Bones & Breath; It's an Inside Job

[1]

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones.  He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor.  They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out.  Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”  “O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”  Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!  This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!  I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin.  I will put breath into you, and you will come to life.  Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”  So I spoke this message, just as he told me.  Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley.  The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons.  Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones.  Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.  Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man.  Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  Come, O breath, from the four winds!  Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”  So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies.  They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.  Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel.  They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone.  Our nation is finished.’  Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel.  When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord.  I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land.  Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said.  Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”  Ezekiel 37: 1-14^(NLT)

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.  Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.  As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side.  They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!  Again he said, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”  Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven.  If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 

John 20:19-23^(NLT)

These two texts, Ezekiel’s vision and the appearance of Jesus to His disciples after the resurrection, are not at all about bones or ghosts…they’re all about the breath of God!  Genesis tells us that when God created humankind they were nothing until God breathed the breath of life into them.  That is a simple fact; our Creator is the author, giver, and sustainer of all life.  If He decides the next breath will not be available to you or me…that’s it…game over! 

When Jesus breathed on his disciples it was an outward demonstration of the beginning of the indwelling experience of God in mankind.  It’s all about the breath, the life of God in us, and God working out his purposes through us. 

The life of God is an inside job!

And that was the whole point for both Israel and the disciples.  Both thought it was all over…the end…turn out the lights and go home.  Israel thought they were toast as a nation.  Yet God revived that nation just in this past century.  The disciples had seen Jesus beaten, nailed to a tree, and then buried.  Talk about game-over!  But now he breathed on them, and the breath of new life was filling their inner being with the power of God to build the Kingdom.

As Yogi Berra always said:  It ain’t over till it’s over!

For You Today

Is your church a just a mere bag of bones compared to what it used to be? 

Do you look at that person in the mirror and wonder where the time and strength have gone? 

Perhaps you’re looking too much on the outside.  Remember…where God is concerned, it’s always an inside job!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy Pixabay.com (bones) and Pixabay.com (breath)

Promise In the Bones

[i]

Monday, May 15, 2017

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear to do this.  He said, “God will certainly come to help you.  When he does, you must take my bones with you from this place.”  Exodus 13:19^(NLT)

Leaving Egypt the people of God carried off all their belongings, much of Egyptian wealth, and the bones of Joseph.  Aside from keeping a 400 year-old promise to Jacob’s son who had managed to feed and protect Abraham’s tribe during the worst famine ever, why would you move a dead man’s bones?  Was the dead man watching?  The short answer is “yes”.  At church yesterday our text was Revelation 6:9-11, and therein we have strong evidence that the departed are, indeed watching.  They are part of the great cloud of witnesses we read about in the New Testament. ^{(Hebrews 12:1)}

So why did Joseph, who lived most of his life in Egypt, want his bones carried away when the children left?  The first answer is that Joseph understood the concept of being an alien.  He was brought to Egypt by the caravan of merchants who had bought him from his own jealous brothers.  He didn’t belong there!  But Joseph also understood God’s promise to his great-grandfather, Abraham.

Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can.  That’s how many descendants you will have!”

Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.  But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.  (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)  After four generations your descendants will return here to this land…  Genesis 15:5, 13-16a^(NLT)

As a highly-favored child in Jacob’s household, Joseph would have heard these words often; he knew the promises of God to Abraham extended to his son, Isaac, and his son, Jacob, and, to his son, Joseph.  The promise of God gets deep in your bones!

For Joseph it was a life-long dream to return to the place of God’s promise; it was natural to want to go home.  But, in the final analysis, the promise made to Joseph about taking his bones back to the Promised Land was a matter of faith and fidelity.  He knew that God’s promise was where his true home could be found. 

And nothing less!

For You Today

Where is your home?  Is it some place for which you worked, scrambled to pay a mortgage, and now have your name on the deed?  Or is it a place deep in your bones, based on a promise, and sealed with blood that trickled down a cross?

And nothing less…or more?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

 ^I Title image:  By Wcam (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons