DAY 228 Read Ezekiel 12 through 14.
Today's reading: Ezekiel goes through some more play-acting to drive home the Lord's warnings against wickedness. In chapter 14, verses 3 and 4, he points out that idolatry is often a matter hidden in the heart.
Memory gem: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).
Thought for today:
When men decide in their hearts that they will not obey God their prayers are of no avail until they repent and surrender to the Lord. When a man sets up his idols in his heart and then prays to God, God will answer him according to his idols.
If we persistently slight God's truth and God's mercy, His Spirit will finally go from us. There will be no conviction of sin, no true repentance, no forgiveness.
Suppose that late on some dark night you see my home on fire, and to save my life you try to ring my telephone. But no warning call is possible because I have disconnected the phone that my sleep may not be disturbed. I sleep on--to fiery destruction. So God sends warning and conviction to men by the Holy Spirit.
We may set the alarm clock; but if we pay no attention to it or turn it off a few times, soon we can sleep right through its clatter. We become hardened to its warning.
So in spiritual things, many are "past feeling" (Ephesians 4:19). Their hearts become "fully set in them to do evil" (Ecclestiastes 8:11). In Christ's day the leaders of His nation rejected the Light of the world, and their house, the beautiful temple, was left unto them "desolate" (Luke 13:35). The presence of God had departed. So in the last days, the great world multitude will turn away from the Spirit of God and be carried away with a strong delusion.
Some reading these words may hear God's call to repent. Don't say No. Make it Yes. Don't delay. Saying Yes to God means choosing everlasting life.
----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
Ezekiel 13:10. "Untempered mortar"--Whitewash, which might make a wall look all right without strengthening it.
Today's reading: Ezekiel goes through some more play-acting to drive home the Lord's warnings against wickedness. In chapter 14, verses 3 and 4, he points out that idolatry is often a matter hidden in the heart.
Memory gem: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).
Thought for today:
When men decide in their hearts that they will not obey God their prayers are of no avail until they repent and surrender to the Lord. When a man sets up his idols in his heart and then prays to God, God will answer him according to his idols.
If we persistently slight God's truth and God's mercy, His Spirit will finally go from us. There will be no conviction of sin, no true repentance, no forgiveness.
Suppose that late on some dark night you see my home on fire, and to save my life you try to ring my telephone. But no warning call is possible because I have disconnected the phone that my sleep may not be disturbed. I sleep on--to fiery destruction. So God sends warning and conviction to men by the Holy Spirit.
We may set the alarm clock; but if we pay no attention to it or turn it off a few times, soon we can sleep right through its clatter. We become hardened to its warning.
So in spiritual things, many are "past feeling" (Ephesians 4:19). Their hearts become "fully set in them to do evil" (Ecclestiastes 8:11). In Christ's day the leaders of His nation rejected the Light of the world, and their house, the beautiful temple, was left unto them "desolate" (Luke 13:35). The presence of God had departed. So in the last days, the great world multitude will turn away from the Spirit of God and be carried away with a strong delusion.
Some reading these words may hear God's call to repent. Don't say No. Make it Yes. Don't delay. Saying Yes to God means choosing everlasting life.
----------------
Difficult or obscure words:
Ezekiel 13:10. "Untempered mortar"--Whitewash, which might make a wall look all right without strengthening it.
RSS Feed
