will be established; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1

If you think the Bible is boring, you haven't read Ezekiel 37! Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 53 Q. What do you believe concerning “the Holy Spirit”? A. First, he, as well as the Father and the Son, is eternal God. Second, he has been given to me personally, so that, by true faith, he makes me share in Christ and all his blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever. Summary The Old Testament book of Ezekiel can be one of the hardest to understand in the whole Bible. Ezekiel paints fantastic word pictures and describes often unimaginable scenes of God's glory that are not only hard to picture but sometimes even harder to interpret. But this episode we read today is one of Ezekiel's most famous, and although it presents a striking story of dry, dead bones morphing back into living beings, this story isn't difficult to interpret (it helps that Ezekiel tells us exactly what it means in the following verses). The bones represent God's people, who described themselves as dried up and hopeless. What's amazing is that God uses the same tool to save them that He uses on you: He sends them a preacher to prophesy, a word we often associate with predicting the future, but which actually means to proclaim God's Word on His behalf. Ezekiel's preaching has an immediate effect. Imagine what the 'rattling' sounded like as bones reconnected to each other in exactly the right sequence, and what it looked like as they were then suddenly yet incrementally fleshed out into full bodies! But as powerful as preaching is, it has a big limitation. It can reassemble broken bones, build up muscle and tendon, and cover it all with a thick skin, but it can not restore life to that which is dead. Ezekiel had witnessed a true miracle in that dry bones were transformed into healthy bodies; healthy, but still dead. But God still had use for the tool He'd given to Ezekiel, and He called Him to use it one more time. Preach, God said, but this time not to the bones, but rather to the breath. Whose breath, Ezekiel must have wondered! Certainly not the bodies laying before him, for "there was no breath in them (v8)." Here's where it helps to have read lots of the Bible. You probably remember reading that as soon as God finished forming Adam from the dust of the ground, He put His own breath into Him, and he became a living being (Gen. 2:7). Both in Hebrew (the language Ezekiel was written in) and in Greek (the language of the New Testament), the word for breath / wind is the same exact word as is used for spirit. God makes it clear who the breath Ezekiel summoned belonged to in v14 - I will open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live... Dig Deeper We spent the opening months of this year being reminded that we were born dead in sin, as dry and lifeless as the bones God brought Ezekiel to. The primary tool God has used to reanimate you is preaching - certainly on the Lord's Day from the pulpit, but also from teachers, elders and parents as they shared the Bible with you in various ways. The story of the dry bones is an excellent example of why you need even more preaching if you want to be healthy and strong. But all the preaching in the world is in vain without the blessing of the Holy Spirit, who turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh that accept God's Word through faith. Don't miss the command God gave to Ezekiel to "preach to the Breath." You can do that by praying that the Holy Spirit will strengthen your faith and breath into the sin-slain people around you that they may live (v9). AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the creator of life who sends out preachers to restore life; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Prophesy to the breath... pray that the Holy Spirit will further enliven you and bring new life to the spiritually dead around you. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Romans 2

Then let go of your stuff. 1 Timothy 6:17–19 (NIV) 17 Command those who are rich in this present world The first verse makes a great elaboration of passages like we read in 1 Timothy 6, but the final two

ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1 Corinthians 15

Genesis 1:26–27 reveals that human beings were the pinnacle of God’s good creation because they were Following God’s lead in the creation act of Genesis 1, humans were tasked to work and rest. Genesis 1:26 points explicitly to the ruling aspect over all the other creatures.

We know this because of several passages in the Bible like Colossians 1:16.

Much of their conviction was based on these words we read today from Romans 1.

You're already fully saved even though you do not yet fully realize all the benefits of it. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 45 Q. How does Christ’s resurrection benefit us? A. First, by his resurrection he has overcome death, so that he might make us share in the righteousness he won for us by his death. Second, by his power we too are already now resurrected to a new life. Third, Christ’s resurrection is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection. Summary The NIV has an excellent translation of the opening words of Colossians 3. Whereas other translations render it "if you have been raised with Christ...," the NIV brings out the emphatic and forceful nature of the Greek grammar that Paul uses with the words "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ." In other words, if you confess and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, you don't need to wonder if the victory He won applies to you. Since you believe, you have been raised with Christ. Paul draws out the logical ramifications of your salvation. Since you've been raised with Christ, your life is different from non believers. Physically everything stays the same for now (which is why it's often so easy to forget you're different), but mentally and spiritually, you're living in an entirely different world than other people, so it only makes sense that your heart and mind be focused on things above, not on earthly things. Notice the timeline that's set out in v3-4: PAST You died (in that you were included in Christ when He died) PRESENT Your life is now hidden with Christ in God FUTURE When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Dig Deeper How much needless worry, stress, and anxiety are you experiencing because it's so easy to forget this gospel timeline? So many people reduce their salvation to something that will happen in the future, after they die. They just see God standing there at the finish line, cheering you on the way parents encourage a young child in a race, but yet either unable or unwilling to interfere with the problems you are facing right now. But today be reminded that "you too are already now resurrected to a new life." Yet you live in tension: we often say that we are already fully resurrected, but we do not yet fully realize all of the benefits that come from our salvation. What that means is that even though your life is most certainly hidden in Christ at this very moment, you are still subject to the temptations and consequences of sin, both the sins you commit yourself and those others around you commit. So you're not exempt from the the problems of this world, but you can begin to see them in the light of Christ. This is the key to peace in this life: set your heart and mind on things above, not on earthly things. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Father God, who has our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ sitting at His right hand. ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will be reminded often that salvation is not just a future benefit, so that you will keep your heart and mind set on things above already now. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Matthew 14

the right hand of God; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - 1

Numbers 16:1-32 (NIV) Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan But all people are obliged to join and unite with it, keeping the unity of the church by submitting to according to God’s Word, to separate themselves from those who do not belong to the church, in order to join And so, all who withdraw from the church or do not join it act contrary to God’s ordinance.