The post leading to this is the book of Ezekiel chapter 36 without any narrative contexts, leaving only what God called Ezekiel to deliver to the people of Israel.

You may read it here.  Read it a couple times and then come back to this.

There are so many points in this chapter that God is speaking to us, right now, no matter where you are in your walk, I can only hope to cover a smidgen of what is there.

The relationship I found while reading throughout this chapter is that Israel, aka the mountains of Israel, and the people, are all relating to me. When God is speaking about the valleys, hills, ravines, mountains or land of Israel, He is speaking to my very being, my essence, who He created me to be, what He has called me to be.  When he is speaking is speaking to the people of Israel, he is speaking to who I am now, a man who is or was living my life as my own, full of sin, separation from God, independent isolation, slave to evil.

In verses 1 through 5, God says:

Your enemies have taunted you… attacked you from all directions, and now you are possessed by many nations.  You are objects of much mocking and slander.  I speak to the hills and mountains… ruined wastes and long-deserted cities that have been destroyed and mocked by foreign nations everywhere.  My jealous anger is on fire against these nations… because they have shown utter contempt for me by gleefully taking my land for themselves as plunder.

Applying this to myself:

My enemies have taunted me, attacked me from all directions with evil, lies and sin and now I am possessed by many different thoughts, beliefs, actions.  I am an object of much mocking and slander.  God speaks to who he created me to be, the ‘me’ that is now tainted and destroyed with sin and evil.  God is jealous and angry against these evils and sins because it has caused me to run from God, taking my life as my own, making my own path with my own truths.

If you apply this way of thinking throughout the entire chapter you will be amazed, yet again, by the Glory of God, his sovereignty and his desire for me to become the purpose for what he created me to be.  The only way for me to become that, is through only Him.  And the reason for me to become that is ONLY for the Glory of God, so that all who see me, will see God.

I cannot help but notice how many times God mentions what he originally created me to be.  It is very clear that God has a purpose for me, he very much so desires that purpose to be fulfilled in me, that he can make that happen, by fulfilling that purpose people will come to God.

The last few verses God says that he is ready to hear my prayers for the blessings he will give me, and he is ready to grant me my requests, he will multiply them and fill my life with fruit and people on fire for God.

It absolutely boggles my mind how this chapter, yet directed so clearly to Israel and the people of Israel, is actually a very complex and simple calling to my life.

I ask you this, are you relying on yourself and your own understanding to find and create your purpose?  Or are you allowing God to reveal what he has truly created you to be?  The question is not “What is my purpose?”, the question is “Am I living a self driven life, or am I living a God driven life?”.

God be in you.

When I read the bible the number one thing on my mind is that there is a reason for every single word in the bible.  As I read it, am I just reading it, or am I understanding why it is there?  Sometimes I will just read a paragraph and I’ll say to myself, “What the heck is the point of that?” and I’ll spend the rest of the evening, or week, figuring out why that is in the bible.  This happened to me today as I read Ezekiel 36.

I opened my bible and God took me to Ezekiel 36.  At first I had a difficult time reading it in practical terms.  I mean, it IS talking an awful lot about Israel and ancestors and ancient times and it keeps going in and out of context of Ezekiel speaking and what God told Ezekiel to say to the people of Israel.

As I read it, I found that it was much easier to follow in how it applies to me by taking all of the narrative contexts out.  Read it multiple times and you should start seeing quite a bit of patterns, and quite a bit of practical points in how it applies to you. In parenthesis after every section I have put footnote thoughts on how this applies to me.

Ezekiel 36:

(1 – 5)

Your enemies have taunted you, saying, ‘Aha! Now the ancient heights belong to us!’.  Your enemies have attacked you from all directions, and now you are possessed by many nations.  You are the object of much mocking and slander.  I speak to the hills and mountains, ravines and valleys, and to ruined wastes and long-deserted cities that have been destroyed and mocked by foreign nations everywhere.  My jealous anger is on fire against these nations, especially Edom, because they have shown utter contempt for me by gleefully taking my land for themselves as plunder. (Enslaved to sin and evil)

(6 – 12)

I am full of fury because you have suffered shame before the surrounding nations.  I have raised my hand and sworn an oath that those nations will soon have their turn at suffering shame.  But the mountains of Israel will produce heavy crops of fruit to prepare for my people’s return — and they will be coming home again soon!  I am concerned for you, and I will come to help you.  Your ground will be tilled and your crops planted.  I will greatly increase the population of Israel, and the ruined cities will be rebuilt and filled with people.  Not only the people, but your flocks and herds will also greatly multiply.  O mountains of Israel, I will bring people to live on you ounce again.  I will make you even more prosperous than you were before.  Then you will know that I am the Lord.  I will cause my people to walk on you once again, and you will be their inheritance.  You will never again devour their children.  (Freed from sin and evil by God for his purpose for you)

(13 – 15)

Now the other nations taunt you, saying ‘Israel is a land that devours her own people!’  But you will never again devour your people or bereave your nation.  I will not allow those foreign nations to sneer at you, and you will no longer be shamed by them or cause your nation to fall.  (A change in heart)

(16 – 21)

Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their evil deeds.  To me their conduct was as filthy as a bloody rag.  They polluted the land with murder and by worshiping idols, so I poured out my fury on them.  I scattered them to many lands to punish them for the evil way they had lived.  But when they were scattered among the nations, they brought dishonor to my holy name.  For the nations said, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and he couldn’t keep them safe in his own land!’  Then I was concerned for my holy name, which had been dishonored by my people throughout the world.  (The purpose is all for God’s glory, not yours, everything is for God and only God, he IS GOD)

(22 – 24)

I am bringing you back again but not because you deserve it.  I am doing it to protect my holy name, which you dishonored while you were scattered among the nations.  And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes.  For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.  (God’s promise is to free us)

(25 – 27)

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.  Your filth will be washed away and you will no longer worship idols.  And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command. (God lives within us, with a changed heart, a full spirit and our will aligns to God’s)

(28 – 32)

And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago.  You will be my people, and I will be your God.  I will cleanse you of your filthy behavior.  I will give you good crops, and I will abolish famine in the land.  I will give you great harvests from your fruit trees and fields, and never again will the surrounding nations be able to scoff at your land for its famines.  Then you will remember your past sins and hate yourselves for all the evil things you did.  But remember I am not doing this because you deserve it.  O my people of Israel, you should be utterly ashamed of all you have done! (The threats and comments about us will begin to transform into curiosity and hope)

(33 – 36)

When I cleanse you from your sins, I will bring people to live in your cities, and the ruins will be rebuilt.  The fields that used to lie empty and desolate — a shock to all who passed by — will again b farmed.  And when I bring you back, people will say, ‘This godforsaken land is now like Eden’s garden! The ruined cities now have strong walls, and they are filled with people!’  Then the nations all around — all those still left — will know that I, the Lord, rebuilt the ruins and planted lush crops in the wilderness.  For I, the Lord, have promised this, and I will do it.  (God will restore us)

(37 – 38)

I am ready to hear Israel’s prayers for those blessings, and I am ready to grant them their requests.  I will multiply them like the sacred flocks that fill Jerusalem’s streets at the time of her festivals.  The ruined cities will be crowded with people once more, and everyone will know that I am the Lord.  (God is waiting on you, all you have to do is ask)

Children’s view of beginning and end is non existent, I envy that.  I get so wrapped up on the beginning and end that I spend bulk of my time thinking about the beginning and end or what’s next? rather than living in the moment right now, to the fullest!

Too often I feel that we focus on the beginning of something only to wonder how long it will last or when it will end just so that we can think or talk about the beginning of something all over again.

This could relate to a multitude of things, a few examples? k…

“Can’t wait till 5 o’clock rolls around so I can get off work.”
“Next Friday I close on my house!”
“I’m sooo hot at Rock the River and this speaking is loud, how long should I stay?”
“Waiting is so agonizing, how long will I have to wait”
“When I get this thing I will be ready”
on and on…

Don’t get me wrong, I think looking forward to things is a great thing and it’s partly what keeps us moving on some days, like these beautiful Mondays .  But I also think there’s a lesson we can learn here from yet again, a child.

I like the verse where Jesus talks about having a childlike mind and childlike faith:

Mark 10:15

“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Although this verse is in a slightly different context, I think it still serves for multiple contexts, I think there is a connection that can be made.  Think about how a child plays with their favorite toy, swings, eats, watches a movie, or plays with their celebrity (in their eyes) uncle! There is no end in their mind.  They do not think like: “I’ll probably play puzzle for the next 5 minutes and then move on to playing with my blocks” or “I need to play really hard because pretty soon we’re leaving and I won’t be able to play anymore” or “I love playing with my uncle and have to play with him and show him everything in the next hour because he’s leaving then.”… No, they are in the moment to the fullest, which is how we should be.

I was at Rock the River yesterday and caught myself thinking, “How long am I staying and should I just leave now or leave in a little bit?”.  My question to this is, and my question I am trying to ask myself frequently is, “Am I living in the moment, right now?”

It’s a very simple question and it’s very easy to remember and constantly ask yourself and I think it is going to help me enjoy the not so ecstatic events in my life and make all events fullfilling and enjoyable.  I think I will begin building deeper relationships with some other friends that I never would have opened up because I will no longer be thinking of the next ecstatic event but will be living it all in the moment right now!

idk, I know this will help me because I have a lot of really good high energy moments and I have a few low energy moments where I’m only present physically for no particular reason.  I hope this helps me be more conscience of my mood and presence wherever I may be.  How we act affects our relationships 1 of 2 ways, positive or negative, there is no neutral reaction, if you could be aware of weather you are creating a negative reaction based on your mood would you be more inspired to do something about it!?  I would.

There is no part of me that wants to create a negative vibe ever!  Yet I do, occasionally, but this should help me, maybe it’ll help you too.

Let me know what you think in the comments, on twitter (@coffeencoke).  Also you can subscribe to my posts via the rss feed, or if you create a login you can subscribe and get email notifications.  Just fyi

There are aspects of our lives of which we constantly hide from others.  Hide because we are afraid, ashamed, embarrassed or something else.

I realized that with a lot of people I only express my surface self.  With other people, closer friends, I let go of a few vulnerabilities by showing a deeper side of this matt simpson.  But how deep do I show?  It amazes me that when it comes down to it, God is the only one who truly knows who I am, knows every detail of my very being!

Why do we hide these vulnerabilities?  What do we cling on to and lock up deep inside and never share?  Are we even aware of some of the things we hide of our true selves because we’ve kept them locked up for so long?  Having realized this I pray and I hope that I can say goodbye to fear and embarrassment and be my true self with EVERYONE I meet.  This world I live in, the culture, media, people, skews my mind into thinking I should only express certain things, I should only wear certain clothes, I should only speak a certain way about certain things.  Who AM I?  I know who I think I am but is there more to me?  Have I lost touch and forgotten something I’ve not expressed in so long?

I’m curious if anyone else has thought about this or what you think of this now that you’ve read it.  I’m not concerned, simply intrigued.  I’m also not disapointed in who I am, far from it, God has given me courage and guidance to live free of a lot of cages.

side note / fyi: saw the new transformers movie tonight and forget whatever reviews you read, it is a 5 star guarentee! awesome movie, much better than the first and I recommend it for all.  It does have more language in it and a little bit of sexual connotations but they are not untasteful or the like.  I thoroughly enjoyed it   Best movie I’ve seen this year for sure.