...."God loves to forgive??" -
....and I thought about how often I have been performance oriented in my forgiveness....and how so often, finally and begrudgingly I have issued forth just enough forgiveness to make life tolerable again.
And God loves to forgive?....He gets joy out of it? He celebrates it? He welcomes us when we come asking? Wow God!! Wow!
"The world is admirably arranged."
So that the messes we get into can be fixed.
So that the heart of darkness that we find ourselves bearing can become light again.
So that we can hardly wait until heaven....when the "lovers" will meet.....and the dance begins.
Selah.
Dave
Ahh....
I am reading and greatly enjoying Eugene H. Peterson's CHRIST PLAYS IN TEN THOUSAND PLACES - 2005, Eerdmans. It is a treasure of how to think about your spiritual person.
Tucked in along the way are great numbers of references to literary sources.
This one was an "ahh" moment for me a day ago...
It is from lines written by a great poet - W.H.Auden...
"I love to sin; God loves to forgive;
The world is admirably arranged."
"I love to sin."
...that made me smile. Not thinking of a sin...but reveling in his simple honesty. Had I ever heard anyone admit that before? Had I ever admitted that to myself?
So, in four short and direct words, Auden has put a smile on my face....a smile of relief....and I wish that I could read more of him right away. With that kind of candor, I could learn much.
"God loves to forgive."
...that made me want to shout. I have always known that God forgives, if...... I have known that God has made a way for forgiveness......that His forgiveness is forever and that His forgiveness comes with gifts attached....most noticeably, peace, and joy and heaven.
But...."God loves to forgive??" -
....and I thought about how often I have been performance oriented in my forgiveness....and how so often, finally and begrudgingly I have issued forth just enough forgiveness to make life tolerable again.
And God loves to forgive?....He gets joy out of it? He celebrates it? He welcomes us when we come asking? Wow God!! Wow!
"The world is admirably arranged."
So that the messes we get into can be fixed.
So that the heart of darkness that we find ourselves bearing can become light again.
So that we can hardly wait until heaven....when the "lovers" will meet.....and the dance begins.
Selah.
Dave
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Perspective
February 25, 2009
PERSPECTIVE
Yesterday, having wrapped up the District Tour, we left Salt Lake City by car at 7:30am and travelled all day to arrive by late afternoon.
I never get tired of travelling this country.
During our journey I saw many types of birds, fascinating sky formations and enough geological conundrums to stagger my one class in that subject. I look a huge boulders that have tumbled a long way down a mountain, and wonder, will they go further than that some day? How did they get this far? What was it like when they were on the move? and is there some purpose to it all?
We saw eagles, and pronghorn sheep and a furtive fox....and prarie dogs checking out a warmer-than-normal day atop their "igloo" mounds. Fascinating. And (I think) a group of comorants on an open field, standing at equal distances from one another and all turned with bent wings and chests out to the bright sun. Soaking up warmth I am guessing....or was it a season of praising God? :)
All a part of "my Father's world."
All fitting into a formation of purpose and meaning.
Some aspects to sustain the others....some, perhaps just to revel in.
Design by an infinite and all-powerful Creator - who loves to provoke questions and fill us with oohs, and ahs.
His signature is written on so much....if we will only look and ponder.
All of this fills me with his presence and helps me with proper self-assessment.
Our problems as humans since the very start have been vying for power, worrying about self and pride.
And I look around, am filled with wonder once again....and ease into a more appropriate bit of personal smallness.
"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly
and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
The book of Micah - chapter 6, verse 8.
It's good to be back in touch.
I'll see you again...soon.
David
PERSPECTIVE
Yesterday, having wrapped up the District Tour, we left Salt Lake City by car at 7:30am and travelled all day to arrive by late afternoon.
I never get tired of travelling this country.
During our journey I saw many types of birds, fascinating sky formations and enough geological conundrums to stagger my one class in that subject. I look a huge boulders that have tumbled a long way down a mountain, and wonder, will they go further than that some day? How did they get this far? What was it like when they were on the move? and is there some purpose to it all?
We saw eagles, and pronghorn sheep and a furtive fox....and prarie dogs checking out a warmer-than-normal day atop their "igloo" mounds. Fascinating. And (I think) a group of comorants on an open field, standing at equal distances from one another and all turned with bent wings and chests out to the bright sun. Soaking up warmth I am guessing....or was it a season of praising God? :)
All a part of "my Father's world."
All fitting into a formation of purpose and meaning.
Some aspects to sustain the others....some, perhaps just to revel in.
Design by an infinite and all-powerful Creator - who loves to provoke questions and fill us with oohs, and ahs.
His signature is written on so much....if we will only look and ponder.
All of this fills me with his presence and helps me with proper self-assessment.
Our problems as humans since the very start have been vying for power, worrying about self and pride.
And I look around, am filled with wonder once again....and ease into a more appropriate bit of personal smallness.
"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly
and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
The book of Micah - chapter 6, verse 8.
It's good to be back in touch.
I'll see you again...soon.
David
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Shifting
January 21
Shifting
The last post on this blog was on January 8th! After months of one or two posts per week - totalling 54 - I dropped almost 2 weeks without an entry. I apologize to those of you who have faithfully been tuning in and finding no new entry. You have been faithful friends and your words of feedback have really been a blessing.
The reason for the lapse has been the turn of the year pressure. It is always a scramble at this time - for in just days we will be on the road with a District Sectional Tour - across Colorado and Utah. In one stretch I will be gone for 9 consecutive days. And there is a lot to do to get ready for these days.
I am not sure of the future of the blog process for me, though entering faithfully has been both a delight to me and a source of encouragement.
Here is my proposal: I will return on the week of February 25 with the tour behind me, and some time to think and pray about the way ahead on this blog. Your prayers and feedback would be invaluable to me at this time....cast your vote, offer your idea, help me decide what the future should look like. I will utilize that to figure my way along.
Meanwhile, let's stay together in prayer...and the word. I am beginning today to read Exodus and will read a few chapters a day with the target of reading the Bible through this year. If you wonder what to pray...pray in the Spirit (see I Corinthians 12-14).
These are the days of specific tour presentations - February 2,3,5,6,9,10,17,19,20,23....and often there is travel before or after these dates. Then, we hope on the 11th to fly to Texas to see Micah who is projecting to be home on leave at that time.
Looking forward to hearing from you. With you in the Spirit.
David
See you around the 25th.
Shifting
The last post on this blog was on January 8th! After months of one or two posts per week - totalling 54 - I dropped almost 2 weeks without an entry. I apologize to those of you who have faithfully been tuning in and finding no new entry. You have been faithful friends and your words of feedback have really been a blessing.
The reason for the lapse has been the turn of the year pressure. It is always a scramble at this time - for in just days we will be on the road with a District Sectional Tour - across Colorado and Utah. In one stretch I will be gone for 9 consecutive days. And there is a lot to do to get ready for these days.
I am not sure of the future of the blog process for me, though entering faithfully has been both a delight to me and a source of encouragement.
Here is my proposal: I will return on the week of February 25 with the tour behind me, and some time to think and pray about the way ahead on this blog. Your prayers and feedback would be invaluable to me at this time....cast your vote, offer your idea, help me decide what the future should look like. I will utilize that to figure my way along.
Meanwhile, let's stay together in prayer...and the word. I am beginning today to read Exodus and will read a few chapters a day with the target of reading the Bible through this year. If you wonder what to pray...pray in the Spirit (see I Corinthians 12-14).
These are the days of specific tour presentations - February 2,3,5,6,9,10,17,19,20,23....and often there is travel before or after these dates. Then, we hope on the 11th to fly to Texas to see Micah who is projecting to be home on leave at that time.
Looking forward to hearing from you. With you in the Spirit.
David
See you around the 25th.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Hunting
Thursday - January 8, 2009
HUNTING
Hunting is really big in Colorado...fishing too.
Elk, deer, bear, trout, sheep and more had better go for a very long sleep when the season that puts them in the sights arrives. Even horses, cows and more are a bit in peril.
I am not a hunter. Only times I have hunted have established new records for imaginative staring at distant trees....and shivering.
Hunting? That's what they do...not me.
Then I am starting to read through my Bible this year - through the first book, Genesis....and I come to this phrase about a guy named Nimrod...."a mighty hunter before the Lord." (Genesis 10:9) In a place and time when hunting was the grocery store, he was good at it. He probably never just stared at trees and came home empty-handed.
But what really caught my eye too was "a mighty hunter before the Lord."
As I pondered that I realized that God had just exposed one of my tendencies. Compartmentalization. You can sing before the Lord and pray to the Lord and talk about the Lord. But you hunt, and bowl, and golf, and fish by yourself (or with friends).
Not so....God sees all, knows all, and is invested in all the stuff of our lives. It is all done before the Lord. It's just us that tune in and out of awareness.
That's why so many men talk about how they communed with God when they were out hunting. One man told me recently - I didn't even get to shoot, but I felt so restored in my soul. Hmm..sounds like a modern version of Nimrod to me.
So, whatever you are doing today. Realize you are doing it "before the Lord." No compartments. No stuff done where "no one can see." Nope...all we do and are is done before the Lord."
So, let's do whatever that is today...with all our might.
For today's Nimrod gang.
David
HUNTING
Hunting is really big in Colorado...fishing too.
Elk, deer, bear, trout, sheep and more had better go for a very long sleep when the season that puts them in the sights arrives. Even horses, cows and more are a bit in peril.
I am not a hunter. Only times I have hunted have established new records for imaginative staring at distant trees....and shivering.
Hunting? That's what they do...not me.
Then I am starting to read through my Bible this year - through the first book, Genesis....and I come to this phrase about a guy named Nimrod...."a mighty hunter before the Lord." (Genesis 10:9) In a place and time when hunting was the grocery store, he was good at it. He probably never just stared at trees and came home empty-handed.
But what really caught my eye too was "a mighty hunter before the Lord."
As I pondered that I realized that God had just exposed one of my tendencies. Compartmentalization. You can sing before the Lord and pray to the Lord and talk about the Lord. But you hunt, and bowl, and golf, and fish by yourself (or with friends).
Not so....God sees all, knows all, and is invested in all the stuff of our lives. It is all done before the Lord. It's just us that tune in and out of awareness.
That's why so many men talk about how they communed with God when they were out hunting. One man told me recently - I didn't even get to shoot, but I felt so restored in my soul. Hmm..sounds like a modern version of Nimrod to me.
So, whatever you are doing today. Realize you are doing it "before the Lord." No compartments. No stuff done where "no one can see." Nope...all we do and are is done before the Lord."
So, let's do whatever that is today...with all our might.
For today's Nimrod gang.
David
Monday, January 5, 2009
Ezekiel's Vision of Dry Bones
Monday -
Yesterday, we had a special time of ministry in Woodland Park. We drove through a wonderland of snowy trees and low mountains - 35 miles west of Colorado Springs.
We were invited to minister in the church gathering and took up the text of Ezekiel 37. It seemed to be a word for us all - and Jackie & I felt, perhaps for you too. Here it is in very brief summary. I have included three action steps for those of you who want to take this into your life immediately.
(You need to get a Bible and read the first 14 verses of that 37th chapter of Ezekiel. Look in the index if you have trouble finding it.)
Chapter 37 - verses 1-6 -
:1
1. God takes Ezekiel to a valley - a valley is normally the place of roads, streams, growth, habitation, food, livestock etc....it is a good place. But this one is not...
:1
2. The valley is "full" of bones....the bones of people "slain" (:10) in combat at a much earlier time. (This part of the world has been a perpetual battleground for generations.)
:2
3. The bones are "very dry"...they have gone though decomposition and on until they are like the heads of cattle we sometimes see on ranges that are vast and dry....or in Egyptian archeology.
4. God says to Ezekiel - walk around, look, what do you see?....ie God is helping Ezekiel really see....and that is often our need too. We are surrounded by dry bones in our valleys and don't really see them. Consider: David Wilkerson who walked the streets of New York some years ago - sees the same people the other millions of people see, but sees them differently - drug addicts, without truth, without hope, without help..."dry bones." And out of his seeing, God births Teen Challenge - a ministry that today some 50 years later is ministering to thousands of youth, even as I write this blog.
5. Then after Ezekiel really sees what is in the valley, God asks this question: Can these bones live? (In this passage there are 9 times when "ruah" - the Hebrew word for life, spirit, breath - is used. That is the key to everything - it is the life of the Spirit of God that must come upon us for spiritual dryness to end and our full function as people on the planet now to begin to happen.) So...can these dry bones live? - can this dryness end? - can what was lost be found? - can bitterness be replaced with forgiveness and love?
6. Ezekiel's response to God's question is a polite demurring - he takes what to me is the righteous detour that many of us find so easy to take when faced with a faith challenge. "God is sovreign. He knows everything - omniscient" (if I need to impress someone with my theological grasp). Now, isn't that a polite and safe way for Ezekiel/me to reply?
7. So God guides Ezekiel along a path that will lead to seeing life in the valley.
Here is the path:
Step One - Really see the bones that are bleaching around you...the ruin that can come from the battles of life. Unforgiveness. Bitterness. Anger/rage. Depression. Hopelessness. Self-destruction. Let the needs you really see in your valley grip you...there will be little that happens that makes any difference at all - unless you and I really see and are gripped by it.
Action:
When I think of my valley right now, here is what I see -:
Step Two - "Prophesy to the bones" ie - speak words as led by God to something lifeless. We all must begin by getting so close to God, so close, that we can speak in faith to what seems impossible. This often takes special prayer, soaking in the Bible, getting very clean inside - confessing anything that might hinder the full, open spirit we must have to be so used by God. In due season, the conviction will begin to rise within us that we are hearing the heart of God and can begin to speak in faith. (Remember the declaration of the Bible: "you can all prophesy" - see I Corinthians 12-14)
Action:
This is the name of a person who seems to be close to God that I can talk to and share what I am hearing as I draw close to God:
Step Three - "Prophesy to the bones" - and don't pull back from words that are so impossible that only God could make it happen. The bones were very dry that day, scattered in a valley - they rattled when God started to work with them :) Even when re-corpsed (is that a word?) they had no life in them. Ezekiel had to keep prophesying - and we have to too. It is not "all at once" very often...most of what God does is process-and-time stuff, because He wants always to use what He does to bring growth in us - and WE - not He - need the process and time.
Action:
Here is what I think God would say to the bones in my valley:
Now read thoughtfully 37:7-14.
May you and I be part of God's "vast army" and may He speak through us in this new year.
Selah.
Dave
Yesterday, we had a special time of ministry in Woodland Park. We drove through a wonderland of snowy trees and low mountains - 35 miles west of Colorado Springs.
We were invited to minister in the church gathering and took up the text of Ezekiel 37. It seemed to be a word for us all - and Jackie & I felt, perhaps for you too. Here it is in very brief summary. I have included three action steps for those of you who want to take this into your life immediately.
(You need to get a Bible and read the first 14 verses of that 37th chapter of Ezekiel. Look in the index if you have trouble finding it.)
Chapter 37 - verses 1-6 -
:1
1. God takes Ezekiel to a valley - a valley is normally the place of roads, streams, growth, habitation, food, livestock etc....it is a good place. But this one is not...
:1
2. The valley is "full" of bones....the bones of people "slain" (:10) in combat at a much earlier time. (This part of the world has been a perpetual battleground for generations.)
:2
3. The bones are "very dry"...they have gone though decomposition and on until they are like the heads of cattle we sometimes see on ranges that are vast and dry....or in Egyptian archeology.
4. God says to Ezekiel - walk around, look, what do you see?....ie God is helping Ezekiel really see....and that is often our need too. We are surrounded by dry bones in our valleys and don't really see them. Consider: David Wilkerson who walked the streets of New York some years ago - sees the same people the other millions of people see, but sees them differently - drug addicts, without truth, without hope, without help..."dry bones." And out of his seeing, God births Teen Challenge - a ministry that today some 50 years later is ministering to thousands of youth, even as I write this blog.
5. Then after Ezekiel really sees what is in the valley, God asks this question: Can these bones live? (In this passage there are 9 times when "ruah" - the Hebrew word for life, spirit, breath - is used. That is the key to everything - it is the life of the Spirit of God that must come upon us for spiritual dryness to end and our full function as people on the planet now to begin to happen.) So...can these dry bones live? - can this dryness end? - can what was lost be found? - can bitterness be replaced with forgiveness and love?
6. Ezekiel's response to God's question is a polite demurring - he takes what to me is the righteous detour that many of us find so easy to take when faced with a faith challenge. "God is sovreign. He knows everything - omniscient" (if I need to impress someone with my theological grasp). Now, isn't that a polite and safe way for Ezekiel/me to reply?
7. So God guides Ezekiel along a path that will lead to seeing life in the valley.
Here is the path:
Step One - Really see the bones that are bleaching around you...the ruin that can come from the battles of life. Unforgiveness. Bitterness. Anger/rage. Depression. Hopelessness. Self-destruction. Let the needs you really see in your valley grip you...there will be little that happens that makes any difference at all - unless you and I really see and are gripped by it.
Action:
When I think of my valley right now, here is what I see -:
Step Two - "Prophesy to the bones" ie - speak words as led by God to something lifeless. We all must begin by getting so close to God, so close, that we can speak in faith to what seems impossible. This often takes special prayer, soaking in the Bible, getting very clean inside - confessing anything that might hinder the full, open spirit we must have to be so used by God. In due season, the conviction will begin to rise within us that we are hearing the heart of God and can begin to speak in faith. (Remember the declaration of the Bible: "you can all prophesy" - see I Corinthians 12-14)
Action:
This is the name of a person who seems to be close to God that I can talk to and share what I am hearing as I draw close to God:
Step Three - "Prophesy to the bones" - and don't pull back from words that are so impossible that only God could make it happen. The bones were very dry that day, scattered in a valley - they rattled when God started to work with them :) Even when re-corpsed (is that a word?) they had no life in them. Ezekiel had to keep prophesying - and we have to too. It is not "all at once" very often...most of what God does is process-and-time stuff, because He wants always to use what He does to bring growth in us - and WE - not He - need the process and time.
Action:
Here is what I think God would say to the bones in my valley:
Now read thoughtfully 37:7-14.
May you and I be part of God's "vast army" and may He speak through us in this new year.
Selah.
Dave
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