Ezekiel 20:20 “‘Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’”

GOD’S DAY

Today we see such a drop off in attendance at church here in America.  People seem to think that it’s just not as important as it use to be.  Regular attenders today are people who attend just 40% of the time.  While 40% would be a great batting average in baseball, it doesn’t quite cut it spiritually.

What if God only listened to 40% of your prayers?  What if God only protected you 40% of the time?  What if God decided to take off 40% of the days in a year?  Hmmmm.  That doesn’t sound very good, does it?  Now, this is not a legalistic, guilt producing rant.  It’s just a reminder that God’s days are important.  He says, “that you may know that I am the LORD your God.”

TEACHING MOMENT

So, this means that we are to be very diligent to have our families in church on Sundays.  Regular (not 40%) worship attendance shows our children that it is important.  It teaches them that this day is special.  Sure, we need to be worshipping the Lord every day.  But the day of worship is the time we come together with other believers to build unity in the body.

How can we expect little Johnny or Susie to understand the importance of Sunday worship if we spend every weekend at the lake or soccer field?  How will they learn to make this day holy?  We need other believers in our lives.  They are going to need the encouragement of believers as they walk through the challenges of life.

I want to encourage you to look at your attendance record at church.  Why do you go?  How often do you go?  What are you telling your children when they ask you why you go?  Sundays should be a day we hold sacred.  It is God’s day. It is the day He has set aside for us to spend time with Him.  Don’t miss this time.

Father, I know You are there every day, but Lord, thank You for making the Sabbath.  You just want to spend time with me, I know that.  Help me, Father, to dedicate my time to You.  Remind me how special this day is.

Ezekiel 16:62-63 “62 ‘Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, 63 so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,’ the Lord GOD declares.”

ALL HE’S DONE

How soon we forget all the Lord has done for us, right?  He has rescued us from the very pit of hell, and yet, we still complain.  “Why this, God?” or “God, will you give me….?”  We don’t stop very often to just thank Him for saving us from an eternal punishment.

God is telling Ezekiel that the covenant is renewed, but He doesn’t want them to forget Who He is.  He is a covenant keeping God, but He also wants them to remember what He has forgiven. He even calls it their “humiliation.”

TEACHING TIME

Help your children to recall the worse thing they have ever done in disobeying you.  Then talk about how that was forgiven and dealt with by you.  I hope you don’t keep a scoreboard lined with all their “mistakes.”  How would your board look if God did that?

Just as your children need to know you forgive and erase the board, God does too.  But this is only possible if 1) the have truly repented and 2) if they seek His will for the next step.

What is your biggest sin against the Heavenly Father?  What have you have been forgiven of right now?  How will you ever truly thanked him for all of that?  Do it now.  As appropriate, pray for your children to learn how to pray for forgiveness.

Father, Forgiver of All, cleanse me today with an everlasting love.  Allow me to point others, especially my children, to You and remind them of Your forgiving power.

Ezekiel 14:14 “‘even though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves,” declares the Lord God.’”

NO ONE ELSE

The Lord is attempting to show Ezekiel that NO ONE would escape His judgment.  Even the three most righteous men who had lived (up to that time) could not help them.  We know of the righteousness of these three men.  Noah escaped the flood, Daniel escaped the lions and Job escaped death itself.  But still they could not deliver Israel.

No one can escape God’s judgment today either…unless…they turn to Jesus.  Unlike those other three men, Jesus has the ability to deliver them.  Why?  Because He is God.  He laid down His righteousness to give it to us.  We are righteous only because of Him.

TEACHING MOMENT

Similarly, there is not one thing you can do to deliver your children.  Nope, not one!  You are powerless to redeem your children.  As bad as you want to save them, there is nothing you can do.  That is entirely in the hands of Jesus.  Your children need to know that.  They need to know that your faith will not save them.  Your church attendance will not get them into heaven.  Your devotions with them and prayer time with them will not deliver them.

But THEIR acceptance of Jesus can!  Little Elrod and Gertrude can access the very throne of God by giving their hearts and lives over to the King of Kings!  Now, here is where your part comes in.  You pray for and speak truth to them.  Your job is to provide the environment where strong roots of faith can grow.  Can you do that?

The responsibility we are given as parents is huge.  God did not give us children to just throw them into the pit of hell.  He expects us to lead them to Him.  He expects us to do all we can to point them to the only true deliverer.  What better job, though?  Right?  We have that privilege.

Father, show me how to best till the soil of my children’s heart to hear You.  Help me lead them to righteousness by becoming Your child through the righteousness of Christ.

Ezekiel 12:1-2 “1 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 ‘Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house.’”

JUST BE FAITHFUL

Ezekiel had a tough job.  He was living in the midst of a rebellious, stubborn people whom God described as blind and deaf.  They seemingly couldn’t see or hear what He was doing in their midst.  I am sure Ezekiel thought, “God, why even bother?  They don’t care.”

We are living in the same kind of generation.  All around us people are thumbing their nose at God.  They could care less about knowing Jesus.  They certainly don’t want to follow Him and live for Him.  Sometimes it gets very discouraging, doesn’t it?  And this is the kind of generation you are bringing up your children.  Don’t you want to cry out to God to deliver you?

TEACHING MOMENT

But no!  Ezekiel was faithful to do exactly what the Lord told Him to do.  Now, I don’t suggest you dig a hole through a wall and crawl through it (read the rest of chapter 12).  But I do suggest that you present a clear case to your neighbors for Christ.  How?  By being that neighbor who does NOT complain.  Be the neighbor who cares as much about their yard as you do yours.  Let your children see and even help you to do something nice for your neighbor.

Give your neighbor a message of hope, love, peace and grace.  Show them Jesus.  I promise if you do that your children will observe it and want to model it with their friends.  I’ve said before that most lessons we teach our kids are caught and not taught.  This is one of them.  Follow exactly the message the Lord gives you.  He will show you how to minister and witness to those around you if you will just listen.

Father, show me how to reach my lost neighbors.  Give me the words to say and the perfect time to say them.  Soften their heart to hear.  Open their eyes to see.

Ezekiel 8:3 “He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, was located.” 

ATTENTION GETTER

When I read this verse, my first thought was I bet that hurt.  Haha.  Having your hair yanked is not fun.  Ezekiel is lifted up by the Lord to see what is going on “in secret” among the people.  If you read the rest of chapter 8 you will see what he saw.  The people had deserted God and were worshipping all sorts of other pagan gods.  God had to get Ezekiel’s attention.  He had to make him aware of what was going on.

Does God need to tug on your hair to get your attention?  Really?  Are you that oblivious to what is going on around you?  Are you blind to your own disobedience?  God will get our attention.  He will NOT let His children continue down the road to destruction.  He will judge.  And that is not a threat.  It’s a promise.  But anything He does is for our good, to bring us back to Him.

TEACHING MOMENT

I bet you have to occasionally point out to little Susie or Elrod the errors of their way.  I bet they don’t see what they are doing as wrong.  In our society today, anything goes, or so it seems.  If you point out any sin you are seen as prudish or intolerant.  Don’t let your children’s behaviors become “acceptable” just because everyone else is doing it.

Remember – you are being used by the Lord Jesus to guide them toward holiness.  Holiness demands sacrifice.  Holiness demands giving up those things of the world that will drag you down.  Holiness demands keeping their little eyes on Jesus and not the world.

What kind of example are you living?  Is there ANYTHING in your life you do NOT want your children to emulate?  If there is, stop it!  I could name things here, but there is no need.  If you are a follower of Christ, you know exactly what those things are.  Be the example for others to follow.

Father of holiness, instill in me the desire to be holy.  Give me the passion to abandon any and all things that would hold me hostage to this world.  Break the chains of worldly desires and allow me to live in a way that honors You.

Ezekiel 4:1 “‘1 Now you son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. 2 Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around.’”

WITH A PURPOSE

When I attended the University of Georgia (Go DAWGS!), I had to take American History.  My very first history class was Part 2 (Civil War forward) and was taught by a very interesting professor.  This professor had a huge sandbox in the back of his class where he would act out the battles of the Civil War with toy soldiers and cannons.  He even made sounds of the battle as he taught.  I wasn’t quite sure what to think about this, but I did learn a lot about those battles.

Here Ezekiel is told by the Lord to build a scale model of Jerusalem to teach the people what was going to happen.  And he had to lay down on the ground for over a year and NOT move to do that.  Can you picture this scene?  Every day people would walk by and see him lying there with his “toy” city, staging a battle against Jerusalem.  I am sure he was ridiculed and made fun of by the children.  But he was obedient.  Why?  Because God had given him a message to deliver.

TEACHING MOMENT

Your children may question the instructions they get from you.  But you are preparing them to receive instructions from the Lord one day.  They may not understand the purpose of the directions they are given, but they must learn to trust the ultimate outcome.  They cannot see what you are doing as a parent to prepare them for adulthood. They only see the here and now.  You see the bigger picture.

Similarly, God is preparing us all for the future.  He sees the complete picture. He knows EXACTLY what He is doing.  We just have to trust Him.  Is that easy?  Nope!  But if we believe He wants what is best for us, we must learn to not question Him when He tells us to do something, no matter how crazy it may seem at the time.  I doubt He is going to ask you to build a scale model of your city and lay on the ground for over a year without moving.

Father, help me to trust Your word.  Help me to trust that You always have my best interest at heart.  I know You only want to see me grow more like Christ.

Ezekiel 1:28 “As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.”

BREATHTAKING

Have you ever seen anything so incredible that you just wanted to look away?  Most of the time when we see a beautiful scene we stop and take it all in.  But sometimes, very rarely, something is so breathtaking we have to look away.  Our minds just can’t comprehend it.

Ezekiel had this vision on the banks of the river Chebar while in exile.  The Lord appeared to him to give him a message to deliver to Israel.  The description he gives is hard to imagine.  But Ezekiel was chosen to be God’s instrument to the people.  He HAD to look at the Lord.  He HAD to listen to Him.  He HAD to surrender his will to His.

TEACHING MOMENT

How do you teach this to your children?  What is the lesson in this verse?  They need to know that they need to look for God.  They need to look for His brilliance all around them.  They need to see Him in others.  They need to recognize His fingerprints on their lives as He directs and guides them.

Why don’t you let your children draw what they think Ezekiel saw?  He is pretty descriptive.  See how well they can capture the scene with their imagination.  Hang the picture on your frig and comment on it daily.  Ask them if they saw God anywhere today.  Keep a record of “God sightings.”  You may just be amazed at His appearances.

Do you need to see God today?  I certainly do.  I get so busy sometimes God could sit down next to me, and I would probably miss Him.  Lol.  I don’t want to do that.  I want to be like Ezekiel and see Him in all His majesty.  I want to see Him all around me today.  But to do that I have to be looking for Him.  I have to expect to see Him.  Do you?

O mighty God, revealer of all truth, show me Your presence today in a way I haven’t seen it before.  Reveal Yourself to me in an unexpected way.  Let me look for You with excitement and anticipation.

Song of Solomon 7:10 “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.”

RIGHT DESIRES

How many times have you REALLY wanted something, but you knew you couldn’t have it?  Maybe it’s that new car or house.  Perhaps it’s a new dress, ladies.  Men, it might just be that bassboat or gun.  Whatever it is, just how bad do you want it?  Does your mind constantly go there?  Is it all you can think about?

God’s desire is for us. His mind is always on us.  He longs for our fellowship.  He wants to bless us.  He gets pleasure in our obedience and in our prayers.  The Word says our prayers are a fragrant aroma in His nostrils.  He desires us!  But do we desire Him?

TEACHING MOMENT

We are nearing that season of the year when little Elrod and Gertrude will start making out their wish list for Christmas.  They will make that list and describe exactly what they want.  They may even tell you where to find it.  They may text it, email it or write it out.  But I guarantee you they will let you know.

What a perfect time to talk about desires.  Read this verse and remind them that as much as they desire those things for Christmas, God’s desire for them is so much bigger.  Even if they were promised every toy on the list, their desire to receive them would pale in comparison to His desire to just spend time with them.

Do you believe God desires you?  Do you desire Him?  Do you change your schedule to make time for Him?  Or do you give Him the leftover minutes of the day?  Do you think of Him first thing in the morning and the last thing at night?  Is your mind fixed on Him?  He is fixed on you.  You are His desire.  Make Him yours.

My Beloved, my desire is for you.  I long to be with You and hear Your words.  I want to be with You more than anything.  Draw me close.

Song of Solomon 6:3a “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,”

WE BELONG TO EACH OTHER

How do we apply this verse to our relationship with God?  Easy!  We need to remind ourselves that we belong to God, once we have accepted His Son Jesus as our Savior.  AND, if we belong to Him, He belongs to us.  Now, we don’t own Him or control Him, but He is covenanted with us for eternity.

Can you believe that?  Don’t let anyone ever tell you anything different.  Nothing can separate us from His love.  But we feel sometimes that we have separated ourselves.  We think our failures cause a breach between us.  Your sins are forgiven although they are NOT condoned.  Big difference.

TEACHING MOMENT

Children can easily feel defeated when they mess up.  It is up to us as parents to remind them they are loved, by us and God.  Let me encourage you every day to tell them that.  They need to know there is NOTHING that stop His love from flowing to them.  Although your love is strong, His is stronger.  Although you forgive them, He forgives and then forgets their sins.

But how to convince little Susie of God’s love?  You can hug her and kiss her to remind her.  But God can’t hug and kiss her.  She needs a real touch.  Then explain to her that God has given you to her as her parent to do that for Him.  You are His instrument of physical love to her.  He can love her through you.  What a privilege!

Do you need a reminder today of God’s covenant?  Have you slipped out of His reach (or so you think)?  Do you feel He has lost sight of you?  He hasn’t.  HE hasn’t moved.  He is still your beloved and you are His.

Father, my Beloved, thank You for loving me every day.  Thank You for always being there for me.  You are forever mine.

Song of Solomon 2:4 “He has brought me to his banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.”

HIS POSSESSION

This verse is such a precious thought, but do you understand it?  What does “banner” mean?  Why did Solomon use that word?  A banner is a flag or standard carried by an army or a group of people that signified their allegiance to a king.  This banner of love is the mark of God as our king over us.  But this banner isn’t held over us through brute force.  It is love!

God loves us with an everlasting love.  The whole book of Song of Solomon describes love.  The picture is of a man and woman, but it is much deeper than that.  It describes the love between us and God.  We should have such passion for our Savior.  We should long to be with Him.

TEACHING MOMENT

I know what you are thinking.  “Carl, how in the world do I read this book to my children.  It’s a little graphic.”  Lol.  Well, it’s still God’s Word.  I recommend you get a Children’s Bible for this one.  It will kind of tame it down a bit. As your children get older, you can move to a better translation.

The problem with our world today is we have totally destroyed the God given image of the love between a man and woman as God designed.  There is nothing more beautiful than that love between a husband and wife.  Your children need to know that.  But don’t let Hollywood give them the image.  Let God’s Word do that.

Do you seek God’s love the way it is described in the Song of Solomon?  Take a minute and read the first three chapters today.  Ask yourself if you seek God that way.  Ask yourself if you cherish His presence that way.  Do you long for His touch and His love?

Father, I desire to know You fully.  I long to feel Your embrace.  Touch me today and let me know You are there.