CONTACTS
ISAIAH 55- Living in Depth
EZEKIEL 37- Hopes and Dreams
Can Live Again
ISAIAH 55
Pause everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters, and he who
has no money, come, buy and eat; yes, come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your
labor for what never satisfies? Listen carefully to me, and eat
what is good; let your soul delight itself in abundance.
3 Incline your ear and come to me; hear, and your soul shall
live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the
unfailing mercies to David….
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found. Call upon Him
while He is near!
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
schemings; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy
on him, to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
My ways, says the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways
higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and
do not return thither, but water the earth, and make it bring forth
and bud, and so give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be, which goes forth from my mouth; it
shall not come back to Me uselessly, but it shall do what I
purpose and accomplish what I commissioned it.
12 For you shall go out with joy and be led forth into peace, the
mountains and the hills breaking out in song before you, and all
the trees of the field clapping their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the
brier shall come up the myrtle; and they shall be to the LORD for
His renown, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
ISAIAH CHAPTER 55
Living in Depth
This chapter uses senses as hunger and thirst to illustrate truth.
If we hunger and thirst after God and the joy that He offers,
we may find God and happiness by coming to Him.
In the process, we must learn to listen, to really listen: “Incline
your ear and come to Me; hear, and your soul shall live.”
Mostly, we hear superficially but do not listen. God’s truth does
not penetrate the control center of our lives. But when you
“incline your ear,” lean earnestly toward God and with your
whole personality, then you will experience such quality and
intensity of life that your soul will live in depth.
But there is a cost to this benefit. God, in effect, makes a
proposition, an everlasting covenant. It’s this: You must forsake
any wicked way and stop thinking bad thoughts and return to the
Lord. It’s as simple as that.
This is a change that may not be easy. It requires discipline. But
the chapter promises that if we accept this covenant, life will be
so wonderful that it will be just as if the mountains and the hills
were singing and every tree was clapping its hands. Good things,
not bad things, will happen to you. And this flow of goodness
shall never cease as long as you live.
When life seems empty and you are not satisfied, when you
long for something that you can hardly describe, read this
passage, one of the greatest chapters in the Bible.
EZEKIEL CHAPTER 37
The hand of the LORD came upon me, and by His Spirit the
LORD brought me out and set me down in a valley which
was full of bones.
2 He led me all around them; and observe, there were very
many on the surface of the valley; and see, they were very dry.
3 He said to me: Son of man, can these bones live? I answered,
“LORD God, Thou knowest.”
4 Then He said to me: Prophesy over these bones. Say to them,
You dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
5 Thus says the LORD God to these bones: Notice! I will put
breath into you, and you shall live.
6 I will lay sinews upon you, clothe you with flesh, cover you
with skin, put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall
know that I am the LORD.
7 So I prophesied as I was ordered; and as I prophesied, there
was a noise, a rattling; and see, the bones were uniting, bone to its
[fitting] bone.
8 And as I looked on, see, sinews came upon them, and flesh,
and then skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.
9 Then He said to me: Prophesy to the wind; prophesy, son of
man, and say to the wind, Thus says the LORD God: Come from
the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe upon these slain, that they
may live.
10 So I prophesied as He had ordered me, and breath came into
them; they lived and stood on their feet, an unusually large
army….
EZEKIEL CHAPTER 37
Hopes and Dreams Can Live Again
In everybody’s life, there are times when it seems that
everything goes wrong. Hopes and plans lie broken around
you. The things you looked forward to achieving have failed. The
spirit has gone out of you. And life seems dead and desolate.
At such times, reading the 37th chapter of Ezekiel will help. It
is an amazing chapter that, through picturesque symbolism,
teaches a great truth in a striking way.
The prophet Ezekiel was taken out by the Lord and shown a
wide valley that was full of dry bones stretching as far as he could
see. Here a great host had perished and their white bones lay stark
and desolate. Nothing could appear more hopeless than a valley
of dry bones, grim and silent.
But the Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy: meaning, to believe and
affirm that, by God’s power, even these dry bones could live
again.
The story dramatically tells how the bones came together: flesh
came upon them. Life was renewed, and a great host of living
men marched out of the valley of death.
The incident is designed to remind us of the truth that when
God’s spirit really comes upon us, that which is harmonious with
His spirit shall live in us. Old dead things such as dead hopes,
dead dreams, dead ideals, shall take on a new vibrant quality. The
dead bones of our lives shall live again.
Your great hopes, dreams and ideals are not dead if you let God
breathe into them the breath of fresh spiritual life. The spirit of
God can revitalize anything. With God, life can always be vital,
always dynamic. Life is renewable.
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