As I read the last few chapters of Ezekiel today two things impressed me. One was how often Ezekiel mentioned "the glory of the Lord" and his reaction to it was usually the same..."and I fell on my face" in chapter 43, verse 3, and then in chapter 44, verse 4 once again, "And I fell on my face."
I couldn't help but contrast the reaction of the prophet of God with how many of us are sometimes. We go to church as if it is just a weekly appointment, not a time to worship God. We treat church as if we can take it or leave it...and maybe that is because in our experience we have never encountered the glory of God when we worship. Other times I have heard people (myself included), say things such as, "When I stand before God, I have a lot of questions for Him." Based on what I read in Ezekiel, I get the impression that questions will be kind of difficult to express when we are face down on the ground due to the majestic holiness of the glory of God.
We must realign our thinking to that of Scripture. God is not an old man in a rocking chair, nor is he sitting on cloud somewher pontificating about the sin in the universe, and He is certainly not "the big guy upstairs". He is also not some buddy that we will slap on the back when we finally get to heaven. He is GOD! GOD! GOD! And He is alltogether not like us, high above us and so different and set apart from us that we have to hide our face when we encounter His glory! Rich Mullins was right when he sang, "Our God is an awesome God". In fact, that song is so rich, and yet many have not heard all of it, as usually just the chorus is sung in most churches. Here are the lyrics, with all the verses:
When He rolls up His sleeves
He ain't just putting on the ritz
(Our God is an awesome God)
There's thunder in His footsteps
And lightning in His fists
(Our God is an awesome God)
And the Lord wasn't joking
When He kicked 'em out of Eden
It wasn't for no reason
That He shed His blood
His return is very close
And so you better be believing that
Our God is an awesome God
CHORUS:
Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power, and love
Our God is an awesome God
CHORUS
And when the sky was starless
In the void of the night
(Our God is an awesome God)
He spoke into the darkness
And created the light
(Our God is an awesome God)
Judgement and wrath He poured out on Sodom
Mercy and grace He gave us at the cross
I hope that we have not
Too quickly forgotten that
Our God is an awesome God
CHORUS(4x)
Our God is an awesome God
(Our God is an awesome God)
He reigns from heaven above
(He reigns from heaven above)
With wisdom, power, and love
(With wisdom, power, and love)
Our God is an awesome God
Our God is an awesome God
Our God is an awesome God
Ok, that was the first thing that impressed me...just how awesome God truly is and how we treat Him as so much less than that. The second thing was this verse (23), found in chapter 44, speaking of the priests: "they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean."
I thought of comparing this to the pastors of the church today. I thought of myself as a pastor. Do I teach the people the difference between the holy and the common? Do the people of God today realize that they have been set apart for a purpose...that they are now holy...and do we live like holy people, or like common people? Now there is nothing wrong with "common", but "common" is not "holy"...and why would you settle for a common life, when you have been set apart for a holy life? I thought of all the mindless entertainment I used to consume...not bad stuff...but nothing that would point to my life as anything other than common. I'm not here trying to put a yoke of legalism on anyone, simply trying to express my own thoughts on the fact that I may have lived a more common life than a truly holy one, a truly set apart life.
Then there is that part about the clean and the unclean. I don't think many Christians even think about this any more. We have become a culture where being a Christian is just something you do on Sundays...and the result is that we no longer influence society, instead society tends to influence us. Somewhere along the way the church has bought into the lie that we can receive forgiveness of our sins and yet never abandon our lives to Jesus. The Scriptures know of no such salvation. In a book I am reading right now called, "Costly Grace" by Jon Walker, he states, "Costly grace justifies the sinner: Go and sin no more. Cheap grace justifies the sin: Everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are." Sadly, cheap grace is run amok in the churches in the western world.
May we as shepherds of the flocks that God has graciously given us be about the business of teaching the difference between the common and the holy, and between the clean and the unclean.
Ok, so there's that,
Pastor Dave
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