Letting God Bring Us Back to Life

Dry Bones...

I've been reading in Matthew the past several weeks. Really camping out and getting into the teachings of Jesus. He's a pretty cool guy. And he's got what I like to call "testicular fortitude"... Standing up to the political and religious leaders of the day and calling them on the carpet. One time, he busts off on seven "Woe to you..." statements... criticizing the Pharisees.... Here's one of them:

What Jesus has been yelling at them about is their lack of compassion, their nitpicking over the rules, their tendency to criticize others rather than change themselves... their pride, and their neglect of what Jesus says God really wants... "justice, mercy, and faithfulness" I just thought it was interesting until today I sat down and flopped open my Bible at random and came across this passage.... It's long, but read through it... because it's important.

So Jesus yells at the Pharisees for being a bag of dry bones... And Ezekiel was asked by God to speak the word that brought an army full of dead bones back to life....

So then.... If we find ourselves in the same positions at the Pharisees... prideful... or focusing on the wrong things, and neglecting the important ones... is thehe hope for us?

You see, there is so much work to be done: for me it's this video to process, this diaper to change, that phone call to make, that worship folder to design...

Sometimes I get focused on the work, and not the mission....
The MISSION is to reach out to the people that God misses the most, and within the context of loving relationships, lead them to a personal relationship with Jesus. I forget that, and focus on something important, but far LESS important.
Just like the Pharisees forgot about justice, mercy, and faithfulness, and then the focused on the rules, and how good they were at keeping them.
Does that make me a white washed tomb? Just full of empty bones? Yes. Because in Roman's it says the wages of sin is death.
And as Pastor Mike McAvoy says, "Sin is anything less than God's best" So in a way, when I am not operating in God's strength, when I'm focused on my own feelings, when I'm doing it my way, I'm experiencing death.