Day 243 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 32:1-16, 37:1-39:29 Ezekiel 37:3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” A perplexing question is posed here. Can dry bones live? Can what has no life in it come to life? Can what is dead live? Ezekiel is right in his answer, only the Lord knows. We have no ability to bring life from the lifeless or give breath to the breathless. These are just bones and dry bones at that. They h

Day 242 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 34:1-36:38 Ezekiel 34:11 “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out." When hikers are lost they send out a search party. When a ship is missing at sea they search for it. When a child is missing we frantically and fervently look for them. Typically when things are lost or misplaced we seek them out until we find them. But for some reason when believers wander off, we just let them

Day 239 Today's Bible Reading: LAMENTATIONS 2:1-4:22 Lamentations 3:31 For the Lord will not cast off forever, There are times in our lives when we have severe conflicts with others. They at times create such schisms that we don’t see any hope of reconciliation or restoring the ruptured relationship. We feel that the damage done can never be repaired. We feel that we will forever be at odds with those that we have offended. We will always be cast off from any ongoing com

Day 241 Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 42:1-44:30, EZEKIEL 33:21-33 Ezekiel 33:32 And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. We love to be entertained. Listening to a concert, watching a movie or a play pulls us away for a moment. We are distracted from life. We escape from our own reality. We relish the talents of others. Provocative performance

Day 240 Today's Bible Reading: LAMENTATIONS 5:1-22, OBADIAH 1:1-212 KINGS 25:22-26, JEREMIAH 40:7-41:18 Lamentations 5:21 Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old. There is within most of us who have fallen a deep desire to be restored. There is a yearning once again to be in a right relationship with the Lord. We seek to return. We long to be back in fellowship. Yet it seems that as we try to come back we collapse. We fail in our atte

Day 238 Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 39:11-18, 40:1-6, 52:12-27; 2 KINGS 25:8-21; 2 CHRONICLES 36:15-21; LAMENTATIONS 1:1-22 2 Chronicles 36:15-16 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy. Every

Day 237 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 26:15-28:26; 2 KINGS 25:3-7; JEREMIAH 52:6-11, 39:2-10 Ezekiel 28:26 And they shall dwell securely in it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall dwell securely, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.” We live in a world of practical agnostics. Those who claim to have no knowledge of the Lord. They do not know him or se

Day 236 Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 32:1-33:26, EZEKIEL 26:1-14 Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Here is a great invitation for intercession. It is an open hand from heaven. It is access to the Almighty, granting us entrance into His presence. It is a summons to speak to our Sovereign. The God who made and established the earth, offers us an audience. He has turned His ear toward us, He li

Day 235 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 24:15-25:17, 29:1-16, 30:20-31:18; JEREMIAH 21:1-14, 34:1-22 Ezekiel 24:18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded. Sometimes it’s hard to understand God’s timing and purpose. The path he sets before is often difficult and demanding. We don’t see with His eyes. We don’t always comprehend His plan. We may have difficulty understand His purpose, especially whe

Day 233 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 22:17-23:49, 24:1-14; 2 KINGS 24:20-25:2; JEREMIAH 52:3-5, 39:1 Ezekiel 22:30 And I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. It seems that there are seasons when cultures collapse into ruin. They might have been viable and vibrant in the past, but that time had passed. They had regressed into a pathetic state of decline and

Day 233 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 20:1-22:16 Ezekiel 20:21 But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths. We all want to have a rich, full and meaningful life. We set a course and hope that it will lead us to the life we are pursuing. We see the success of others and often seek to follow their path. But their way may not lead us wh

Day 232 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 17:1-19:14 Ezekiel 18:23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? . . . 32For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.” God is just. As such He must be just in His response to sin. He can’t overlook it or turn a blind eye to it. To remain just He must remain faithful to His word, “the soul who sins shall

Day 231 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 14:1-16:63 Ezekiel 16:60 yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. We are a forgetful people. Time erodes embedded memories. They often slip away and unless recalled they retreat into the recesses of our mind. The children of Israel had forgotten from where they came. They didn’t remember their redemption. They let the memory of the moment of God’s mercy

Day 230 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 10:1-13:23 Ezekiel 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. Sometimes we try to do something that we really have no ability to do. Now granted there are acquired skills and learned abilities that

Day 229 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 5:1-9:11 Ezekiel 8:7,12 And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. . . . Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? We all have our secrets, those things that we do or have done in seclusion and hope that no one discovers. We all have portions of our life that are walled in so

Day 228 Today's Bible Reading: EZEKIEL 3:16-4:17, JEREMIAH 27:1-28:1, 51:59-64 Ezekiel 3:17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. Most of us are familiar with the early warning system in around most cities and the communiques that can be sent to our personal devices if the community is at risk. They are designed and implemented to inform us of impending dangers. They als

Day 227 Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 37:11-38:28, EZEKIEL 1:1-3:15 Ezekiel 2:7 And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. We all want to be heard. We feel like our words are valid and valuable. We believe that what we have to say is important and should not be discarded or dismissed. We deserve a hearing. God spoke to His people through His prophets. Now he had called and commissioned Ezekiel to be His sp

Day 226 Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 37:1-10, 51:15-52:3: 2 CHRONICLES 36:14, 2 KINGS 24:10-20, 1 CHRONICLES 3:10-16 Jeremiah 37:3 King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray for us to the LORD our God.” It’s almost inevitable when people are in a “pickle”, they pray. When the problems that they face are insurmountable and they have exhausted every other means to resolve th

Day 225 Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 31:15-40, 49:34-51:14 Jeremiah 31:34 . . . For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Most of us have long memories. We don’t easily forget things that happen to us. We particularly remember when someone misrepresents us, mistreats us or misspeaks about us or someone we love. We don’t easily forget these kinds of incidents or interactions. We might forgive, but we may never forget. But the Lord is n

Day 224 Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 23:33-24:10, 29:1-31:14 Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. We all make plans. Our plans may be thought out overtime or just spontaneously occur, but we all plan. Plans are never certain, circumstances and situations can cause us to have to change or postpone our plans. We don’t have any assurances that what we have planned will ac