God’s ability to bring life to our barren lives: "Making chicken salad out of chicken crap"
Ezekiel 36:36 “then the nation around you that remain will know that I “the Lord” have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I, the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.”
This is a great text for me to read today as I am preparing to go into a season of speaking to Churches that find themselves in exile. Maybe one of the reasons so many of our churches are struggling today is because God has sent us into exile with the intention of bringing a remnant back into the land and rebuilding His church that all around would know that He is God. It is only God that rebuilds our broken communities of faith; it is only God that can make our deserted churches a place of fruitfulness and faithfulness. It is God who will bless His church when it becomes His church again. It is God who will replant these desserts and make them fertile ground. God is ready and waiting for us to respond by acknowledging our rebellion and opening ourselves up to God’s resurrecting work. I sense this opportunity all around us but also feel a deep comfort in remaining in exile. I become frustrated with the church when we seem to choose the comfort of exile instead of coming back to the promise land and living the life that God intended. I am thinking about my own life today and find myself completely grateful for God’s deliverance of my life from exile and God’s ability to plant new things in a life of complete desert. It is only God that brought me out of my exile and I write this morning as a testimony to all those around that it is God who acts first; it is God who creates; it is God who saves; it is God who brings life out of death. Thank you God for bring life to my dry bones; may this work be repeated in our churches, lives, countries, and world for all of eternity.
Lord, I thank you today for making chicken salad out of my chicken crap of a life. It is only through your grace that I find myself today spending time in your word and allowing your word to shape my life and give me insight into how you are at work in the world. Lord, I am thinking about Warsaw UMC today as I go there to preach a revival in the next couple of weeks. I sense you wanting to bring life to their barren lives; I sense you have a vision for them to return from exile and to be replanted anew within their community. May you prepare them for our time together and may you speak to my heart the words you would like to speak to them. Give them the strength to respond and may you have victory in that place. Lord, continue your work of resurrection in my life and protect me from the evil that is trying to keep me isolated. Help me to put one foot in front of the other today and save me from this hell of isolation. Move me beyond my house and protect me from my own rationalization. Thank you for your word spoken to me in the midst of chaos today; may it find rest in my heart and make its home there as I walk with you throughout the rest of the day. Amen!
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