- As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. Ezekiel 22:20- Sounds intense doesn’t it? Yet why is God doing all this? While I doubt many of us here are blacksmiths, we may know that when you toss metals into the fire what happens it any sort of impurity is baked away leaving you with only pure metal. That’s what God is doing here. He is removing the impurities that was found in the lives of His people. God is going to do this in our life to. Things like sinful habits and bad relationships are things God isn’t going to sit idly by watching them eat away at us. He’ll allow some fire to work its way into our story, not to burn us, but refine us. What part of your story needs to be baked away? What sort of impurity needs to no longer be in your life? Purity is worth the fire you go through. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1086
- Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Ezekiel 22:26 – Last night before our youth gathering, I had the blessed of chatting with one of our students. He carries with him a title given to him by many as a “trouble kid” and is only a problem. Which broke my heart to hear him even say that about himself last night. He then continued to share with me and allowed me into his family story, and what was clear was why he finds himself in trouble so often. Mom, dad, aunts, uncles, every sort of adult influence in his life was making poor choices and he has been figuring life out on his own as a middle schooler. The very people that should have been pouring good into him and teaching him weren’t. Yes, there is ownership on his part for his actions, I’m not dismissing that, but if we’re searching for a main culprit here to why we see such sinfulness in his story, here’s a good answer. This is much like our passage. Israel is deeply in sin and her priests haven’t been helping her like they ought to. They should have been teaching, guiding, and setting the example for them, but they weren’t. A byproduct then of such wayward priests is Israel turning to sin and rebellion to God. The ones who should have been helping them be followers of God weren’t. My conversation last night reminded me that we have people all around us that need directed to God and need to see an example of holiness. They need Jesus’ love being demonstrated to them and not our shame. If then no one who is lost is seeing your faithful life right now, find a way to make that happen. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2363
Daily DEVO 