For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been convicted to seek to develop a disciplined prayer life. It is still a work in progress. Please pray for me, that the Holy Spirit may show me how to pray in a disciplined manner.
Someone who is willing to openly rebuke you for you actions is preferable than someone who loves you, but hides it. Those who care for you may hurt your feelings by what they say and do, but they will do so in an attempt to help you become a better person. In the meantime, your enemies will tell you that your mistakes are triumphs.
Let us praise the Lord with all that we are. No one can praise the Lord as much as He deserves. It is not possible to declare all the wonderful things He has done for us. Let us not think that we are better than the Israelites who rebelled against the Lord in the desert. We too have sinned against Him. And just as God saved the Israelites despite their sins, so He has rescued us. After God repeatedly saved them from the consequences of their rebellion against Him, only then did they finally sing His praises and worship only Him. Let us remember the great things the Lord has done for us and praise His name.
Under the old order priests had to offer sacrifices daily for the sins of both themselves and the people. Jesus offered Himself up as a sacrifice once. In addition, the priests under the old order died and new priests needed to be appointed to take their place. Jesus lives forever and therefore is able to intercede for who come to God through Him for all time. There will never be a need for another high priest to take His place.
Under the old system, there was a class of people set up to be intermediaries between man and God. In order to approach God, people needed to go through these intermediaries. Under Jesus, our intermediary is God. We do not need anyone else to intercede with God for us. We can approach Him directly.
Ezekiel warns that a day of judgement is coming when even the most righteous of people will only be able to save themselves. A day when even if the most righteous people of history were to intercede and pray on behalf of a sinner, it would not be enough. The sinner will still face judgement for their sins. If you have met those who suffer such judgement, you will understand their great wickedness and it will make you feel less bad about the suffering they experience.
Ezekiel talks about how God lifted up the people of Judah and made them prosperous. Yet despite all that God had done for them, they turned away from Him and worshiped idols. I see this on the land around me. The people think that their beauty, fame, and wealth is theirs. They fail to remember that it was all a gift from God. They use the gifts God has given them to set up shrines and make offerings to other gods. All of this arouses God’s anger. But the final straw, the thing which He must bring judgement against, is when they offer their children as sacrifices to those gods. Whenever I read in the Old Testament about the people offering their children as sacrifices, I feel conviction regarding the issue of abortion. The people of our society offer their children as sacrifices on the altar of convenience and argue that it is their right and prerogative. If our society does not turn from this great sin God is going to bring a great judgement against this people, just as He did Judah and Jerusalem. He will not allow to stand a people who sacrifice their children on the altar to their god. Passages such as this are also a judgement on Muslim societies which sacrifice their children as suicide bombers.