Ezekiel 3
16 After seven days the LORD gave me a message. He said, 17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately. 18 If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 19 If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.
20 “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 21 But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”
Ezekiel is given a heavy burden. He is to proclaim the Word of the Lord, and if he fails to do so properly and people die, their deaths will be upon his head. Hmmm. Reminds me of what James writes in the third chapter of his letter:
1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
It is a sobering reminder of my responsibility as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Showing posts with label My Responsibility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Responsibility. Show all posts
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Long Time, No Blog/My Responsibility
Nearly a year since I posted here. Whew, does time fly or what? I will *try* to be a little more frequent in my postings, and who knows, maybe someone will even notice. lol
I am reading the Chronological One Year Bible this year, just to mix up my daily devotional reading a bit. I've done the one year Bible reading plan each year for over a decade now, and decided to change things up a bit this year. From today's reading in Genesis 17 (New Living Translation), I saw this: 9 Then God said to Abraham, “Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility." It has me thinking about my responsibility as a child of Abraham (spiritually). The New Covenant is summed up by Jesus when He said that we should love God with all we are and all we have AND we should love people the way God loves them (love your neighbor as yourself). My responsibility is live that way. It isn't easy, but it is my responsibility as a child of God. I often fail to live up to my responsibility, but it is my responsibility nonetheless.
May 2009 be one of accepting my responsibility, embracing it, and running headlong to Jesus with it. May this be the year that you do the same.
I am reading the Chronological One Year Bible this year, just to mix up my daily devotional reading a bit. I've done the one year Bible reading plan each year for over a decade now, and decided to change things up a bit this year. From today's reading in Genesis 17 (New Living Translation), I saw this: 9 Then God said to Abraham, “Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility." It has me thinking about my responsibility as a child of Abraham (spiritually). The New Covenant is summed up by Jesus when He said that we should love God with all we are and all we have AND we should love people the way God loves them (love your neighbor as yourself). My responsibility is live that way. It isn't easy, but it is my responsibility as a child of God. I often fail to live up to my responsibility, but it is my responsibility nonetheless.
May 2009 be one of accepting my responsibility, embracing it, and running headlong to Jesus with it. May this be the year that you do the same.
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