Walking the Way: A daily devotional

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Fauxcest WARNING

Ezekiel 22:11 Some commit adultery, and others seduce their daughters-in-law or their half-sisters. Thought for the day – Fauxcest This is going to be one of the few posts that I’m going to say are for adults alone. So if the kids are nearby, maybe read this somewhere else. A few weeks ago I read an article on the rise of something called ‘fauxcest’. Apparently, it’s a thing. Fauxcest, or fictional incest porn, has been one of the fastest growing X-rated genres in recent years. It seems that one of the most universally accepted taboos incest is being normalised through online porn that is freely available to anyone with an internet connection. But this isn’t actually all that new. In 1524, an Italian writer named Pietro Aretino used the new technology of the printing press to mass-produce explicit sonnets — among the first pornography Europe had seen at scale. The lust wasn't new. The reach was. That's the pattern: give an old appetite a faster delivery system, and it stops ...

Amputations

Ezekiel 21:6 Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief. Thought for the day – Amputations In his book, ‘A grief observed’, the author CS Lewis writes that the death of a beloved is an amputation. It's not something we get over, it's something we learned to live with. Lewis is writing about the death of his wife Joy and is a remarkably different book to his previous book on suffering called ‘The problem of pain’. Because for Lewis it was no longer theoretical, or even theological, it was personal. Grief had hit home in a way that he could never have imagined. Many of you who listen to ‘Walking the Way’ will know that we as a family experienced our own loss a few years ago when my mom died. And as someone who, like Lewis, thought they were a bit of an expert on the subject of grief, pain and suffering, for me, like Lewis, it was no longer theoretical; it was very real. And while our verse today from Ezekiel, isn't about pe...

Holy Days

Ezekiel 20:12 Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy. Thought for the day – Holy days Christians have always been a bit awkward about the Sabbath. Saturday or Sunday, take your pick — we've argued about it for centuries. It's meant to be a day of rest, a day when we down tools completely. For our Jewish brothers and sisters, that's exactly what happens: nothing happens, full stop. We don't hold it quite so tightly. And I wonder if that's because we've never really understood what the Sabbath is for. In today's verse, God tells Ezekiel that He gave His people the Sabbaths as a sign between them and Him, so they would know that the Lord sanctifies them. Read that again. We don't have a Sabbath because a day is holy. We have a Sabbath because we are holy — the Lord has made us so. Not the day. The people. That's not nothing. It means our worship, whatever day we land on, is where our holiness...

The Lion in the Cage and the Lion on the Throne

Ezekiel 19:9 With hooks they pulled him into a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. They put him in prison, so his roar was heard no longer on the mountains of Israel. Thought for the day – The Lion in the Cage and the Lion on the Throne Ezekiel 19 is not a comfortable read. It's a funeral song for kings. God tells Ezekiel to take up a lament for the princes of Israel — pictured as lion cubs raised by a lioness, growing into fierce, capable predators. And then verse 9: "With hooks he pulled him into a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon. He was placed in prison, so his roar was heard no longer on the mountains of Israel" (NIV). The lion that once made kingdoms tremble ends up as an exhibit. Muzzled. Paraded. Silent. We actually know this isn't just poetry. Archaeologists digging in Babylon found ration tablets listing "Yau-kin, king of Judah" among the palace's captive dependents —...

Say what?

Ezekiel 18:2 Yet the Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Are my ways unjust, people of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust? Thought for the day – Say what? What is it about our faith, our Christian faith, that makes us special? I can tell you the things it's not, it's not the rules, it's not the buildings, it's not even our communities, what makes Christianity special is the fact that we have a God who holds us accountable but in ways that allows us to be free of our past. You may well be thinking, Ray, what are you talking about? In our verse today, God is challenging the understandings of the people of Israel, particularly the understanding that the sins of the fathers are persecuted on the children of the next few generations, and God is saying, no, that is not the case, the accountability lies with the person committing the sin, so the person who commits the sin will face the punishment, the person who does not sin will not face punishment, th...

What's your purpose?

Ezekiel 17:23 On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. Thought for the day – What is your purpose? Ezekiel’s vision is a vision of an eagle plucking the choicest leaves from a tree and planting it. It grows and grows and becomes this fantastic tree that provides shelter in the shade of it’s branches. That’s not where the vision ends but God comes back to it at the end of the chapter. And it got me thinking about what the purpose of a tree is and then what our purpose is, as our churches being places where those who are vulnerable and marginalised can find shelter. And I’m not being all social justice here. This is one of the purposes of the church. Scripture is clear about this. Right from the formation of Israel, the widow, the orphan and the foreigner have always been in the forefront of the p...