Scripture
Those coming in from the south must go out by the north. They must never go out the same way they come in, but must always use the opposite passageway.
~Ezekiel 46:9, TLB
Quote
Can we have an encounter with Jesus and remain the same?
~Ya’akov
The last part of Ezekiel is a description of massive new temple for the Jews and instructions on how to worship. One of the instructions has to do with there coming and going: they were never to exit the same gate that they used to enter. If they came in through the North gate, they were to exit through the South gate. In other words, “They were never to go out the same way they came in.” A worship encounter with the Living God should change us. How many times do we enter worship and then leave the same way we came with no repentance, no change of mind about anything.
This put me to thinking: would it have been possible for me or you to run into Jesus during His thirty-three years on this earth and not be impacted? I don’t think so. I believe an encounter with Jesus would change everything. I began preaching at age 19 and if you think some of my sermons are bad now, you should have heard the earlier ones. Yet I have no doubt that God used me. During my college days, I served a small church {then} in West Limestone and one Sunday a man came out the door and said to me: “Preacher, God used your sermon to convict me. I have repented and you will see a change.” I’ll let you in on a little secret, it had to do with the use of tobacco and I never saw him use it again. I assumed that this kind of thing would happen on a regular basis but that was over 50 years ago and it has never happened since. I don’t long to hear, “Good sermon pastor!” I long to hear people say something similar to what that man said, “Preacher, the word convicted me and I must change. I can’t keep living the way I am living.”
Another beautiful day of sunshine. PTL, all the Bailey’s are better. We are not praying for others so get over covid. We are really looking forward to worship Sunday.