The Home Devo (Page 32)

  DISCUSSION                                                    As the book of Ezekiel closes out, God is giving Ezekiel a tour of the Temple that is to come in the post exilic period.  In Ezekiel 43, God reveals to Ezekiel His glory as it fills the Temple.  Even Ezekiel declared that it was reminiscent of what he saw when God originally called him by the Chebar canal. Ezekiel seems to have been overwhelmed with his senses at…

  DISCUSSION                                      Centuries before Ezekiel ever existed, God made a promise to Abram as He was leaving Ur of the Chaldees on a journey of self-discovery and providential purpose.  That Promise that God made to Abraham has served as the core of Jewish theology ever since. During the famine of Jacob, God’s promise remained.  Through the slavery of Egypt, God promise remained.  All the while, during the conquest of Canaan by Joshua,…

  DISCUSSION                                                     These messages of Ezekiel are messages of hope for the future.  God would in time transform His people and bring them back to their land of Promise (Ezekiel 36.24).  Ezekiel lays out this transformation process that the Lord gave to him.  Today, within this same process, we can see how Christ transforms every sinner who places their trust in Him.  First, God…

  DISCUSSION                                                                              As God continues to use Ezekiel as his prophet, he reminds him of the important role he plays as Israel’s watchman.  A watchman looks out for someone, protecting them and warning them of any dangers that come their way.  It is Ezekiel’s responsibility to warn the Israelites of the impeding judgment that awaits if they do not repent of their wickedness and turn back to God.  If Ezekiel warns…

  DISCUSSION                                                            Ezekiel 29-32 contains 7 messages that God has given to Ezekiel to deliver to the Jewish exiles and the Egyptians.  Strangely enough, even after the harsh treatment that the Egyptians inflicted on the Israelites while they were slaves in Exodus, the Israelites have always looked to Egypt for help when they needed it.  Warren W. Wiersbe, in his commentary of Ezekiel, states that “the longer the Jews were away from…

  DISCUSSION                                                                          To be a prophet of God in the Old Testament meant that there were many sacrifices that you were expected to endure.  No sacrifice was as great as the one that Ezekiel had to make.  For God to illustrate His point, Ezekiel had to watch as his wife suddenly died.  If it wasn’t enough to have her die, Ezekiel was not allowed to show any grief.  When the Jews…

  DISCUSSION                                      Ezekiel 16 and 22 are very similar chapters in that they both depict the apostasy of the nation.  They both compare Israel to a prostitute who had broken her marriage vows to God.  The difference in the two chapters is that in chapter 16 the adultery has been committed with idolatry, and in chapter 18 the idolatry has been committed in their trust of other nations.  Instead of trusting…

  DISCUSSION                                                                           In John 9, Jesus and His disciples come upon a man that had been born blind.  Intrigued by his blindness, the Disciples ask a very poignant question; “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2).  Jesus responded “It was not that this man…

  At first it might seem that if God created all things, then evil must have been created by God. However, evil is not a “thing” like a rock or electricity. You cannot have a jar of evil. Evil has no existence of its own; it is really the absence of good. For example, holes are real but they only exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole, but it cannot be separated from the dirt.…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                 Nobody wakes up in the morning and says “I really want to be weird today”. Certainly, nobody wants to be considered at school or work as the weird one. Did you know the bible tells us we should, in fact, strive to be weird. The passage for today says just that. Most translations people read that we should be “special”…

  The realities of sin, suffering, and evil persist in our world prompting many (especially young millennials) to question their faith. These same realities exist still today—post resurrection of Jesus. As Paul laments in Rom 7-8, the sinfulness of man and the suffering of all creation leave him and it groaning for a time of redemption.    Richard Oster calls Lamentations, “the best commentary on Romans 8.” Lamentations confronts these questions and God’s role in them while providing a voice…

  DISCUSSION                                                                               I received a call that a major part of my life was now gone.  The Larimore home at Mars Hill Bible School has been an icon of love and sacrifice as far back as I can remember, and now was destroyed by fire.  The house was home to TB Larimore, the founder of Mars Hill Bible School.  He was also a huge factor as to why the church…