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- Apr 25, 2006
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THE REVIVAL WE NEED(1)
''...Won't you revive us...'' Psalm 85:6
And there he was, in the middle of this huge wide plain as the sun beat down. He looked to the left and then to the right, but the dry stubbly ground was covered with the ivory hue of what seemed to be bones. Yeah, bones?! 'Speak to the bones.' He recognised that voice. It was God.
'Here goes...' And as he did, and spoke what God had told him to speak, and followed His instruction, he heard a sound sweeping across the wilderness. A strange kind of rattling, a shaking. Before his very eyes the bones started to attach themselves, then muscle and sinew started to form all around, then real actual flesh.
But then God spoke again, 'Breathe life!' Then a howling, deafening wind came. And then he saw a huge number, a complete army in fact, rise up before his very eyes! Ezekiel's story (found in Ezekiel 37) might seem a bit weird, but it shows us today that without the life of God, we're just like those same dry bones. Do we need reviving?
It's easy to create the right impression, but are we really just becoming religious while our inner life does whatever it wants? Do we have STIs (spiritually transmitted infections) that are slowly killing our relationship with God? Or maybe we've just settled for second best? God offers us life: 'I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of' (1 John 1:10 TM).
What now? Is there a situation or relationship you could breathe life into, maybe just by encouraging someone or thanking them?
written by Bob Gass
''...Won't you revive us...'' Psalm 85:6
And there he was, in the middle of this huge wide plain as the sun beat down. He looked to the left and then to the right, but the dry stubbly ground was covered with the ivory hue of what seemed to be bones. Yeah, bones?! 'Speak to the bones.' He recognised that voice. It was God.
'Here goes...' And as he did, and spoke what God had told him to speak, and followed His instruction, he heard a sound sweeping across the wilderness. A strange kind of rattling, a shaking. Before his very eyes the bones started to attach themselves, then muscle and sinew started to form all around, then real actual flesh.
But then God spoke again, 'Breathe life!' Then a howling, deafening wind came. And then he saw a huge number, a complete army in fact, rise up before his very eyes! Ezekiel's story (found in Ezekiel 37) might seem a bit weird, but it shows us today that without the life of God, we're just like those same dry bones. Do we need reviving?
It's easy to create the right impression, but are we really just becoming religious while our inner life does whatever it wants? Do we have STIs (spiritually transmitted infections) that are slowly killing our relationship with God? Or maybe we've just settled for second best? God offers us life: 'I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of' (1 John 1:10 TM).
What now? Is there a situation or relationship you could breathe life into, maybe just by encouraging someone or thanking them?
written by Bob Gass
