I just finished reading the book of Ezekiel yesterday. It had been a long time since I read through the entire book.... It holds wonderful nuggets.
During the time Ezekiel wrote, he lost his dearly treasured wife, but was completely responsive to God in setting his loss aside and being obedient. That definitely made an impact on me.
In the final chapters, the overwhelming reminder of God's order was reinforced. What amazing detail He provided those who would build His temple in Jerusalem. It is a stunning reminder of God being a proficient and thorough designer.
The most indelible impact of the book of Ezekiel is that God is absolutely sovereign. The repeated message Ezekiel quotes is God saying, "I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it." That gives me amazing comfort. My life is in His hands...and the life that is truly life is eternal life. This is just the path leading to life!
There is a little church about a mile from my house that has a reader board. Recently their sign stated, "Why do we call it after dark when it is really after light?" I was with my husband when I read it, and I chuckled, then mentioned that logic could apply to several other things, citing a couple of specific parallels that came to mind.
In response my husband said, "You Christians do that all the time. You talk about the after life." That's when it hit me. Heaven is not the after-life, it is life...eternal life. This is our pre-life anticipation of life! We segue from here to there - not painlessly - but what birth is painless?
This is our gestational period. Life is yet to come! We may or may not like the womb phase, depending on circumstances, but that's all this is. We are conceived by the Spirit the day we accept Jesus Christ as Savior, so our spiritual life 'begins' at that point, but we are in the cocoon phase. Our butterfly phase - the most beautiful life imaginable - is eternal!
So, as we slog through the challenges here, we can have absolute confidence in our eternal destination - when we break away from the fetters of imperfect bodies and embrace LIFE!
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