Eat the scroll

 

Ezekiel 3:1-3

Chances are you've heard a pastor say they've preached their sermon to themselves before they've preached it to the congregation. I'm one of them that does. I'm walking a journey of faith right along with you in the same community. We're a part of the same family of faith. So, what the Spirit wants you to hear, the Spirit wants me to hear, too. Not hear with your ears, but with your heart, and to obey. How, then, could we share that faith if I'm not willing to be obedient to what I'm offering to you? At my current church, I preached with a plunger on my first Sunday. The idea was that I was going to ask the church to do hard things sometimes. But I wouldn't ask anything I wouldn't do. I thought it was a good visual, but it wouldn't stand against any of the prophet Ezekiel's visions. In chapter 3 of Ezekiel, the Lord commands him to eat a scroll and fill his stomach with it. The scroll represented the word God wanted to give the people. So, Ezekiel ate the scroll. It turned out to be "sweet as honey," even though he would first go in bitterness (3:14). But he internalized what God told him. He heard it himself and preached it in accordance to what God commanded. Now, you may not be a preacher or a prophet, but there's a challenge you have as well. Are you willing to hear what God says and live and share it accordingly? The world needs fewer polished sermons and more faithful people who walk with Christ honestly and with humility and courage. Stay blessed...john