I started these notes at the train station in Kiev, on January 16, 2009. I had taken the train the night before spent the day in productive meetings and while waiting the last several hours for my train back home I opened my computer to the sixth chapter in Ezekeil, I was hoping that at least one verse would jump out at me, and it did, so here are my thoughts.

Why does God allow hardships, famine, war, sickness and other such bad things? Well of course the easiest answer is to say that sin entered the world and with sin death. Death includes dying and suffering and hardships and all that goes with it. Yet, it seems that a deeper answer can be found. Sometimes hardship can come our way in spite of following God closely. Remember the story of Job. God allowed Satan to harm Job to prove to Satan that Job was genuine in his faith. This, however, is not always the case. Sometimes God sends trouble our way to punish us and also to give us a slap in the face to wake us up, so that we return to Him.

The verse that jumped out at me in the train station is this:

"However, I will leave a remnant, for you will have those who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. "Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations. "Then they will know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them."' (Ezekiel 6:8-10)

A good way to find out how strong a person is, is to see how much they can lift. Likewise with building materials to find out what they are capable of we need to add weight and record what happens until they break or bend beyond what is acceptable.

When a broken bone isn't set right it will heal as best as possible, but it will be prone to pain, infection and breaking again. The only way to get fully healed is for a doctor to break it again, set it correctly and then it can heal fully and wholly as intended. Stay with this thought for a moment.

With Job the only way to test his faith was to add enough to make him break. Job loved God and would not be broken. Ok, so what does that have to do with Ezekiel and the people of his time? Well, you see here the people broke in their faithfulness when everything was going really good. They didn't need a stress test to find their breaking point. They broke in their faith and went away from God even when things were going good.

Not being next to God leads to a spiritual wound, because we were created for our creater. Being spiritually wounded they healed their spiritual wounds by worshiping the idols. Everything was healed wrong, so they healed those wounds by bowing down to different idols. This didn't work, yet they tried again and again and nothing worked because they didn't come to God for healing and forgiveness. So this time God took those spiritual wounds and broke their bones (spiritual bones) Himself. You see God needed to set their spiritual bones in the right spot in order for healing to happen. You can not heal spiritual wounds without coming to the creator of your spirit, Jesus Christ.

The choice is clear- we must humble ourself, allow ourself to be broken, and in asking for forgiveness ask God to set the bones correctly, then healing will happen.

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Thoughts on Ezekeil 6: 8-10 Part 2

The world we live in seems to be caving in around us. The war in Gaza, the world economy, the natural gas crises in Eastern Europe. I have read and heard and it seems to be a popular question, “Where is God in all of this?” I, however, am not to convinced that it is a good question to ask, “Where is God, in the midst of calamity?” It is of course a good question for a non believer to ask. It is a question that might lead them to faith. For as the non believer grapples with the question of where God is, he or she starts seeking and there, where one seeks, God is found. However, what I find a bit surprising is that believers are asking where is God in all of this? Yes, well, where is God? Well, the question is, “Where was God when things were going well?” Where was God when all was very nice and war, hunger, famine, tough economic times and the like seemed too far away to think about?

Ezekiel was told to prophecy about coming hardships. Yes indeed hardships were prophesied and it came directly from God! Why? Well because when times were good the people forgot about God. They didn't see any need to worship Him, there was no urgency to follow His ways. They laughed at the people who strove to be Holy. They took their idols with them when they went to worship God. They said to the people who wanted to live Holy lives that God didn't really mean what He said and that Moses must have misunderstood God and that those silly laws applied only to that culture and since we are living in a new and modern age it doesn't apply to us. – Isn't that what is happening today with the letters from Peter and Paul and John who received instruction from the Holy Spirit to write their letters to the churches and early Christians? –

Jesus told a parable about a sower who threw seed onto four different places. The rocky soil is the people who accept the word of God with joy, but the roots never went down so when hardships and persecutions come they quickly wither and dry up. In Southern Ukraine we see a lot of drought. Virtually every year farmers risk losing their crops to drought. Some years the rain comes just in time and the crops are saved, but other years the rain doesn't come and the crops are lost. Oft years the churches pray with fasting and God answers by sending rain. The best defense is if the vegetation can get a head start before the dry season to get its roots down deep. It doesn't help to ask where the roots are when the dry season starts, rather it helps to see to it that they grow when the season of opportunity is at hand. It is better advice to strengthen a building when it is calm, then when the hurricane is at your front door. Hold Christ near to you when the times are good and when everything seems to be going your way, yet keep yourself from being deceived into believing that life will always be easy. See to it that your roots are deeply embedded in Christ, through worship, prayer, and meditation in the word. If you do this you will not be asking, “Where is God in the midst of all of this tribulation?” You will know, where He is. You walked in His light in the day when everything was going good and now His light is still with you. If you do this you will have an answer to give to anyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that you have inside of you. When others are asking, “Where is God in all of this?” You will know, you will be able to share with others, you will be a light to others and your light will lead them to God and His light will shine on them and they will stop asking, “Where is God in all of this?” and start rejoicing and declaring, “Thank God that God is here in all of this!”