We as a Church body for years have been reading the bible as family. Together…
It’s incredible when we gather as a body to share revelation and insight we all received reading the same scripture in unity. I’m always undone and caught up in the greatness of God when I realize he can use 1 passage of scripture to speak to 100 separate people in a 100 unique ways. Wow! Of course, sometimes we all can take scripture out of context. But that’s the beauty of community. We can gently correct and redirect each other in a covering of love and humility. Searching his word and heart as a church family is honor and privilege.
This week we are knee deep in the book of Ezekiel. God is using Ezekiel as a prophetic voice to bring correction and guidance to God’s people. Per usual, God’s people have fallen into rebellion and have begun worshiping idols and filling themselves with the throws of sinful living. When you boil it down, the Israelites are looking for love in all the wrong places. In chapter 23, God tells Ezekiel a story about two sisters named Oholah and Oholibah. The sisters represent the people of God that where brought out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. When Israel (Oholah) was in Egypt she desired to be loved, but she only knew love as a slave to Egypt. God’s people searched for love in all the wrong places. They learned love through the lens of captivity to the enemy, which, of course, is not real love at all. When Israel was rescued from Egypt (Oholibah) , they physically left enslavement to Egypt but stayed emotionally and spiritually enslaved to the enemy. Israel continued to look for love and lovers in things of the world that kept them in spiritual, emotional and eventually physical enslavement. They looked for love with new versions of the same enemy. It’s a great chapter of scripture, but you might be asking how does this apply to the church today?
Well when we come to Jesus we have to learn to be loved by him. All of us at one point were born of the world and belonged to the world. We all came to Jesus in different ways and he physically set us free and re-birthed us into his kingdom. Now we have to make the daily choice to let go of our old un-fulfilling desires and learn to be loved by the one who made us. Seems easy right? Wrong! That’s the hard part. We have to unlearn being a slave to the enemy, and learn to be loved by perfection, who is Jesus! Maturing in Jesus looks like letting him be the one who fulfills all of our desires. Jesus is always asking and inviting us into his love. We have to make the decision to let go of our enemy-manufactured counterfeits of love and learn to sit and be satisfied in God’s love. So what practically does that look like? I could probably write another 3 blogs trying to answer that, but this one is already running long. I heard the Holy Spirit I ask me today, “How do you medicate?” What I believe he is asking me by that is, what (or who) do you run to for comfort when life is hard and uncomfortable. When life becomes unbearable do you find a quick fix from a remedy of the world? We all are in process, but I believe Jesus is going to use this season in this church to draw us all into deeper levels of his love. So I invite you to join me in the painful but freeing process of un-learning slavery.
Jesus is worthy of it.
Love,
Pastor John