Eat the Honey Scroll!

At my church, we have a wonderful group of ladies who meet every Wednesday evening.  At this week's gathering, we watched an insightful video by Bible teacher Joyce Meyer called "Cracking the Enemy's Code."  She instructed that we must know the strategies of the devil so that we can, with God's help, be victorious over them. Passivity is one of Satan's most effective weapons, and unfortunately, Christians are becoming too passive in today's evil world. We each have a responsibility given by God to reach out into the world and to be out in the world, active for Him!  Activity overcomes passivity. Joyce says, "When the light has been turned on, darkness must go."

This reminded me of the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel.  He was only 30 years old when God appeared to him and told him he was chosen to deliver God's message to the Israelites, Exekiel's own community, who had become rebellious and hard-hearted, falling away from the Lord. Whether or not the Israelites heard and heeded the message didn't matter; it was still what the Lord chose Ezekiel to do.

We have the same mission.  It doesn't matter how old you are, what your vocation is, if you are a stay at home mom or a working mom -- all of us are a part of some type of community because of what we do and where we live.  It is because of this familiarity that God will most likely ask us to go there first -- in our own communities -- to share His Word.

Isn't it scary sometimes to be active and outspoken about Jesus to the people that we know the best?  We tend to worry about what they think. God told Ezekiel not to be afraid of his own people, just as we shouldn't be afraid to share Jesus in our own communities either. (Ezek 3:9)  We have been chosen to share Jesus with other people.  Even though it can be unnerving to do so, share anyway!  Let your community see Jesus living through you every day!

There is an interesting sidebar to this story at the beginning of Chapter 3.  God has Ezekiel eat a scroll with the message he was to give to the Israelites.  Ezekiel reported that it tasted sweet as honey.  God's Word is sweetness in our lives!  Let us allow His word to sink deep in our hearts like God asked Ezekiel to do, because when you have tasted God's Word, it will be easier to share it with others "and Go." (Ezekiel 3:11)

After God told Exekiel to "Go," the Spirit lifted him up and he was blessed.  That is what will happen when we Go and tell others about the Gospel!  Don't worry about whether they hear or not -- our job is to GO.  God will take care of the rest!

"Serve one another in love.  The entire law is summed up on a single commend: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Galatians 5:13-14

No Unfinished Sculptures

While reading through a chapter in a book, have you ever stumbled on one nugget of truth that will stand out boldly like Mount Rushmore and you can't get past it until you stop and spend time thinking on it?

That's what happened to me this week as I read through Chapter 3 of the book "Unglued" and I read Lysa's TerKeurst's story about the Unfinished Sculpture that shared the same room with well-known masterpiece of "David" completed by Michelangelo.

The nugget that grabbed my attention was: "He (God) allows the unglued moments to make us aware of the chiseling that needs to be done."  I am an unfinished sculpture that needs to be chiseled, especially with all the unglued moments that I have had lately!

I thought about "chisel" a little bit more.  Sculptors used a tool called a chisel to sculpt the stone and fashion it into the figure of what they see inside their mind, just as Michelangelo did with the sculpture of David.  The chisel has a cutting edge at the end of the blade, often made of steel, that is used for cutting or reshaping stone. Chiseling is a slow, thought out process and cannot be hurried.  As in the case of Michelangelo, it took him over two years of immersing himself into the job of sculpting David until he felt he was finished.  This sculpture was not a small project; David stands 17 feet tall!

Through reading this chapter, I recognized that if I want God to chisel me, I have to allow him to design me into what HE sees me to be, not what I think I want myself to be. God's sculpting may not be easy, and it will not be a hurried process.  It may make me uncomfortable and I may question the decisions of where I am being chiseled, but it is the Sculptor alone who can do the job of fashioning me into something wonderful and beautiful!  I rather be God's workmanship and accomplish those things that He has already prepared in advance for me to do (Ephesians 2:10) instead of constantly struggling to figure it out on my own.

And isn't that where real freedom will take place?