Wedding Bells

Come Close. Come close, good friend, and listen to the story. Brother Jesus just struck a chord in my heart and it’s ringing louder than wedding bells. It’s a beautiful sound, really. Rushing madly through the worn-down roads and beat-down canyons of my rugged heart like the wild waters of the Colorado through the skin of the Earth. I can’t describe to you the sound and do it enough justice. My words would only rob it of its great wonder. I can only tell you that it feels amazing to have something this good breaking out in my wicked heart. I can only hope and beg God that He’ll send something this good through the hearts of the rest of my brothers and sisters, scattered out about the world, like misguided ants. I beg for you all everyday.

Today we’re in Ezekiel, so if you’ve got a Bible- get it. If it’s under a pile of old clothes, somewhere in the back of your closet- open the door and dig it out. If you lost it, threw it away, never had one to begin with- go ask the neighbors. I really want you to see this. I want you to see the greatness of our God in the perfect cursive of the Truth. Let’s go.

A little background on our boy Zeke before I take you where I want. Ezekiel is probably my favorite book in the Bible. For numerous reasons really, but that’s neither here nor there. It has always hit my heart hard, but now, as I wrestle through it a new time, it is hitting me harder than it ever has before. Like a baseball bat straight to my chest. Like a car crash. A head-on collision. Zekes’ rap sheet looks like this: He’s a priest, living among the exiled Israelites. There ya go. That’s Ezekiel. Pretty normal guy who God decides to make one of the most extreme, most radical prophets of the Old Testament. I won’t take you all the way through Ch. 1 and Ch.2 cause I want to get you to Ch. 3 before I bore you to death, even though the first two chapters are incredible. Here, I’ll fill you the best I can. Hopefully I don’t scribble outside the lines too much, though I’m like a three year old with a crayon when I write. God’s glory shows up out in the desert where Zeke lives. Zeke describes the glory of God best he can, but we find that it’s no easy task to paint a coherent picture of Gods’ great blaze. Ezekiel sees the glory of God raining down from the sky, worse than any thunderstorm in the history of the world, and he ends up flat on his face. Facedown. Blocking out the brightness with his arms because they didn’t have sunglasses then. He’s humbled by the radiance. He relates it to a “rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day” (1:28). Says it sounds like “the roar of rushing waters or the tumult of an army” (1:24). It’s “shining like an awe-inspiring crystal” (1:22). “Flashing bolts of lighting in the midst of fire” (1:4). There is too much glory for Ezekiel to handle so he falls down on his face. Down in the dirt because he knows that’s where he belongs next to something this marvelous. That’s chapter one. I think it’s incredibly too cool, but I’m also incredibly too much of a nerd. Whatev.

Let’s roll onto chapter two. In chapter two a voice speaks to Ezekiel. I love seeing Ezekiel 2:2. I love what it says: “As he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet.” Ezekiel cannot get up on his own. He’s too impressed. Too humbled. So the Spirit has to come get in him and give him the strength to get back on his feet. I just think that’s a great picture of our weakness as humans before the greatness of God. It cripples us so much that we cannot function without the intervention of the Spirit. We are totally incapable of anything without the help of the Spirit. The feeble bones of our little bodies are just too weak on their own. They need the Spirit. Anyway, onward Christian soldiers. So this voice is speaking to Zeke, right? Great. Well, what’s it saying to him? I love what God tells Ezekiel to do. It’s great. He says “Zeke, son of man, go to the people of Israel and warn them I’m coming. Tell them. Tell them I said it. That I, the LORD, with capital letters, said it. But they won’t listen. Not to you. They’re stubborn and rebellious. They will refuse to listen to anything you say. They’re a rebellious house. But you’re going to them anyway. You, Ezekiel, son of man, are going regardless of this. And they will know that a prophet as been among them because of this.” So, basically, in other words, God is sending Ezekiel on a suicide mission. If you read on you see that God causes Ezekiel to do some pretty radical stuff. Hilarious stuff. Ridiculous stuff. Anyway, back in chapter two, before that stuff, God is getting Ezekiel ready. God feeds Zeke some truth and fills his belly with a scroll of things to say that Ezekiel says tastes “sweet as honey “ (3:3) I LOVE that. Sweet as honey. The word of God is sweet as honey. Truth is sweet as honey. Incredible. The beginning of chapter three God spends time reinforcing the fact that these people will not listen to Ezekiel, that Ezekiel better not be scared because God’s with him, and that God is going to be the one speaking through him, whispering the right words in his ear. God sets this monstrous mountain in front of Ezekiel and says “climb.“ God tells Ezekiel to climb and lose his life for Glory. God says obey. Then there’s 3:14. And that is where we will camp out for awhile.

“Then the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me.”

That’s what 3:14 says in the ESV. The NIV says that Ezekiel went in bitterness and in the anger of his spirit. The Message says that he goes bitterly and angrily. It says that he “didn’t want to go, but God had him in his grip.” Ezekiel had no choice. Regardless of the how he felt, God had him in His grip. Ezekiel was going up this mountain whether he liked it or not. I think this is a great encouragement to us. At least it is to me. I hope it is to you. Bottom line is: God’s doing things. Some things we like, some things we hate. We have a mountain in front of us and He is calling us to climb. Up to the top. Out of rock bottom. Out of the valley. He is calling us to climb towards obedience. It doesn’t matter how we start the ascent up. It doesn’t matter our attitude, how we feel, or what kind of emotion we’re riding. Ten times out of ten, when God calls you to obey, He’s calling you to bleed. He’s calling you to change things. To move. Break a bone. Get messy. He is bringing you into a very, very dangerous place. Let’s be honest here. Do you really expect to climb into a place like that smiling? High-fiving God? Being happy? Please. Give me a break. Even Jesus wasn’t happy about going to the Cross. The night before Jesus was begging God for another way. He was troubled. He had emotions and He was riding them. Even into that climb. But God didn’t let go of Him. He held on. He had Jesus in His grip. He had plans and wasn’t going to change them. Just like He did with Zeke. Just like He does with us. I’m not telling you to be angry at God about obedience, about climbing. I’m just telling you that it’s okay if you are. God is not going to let go of you. What’s great about the whole thing is you really don’t have a choice in it. The Spirit is the one lifting you up. Taking you away. Forcing you to go. Compelling you into action. Even if you are frustrated. Angry. Annoyed. Unwilling. Wrestling. You are going whether you like it or not. Even if your legs are broken, God is calling you to climb. He’s calling you because it brings Him glory and he’ll do whatever it costs to get Him more of that. Even making you a little angry or bitter. What matters is that you let the Spirit take you, even if you don’t want to go up the hill. It sucks; I’ll tell you, it sucks. The Hill is hard. It hurts a whole helluva lot. Death is breathing heavy on my back. I’m hurting. My bones are broken something bad. And I’m not happy about it. But I want God to get His share. His glory. I want Him to get more of Him. Even if it means me hurting. Even if it means me bleeding a little. That’s why Ezekiel went to a rebellious people who weren’t going to listen. That’s why Jesus manned up and got on the Cross. For Glory. For More of Him and less of themselves. This is our spiritual climb, friends: To die and let God live. Just go. Come on. Get up that hill. Be angry. Be happy. It doesn’t matter, just keep climbing. Crawl if you have to. I want to encourage you. The hand of the Lord is on you. He’s not going to let go. If He lets go, He lets go of His glory. God will not let go of His glory. You are His glory. He’s going to get you to the top. It’s the one thing I can promise you, other than the road there will suck. Beg Him to help you get there. You cannot do this thing alone. We need His Spirit to sherpa us up our Everest. You don’t need your friends. You don’t need cheap, watered-down answers. You don’t need churchy people telling you churchy things. You don’t need lies. You don’t need magic books with magic answers. That junk will weigh you down. You need truth. You need to strap your boots up. Stare the junk in your heart down. You need to be pushed. You need to get up. You need to stand your ground and fight, damnit! You need to grow a pair. God will not let you go.

Look, I thought all this was a stupid idea. I wanted nothing to be apart of what God wanted to do with me. I honestly did not want my obedience to be this way. I didn’t like the idea of me having to die and having very important parts of me die too. But the Spirit over took me. I got hungry for the glory of God. Now I beg for death. Now I beg for His glory. It’s hard, believe me. But if you love Jesus, I mean really, wildly love Him this is what’s commanded of you. Death is demanded of you if you love Jesus like He’s commanded you too. If you aren’t climbing, not obeying God to the point of blood and sweat, then you’re telling the rest of the world that Jesus is just some guy. Some madman who helped people once. Your blood, sweat, and tears scream Savior of the World. King of Glory. Beautiful One. Good Friend. Your lack of it shuts those screams up. Screams the opposite. Do you love Jesus enough to let your world crumble? Will you show the world that? Your friends? Your parents? Do you love Him enough to lose it all? Or is He just some nice guy who should get lip service and a dollar on Sunday morning?

God’s going to keep hijacking your heart and moving you up this hill. He keeps doing it with me. He’ll do it with you. My heart is still bitter. I’ve lost precious things to me. But He wants His glory. And so do I. Losing these things is totally worth it, if God gets his glory. Beyond worth it. He keeps initiating me. Making me hungry. Miserable outside His presence. Making me groan for it with a bloody heart. Forcing me to come to life. He is the one making the pen move. I’m only writing what He’s whispering in my ear. I’m just the middle man. We’re all just the middle man. The intermediates bridging God back to His glory. He is taking us away. Wrapping us up in the unflinching grip of His Good Spirit. He refuses to let go of us no matter how bitter we get or how much we hurt and sweat. Our hurt and sweat increases His name and glory. Ache for your hurt and sweat, lest God not become more famous. Chase, climb, crawl towards those things. Yes, God most definitely loves us. Cherishes us as orphaned children. He’s concerned with us but only because He’s concerned with Himself. He loves our broken hearts so much only because He loves how He can mend them back together so much more. We can be angry as much as we want, shake our fists and scream till we lose our voice, but it wont matter- it won’t change this beautiful truth about God. He’ll keep holding us. Bringing us in tight. Wrapping us up in warm blankets. Hugging us. He’ll keep inspiring us to get up and go. Stand our ground and fight. Climb or crawl. As long as we’re breathing, we need to be begging God to make us breathe His glory. The Spirit is lifting us up and taking us away, even in the heat of our bitter skin. His mighty hand is strong up on us, causing us to climb. It’s never going to let go. We’ll be dragged, kicking and screaming, all the way to the top. He’s breathing life into dying bones. Fashioning beautiful, pure women. Molding rugged, passionate men. He’s recreating His children. Making them better. Replacing old ashes with radiant beauty. And He will not let go. Ever.