Monday, December 21, 2015

A Promise of Hope

Just last week, I posted "Bring It."  While I do know the end of the Bible and the major concepts within the middle, I don't know the details of the next chapter as I'm going through this study of Ezekiel.  I'm slowly pondering and praying about each chapter as I'm going through it, and only focusing on one chapter each week.  I found it rather poignant that the next chapter of Ezekiel includes these verses:

33 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. 35 They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.” 36 Then the nations 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.’  Ezekiel 36

Yes!  We are told the end of the story.  This brings up a concept I hadn't heard before.  I had heard that our bodies will be restored at the resurrection, but I hadn't heard that the ruins would also be rebuilt.  The desolate land would be cultivated again.  Think of it, everything around us will be restored to reflect God's glory.

It'll be a wonderful day when we see that.  I remember a few members of our church visited New York City years ago and specifically found one of the first churches from our denomination.  The church had been long closed, bought and renovated, and was now a pizza parlor.  While it was a beautiful pizza parlor with stained glass windows, it was still very troubling to the members of the congregation that visited the site.  Honestly, I wasn't that upset by it.  I didn't have the whole story as to why the church closed, for all we know the church had outgrown that location in NYC and had relocated to a larger site.  The building itself is not important, what we do as Christians is what's important.

Still, the verses reiterate that what is torn down, or refurbished into a pizza parlor, can and will be rebuilt by God.  Nothing is impossible for him.  What man has made, God can certainly make, reshape, and improve upon.

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