Called to suffer rejection

Sunday 8-28-2016   Home in Modesto

Scripture Reading:  Eze 1 - 3   Rev 2

S=Scripture  O=Observation  A=Application  P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Ezek 2:6-7 "And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though they are a rebellious house.  You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. NKJV

O.  Ezekiel was a defrocked priest who, along with his people had been taken captive and carried into a foreign land where he had lived, like many other slaves for several years.  Now God shocks him with a vision so unusual that even today with all our possibilities could never make a movie to even resemble it. And as this captive priest tries to take in the whirlwind and strange living creatures with wings and wheels flying in formation… God shows up upon His throne with some difficult instructions.

A.  When the Lord sent me to Latin America, He said if I would plant the seed of my ministry in the USA and “let it die”, He would give me the promise of “much fruit” (John 12:24).  I had the wonderful blessing of knowing that if I buried the seed of my life in the fertile soil of His will, my service to Him and my message to them would, in time, bring forth much fruit. I lived in the brightness of that assurance.  But here is a man who is called to go to a stubborn people that will refuse his message. He is promised briers, thorns, scorpions, looks of disgust and rejection.  I am made to think of the many young Argentine couples that God is calling to countries inhabited by Muslims. They know that they are heading for rejection, hatred and danger, but they go for God has called them.

P.  Lord, I seriously doubt that I could have gone out with the same fervor if You had told me, like Ezekiel, that I would not only suffer thorns and scorpions and, in spite of my speaking Your message, I would face rebuke, hatred and rejection. Lord, I pray for Your servants that today that are suffering danger and rejection and life-threatening persecution.  May Your love in them conquer their torturers and may they have the joy, like You have given me, the joy of witnessing the harvest of precious souls.  Amen.

Ralph