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July 8 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
11 Plays4 days ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
Today's reading will cover Ezekiel Chapters 33:21, 30-33, 36: 16-19, 24-30, 33-38. We will also read Ezekiel 36:20-23 in our discussion time. Today we will read about God's people listening to Ezekiel's words, as though he were an entertainer, and professing to love and obey God with their lips, but in their hearts they were disobeying God and obtaining material possessions through dishonesty. In our discussion for daily application we will talk about Ezekiel 36:20-23 where God tells us that the people were speaking poorly about God while in their exile and for the sake of HIS NAME He would sanctify His Great Name by making the people clean, giving the people a new heart, putting his Spirit within them, causing the people to walk in His laws so they would keep His rulings and live in the land. We will talk about the importance of the fact that we need to make God the most important one in our lives. He knows our hearts. He knows if we are simply talking the talk without walking the walk. It is important to be transformed by a renewing of our minds, take hold of every thought and be sure that we are worshipping God with our hearts and not just our mouths, the way we have been seeing the people do yesterday and today. Ask God to search your heart, the way that David did in Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome everybody. Today is July 8th. You are here with Robin and I am with In The Family Way Coaching and we are here for our daily Bible reading together. I'm so glad that you are joining me this year as we go through the Day by Day Kids Bible that's been written by Karen Henley.
00:00:20
Speaker
I am just loving this reading. I say this frequently, but I really am just loving the fact that I have a way to read the Bible chronologically. And it's just so helpful to understand things in timeline order.
00:00:34
Speaker
So thank you for being here with me, whether you're listening on your podcast or whether you're watching on video. I'm so glad that you are making the choice to join me as we go through the Bible this year.
Introduction to Ezekiel's Messages
00:00:45
Speaker
If you are using your commitment calendar to mark off your days as you go through the Bible with me, then it's time to bring that out and get your sticker ready or however you are marking it off, because you know what's going to happen next.
00:00:57
Speaker
You're about to hear the Bible today.
00:01:01
Speaker
We are going to be reading in the book of Ezekiel today. And we are going to be reading about God's people in Babylon who are hearing what Ezekiel is telling them from God, but that they are not doing it.
00:01:20
Speaker
So let's go ahead and get started with that today in chapter 33 and then 36 and 37.
Themes of Exile and Restoration
00:01:26
Speaker
and thirty seven As always, i will put these chapters and verses that our version covers in the description so that if you are hungry for more of God's word, you can head your but head up your big Bible and you will know right where to go.
00:01:41
Speaker
I always include the verses in the description below.
00:01:47
Speaker
Ezekiel had been in Babylon for 12 years and he wrote this. One day a man came to me from Jerusalem. He had gotten away.
00:01:58
Speaker
He told me, Jerusalem has fallen. Then God spoke to me. Ezekiel, your people talk about you by the walls.
00:02:10
Speaker
They talk about you by their doors. They say, come and hear God's message. So they come to you. They listen to you. but they do not do what they hear.
00:02:24
Speaker
They say they obey me, but their hearts want more and more things. They even sin to get more things. To them, you are just somebody who has a great voice.
00:02:38
Speaker
You are like someone who sings love songs. You are like someone who plays music. They hear your words, but they don't do them. Everything I said will happen.
00:02:51
Speaker
Then my people will know a prophet has been with them.
00:02:57
Speaker
Moving Back Home, Chapter 36 God spoke to me.
Promise of Renewal
00:03:04
Speaker
Ezekiel, my people made their land bad by what they did, so I was angry at them.
00:03:11
Speaker
I sent them to other nations. I will bring you out of the nations. I will take you back to your own land. I will clean you up from the bad things you did.
00:03:23
Speaker
I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit in you. i will take away your stony, hard heart. Then i will give you a soft heart.
00:03:37
Speaker
I will put my spirit in you. i will get you to obey my laws. You will live in the land I gave you. You will be my people.
00:03:48
Speaker
I will be your God. I will save you from your sins. I will give you more than enough grain. I will give you fruit on your trees.
00:04:01
Speaker
I will give you crops in your fields. This will keep you from feeling like nothing among the nations. I will let you move back into your towns.
00:04:13
Speaker
Piles of sticks and stones will be built back into cities. The desert land will be watered. It will grow food. Then the nations will know that I built this again.
00:04:28
Speaker
I planted this land again. i am the Lord. I said I would do it, and I will. I will answer the prayers of my people again.
00:04:39
Speaker
i will give them big, growing families. The cities will be full of people. Then they will know I am the Lord.
Vision of the Dry Bones
00:04:52
Speaker
chapter thirty seven ah valley full of bones God was with me and his spirit took me to the middle of a valley.
00:05:03
Speaker
The valley was full of bones. He took me back and forth around the bones. They were very dry. God asked, Ezekiel, can these bones live?
00:05:19
Speaker
You're the only one who knows that, God, I said. These are the words God told Ezekiel to say. Dry bones, hear God's words.
00:05:31
Speaker
Here is what God says to these bones. You will live. I will put muscles on you. I will cover you with skin.
00:05:43
Speaker
I will put breath into you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord. So I talked to the bones and I said what God told me to say. And while I was talking, I heard a sound.
00:06:00
Speaker
It was like a rattle. The bones started coming together. One bone hooked onto another bone. Muscles and skin and came on them.
00:06:13
Speaker
but there wasn't any breath.
00:06:16
Speaker
Then God said to tell the breath, here is what God says. Come from the four winds, breath. Breathe into these dead bodies.
00:06:27
Speaker
Make them live.
00:06:31
Speaker
So I said what God told me to say, and then breath went into the bodies. They came to life. They stood up. and they made a big army.
00:06:44
Speaker
God said that these bones show what the people of Israel are like. They say that their bones have dried up and they don't have hope anymore, that they are lost.
00:06:57
Speaker
God told Jeremiah to give them this message. I am going to bring you back to Israel. I will put my spirit in you and you will live. I will bring you back to your own land.
00:07:11
Speaker
Then you will know that what I said is true.
00:07:17
Speaker
God spoke to me again. Ezekiel, get a stick. Write on it, Judah's stick. Then get another stick and write on it, Israel's stick.
00:07:33
Speaker
Put the sticks together to make one stick. Make them look like one stick in your hand. People will ask what this means. Tell them that I am going to make Judah and Israel one nation.
00:07:49
Speaker
I will gather my people from other nations. I will take them back to their own land. I will make them one nation in that land and one king will rule them.
00:08:01
Speaker
They won't ever be two nations again. They won't ever be two kingdoms again. They won't have idols.
00:08:12
Speaker
I will save them from their sin. i will clean up their hearts. Then they will be my people and I will be their God. My servant will be their king.
00:08:26
Speaker
They will have one shepherd leader. They will obey my laws. They will live in the land I gave to them. Their families will live there for forever.
00:08:38
Speaker
My servant will be their prince forever. i will live with them and then the nations will know that I made Israel special.
00:08:51
Speaker
I make Israel holy and clean.
Prophecies Fulfilled
00:08:58
Speaker
And that is the end of our reading today.
00:09:02
Speaker
Wow, isn't that exciting? God is working on that in today's day. Israel has become a nation. And who is that prince, that servant who will be serving over as king of Israel?
00:09:19
Speaker
That's right. It's Jesus. Isn't that exciting? It's spoken about in Revelation 2. Oh, it is so exciting.
00:09:32
Speaker
I will live with them and then the nations will know that I make Israel special. Israel is always going to be God's special people. We need to be sure that we include the nation of Israel and the people of Israel who do not yet believe that Jesus is the Messiah in our prayers.
00:09:51
Speaker
We need to be sure and pray for them and witness to them and be able to show them the prophecies that are being fulfilled that show that Jesus is the Messiah that they waited for so that they can become whole and complete and have shalom.
00:10:10
Speaker
That is so exciting. One nation.
00:10:16
Speaker
And we already have them established as a nation again. So exciting. I love how Ezekiel mentions the message that Jeremiah was given by God, that God told Jeremiah to give them that message, that he would bring them back to Israel and that he would put his spirit in them and that they would live.
Divine Motivation and Grace
00:10:37
Speaker
God did bring the people back in that first return to the land. But we've mentioned before that Ezekiel has multiple layers to its prophecy and that the final fulfillment of that will be when the nation of Israel recognizes officially that Jesus is their Messiah.
00:10:59
Speaker
That will be a glorious day, won't it? It is so exciting. I love that. I wanted to also mention in here that in, I don't know why, i guess it's because it's just giving us the big version, but I he just really thought it was important to note that when God is bringing the people back in chapter 37, that God is doing it for his name.
00:11:31
Speaker
For the sake of his name, he will bring them back and do all of these things. It says in chapter 36, did I say 37? I meant to say 36.
00:11:43
Speaker
And it says that when the people,
00:11:49
Speaker
it says when when God spoke to Ezekiel, he says, my people made their land bad by what they did. So I was angry at them and I sent them to other nations.
00:12:01
Speaker
And our version covers 16 through 19 verses, but it skips verses 20 through 23. And chapter 36 of verses 20 through 23 is where it's it speaks about why God is going to be bringing them back.
00:12:19
Speaker
And i I just thought this was so important that I wanted to be sure that we knew why. Because we've mentioned before that God tells us why he does things in Jesus.
00:12:32
Speaker
ah verse 19 he says I scattered them among the nations so they were dispersed through the countries according to their way and their deeds I judged them verse 20 wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name since it was said about them these are the people of the Lord yet they had to leave his land Verse 21, but I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.
00:13:07
Speaker
It means that the people were speaking poorly about God's name.
00:13:12
Speaker
Verse 22, Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you profaned among the nations wherever you went.
00:13:30
Speaker
I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am the Lord.
00:13:40
Speaker
It is a declaration of the Lord when I am sanctified in you before their eyes. So he is making sure to defend himself. Then in verse 23 or 24 rather, he says, "'For I will take you from all the nations, "'gather you out from all the countries "'and bring you back to your own land. "'Then i will sprinkle clean water on you "'and you will be clean from all your uncleanness "'and from all your idols.'" Moreover, I will give you a new heart.
00:14:14
Speaker
I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the stony heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you.
00:14:26
Speaker
Then i will cause you to walk in my laws. God will cause them to walk in his laws. So that you will keep my rulings and do them and then you will live in the land that I gave your fathers.
00:14:42
Speaker
You will be my people and I will be your God. So I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful.
00:14:53
Speaker
I will not bring a famine among upon you. I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field so that you will no longer bear the disgrace of famine among the nations.
00:15:06
Speaker
When you remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, you will be disgusted with yourselves because of your iniquities and your abominations.
00:15:19
Speaker
Verse 32, but not not for your sake will I do this. It is a declaration of the Lord. Let that be known to you.
00:15:30
Speaker
Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel. So I wanted to point out that God bookmarks that section. He is going to be making the people clean, but he wants to make it very clear that it is not because they have earned it.
00:15:48
Speaker
It is not because they have been righteous. It is not because they have obeyed. In fact, they have gone about speaking poorly about God's name. So when God does that, he will be doing it for his glory, for the sake of his name, not because they came seeking repentance, not because they were sorry for what they did, not because they confessed their sins.
00:16:12
Speaker
God did it. Let it be known to you, he says, that he is doing it for the sake of his name so that we may bring glory to his name by showing that he is the one who did this.
00:16:27
Speaker
He is bringing glory to his name. We did not earn it. God gave us salvation because he loves us and because of his name.
00:16:39
Speaker
his great name that he did this And that he would bring the people from there from their exile so that was very ah very important I want that to be overlooked in our big
Sincere Devotion vs. Empty Praise
00:16:56
Speaker
picture today. picture today.
00:16:58
Speaker
And so let's look at chapter 33, where God says to Ezekiel that the people are talking about him. They talk about you at your their doors. They say, come and hear God's message.
00:17:12
Speaker
They come to you and they listen to you, but they don't do what they hear. They say they obey me, but their hearts want more things. They even sin to get more things.
00:17:25
Speaker
To them, you are just somebody who has a great voice. You are like someone who sings love songs. You're like someone who plays music. They hear your words, but they don't do them.
00:17:37
Speaker
In our big version, I'm going to read that as well.
00:17:50
Speaker
It says in verse 31, they come to you as people come and sit before you as my people and hear your words, but they do not do them.
00:18:05
Speaker
For with their mouth, they express doting love, but their heart goes after their own dishonest gain.
00:18:15
Speaker
We want to make sure that we are not giving lip service. This is called giving lip service to God. That is not doing what we are supposed to be doing.
00:18:27
Speaker
That's called talking the talk, but not walking the walk. That's how we would say that in today's day. God says that they were going after their own dishonest gain.
00:18:40
Speaker
It wasn't even so much that they wanted more and more things, but it was that they were they were lying, cheating, and stealing to get whatever they wanted. When we do that, it is because we are not relying on God. We are not trusting in him.
00:18:56
Speaker
So we are seeing further, just like we talked about yesterday, where the people came to Jeremiah and they asked, what should we do? Whatever God tells us to do, we will do it.
00:19:08
Speaker
But then they did not trust in him. And God said, if you flee, it will be worse for you. Those things that you are fearing, you will experience those things that you are fearing.
00:19:20
Speaker
And here we see that they are coming and saying, oh, we love God. We want to do what he says. And it's the exact same thing over and over with different people. They are all of the same mind.
00:19:33
Speaker
They are saying that they will obey God, but with their heart, they are not doing it. And God sees our hearts. God knows when we are truly seeking after him.
00:19:46
Speaker
This year, one of our great big lessons has been to make God the most important one. When we make God the most important one, we are trusting in him. God says he delights in us knowing him.
00:20:00
Speaker
Let us know him by knowing that he doesn't want us to simply speak good words and say, oh, yes, I obey the Lord. I do this. I do that. It is God who sees our hearts, and it is our hearts that must belong to God.
00:20:15
Speaker
In our heart, we must be doing the right thing, not simply behaving on the outside so that others see us. God knows our hearts. He knows if we are truly seeking him.
Call to Genuine Transformation
00:20:28
Speaker
He knows if we are truly um obeying him with our hearts and not just with our mouths so i wanted to encourage us to seek our hearts to ask god to seek our hearts david says this too he says lord seek me and know if there is anything within me and that is what we need to ask god to do when he brings it to us we need to lay it before him and Follow him and obey and not seek after what we are looking for in our own gain, whether it is dishonest or not.
00:21:04
Speaker
We need to be sure that we are seeking his kingdom because God will take care of us. Just like he told us yesterday, just like Jesus affirms again and again, we say this this year, we have this big theme that we are to make God the most important one.
00:21:21
Speaker
Obey him with our hearts because God knows the difference and to seek him first so that he can take care of everything else that we need. So I hope that you feel that today's reading has lit your light and that you will ah be motivated to seek God with your heart, not simply with your mouth.
00:21:41
Speaker
I know that he has been searching my heart lately and ah I have to be mindful that I am not thinking about things that I shouldn't be thinking about, things that make me angry and then they cause me to think wrong.
00:21:58
Speaker
In the days of Noah, God said that the thoughts man all
00:22:05
Speaker
that i am not thinking about these things in the days of noah god said that the thoughts of man all evil And I don't want my thoughts to grieve our Holy Spirit.
00:22:17
Speaker
We are connected to God with His Holy Spirit. He has put His Spirit within us. Even before that time, He still knew our hearts. But we have been made whole in Him.
00:22:28
Speaker
And we don't wish to grieve the Holy Spirit by entertaining thoughts that we should not be entertaining. Jesus tells us that if we even think about sinning, such as looking at somebody with the wrong intent, then we have already committed that sin.
00:22:47
Speaker
So it is consistent with what we are seeing here, that the thoughts and the hearts of the people were not turned toward God. We want to be sure that we are commanding every thought to obey.
00:23:02
Speaker
that we are being transformed by a renewing of our mind. So I pray that the Lord will transform your mind with your thoughts, because that is where everything starts, is in the mind.
00:23:14
Speaker
And we've spoken about um being mindful of what we put into our mind. And that means we have to be especially mindful of where our thoughts play out during the course of the day while we are working.
00:23:27
Speaker
I find that this is especially something I struggle with while I am working. And while it's I am busy, busy, ah my thoughts run rampant. And I've been finding that I have to be very mindful, no pun intended, of my mind.
00:23:43
Speaker
that it is it is not entertaining thoughts that are ah not things that I should be thinking about. not um is that they are angry, that they are thinking about hurtful things.
00:23:58
Speaker
So I want to share that so that you know that I'm not simply talking the talk without myself being convicted, that I am walking the walk as well.
00:24:09
Speaker
i want God, and I spoke and I prayed this the other day while I was working, I said, God, what is going on? These are not okay. So I just want you to know that this is not something that um is uncommon and that you might think, oh, I'm not doing that.
00:24:26
Speaker
But ask God to search your heart and your thoughts and to point out to you where you may be dwelling on thoughts that you should not be dwelling on. Because that's what he's been showing me lately.
00:24:39
Speaker
And we don't learn simply by reading. We don't learn simply by hearing God's word. We do need to hear it, but we have to practice these things.
00:24:51
Speaker
We don't simply have transformation of the mind by reading about the transformation of the mind and and in the Bible. God gives us daily application, and that's why these daily applications are so important.
00:25:06
Speaker
because they are meant to be things that we practice, like a worksheet, like what you kids do in school when you are given a lesson and then you practice the lesson with worksheets.
00:25:17
Speaker
Our daily life with these lessons for daily application are like worksheets that God gives us to work on the things that we are reading about. He brings opportunities into our lives so that we can see the lessons in real time, so that we are ah looking at the opportunities and being made aware of them so that we can so that he can transform us and make us better.
00:25:42
Speaker
Because we're not going to learn just by reading. We have to learn by doing. So I hope that you feel that this has been eye-opening and that God has lit your light today. And please click that light button.
00:25:55
Speaker
It looks like a heart. It looks like a thumbs up, but it's really a light. Together we are the light of the world. We want to share God's word and spread the word about reading his word so that you can see that when these things happen in your life, they are not coincidence after we read about these opportunities.
00:26:14
Speaker
That is God in in your everyday life giving you daily application. And that gut in that God's word is so applicable today and every day.
00:26:25
Speaker
And tomorrow I will be here for you again so we can do it all again with a new lesson or, ah you know, one of the similar lessons because everything here is connected. I see the same lessons repeating and I know you do too.
00:26:39
Speaker
And it's not because we are um simply repetitive for the sake of being repetitive. It's that God knows that we need a lot ah of practice time.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:52
Speaker
And this year is definitely a year of practice. So thank you very much for joining me today. And I will be with you again tomorrow. Have a great rest of your day.