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Christian Devotional – October 31, 2024
The Vision, Day 6 Complete judgment. Read Ezekiel chapter 6. God’s judgment is coming and it will impact everyone. You see, Ezekiel has been portraying the vision of the coming judgment of God. The people didn’t necessarily believe that was coming because they couldn’t see it, and it wasn’t happening right now. Yet that doesn’t change the fact that God was going to completely wipe out the people for their sin and idolatry. God wants us to follow him and God makes ways and time for us to be able to come to repentance, but that time will run out. We are to be the warning to those around us…
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Christian Devotional – October 30, 2024
The Vision, Day 5 Harsh reality. Read Ezekiel chapter 5. God walks Ezekiel through more very specific demonstrations that he is to do to share the upcoming judgment with the people of Israel. These seem harsh and difficult. God tells him that he’s going to make the people a reproach among the nations. It’s a reminder that God is ultimately the one in charge of our reputation. If we are obedient to him and are following him, then God can protect our reputation. If we are not obedient to him, then God is going to allow the other nations to know that we are not following him so they are…
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Christian Devotional – October 29, 2024
The Vision, Day 4 The example. Read Ezekiel chapter 4. God gives Ezekiel his first assignment. Ezekiel is to demonstrate the sin of Israel and the sin of Judah. He is to become a living example to the people of what their sin looks like to God. I’m sure this was not exactly what Ezekiel had in mind when he received God’s message that he was going to be used as a prophet. But yet here he is, lying in the dirt for over a year to demonstrate the sin of the people. It can be hard to truly understand what our sin looks like to God. We are not…
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Christian Devotional – October 28, 2024
The Vision, Day 3 Responsibility. Read Ezekiel chapter 3. God is explaining to Ezekiel his responsibility. God is going to give him a message and he is to share that message with the people. God goes so far as to explain to Ezekiel the true depth of his responsibility. Because the Ezekiel knows the truth, if Ezekiel does not share it with the people, he is also responsible for their sin and judgment. We have a responsibility to share God’s message with everyone who needs it. If we do not warn them, then we must realize that we are accountable for their judgment as well. We must share what we…
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Christian Devotional – October 27, 2024
The Vision, Day 2 Obedience in spite of the response. Read Ezekiel chapter 2. After showing Ezekiel all his glory in the last chapter, God now calls him to be the one to share his message. God reminds him that the people he is coming to are rebellious. Those people may respond to God’s message or they may not. That’s really not Ezekiel’s concern. Ezekiel is to be obedient to God. Now that he’s seen God’s glory, he knows just how amazing God is. He has to share the message, no matter the response. Do we feel that way? Have we encountered God in such a way that we truly…
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Christian Devotional – October 26, 2024
The Vision, Day 1 Thanks for the suggestions on next books. Looked like prophecy was the common theme of the requests. Prophecy books can be challenging to understand and apply to our lives. We’ll start through Ezekiel and focus on the vision that God gives for what is coming. Seeing God’s glory. Read Ezekiel chapter 1. God doesn’t waste any time. He starts out the book of Ezekiel with a vision that the prophet received. This vision was vastly complex and difficult to describe. Ultimately at the end of the chapter we see that this is a vision of God’s glory. We can learn so much about his glory from…
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Christian Devotional – October 25, 2024
New Beginnings, Day 50 Know our place. Read Genesis chapter 50. As we conclude this tremendous book, we see all the different new beginnings and we think back about all the different ways God used these people to demonstrate what a life well lived looks like. Joseph had just buried his father and now his brothers are worried about how he will treat them. Joseph uses this opportunity to remind them that he is not God. He was in a position where he was almost like a God, yet that was never how Joseph saw himself and was not what he understood God’s plan to be for him. Joseph recognized…
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Christian Devotional – October 24, 2024
New Beginnings, Day 49 The legacy. Read Genesis chapter 49. Jacob is coming to the end of his life, and he now gives his final blessing to each of his sons. He’s going through in order and we see that for his 3 oldest sons, he doesn’t have much good or nice to say. Not until we get to Judah do we see him really bless a son. If we think back to Leah when she had these boys, she was trying so hard to earn her husband’s love. The first 3 boys were an expectation of that. It wasn’t until the fourth son, Judah, that she said I will…
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Christian Devotional – October 23, 2024
New Beginnings, Day 48 Expectations. Read Genesis chapter 48. Anytime we read a story, we often have expectations of what will happen. We read and try to guess the plot direction that the movie or the book is going to go. Often, the books that people enjoy the most are those that have an unexpected twist. The storyline goes in a different direction than what we thought it would. Jacob had a set of expectations with regard to his son Joseph. He expected to never see him again. He was told he was dead, and yet here he is all these years later not only seeing Joseph, but also having…
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Christian Devotional – October 22, 2024
New Beginnings, Day 47 The blessing of Jacob. Read Genesis chapter 47. Joseph brings his family before Pharaoh. For his brothers, they establish that they will be shepherds and will live in a specific part of the land of Egypt. Then Joseph brings his father before Pharaoh. As we’ve already discussed a few days ago, Pharaoh, culturally, was considered god for the people of Egypt. It wasn’t that he was like a god, to them, he was actually god. So this concept of Jacob blessing Pharaoh is intriguing to me. The idea that Pharaoh understood that Joseph’s God was greater than he was, is awesome. Joseph’s God had interpreted the…