"Return & Repent"
I will turn my eyes away and show no pity. I will repay you for all your detestable sins. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who is striking the blow. (Ezekiel 7:9 NLT)
This scene is hard to imagine. God has birthed a nation through Abraham. He has redeemed them from slavery, fought for them, brought them into a good land, & now they have rebelled against him to the point that he is turning away from them. God is now against his people. Can this be true? How can God oppose his people?
Decades of sin & generations of wickedness have led to the exile of God's chose people. They who were once favored by God are now attacked by him. Those that were protected by him are now exposed to their enemies. God is actively working for, not the benefit of his people, but the detriment. This is the depth of their sin.
Often times I think about where we are as the body of Christ. What is the state of the church? The global church is growing & God is blessing. Many are coming to see Christ daily! While here in the United States, places like New England, the birthplace of the great awakening, are less reached than China. China is now 6% Evangelical Christian while New England is less than 3%. It makes you wonder what's going on. What happened?
Just like the abominations that Ezekiel has seen in the temple, we see the sin of the church on display today. Most churches are full of people with the same moral convictions of the culture we live in (which isn't much). Many of us, if compared with our lost friends, would appear to be similar in life & practice. It may be even hard to point out which one is the Christian & which is not.
And so I wonder, is God against us? Is it possible for him to have gone into opposition of us? Not because we are his people but because we claim his name & act religious but are no more than going through the motions. It seems that we are tying hard on our own to get God to do something rather than joining him in his work. I believe our only hope is to repent of our sin & return to him.
What do you think? Is God opposed to his people? Where do we & our churches need to return & repent?
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