Wednesday, November 30 - Kathryn

Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is  Ezekiel 37-39, 2 Peter 2

This particular passage in Ezekiel holds special meaning for me, so I will comment on this one.  At least one particular part.

¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 

I believe this is the church of today.  We are a vast army, dead in our graves and we have lost our hope.  When I survey the church of America (sorry my friends to the north I don't know the state of the Canadian church) I do see, for the most part, a deadness and a hopelessness.  We are beginning to allow ourselves to be shut up.  We don't want to scare people off or offend people by what we say.  Shameful.  We have lost our hope of being effective, of changing our world for Christ.

But, there is hope.

 ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”

As His Church we have an awesome opportunity and responsibility to bring our nation to our God.  We can be instrumental in bringing about revival in our land.  And it all begins and ends with prayer.

I believe we are on the threshold of something great and awesome about to occur, but we need to be on our knees and in the word.  We need to be holding so tight to the Lord so that we know what we need to be doing and how when He asks us to do it.  And think of the great army that can and will arise when breath is breathed into the church!

Pray for the lost, yes, absolutely!  But pray for the church, His Church, His bride, to awake!  To return to her first love and to repent.  The lost need Jesus, oh my they need Jesus.  But we as the church have lost our first love and we need to return and pray for that fire to burn brightly as it once did.

Oh Father God, we repent, we humble ourselves before You.  Please forgive us for our negligence, please forgive us for putting idols before You.  Please forgive us for not obeying Your commands.  And Lord please restore the joy of our salvation.  Please renew our love for You, Your word and Your church.  Oh Lord God bring the church to it's knees in repentance and prayer.  We are without hope, our hope is in You.  Come to us, restore us, unite us with each other in Your spirit.  Help us.  We are nothing without You.  We need You.
Amen.



Tomorrow's passage: Ezekiel 40-41, 2 Peter 3