Confirmation Of Calling

I love saying that.
Confirmation of Calling.
Maybe it's not, maybe it is.
Maybe I should simply say Confirmation of the Holy Spirit.
or Confirmation of James 4:17.
or Confirmation of the love of God, the goodness of God.
He blessed me this past weekend, and I want to grasp that blessedness for the rest of my life.
I hope that others might be blessed. That is the point of course. To bless others through God blessing me.

Hebrews and Ezekiel are still talking with eachother. I've not journaled about it, but I've been seeing some things.
In Ezekiel 40, where the angel shows up to Ezekiel, he says Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see.

Imagine how amazing it would be to hear. "Look and listen! This is why you've been brought here! This is your purpose! Your whole life has brought you to this point. Look! Listen! Pay attention! And tell others what you experience!'
Man.
To get a full confirmation like that would be great... wait, did I get something like that?
like it, yes. it? not that I know of.
But I think that the examples of Ezekiel and Isaiah and others are the exceptions, not the rule. They hear God speak to them and witness very clear things, and then report them.
Or what if it was fuzzy? What if it was vague for them, and only in hindsight did they understand it (or partially understand)
Either way, it's encouraging, because they either:
-Experience God the same way we do- in a hazy, fuzzy way- and thus we are brothers in slight confusion
-Experience a God that is so remarkable and true that they have such amazing memories and images and visions and messages
So God is true, no matter what.
And what are we supposed to do with that verse? Can we always look, listen, and pay attention. Maybe not 100% 100% of the time, but maybe 21% 100% of the time, or 100% 35% of the time. It can be both, I think. We can go through life trying to be aware of God, and then have times where we are truly devoting ourselves to experiencing Him (i.e. devotions...) We flicker on and off, but when we're on, we're on, and it happens like a flourescent bulb- it flickers, but overall, it's usually almost always on. That's how it is with us.
I think...

O God, that I might have more certainty. And that I might have more faith in uncertain situations.

Ezekiel 34

Sometimes I wonder if God desolates and destroys so that His People can have a chance to restore and redeem, to show love and grace, to help and serve, to reach and preach.
Edom was destroyed because of its evil deeds, yes. And then, the Israelites were not supposed to show mercy, yes. But we have a new command: Love one another.
And so when other people lose their "life" (things that make up their life) and curse God and wonder why He's done this, first we must help them. We can share with them what God has said, but, remember, we must be "speaking the truth in love" (eph 4:15)
So, God destroys but he rebuilds through us, His Body.

God, our Shepherd and High Priest, who saves us, leads us, and makes sure we don't fall away

Ezekiel 34 and Hebrews 5
God is Our Shepherd.
God is Our High Priest.
When others lead us wrongly, He comes in and takes over.
When we are struggling, He comes in and helps us, because He has been where we are.

11'For this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
I myself will search for my sheep
and look after them.
12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them,
so will I look after my sheep.
I will rescue them from all the places
where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries,
and I will bring them into their own land.
I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel,
in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.
14 I will tend them in a good pasture,
and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land.
There they will lie down in good grazing land,
and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.
I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak,
but the sleek and the strong I will destroy.
I will shepherd the flock with justice.

That last line is what God does: He rules with justice.

In Hebrews, we see another picture...

Every high priest is:
selected from among men
and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
2He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray,
since he himself is subject to weakness.
3This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.
4 No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was.
5 So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest.
But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.[a]"[b] 6And he says in another place, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."[c]
7During the days of Jesus' life on earth,
he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears
to the one who could save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered
9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
10and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

In Hebrews 4, at the end we see this:
16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

God is Our Shepherd who rules with justice and our high priest who rules with mercy
We need both
I need both

God, please do according to me what I deserve. Let my punishment and let the consequences for my sins fall on me, whether it be pain or guilt or shame. But let it fall on me so that it may destroy the greater evil, the sin in me. Lord, I let go. Or at least I try.
And God, thank you for your mercy. I pray that you might forgive me and that we might be able to walk together along this road, with nothing in between us. Lord, I give over this sin and move on. In your grace and power.
dv
ecw

Ezekiel 30 and Hebrews 1

Ezekiel 30- Hebrews 1
The day of the Lord is a day of fear and trembling, power and might, doom and destruction
The son of the Lord is a man of radiance and glory, love and truth, grace and salvation
How do they match up?
In Ezekiel 30, it talks of God using Babylon to take down Egypt- evil to estinquish another evil.
In Hebrews 1, we hear about how Christ is better/more important/greater than the angels.
Bad to stop bad
Good over good
Of course, aren't they connected?
The death of Christ and the Doom by Babylon
The death of Christ was horrible, painful, ugly, evil and sin-wrought. But it killed an even greater enemy- Sin and Satan and Death itself.
The attack of Babylon was no doubt full of pain and wrought with death. But it destroyed another enemy- Egypt

We see Egypt as the symbol of sin, time and time again. So God uses evil to take us out of another evil? Yes. maybe so. ?
Maybe it shows how God can use the effects of our sin to kick us back out of the sin. Like how Jesus took on the punishment so that the actual "thing" would be gone. Of course, it's all to get rid of a greater enemy. God uses pain, guilt, hurt, stress, etc. to get at the core problem- and destroy it.
We have to see through the bad stuff and see that He's doing it for greater Good. Because He is. He is.

And to bring in Hebrews 1... if I can... *gulp*
Just as there is a Bad badder than the bad, there is a Good gooder than the good.
There are many things in the Christian faith that we cling to- The Word, Prayer, Worship, Missions, Asceticism, Tithing, the Church, even Faith, Hope, Love, Joy...
and so we hold hands with them, keep them as our friends that help us know our Friend... but we must not let go of the sight of our Friend. Christ, the visible God we can know. He is our Good. He is the One to which all these goods point. We must follow their pointed fingers and come to Him, "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being".

God, keep our eyes on the Good. Help us see it in the bad and through the good. Rid us of the Bad, and bring us to the Good.

It's amazing how great a day can be and how it can just... turn.

Titus 2 and Ezekiel 23
Lord, let me work on self-control, so that I can be your man. Help me to move from a young man to an older man. Let no one despise me, but let them see the good I do, and let me be eager to do good.
Attack me if you have to, but let my sins begone. I want to no longer have these sinful desires. You say that I will lose them. But I will also lose much and endure much pain. Lord, let your will be done. That's all I can say.
That's all I will say.
Your Boy
Evan

SCRIPTURE FOR TODAY

Titus 1 and Ezekiel 22
Lord let me be a man of upstanding purity. Let me be blameless. Let my members not commit evil, but if it happens, purify me, no matter how hard it is. Help me to be an elder, and a man to stand in the gap.
Titus 1:8

Loving Places

A place that's been like home to me for very, very, very long, has changed... it's lost some of its self, and so have I. I watched a movie recently, with a quote that really sparked my heart.

"So what will be left of those stories? Are we going to have to constuct an imaginary city to house our memories? Because when you love something, every time a bit of it goes, you lose a bit of yourselves... - The Brave One

And then this one as well...

“But it is terrible to fear the place you once loved”