The Valley of Dry Bones

The Valley of Dry Bones as told in Ezekiel chapter 37 has always been a great story, and one of my personal favorites, but I wish to speak on it now during Holy Week. Sure, one could read the story very straightforwardly and dry-ly (haha) but when you stop to really consider it, it is amazing. The Lord is leading the prophet Ezekiel through the land, and leads him into a valley full of human bones, bones that have been there so long that they are clean and free from all flesh and skin. The Lord then asks Ezekiel if the dead bones can live. Ezekiel wisely acknowledges his ignorance and says "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.". The Lord then tells him to prophesy to the dead bones. Stop here and imagine this, Ezekiel who has been preaching against all the people of the land about God's wrath is now commanded to prophesy to a valley of lifeless bones. The Lord tells him to say "Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life...". "Hear the word of the Lord!" spoken into a valley of bones. And whats more, after that profound statement, the bones assemble themselves and are covered with flesh and skin! Ezekiel is then commanded to prophesy that breath enter them and that they live, just as he prophesies, it occurs.

How many of us feel that "Go and make disciples" is too big a chore? That there's no way we could make disciples of every nation? Yet here is a prophet commanding a valley of dead and dry bones to live because the Lord wills it! How much more then can the Lord bring the living to himself? This story always reminds me to speak with authority of knowledge, and not of timidity for my God can do all things. More than that, it almost always brings me to tears to remember that I was dead bones. I was dead bones in an isolated valley before the Lord commanded me to live again and to come to him, and he raised me up! Rejoice now in Holy Week that the Lord has raised up dead bones to life!

"Then He said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!" Ezekiel 37:3

The Greatest Holiday

With Holy Week quickly approaching I see many churches in the area advertising their Easter services in much the same way as they do their Christmas services and pageants. I must say that I find this to be somewhat ridiculous. Who are they trying to attract? Fellow Christians whom have congregations of their own? Unbelievers? Non church going Christians? What significance does Easter have to the unbeliever? Why aren't the non church going Christians bothering to turn out for Easter? And most importantly, why aren't these churches promoting their Good Friday service? Is it not, after all, the most important Holiday that we as Christians observe? It is the remembrance that the Christ was willing to suffer an agonizing death to pay for our sins. He did not just have the discomfort of having nails driven through his arms and feet, not just the exquisite agony of suffocating under his own weight as his body slowly sagged and pushed in on his chest, he suffered the full, THE FULL, wrath of God. Yes, WRATH!! He bore it ALL so that there would be no more for us! It is the giving of grace. It is the giving of salvation!

Why do I say these things? Because we have elevated the resurrection of our Lord above his atoning death. I say this in reprimand to the churches not offering Good Friday services. I say them because of those who don't believe that Christ covered all of their sins on that cross. I write it for those who refuse to believe in the wrath of God. I say them for the joy that my dead bones have been brought to life! I say them in rejoicing that this was ordained to occur to save my soul!

Hypocracy

I was at a campus worship service Wednesday night, with a group of people I enjoy being around and are thankful for, but what happened just got under my skin. One of the leaders of the group got up for the 'sermon' and talked about Jonah and Nineveh. He spoke about the Ninevites and their practices for which they recieved the condemnation of God. Amongst the offenses he told us of was the practice of sacrificing children into a fire to gain the favor of God. At this, the whole room gasped a little and many people looked absolutely revolted. Yet they have been invited numerous times to help with the pro-life movement and few of them have. How dare they feel horrified that in some ancient time people burned their children when they don't give a care to the fact that every day an approximate 4,000 children are murdered in the name of 'choice' and 'a woman's right'. Why do so many of God's people do nothing to please God? They read the bible but they never take a serious stand. These people have no right to be appalled.

One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church

I recently read a debate occuring on a friend’s facebook wall. On it, a catholic made a disparaging remark about protestants and more than just rubbing me the wrong way it made me think. He quoted from St. Matthew the verse where Peter confesses that Christ is Lord and Christ tells him that he will be the rock on which he builds his church and that whatever he binds here on earth will be bound in heaven…etc. Right there in red letters was Christ giving over the fate of the church into the hands of one who would later disown him. That irony not withstanding…I began to contemplate if the ‘Holy’ Roman Catholic church was the one true church.

Then it hit me. The guy had found two verses. Two verses in the entire bible that seemed to ordain the church. That was all. Not just that, but those verses can’t possibly be taken any more literally than can the use of the word ‘Jews’ can be in Romans chapter 2. Peter was the rock on which Christ built his church, but it was Christ’s church! It was a body of believers who gave their sins over to Christ and were saved through him. It’s not a physical building or congregation or even a certain structure of organizations that Christ was ordaining then; it was the fellowship of believers; congregations with correct teachings.

This guy found two verses to support catholicism. The reformers (namely Martin Luther [I have a one track mind]) had the entire bible to support them. They had entire systematic theologies. Traditional catholicism can’t hold a flame to the reformation, and they are not the one true church.

The one true Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is not defined in any human manner. It is not contained within any given congregation or denomination. It is comprised of true believers through the ages and bows to no man! Humanism, pride, greed and all the other ills of this world do not ravage the true church nor can any disaster, be it fire or flood ever destroy it. And I pity the people who don’t understand that.