Skip to main content

Ezekiel 33:11

If I were able to sit down and tell you exactly what made me write this, you'd think I'm nuts.  Let's just say it stems from a relationship that is as much a paradox to myself as it is to onlookers.  The beauty of it is, God gave us those human connections as a means of displaying His love that is ever patient, passionate, and tender.  Go back and read about my mourning doves if you must.  

God loves us so much.  I mean that in no trivial sense.

“My people have committed two sins:  they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”—Jeremiah 2:13

God cries out to us.  John Piper sums it up that God gives us what we need the most:  Himself for our enjoyment forever.  So, here God is basically saying, “You would choose this, over Me?  Don’t you know I love you?”  And even previously in verse five He exclaims “What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me?”

God knows, He KNOWS He is better.  He knows He is the most fulfilling and delightful, overwhelming, awesome, insanely beautiful joy of our hearts.  He wants us to experience this blessing and it grieves him when we don’t accept it.

“’As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.  Turn!  Turn from your evil ways!  Why will you die, O house of Israel?’”—Ezekiel 33:11

He doesn’t wish that we choose sin and our own way of living.  He even sent Jesus to make a way back to Himself.  Yet, God will respect the choice we make.  It just makes Him cry. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Case You Were Curious

The feat of writing a post and explanation for what happened this past weekend has kept me from even attempting it for some days now.  How do you describe miracles but not as to cheapen the treasure of their testimony? First I must begin to explain who this man Steven is, and who he someday will be.  Skeptical, I have been for some years now which is why I categorize his existence as a miracle. He is strong.  Meek.  Authoritative in speech, and yet the most gentle of men.  He hates all the usual things like Wal-Mart and loves all the usual authors like G.K. Chesterton.  His brokenness before the Lord was what set him apart from the crowd for me.  I honor this man with words of encouragement. "Steven, you are dearly loved and anointed by Jesus.  Not because you have done great things for Him, but because your heart longs to make Him the focus.  You know He is good even in the desert seasons.  You have chosen Jesus.  You have a ...
6 comments
Read more

Tucker's Birth Story

Tucker Jason Rhys was born on October 30th, 2023 at 3:18pm in the afternoon though I say his birth story started four months earlier in June.  In June we were packing up our family and lives in Africa to come back to America for a year. With two small kids and me being six month pregnant, Steven and I still thought it would be worth the effort to stop in Paris for a layover and do a couple Frenchy things like eat a croissant and see the Eiffel Tower.  It’s a “perk” of the job I tell myself—every flight path inevitably goes through Europe. We booked tickets that took us through Paris and then onto America. After booking everything we hit a snag—Farrah’s passport was set to expire in September and apparently France requires three months of validity left on a US passport before giving a visa to visit their country. She only had two months left before she needed to renew hers. (I'm getting to the birth, I promise…) Up until that last week on our island as we were packing our bags ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fin des Voyages and Psalm 84:11

It took about two solid months before I could step outside of my house in Chamb éry and not be overcome with culture shock.  It was a feeling of an immense amount of vulnerability.   "Oh   yeah...I'm in FRANCE,"  and I  didn't have the simple security of a cell phone either.   This is my last week here and I realized I finally feel at home, but the hole in my heart for America grows bigger still. After this semester abroad, the false sense of security I've lived under in the US has been exposed.  I've been sitting under the covers of my bed all my life to try and protect myself from tragedy.  (Though as an aside, I have no country or place in mind yet, and God could very well call me to live in Nebraska the rest of my life. If you happen to find out, let me know.) My next thoughts went as follows:   "If I am to live radically for Christ (whatever that might look like for me) I cannot be scared of people nor the enemy of this ...
2 comments
Read more