Read today’s texts first: Ezekiel 4-7; Revelation 3
God’s passion for us calls for a passionate response!
Ezekiel was one passionate prophet. I’ve been a Bible teacher for half a century, beginning as a teenager teaching children not much younger than myself at Hastings Foursquare Church. My dad was a Sunday School Superintendent so I learned how to make my lessons memorable by using visual aids. I would bring in simple props, draw pictures, or use a flannel graph (before computers, power point, and projectors). But the object lessons God asked Ezekiel to use required a whole other level of creativity and commitment!
From lying on his left side every night for more than a year, building a model city then destroying it, baking bread on a fire fueled by excrement, shaving his head and beard with a sharp sword and then burning the hair, to striking his hands and stamping his feet, Ezekiel took visual aids to an unprecedented extreme! To me, such devotion says a lot about Ezekiel, but even more about the God who inspired him.
This awe-inspiring God we’ve seen described in “glowing” terms these past few days, cares so passionately and personally about His people. The extremes He endured to redeem us show His unparalleled passion. The tender promises He offers to the seven churches of Revelation reveal His personal care. My favourite promise is one I memorized and taught the children at Hastings using the classroom door as my visual aid: Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me (3:20).
“Lord, I responded to that promise as a young boy. That door has always been open to You and always will be. Thank You for all the visual aids You’ve shown me as reminders of your passionate and personal love for me!”
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