Walking the Way: A daily devotional

Ezekiel 44:23 They must teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is unholy. They must show the people how to tell the difference between what is clean and what is unclean.    Thought for the day – We are a royal priesthood Today’s chapter in Ezekiel is striking in that it is very specific to the priests that would lead worship in the new Temple. There are strict conditions for what they wear, how they look, and what they do. and one the ones that stand out to me is how they were to demonstrate the holiness of God. Something I believe we as the people of God, who are now his royal priesthood, should be doing as well.   You may well think ‘Wait Ray, I’m not a priest!’ Well, we are. Peter reminds us that we are a "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession," called to proclaim God’s excellencies. (1 Peter 2:9); we all serve as representatives of God. Priesthood in its widest sense is a representative ministry. We represent ...

  Ezekiel 43:5 The Lord's Spirit lifted me to my feet and carried me to the inner courtyard, where I saw that the Lord's glory had filled the temple. Thought for the day – Glory to God In Chapter 10 we see the God leave the Temple because of the sin of the people of Israel, and in today’s chapter in Ezekiel sees the glory of God return to his new Temple. How things have been turned around. Israel has been judged and punished and will now be redeemed and bought home. And so God is going back to the place where he will be worshipped again. Ichabod, the Spirit has departed, has become YHWH Shammah. The Lord is here. There is a nice arc to this, and I think this arc of God leaving and returning has profound implications for us as the people of God. So much of what we’ve been reading about in Ezekiel has felt hard. It’s been brutal and disheartening. And as I’ve read Ezekiel I couldn’t help but think the Church and if Ezekiel is speaking to us as the Body of Christ. In...

Ezekiel 42:13 Then the man said to me, ‘The northern and southern chambers that face the courtyard are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the Lord will eat the most holy offerings. There they will deposit the most holy offerings – the grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings – for the place is holy.  Thought for the day – Holy food: One Table, Many Understandings Amongst the myriad of things Christians have found to argue over, possibly one of the most divisive is the Eucharist, Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper. And the fact that we have different names for what is in essence a remembrance of what Jesus did for us is a reminder that even on this we can’t agree, and so I asked my Claude AI to summarise the primary positions in the Church. Here’s what it came up with: Ever sat at a table where everyone's eating the same meal but tasting something different? That's Holy Communion across the Christian family. Walk into a Roman Catholic Mass a...

Ezekiel 41:19 Each winged creature had two faces: A human face looking at the palm tree on one side, and a lion's face looking at the palm tree on the other side.   Thought for the day – Patterns As I was reading the chapter today, I found myself wondering about the idea that patterns play an important part of Scripture. Ezekiel’s descriptions of the winged creatures on the walls and doors of the Temple are an echo of his vision of the winged creatures before the throne of God, the Cherubim. The same Cherubim appear before the throne of God in John’s Revelation, In Solomon’s Temple and also there a Cherubim the guards the gates to the Garden of Eden. A reminder that there is more to life than is explained in our theories. The Cherubim in Judaism play a very specific role. They are guardians of sacred spaces, hence the Cherubim at the Garden of Eden. But they also appear on the curtain dividing the Holy of Holies and they overshadow the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant. All of ...

Ezekiel 40:41 So there was a total of eight tables, four inside and four outside, where the animals were killed Thought for the day – Grace witha floor plan I don’t if anyone listening, has ever walked through a brand new building. There’s a smell of cement, wood and dust. There’s a freshness about it that is exciting but at the same time a real sense of anticipation of the things that will happen that building. And at times it may feel almost like a mausoleum.  A memorial to the things to come. In today’s chapter, Ezekiel is taken in a vision to Jerusalem and shown the new Temple that would be built. And it’s  all very pristine, very new, right down to the tables that would be used for the sacrificing of animals. There’s a sense of efficiency and order that belies that bloodshed that will follow. There's something quite unnerving about that precision. Ezekiel doesn't just shown a Temple — he shown precision and efficiency. Tables of a specific length, specific width...

  Ezekiel 36:9 For I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.   Thought for the day – The gardening God One of my abiding memories as a child is going to visit my great aunt Nellie on their smallholding in Zimbabwe. Nellie was an amazing gardener. There wasn’t much she couldn’t grow and her garden was always full of snapdragons, foxgloves, flame lilies and roses. And she would spend hours cultivating the flowers and preparing the ground for the next season’s planting. And that love of gardening stayed with her all the way till her final few years. And today’s verse from Ezekiel took me to her garden and the time I spent there as a kid and watching my aunt intentionally do things in her garden to make it the paradise I remember. And that’s the things about God. God is intentional about everything. Even when he is preparing Israel for coming home. He is preparing them for their return, and he is being very intentional about it. Hear the wor...