It’s Friday…Swim Upstream

It can be very difficult to be uncompromising in following God’s values and principles in a world that follows anything but. The prophet Ezekiel knew this well. He was made an object lesson to the people of Israel and Judah. God told him to act out visual illustrations of judgment and desecration, like lying on his side for more than a year as a picture of Israel’s sin and cooking his food over excrement to illustrate a defiled nation. God took the delight of Ezekiel’s eyes, his wife, from him one day and told him not to mourn her death. Ezekiel had to embody the hard truth of judgment.

The message of God’s judgment wasn’t popular, of course. Many probably looked at him as mentally ill – after all, it’s not every day they would see someone shave his head and scatter the hair in three directions to illustrate exile. As in our culture today, people who were used to hearing flattering words from their false prophets then didn’t welcome Ezekiel’s depressing message. In the prophetic cafeteria line, his words were not a favorite entrée.

Because of the nature of Ezekiel’s message – or more accurately, because of his relationship with a counter-culture God – He would have to be stubborn and unyielding. He would have to know the Truth and stick with it, regardless of the pressure imposed on him from his peers. He would have to endure threats and abuse of all kinds. The prophet with an acute sensitivity to God’s voice would have to become extremely insensitive to the voice of rebellious people.

“I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint.”  (Ezekiel 23:9)

Like Ezekiel, we need to be harder than flint when it comes to living the Truth, particularly in our rebellious culture. Those who have truly heard from God, who are secure in their relationship with Him, and who have seen (and remember) His great works, need to be immune to the world’s negative responses. We have no need to be abrasive – compassion and mercy are vital aspects of the Truth – but we need to refuse to be swayed by the go-with-the-flow culture. Deep in our hearts, we need to Swim Upstream.

There’s no way to do that without complete confidence in what God has spoken and revealed in His Word. And get this, confidence can be had by every follower of God. He promised it to Ezekiel and He promises it to us. Let’s do this, in a compromising world let’s be uncompromising.

Have a favorable weekend. Make it better by worshiping The LORD with those who desire to follow His lead with all that is in them, because they know without Him they are lost.

All For Jesus – Nothing More, Nothing Less, Nothing Else.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, The King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15b-16)