JMD Devotional 193 Ezekiel 36:24-27 Life only God can Give
For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.
Before my breakdown, I was a workaholic in the Church, over-extended, trying to control everything, always trying to earn God’s favor through doing my own works of flesh. Like the Pharisees, my motives were impure, I was self-righteous, my false piety concealed hellish attitudes. I came up with my own agenda and demanded that God get on the bandwagon and bless it. I was so prideful I thought I was really giving something to God through my self-sacrifice; but it was all wood, hay and stubble. I thought I was ‘God’s gift to the Church’; how misguided, how blind. God did not need anything I could give; He was unimpressed with my ‘works’. He had to destroy it all; and break me down to nothing to heal me and make me into a person He could use. I had to learn that is was more important to BE than to DO (to be authentic, fully submitted, completely dependent and totally committed to God’s will, way and person). I had to die to self-rule, self-sufficiency, self-importance. I had more tricks than a Swiss Army knife has blades; and my reliance on lesser things had to be crushed one-by-one until only God remained. When I finally exhausted all of my own efforts; God could finally do what only He can do; He gave me His Spirit, a new Heart and a new life centered in Him.
Christianity is God reaching down to us; which makes obsolete ‘Religion’ characterized my men reaching in vain to God. Only God has the reach to bridge the great divide.
With my new (God-given) eyes I see myself in the following passage: Vs 31 “Then you shall [earnestly] remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominable deeds.”
Dear God,
I do loath my old, dead works, false self, my iniquity. I now see that there was nothing attractive about this unregenerate man until You came to live in him (in me). Help me to be and stay authentic; vitally united to You and abiding in the True Vine. Please lift my head, help me to look forward; to find my significance in You. Give me an obedient heart and a steadfast spirit.
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
http://SaintJamesPoetry.blogspot.com
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
http://jamesezadventures.blogspot.com/
Before my breakdown, I was a workaholic in the Church, over-extended, trying to control everything, always trying to earn God’s favor through doing my own works of flesh. Like the Pharisees, my motives were impure, I was self-righteous, my false piety concealed hellish attitudes. I came up with my own agenda and demanded that God get on the bandwagon and bless it. I was so prideful I thought I was really giving something to God through my self-sacrifice; but it was all wood, hay and stubble. I thought I was ‘God’s gift to the Church’; how misguided, how blind. God did not need anything I could give; He was unimpressed with my ‘works’. He had to destroy it all; and break me down to nothing to heal me and make me into a person He could use. I had to learn that is was more important to BE than to DO (to be authentic, fully submitted, completely dependent and totally committed to God’s will, way and person). I had to die to self-rule, self-sufficiency, self-importance. I had more tricks than a Swiss Army knife has blades; and my reliance on lesser things had to be crushed one-by-one until only God remained. When I finally exhausted all of my own efforts; God could finally do what only He can do; He gave me His Spirit, a new Heart and a new life centered in Him.
Christianity is God reaching down to us; which makes obsolete ‘Religion’ characterized my men reaching in vain to God. Only God has the reach to bridge the great divide.
With my new (God-given) eyes I see myself in the following passage: Vs 31 “Then you shall [earnestly] remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominable deeds.”
Dear God,
I do loath my old, dead works, false self, my iniquity. I now see that there was nothing attractive about this unregenerate man until You came to live in him (in me). Help me to be and stay authentic; vitally united to You and abiding in the True Vine. Please lift my head, help me to look forward; to find my significance in You. Give me an obedient heart and a steadfast spirit.
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
http://SaintJamesPoetry.blogspot.com
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
http://jamesezadventures.blogspot.com/
posted by James M. Dinsmore at 6:04 AM
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