Ezekiel 3:17-19


17 "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. 18 When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. "

"The responsibility of a believer in Christ today to share the word of life, salvation, and forgiveness is no less awesome. Once the message of salvation is entrusted to us, we are responsible and accountable to share with those who are lost." - Lamar Cooper

I can only beg and plead with my God that he would make his glory as real to me as he did to Ezekiel.  When we see God for who he really is, how can we respond but in obedience?  I have often prayed that God would make me passionate to preach good news to the lost.  Shouldn't my prayer have been to see his glory?  To repent from my disobedience?  To be given an obedient heart?

A couple weeks ago I had a new neighbor move in right across from me.  My husband and I glanced out our windows throughout the day, both trying not to seem too interested.  I said something about taking them cookies or homemade salsa and introducing myself, but I got caught up with the days activities and hardly gave it another thought.  I don't think I'm ok with that anymore.  As Cooper said, it's my responsibility as a believer in Christ to share the word of life, salvation, and forgiveness with those around me.

So, here goes with Day 1 of obedience to the Great Commission.  Today I'm actually going to bake cookies and take them to my new neighbor.  Let's pray they're home.

My Silence Testifies Against Me

"The measure of success in God's work is not always in terms of the amount and frequency of visible response. Success is to be measured in terms of our obedience to the words, commands, and will of God regardless of the visible results" - Lamar Cooper
 
Cooper penned these words in response to Ezekiel 2:6-7, which is God's encouragement to Ezekiel to be obedient and faithful to his calling despite the persecution that would certainly come from his people.  It encourages my soul to know that God recognizes (how could he not) hardship in our lives and takes time to encourage us to continue in faithfulness.  I like Cooper's application, though.  Vocational ministers must find a way to measure success, but biblically, it should not be with amount and frequency of visible response...  I've learned not to measure success in a church by counting members and baptisms, but at The Village we still measure success in terms of how lives are changed.  Are we willing to be obedient when God calls us to preach the gospel to the hard-hearted?  Will we consider ourselves unsuccessful?  Do we look on other churches with judgement when they are not growing or seeing lives changed?  Do we consider their obedience before we cast our judgement?


More importantly, am I being obedient?  The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all of our being.  My silence is testifies against me.  The second most important commandment is to love our neighbors, but how can I show them love if I don't know their names?  I can easily justify my laziness by thinking about my work-life.  I intentionally pursue relationships with co-workers and parents in hopes of communicating the gospel.  And I daily teach principles of the gospel to my students, whether they recognize it or not.  Still, my comfort has not been compromised, and I can't remember the last time I explained the truth of the bible to any nonbeliever.


Yesterday I sang and danced to this song in Kids Village:  "I will not stay silent.  I cannot hold back..."  What a patient God we serve that lets us live after we sing lies with unrepentent hearts.  Do not be fooled.  His jealous love for us is too great.  Even now, He pulls dreadfully dark things from my heart and replaces them with the Spirit of Christ.  Praise God