THE WORD 4 ev 1

Below is the devotional from LHM:

Ezekiel 33:7 - (The LORD said) “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from Me.”

In the verses following the above passage, God explains to His prophet Ezekiel that not everyone is going to accept his message. At one point God says to Ezekiel, and I’m paraphrasing, “You know, Ezekiel, I want all people to be saved. I don’t take any pleasure in the death of evil people, but I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. Now, Ezekiel, some other folks are going to have a problem with this approach.”

I’ve been a watchman. One of the strangest jobs I did was watch cement dry. A company I worked for was putting up a large addition, and the owner was concerned about newly poured cement being tampered with by neighborhood teenagers, so he hired me to watch the wet cement overnight. About 2 a.m. a Chicago police car pulled into the parking lot next to my car; the officer looked at me suspiciously and asked what I was doing. Now I hadn’t given the potential of such a question much thought, so when I replied, “I’m watching wet cement,” in my mind I was already thinking he’s not going to buy this. And he didn’t. Especially after shining his spotlight on a place where cement hadn’t been poured. I ended up in the back of the police car until phone calls could be made and my story confirmed.

God warned his watchman, Ezekiel, that many people weren’t going to accept his story, especially the part of God wanting to save evil people. Everything in our nature wants to see the bad guy punished. Of course, we never perceive ourselves as the bad guy.

THE PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank You for the unlikely story that Jesus came to save sinners, including me. Amen.