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 protections God puts in place. They represent the communities that no one see or cares about. Jesus describes them as those who are hungry, thirsty, lonely, in prison. These are the people that we should be providing shelter for. These are the people our branches need to be providing shade for.

Does your church do that? If not, why not? That is part of our mission, and it’s an integral part of the great commission to make disciples. We are the tree made from the choicest shoot. We are the offshoot of the vine. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. Let’s act like it.

A Covenant That Holds

Ezekiel 16:60

Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

 

Thought for the day – A Covenant That Holds

In 1755, John Wesley held the first Covenant Service. He gathered ordinary Methodists — miners, weavers, servants — and asked them to renew their promise to God for the year ahead. It became a tradition we still keep: "I am no longer my own, but yours." It's a sacred prayer. But if we're honest, most years we walk into it fully aware of how badly we kept last year's promise.

And that’s the backdrop of our verse today. Ezekiel 16 is one of the hardest chapters in the Bible — a long, account of Israel's unfaithfulness, spelled out in graphic detail. God isn't gentle about it. And yet, right in the middle of that catalogue of failure, we get this: "Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you." (Ezekiel 16:60, NKJV)

We need to pay attention to what's carrying the covenant. Not Israel's memory — God's. Not their faithfulness — His. The word "nevertheless" is doing enormous work here. It's the hinge between what we deserve and what grace gives anyway.

 

That's the whole shape of the gospel, isn't it? We don't come to the Covenant Service because we kept our side well. We come because God keeps His side perfectly, even when — especially when — we haven't. So if this year has already gone sideways for you, take heart. The covenant was never resting on your grip on God. It rests on His grip on you.

 

Just a Piece of Wood

 

Ezekiel 15:2

 “Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? 

Thought for the day – Just a Piece of Wood

We used to have a house that had a grape vine in the garden. Every year it would grow and try to take over the garden and every year we would cut it back. What struck me was just how soft vine wood is. It had the structural integrity of paper. Vine wood, it turns out, is good for exactly one thing: bearing fruit. Take that away, and you're left with something too soft to build with and too brittle to carve. Not even sturdy enough to hang a cup on.

God says the same of His people here, and I confess it lands a little close to home at the moment — especially in ministry. It's tempting, when you've been doing this a while, to find your worth in the role: the collar, the title, the years served, the meetings chaired. But Ezekiel won't let us get away with that. Cut off from fruitfulness, none of it holds any weight. We're vine wood, not oak. There's no fallback identity to lean on.

But here's the grace in it — the vine was never meant to produce fruit by gritting its teeth and trying harder. Jesus takes up this very image in John 15: "I am the vine, you are the branches." Fruit comes through spending time attached to the vine, abiding in Jesus, not achieving. It's grown, not manufactured.

So if you're weary in ministry, or just weary in general — this isn't about working harder to justify your position and purpose. It's an invitation to stay close to Jesus, the Vine, and let the fruit come as it will.

Hard repentace

Ezekiel 14:6

 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations. 

Thought for the day – Repent

In our last episode we looked at the weak walls that we build as a façade to protect ourselves, and how God ha promised to tear them down. Our verse today places our motivations and our sacred cows firmly in the firing line.

Our chapter today is God calling the people of Israel away from idolatry. We’ve talked about idolatry before on the WTW and I’ve always defines idolatry as the things we choose before God. The things that that stop us from worshipping and serving God to the full because they are more important than God. And this speaks to our motivations, our desires and our fears.

In our verse today, we are called to repent, turn away from our idols, and turn our faces away from all our abominations. Strong words, but they are an indication of God’s feeling towards our sacred cows. And challenging our motivations, our desires and fears, require us to name those things. And that takes courage. It means admitting that we have placed those things before God and asking God to forgive us.

God will of course. He is love and grace. And his desire is that none would perish, which was why he sent Jesus. We crucify the things that hold us in bondage on the cross with Christ. It is through Jesus’ sacrifice and victory that we can lay down the things that stop us from worshipping God before the cross. It’s still hard. But then so is living a life based on idolatry and lies.

 

Weak walls

Ezekiel 13:14

So I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be uncovered; it will fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

 

Thought for the day – Weak walls

There’s a thought-provoking image in this prophecy from Ezekiel. God is challenging the false prophets that said that Ezekiel’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem was a lie.  He's presenting those lies as weak walls. The idea here is that they may look solid, but actual fact, there is nothing to them.

And as I was thinking about this verse this morning, it really hit home to me because It got me thinking about what we present to people to stop people thinking we might be weak. And maybe God is challenging that in us today. God is saying to us, you cannot have any pretense. You cannot put up any walls that might hide the fact that you are struggling, That you might be deceiving yourself or others, and that this will have an impact on your witness and your life as the people of God.

It's hard for us as the people of God to acknowledge that there might be deceit or any kind of maliciousness. But as Paul says in Romans, we battle against our sin. We do the things that we do not want to do and we don't do the things that we want to do. And to paraphrase Paul, ‘oh what a wretched man I am. Who would save me from this life?’ The answer to that question is obviously Jesus and what Jesus does for us.

Jesus tears down the walls. Jesus breaks open the parts of our lives that need his light, his love, his grace and his mercy. In the same way that Jesus kicked down the gates of hell and tore down the barriers between life and death so that death could be overcome. So, Jesus tears down the weak walls in our lives. Walls made of untempered plaster. Walls that look strong, but in reality aren't.

 

Trembling bread

 

Ezekiel 12:18

“Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink water with trembling and with anxiety.

 

Thought for the day – Trembling Bread

It's a strange order from God. Ezekiel isn't told to warn Jerusalem with words this time — he's told to become the warning. Eat your dinner shaking. Drink your water like your hands won't quite hold the cup. Do it now, while there's still bread on the table, so the people can see what's coming before it arrives.

It reminds me of Corrie ten Boom's account of her family's meals during the Nazi occupation of Haarlem, while they were hiding Jewish refugees upstairs. She wrote of dinners eaten with one ear tuned to the stairs, bread passed around a table where safety was never guaranteed — an ordinary meal turned into an act of quiet endurance, because nobody knew if this was the meal that would be interrupted.

That's what God is doing through Ezekiel — pulling the coming disaster out of the abstract and into the kitchen, the appetite, the ordinary Tuesday. But notice what God doesn't say. He doesn't tell Ezekiel to stop eating. Trembling and eating aren't opposites here — Ezekiel still eats, still drinks. The fear doesn't cancel the meal. It just changes how it's held.

Maybe that's the word for some of us this week — eating our own bread with quaking, carrying real anxiety into ordinary days. The invitation isn't to pretend it away. It's to keep eating anyway, trusting the God who sees the trembling and hasn't left the table either.

New things

 

Ezekiel 10:19

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh

 

Thought for the day – New beginnings

In our last episode, we talked about things coming to an end. I talked about Ichabod and how it meant the glory had departed, or no glory. And yet in our verse today, God is promising that actually there will be new things happening. How as the old things come to an end, new things begin. The promise is that God will give them a new heart. That he would give them a new spirit. That he would remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. The idea here is that rather than the rigid structures of religiosity ,God would give them a living, beating,  heart built on the relationship with Him.

 

And so after our conversation about God's glory departing his church and the death of the structures around us, I think this verse gives us hope. Because God has not abandoned us. God will do a new thing. It may not be something we recognize, and it's probably not going to be something we agree with, but God will do a new thing.

 

It will be a thing that brings life. It will be a living, breathing thing. It will be something that will blow people's minds. And personally, I can't wait. I long to see the Kingdom of God come every day, as do all the people I know who want God's reign to come. We want to see the unjust structures of this world torn down. We want to see the persecuted set free. We want to see Jesus reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. A living, breathing relationship that we have with our Lord and Saviour. That's what we want. That's what we yearn for. And that is what God has promised in our verse today.

Ichabod

Ezekiel 10:4

And the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. 

 

Thought for the day – Ichabod

Here’s the Hebrew word for the day. Ichabod. Most people will associate it with Ichabod Crane, The main character in the story of the Headless Horseman. But we first read about ichabod in the book of 1 Samuel where we read that the glory of the Lord has departed. Ichabod itself means no glory. And it's essentially the theme of today's chapter in Ezekiel. The glory of the Lord slowly leaves the Temple of Jerusalem. And that's a hard one for me. So we read in the books of Kings and the books of Chronicles how the glory of the Lord fills the temple as God comes down to his new resting place. In Ezekiel chapter 10 we see that process reversed.

 

The entire chapter is filled with this amazing imagery of cherubim and the glory of God. And I would imagine Ezekiel watching this would have been completely awestruck. But also heartbroken. In much the same way that I think we look at our Christian churches and see the decline in our churches. Certainly here in the West. I'm not suggesting for a second that God has abandoned his church. I'm not suggesting for a second that God has abandoned some denominations, there is just a sense of sorrow as we see churches close and congregations decline. And I can't help but think has the glory of God departed those churches. I don't know the answer to the question, I don't know the answer to the question of the decline and decay. All I can hang on to is the Jesus promised that he would never leave us nor forsake us. The structures around us might be collapsing, like the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, but they are just structures. God has not abandoned us.

 

Marked

Ezekiel 9:4

And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.

 

Thought for the day – Marked

Here’s the Greek word for the day. Sphragis. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it. It means sealed. And it’s a pattern that we see in Scripture, most notably Ezekiel and the book of Revelation. That sense that God seals his people. Particularly during times of persecution and trial.

 

So, Ezekiel’s vision has a man with a writing block going round marking those who grieve what grieves God. And then the executioners are let loose on Jerusalem. The Sphragis, the mark, or seal is what distinguishes those spared from those who are struck. The mark is a sign of ownership, belonging and protection during times of judgement.

 

But in Revelation we see the opposite. Those who reject God are marked with the sign of the beast. And I believe John relying on his knowledge of the Scriptures uses this to further distinguish between those that choose God and those that reject him. And so, we see whether it’s in Ezekiel or Revelation everyone gets marked, one way or the other. The choice is ours. So what will you choose?

Look North

Ezekiel 8:5

God said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked toward the north, and there in the entrance to the north gate beside the altar, I saw the idol that stirs up God’s anger.

 

Thought for the day – Look North

Here's what gets me about this verse. The idol isn't out in the city somewhere. It's not in some pagan temple down the road. It's right there — by the gate of the altar. In God's own house. Tucked in right next to the place where people came to worship.

And God says to Ezekiel: look. Lift up your eyes. Don't pretend you can't see it.

I find that uncomfortable, if I'm honest. Because it's easy to spot the idols out there — the obvious ones, other people's ones. It's much harder to notice the one I've quietly parked next to my own faith. The thing I've come to lean on more than God. The habit, the worry, the ambition, the grudge I keep warm.

Wesley believed grace doesn't just forgive us and leave us as we are. Sanctifying grace gets to work in the heart, clearing out the clutter we've let pile up near the altar. But it starts with looking. God doesn't drag the idol out before we've even seen it — he invites us to lift our eyes and admit it's there.

So maybe that's the prayer this morning. Lord, show me what I've set up near the altar. And then — gently, the way only you can — help me take it down. Look north today. See what's there. Grace is already at work.

 

The End is nigh!

Ezekiel 7:6

The end is coming. The end is coming. It is stirring itself up against you. It is coming! 

Thought for the day – The end is nigh!

According the a Pew report in 2010, 75% of Christians in the US believe that Christ will return. That’s down from 79% in 2006. Of those who believe Jesus will return only about 1 in 10 believe Jesus will return within their lifetime. So for the majority of believers, the end is nigh, but not imminently. What a change from the early church who firmly held that Christ’s return was imminent. Granted that was nearly 2000 years ago, no wonder the idea of Jesus returning seems more like a distant promise than a close reality.

Where do you sit with this? Are you of the belief that Christ’s return is imminent, within your lifetime, Or is it something we just long for and most likely won’t see this side of eternity during our lifetime? And what does Scripture say about Jesus’ return? There are effectively 6 principles:

1. The return will be visible and universal — not hidden or private

2. It will be sudden and unexpected — like a thief in the night, like lightning

3. It will involve judgment — separating the righteous from the unrighteous

4. It will bring resurrection — the dead raised, death defeated

5. It will mean consummation — God's kingdom fully and finally established

6. The timing is unknown — and Jesus is explicit about that

Wherever we stand on the matter, these principles should be our guiding light when it comes to discussions about the end of the age. And maybe we should be a bit the writers of the Nicene Creed who simply said: "he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead" and not worry particularly about the details.

When will they learn?

 

Ezekiel 6:15

I will use my power against them and destroy the land, from the desert to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Thought for the day – When will they learn?

I was watching the movie Sully recently. It's the movie about the pilot that landed his passenger jet in the Hudson River in New York. And one of the things that struck me most about that was just how people seemed to think that they knew better than Sully did about what had happened. The simulations, everything, just seemed to be rigged against Sully and his co-pilot. And it got me thinking about when will we learn. The whole point of the movie was about the bravery of Sully and his courage to stand up and be counted and stand up for the truth. And yet the authorities seemed dead set to disprove him. 

When would they learn? 

And it also got me thinking about how it takes something really horrible happening for us to stop and think about what's gone wrong. 

When will we learn?

So again in the news today there was an article about one of our National Health Service trusts and the care that it gives to mothers and newborn babies. And how that care had fallen far short of what people expected. And so an inquiry is being launched to discover what happened. 

When will we learn?

God's words to the people of Israel today, I will use my power against them and destroy the land from the desert to Dibla, then they will know that I am the Lord, is an example of how it takes a catastrophe before we learn. And surely we as people have the intelligence to think through our actions to come to the logical conclusion but we as Christians have something additional to simply logic. We have the Holy Spirit who is able to guide us and provide us with the information and the discernment that we need to make sure that we don't get to a point where there are lessons to be learned because things have gone horribly wrong. 

So today will you allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. To speak into situations that might be heading south, but with a bit of forethought and prayer and a bit of discernment, we'll be able to pull up. So that we don't have to have an inquiry about something that's gone horribly wrong.

Compassion Fatigue

 

Ezekiel 5:15

The nations that are around you will ridicule you and laugh at you. When I punish you because of my anger, fury, and fierce revenge, you will become something ridiculed and something horrible. I, the Lord, have spoken.

 

Thought for the day – Compassion fatigue

I wonder how Ezekiel must have felt getting these prophecies. Living in Babylon, far away from Jerusalem, he was getting prophecies about things that were happening in real time to people that he probably knew and cared about. And yet even here, God was asking Ezekiel to say things to the people of Jerusalem that would have no doubt hurt him and made him worry.

 

I don't think we can ever understand what Ezekiel was going through. Knowing that what he was prophesying was coming true and then hearing reports of the prophecies coming true.

 

And while we are never going to be in Ezekiel's position, I wonder how we respond to bad news coming from faraway places. Sometimes I think we develop something called compassion fatigue. A situation where we just cannot be bothered with anybody else's difficult circumstances, particularly those far away that don't really impact us.

 

A good example is the Ukrainian war. To be honest, I'm not sure we really care about the Ukrainian war as much as we did when it first started. And yet there are still people dying on the front lines. There are still people dying in drone attacks and missile attacks. There are Christian pastors being challenged because of the stand they take against Russia or against Ukraine for that matter. Last week we saw the cathedral in Kyiv bombed.

 

Have we developed compassion fatigue? Quite possibly. And maybe we need to be asking God to forgive us for that. Maybe we need to be asking God to renew our hearts so that we can show compassion to those who need it most again.