FOR THE CHURCH

Scripture for the day: Ezekiel 3:1-8,17 The voice said to me, “Son of man, eat what I am giving you – eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel (the church). So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. “Eat it all,” he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey.

Then he said, “Son of man, go to the people of Israel (the church) with my messages. I am not sending you to some foreign people whose language you cannot understand. No, I am not sending you to people with strange and difficult speech. If I did, they would listen! I am sending you to the people of Israel (the church), but they won’t listen to you any more than they listen to me! For the whole lot of them are hard-hearted and stubborn. But look, I have made you as hard and stubborn as they are…If I warn the wicked, saying, “You are under the penalty of death,” but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible, demanding your blood for theirs.

Thought for the day: Let’s get something straight from the beginning; I claim no office given me from the Lord, neither priest nor prophet. I have gotten no special revelations from the throne of God, nor have I spent countless hours in prayer and fasting to receive some special message to pass on to the people of God. I know only what the clear teachings of His Word tell me, and right now those teachings are screaming a word to the church – Repent!

If we look at the chapters surrounding these verses, we immediately recognize Ezekiel’s call and commission as a “watchman,” a messenger, a prophet in Israel. He, along with so many others, was warned from the beginning that the people would neither hear, nor understand, his message. He was also warned not to abandon the cause no matter how few responded.

The letters Paul wrote; to whom were they addressed? We like to look at them as clear admonitions to the world; as teachings designed to bring people to repentance and thereby win the lost. The truth is those letters are written to the churches, to the people of God. So when Paul speaks of the call to righteousness and holiness, he’s speaking to believers and not to those outside the church. When he speaks of the need to “present your bodies as living sacrifices,” he’s speaking directly to those already born again, not to a world who doesn’t even understand that terminology.

When John wrote his letters, to whom did he write? Obviously, he wrote to the churches of his day. And what did he say to them? Did he not speak of the need for repentance? Did he not tell them of their need for loving as God loved them? Did he not admonish them to make their election sure by the way they lived their lives? These messages were for the church; not for the world. The message for the world is clear and simple: “Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins.” The message for the church is just as clear and just as simple: “Repent and keep your focus on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

When John wrote the book we call Revelation, to whom was he writing? Was it not the church? When he penned those timeless words, “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me,” was it not to the Christian he was writing?

Forgive me my rantings and ravings. It’s just that, from time to time, I feel as if I’ve been given a vision of the church as she is today and my heart breaks because of it. The call is clearly to repentance, contrition, and revival; not the pew-jumping, rafter-shaking, aisle-running sort of revival we tend to envision (though there’s nothing wrong with getting excited about what God is doing), but the revival that is characterized most effectively by sack-cloth and ashes. The Lord is calling us to the revival that expresses itself in humility before almighty God, confession of our failure to follow him effectively and a complete and utter surrender to his will.

Now go take on your world. - Bill