Ezekiel 43:12 And this is the basic law of the Temple: absolute holiness! Ezekiel has another vision. In this one he is watching the Temple being measured. My thoughts… this thing is huge! Some of the walls are 8 feet thick!!! Crazy! Anyhow, God enters the Temple (sounding like roaring, rushing waters) and speaks with him about this coming Temple. But the law of the Temple is absolute holiness! For humanity, on our own, holiness is a pipe-dream. We can’t be holy because we are imperfect… However, there’s hope! Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection gives us the ability to be holy. No, not on our own or on the merit of what we try to do (imperfect beings can’t achieve perfection since our very nature is flawed), but through the mercy and sacrifice of Jesus. Being washed in His blood we become like Him. Not God, certainly, but in His image. So through Jesus we can at least attempt holiness. He does, after all, say “be holy as I am holy” (although that definition of holy may not be the traditional meaning – you can read my other post on that one). So, there is hope! By the blood of the perfect Lamb we are made clean and holy… and therefore we can come before the Lord of Hosts in His absolutely holy Temple worshiping Him and bringing Him glory!
Ezekial 18:21-23 But if the wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my laws and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. All their past sins will be forgotten and they will live because of the righteous things they have done. Do you think, asks the Sovereign Lord, that I like to see wicked people die? Of course not! I only want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. This is the very crux of Christianity. Jesus came that we might LIVE! He doesn’t want to see His children die, but as a just God He can’t ignore it. However, if those children turn away from their wicked ways and obey God, then all the things they’ve done in the past will be wiped out and forgotten (not just forgiven). It’s a good thing that God loves us so much! I love that He has wiped out and forgotten my past. He wants us to live. He’s gone to great lengths to ensure that we can live. Why do you think He gave Israel so many chances to turn and get it right? Yes, He’s just, but He loves His children. It’s like when my children do something they shouldn’t (like using the table as a springboard to jump onto the couch). My inclination is to warn them, warn them, warn them, and finally I have to punish them. I don’t like seeing them upset, but if they don’t heed my warning and directly disobey, that’s bad, too, because they could get hurt. I think God’s like that with us. He gives lots of warning, but eventually He has to punish us (usually to keep us from hurting ourselves or others, and to remind us that what we’re doing is wrong). However, like I said, if my little ones stop trying to be superman off the table and onto the couch, then we move on. I don’t add up the different things they do wrong or punish them for something they did a while ago after they do something else. It doesn’t add up. They turned from what they were doing and obeyed. I forget about what they did and we move on together. Yeah God!
Psalm 103:12 He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. At church on Sunday we watched Perry Noble speak on God is Here. It was awesome! He is hilarious! Among the points that he made was one that’s stuck with me this week. With the new school year starting, it seems I am constantly reminded of the mistakes and failures of last year. It’s like a shadow that never leaves. It’s not totally visible, but it’s also subtly there shading everything I do and every conversation I have. Very frustrating. As humans, we tend to think that whenever something we’ve done in the past that Jesus has forgiven is recalled to our brain, it must be that God is reminding us of our sins. But this isn’t true. Perry Noble has a great illustration: his little girl had a really stinky diaper (and as a mom of two boys under two-years I can certainly relate to that!). He got her and changed her diaper, and when he was finished he didn’t shove it in her face and say, “See! Look at how disgusting this is! How could you do this? You’re so revolting!” No, he cleaned up her mess and threw it away so she wouldn’t have to deal with it ever again. That’s how God is. He cleans up our mess and throws it away (as far as east is from the west – which, by the way, is eternally distant) so we don’t ever have to deal with it again. He doesn’t shove it in our face every-so-often to remind us of what we’ve done. As our heavenly Father, He loves us. So where do those reminders come from? Well, unlike our loving but holy God, our memories are long and Satan’s memory is even longer. After his tail got kicked by Jesus on the cross he’s made it his goal to mess with God’s children as much as possible. And he loves to remind us of all the ways we’ve failed and how we’re not good enough and how we should just give up now because we’ll never get it right and … But, if we spend any time at all getting to know Jesus, we know that these are true. Wait, what?! Yes. I said true. But, it’s like the lie that’s partly true so it’s more believable. Sure, we’ve failed, but Jesus paid for our sins and washed them away – He has the victory. Sure, we’re not good enough, but again, that’s why Jesus died for us – so that by His blood we might be saved and reconciled and made holy before God. Sure, we’re never going to get it right, but Jesus says that we’re not supposed to do things on our own and to ask for His help and power to do things (and we’ll still mess it up even then, but He still loves us). So, yeah, those things are true, but they’re only the beginning. The end is victory, and that’s what Satan would like for us to forget. Remind yourself and remind him, then put the thoughts out of your mind, thanking Jesus for his grace and mercy. And move forward!
Jeremiah 10:23-24 I know, Lord, that a person’s life is not his own. No one is able to plan his own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. Ok, I know you’re thinking, what does food poisoning have to do with anything? Nothing, really, except that it’s my excuse for not posting anything yesterday. I know it wasn’t a punishment or anything, but boy, it would have been effective! I’m still reeling from it (and so is my husband – it sure was fun taking care of two little boys when we had food poisoning!). Anyways, I thought this verse was perfect for those times when I feel like I’ve been living in the desert because I’m living the consequences of my poor decisions. (Interesting aside: while writing I debated about whether to write “poor” or “bad” decisions. I chose “poor” because it sounded more proper and less harsh, but really, the decisions are just plain bad.) I know that correction is necessary. I discipline my children whether I like it or not, because it’s necessary to keep them safe and to show them the proper way to interact with the world. They hate it. My oldest son (who just turned two) starts screaming and throws himself on the floor when he is fussed at or disciplined in any way. It takes about 5 minutes and then he’ll come over and want to snuggle, but initially he is really mad (or maybe upset that he disappointed us) and doesn’t want much to do with whoever disciplined him. We do that with God. I know that I’ll do something stupid, God allows the consequences of my actions to catch up with me, and I get mad at Him for doing it. Thankfully, God loves us and doesn’t just throw up His hands in disgust. So, my prayer, like Jeremiah’s, is for God to be gentle in His correction and not correct me in anger, because I am just a small human and cannot stand up to the wrath of God. Right now, I think I’m feeling the consequences of my actions (no, not the food poisoning, the financial spot we’re in). It’s been really, really hard. But, like I put in my last post, I’m not going to look back at the reasons I am here (I already know those reasons and don’t need to sit here rehashing them over and over and over); I am going to look ahead and try to learn from my mistakes so that I can move forward, hopefully out of correction and in a new direction. Lord, be gentle, please!
Jeremiah 3:22“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me,and I will heal your wayward hearts.” I love this. There were many years when I walked my own way and didn’t have the courage to do what I knew was right. And God was incredibly faithful in healing my wayward heart. All I had to do was come home to Him. That was a beautiful day. Sure, I have some scars, but my heart is whole. What an awesome God I serve!
Jeremiah 3: 4-5“Yet you say to me, ‘Father, you have been my guide since the days of my youth. Surely you won’t be angry about such a little thing! Surely you can forget it!’ So you talk and keep right on doing all the evil you can.” Ouch! This made me stop and think about my life. Are there things that I do continually that I know are wrong, that I do and then just expect God to forgive me? I hear about it a lot. People think that because they have Grace and God’s forgiveness that they can go out and do anything they want. They have a license to sin. But that’s not what Grace and Forgiveness are about. If I truly have Jesus in my heart, if I’ve trusted Him with my life and allowed Him to have control over all the areas of my life, then there should be a desire to please my heavenly Father. Sure, I’ll still make mistakes, but being forgiven by God doesn’t give me the right to go out and do whatever I want. Things like that hurt God. Even Israel did that and the Lord finally allowed the consequences of their sin to catch up with them and they were sent into exile. Forgiveness came a at a high cost to Jesus. He offers it as a free gift. It’s a gift that should be cherished and not taken lightly.