Hearing the Music

Gospel according to Bones

Tonight is our Bones camp finale and production!  Like all scripture, Ezekiel is God breathed and useful for our instruction and full of Gospel encouragement. Below may you be encouraged as I have merged a few of the memory verses from Ezekiel with some modified Gospel prayers from Scotty Smith.

Ezekiel 14:11 – “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Most gracious and Almighty God, supersize the chambers of my heart so I might take in more of the wonder of this good news. You have drawn me to yourself with an unfailing, irresistible, powerful love—not because of anything in me, but because of everything in you. And now, because of what you have done for me in Jesus—once and for all, you love me with an unwavering, everlasting love. I cannot add to your love for me, and I cannot take away from it; because it’s not about me, it’s all about Jesus. I’m undone with peace. 

Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit in you.”

Most loving and gracious God, how often do I forget that you have given me a new heart and the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And when I forget, I start acting like a spiritual orphan, and I fall back into fear, and some form of self-salvation or performance-ism. Thank you for giving me your Spirit, Father. You sent him into my heart to constantly remind me that I am your beloved child. I’m not my own; I’m yours. Hallelujah! The Spirit is also faithfully at work in my life to make me like Jesus, for there’s no other way that could ever happen. Thank you, Father, thank you!

Ezekiel 48:35 “And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE.”

Father, thank you, thank you, thank you for the promise of your perpetual presence. Though I do my best to wander from you, you make your home with me. When I’m afraid to be alone, you won’t let me be. When I want to be alone, you won’t let me be. When I need you to come through for me, you will. When it feels like you’re not coming through for me, you are. When I’m discouraged, you don’t despise, chide me, or revile me; you enter, engage, and encourage me. When I’m afraid you don’t say, “Buck up, be strong,” you say, “I understand, I’m here.” I praise and adore you.

What great and precious promises we have throughout the scriptures.

A Never Ending Supply

What if you had a never ending supply of money, energy, entertainment, friends, or whatever you might need! What kind of confidence would you have as you engage life? What kind of perseverance would you be able to employ?   

Isaiah 58:11 promises just this sort of never ending supply for God’s people: And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Did you hear those claims? Continually; a spring of water, whose waters do not fail! These bold, audacious claims are promises that our living God makes to his people. What is even more striking is the placement of these promises in the broader context of Isaiah 58. These promises are given in response to the call to "pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted (v.10)”,  which itself is part of the broader call to" loose the bonds of wickedness (v. 6)”. The picture that is painted for us is that of a vessel being upended and poured out, but the waters don’t end, they keep flowing!

I need to sink my roots deep into these promises! Family, work, health, world events, my own sin patterns, etc…  all these conspire to leave me empty. Only by resting in the finished work of Christ do I realize that He has created in me a spring whose waters will never fail. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37–38)

This week we welcome Karl and Debbie Dortzbach to Christ Church as  part of our Missions focus. Karl and Debbie have a deep love for the Lord and have served faithfully in service of the Kingdom for many years now.   It is a privilege to host them and to glean from the unique perspective that God has afforded them.

_{Photo by Samara Doole on Unsplash}

Flowing to the Word

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Micah 4:1–2

Perhaps more than anything recently the Spirit has captured my imagination with the desirability of living in accordance with God’s Word. As our recent study of Micah made clear, the consummation of the Kingdom of God will coincide with people flowing to the mountain of God to live under the Word and to walk in its ways. Tired of going their own way, tired of running into the despair and dead ends that humans create for themselves, people will flock to their Creator and delight in his Word and his ways. It was this Kingdom that Jesus was inaugurating and teaching about through the parables that we have taken for study. These parables were designed to capture the listener and make him a participant of this gracious rule.

But it is precisely this “flowing" to the Word of God that so many of us resist. Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp, in their book How People Change, put it this way, "More than any before us, an American today believes 'I must write the script of my own life.' The thought that such a script must be subordinated to the grand narrative of the Bible is a foreign one."

As we move into this new year may we increasingly become people of the Word. I recently heard one person put it this way, “Have you ever met a growing Christian who is not reading the Bible and praying with regularity?” As an aid, the Session has again made available a devotional book for us to pursue together as a church throughout this year. This year we have once again turned to Tim and Kathy Keller, who, this time, take us through the book of Proverbs. Filled with Gospel wisdom and practical application, we hope that this resource is a blessing to your household and an encouragement to an even greater pursuit of God’s Word.

 Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash