Beauty For Ashes

 People are running around the world in tshirts that say "Life is Good". They've got cute decorations in the house that say "Live. Laugh. Love". Liars. I want a tshirt that says "Life Is Hard", and my fridge magnets should say "Spit In The Face of Adversity" or some such nonsense.

Life is hard. We all make plans that involve waking up in the morning and hoping to have a good day. We don't expect the check engine light to come on (literally OR figuratively). We don't crave the things that come our way in the form of grief, loss, illness, unmet expectations, heartache...

Proverbs 25:4 Take away the dross from the silver,

And there comes out a vessel for the smith;

What is dross? The dictionary tells me it's scum. It's the stuff that floats on the top of molten metal when it's being refined. It's the result of intense heat.

Sometimes the things in life that break us the most drive us closest to the foot of the Cross. Do you feel the heat? You opened a door and there were flames behind it and now you're feeling the blisters form on your hand. It hurts. It's hard. It's not what you ever expected to encounter. But, God is there in the midst of it all waiting for you to turn to him and that turning brings the scum to the surface. He skims it off. He refines you as precious metal and then he pours you into the mold and creates something beautiful. Stunning. Shining. Useful. A vessel fit for a King.

By Our LOVE

 I usually avoid going into the supermarket in my scrubs because inevitably some stranger will ask me to look at their rash. How do they know I'm a nurse? It's the uniform. Navy blue scrubs anywhere near our hospital flags you as an RN or LPN, right? What would happen if we put people from 100 different careers into a room, asked them to put on what they wear to work everyday, and then tried to guess their occupation? I think you'd identify quite a few.

Now, let's put a bunch of random people in a room and ask you to find the followers of Christ. No Bibles in hand, no bumper stickers or lapel pins allowed. Hmmmm. Take a minute to look around the room. It's much harder, isn't it? Ouch.

We used to sing a song years ago "...they'll know we are Christians by our love". I have talked to several people lately who won't walk in a church door because they feel judged, condemned, or rejected when they do. Wake up, Church. Wake. Up. "They'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love." (Song by Fr. Peter Scholtes, 1966)

1 Corinthians 13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugQwh-phnZY

Dem Bones

 The Lord keeps bringing the valley of dry bones to mind. I'm no Old Testament scholar so I can't say Ezekiel is at the top of my list of things to think about in a day but it keeps coming back around. I do admit to finding myself encamped in a place called Weary these last months. I'm not sure how I got here but I have lots of friends in tents around me. Flags in patterns of grief, loss, disappointment, entrenched sin, fatigue, and more flutter in the wind around me. It's a quiet place, no one feels like talking. You could say it was a valley of dry bones.

In Ezekiel 37:11 God speaks to a similar camp. "11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone;" OUR BONES ARE DRIED UP AND OUR HOPE IS GONE. Mine feel that way and I think that's how God and I ended up in this conversation.

All would seem lost, right? Well, it isn't. Ezekiel 37:3 "He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life."..."7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ”

"Breathe into these slain that they may live"...God raised up a bunch of dead men. What did you die from? What has sucked the very flesh from your bones and the breath from your lungs? The Lord set Ezekiel in the middle of a valley full of dry bones. That's where you are, right? Here's what God says: "Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life" Ezekiel 4 YOU WILL COME TO LIFE. "My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them." Ezekiel 10

A word of encouragement from the Word. All is not lost. God is going to pull you out of the grave and not only restore you, He's going to raise you (and I) up as an army for Him. How? I think the key is this: "‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!" We have to be listening. We have to be reading His Word. Take your Bible into your tent today. It's really quiet here at camp. Once in a while my flag snaps in the wind, but I'm listening for the sound of His voice on the breeze. Want to join me?

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