By Rena Oynes: Louisiana
In my early morning walks along the Lakefront in Mandeville, Louisiana there are many stately sprawling “LIVE” oaks. They have been through many a hurricane and still stand. They are hardwood trees that symbolize strength, stability, and steadfastness. In my Bible study of Beth Moore’s book “Breaking Free”, the theme passage is Isaiah 61: 1-4 AMP which reads as follows:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor and the afflicted: He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison and the eyes to those who are bound; 2. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord – the year for His favor – and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3. To grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them an ornament – a garland or diadem of joy for mourning, the garment of praise instead of a heavy, burned and failing spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness (lofty, strong and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. 4. And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations and renew the ruined cities, the deviations of many generations.”
Are we “LIVE” Oaks in the house of the Lord or are we oppressed, non-functioning dead wood in the house of the Lord. In the Isaiah scripture above we read the Spirit of the Lord is UPON me. Having been to David Hall’s saturation meetings, he said in Ezekiel 37:1 “The hand of the Lord was UPON me….. He said the most important word was UPON – God’s hand, mighty hand, anointing. The Isaiah scripture says the same thing – UPON me. Things happen when God’s hand is upon you. In the case of the Ezekiel story the dry bones came ALIVE. How many of you have dry bones – Bones, lives, that have been given over to SIN, idols of SIN, sin of the world. You are as a DRY bone – dead to GOD. The obstacles of the world that caused your death is unbelief, idolatry, prayerlessness, and legalism as summarized by Beth Moore from the Word of God. The dead bones were scattered in the valley, in the world and so is the church’s body today. It seems that most churches have no LIFE, no power. David Hall said the pastors aught to prophecy to the church, LIVE bones!!!!!!
I once asked a pastor, “How does one get out of Egypt?” or How does one get out of slavery to sin. Perhaps we love the mud pin of life so much we can’t recognize Jesus’s hand outstretched to pull us out. We seem to all walk as if we had no freedom in Jesus Christ who shed his blood so we might LIVE. A counselor told me to stop tiptoeing around the white elephant (sin), dry bone, in my living quarters. What white elephant is in your living quarters. Is it one of the sins as summarized by Beth Moore. ARE we so dry that there his not one living cell to sound the trumpet call to the bones – “LIVE”!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is this just happening to you or your church? How many of you go to churches that are literally dieing, becoming dead bones. Are we people who have become dead bones, so scattered in the valley of the earth and so dry that God has no one to be the hand, the foot, the head, mouth, nose, ear, etc. Yes we hear TheDailyLily trumpeting, Beth Moore and David Hall sounding the warnings or do we. Have our ear bones grown dry with no movement to hear what is said. Without a BODY the church can not function. I have yet to see a hand do anything without a body. We need the body of Christ to come together and move as a unit. JESUS needs us to be the LIVE OAKS so that he can work through us as HIS HAND moves UPON a BODY. Calling all dry bones, Come together in the church – LIVE! Give thanks for God’s LIFE and breath in you. Give thanks HE has called you from the dead and has a special place for you in HIS BODY. He wants you to MOVE. Exercise your part of the BODY and move under HIS hand. Stand tall and strong under HIS hand and as the winds blow, stand as a MIGHTY OAK, immoveable from your LOVE of HIM, the Almighty God and extending your limbs out to HIM in appreciation for all the dry bones he has unearthed in you so that you might LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!
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I hear your cries, Rena, as you echo the voice of the Father’s Heart. Jesus lamented in the book of Revelation, ” Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love..” chpt. 2. Now, we have NOT forsaken Sunday morning, per se [ many of us….. altho it is becoming more wide-spread not to go to church on Sundays among so called believing, or professing Christians.] We listen to the pastor preach his/her heart out, pleading with us to look at our lives and see what we can do for the Body of Christ; using our gifts, telling our story, giving our testimony to encourage others, giving of our tithes and offerings and aiding and praying and connecting with others in the Body of Christ and those who can become a part of this section of the Body…….not for our own recognition and praise and celebrity but to DRAW others into the Light of what we so miraculously have received, ourselves through the mercy and grace of God.
For many it is ‘comfortable’ down in the desolate valley of dry bones; the back pew. I guess one can get used to anything if they never try to emerge from that Valley.
Sunday, no church. What about no day of the week church? Whoop whee! No connection to the body with Jesus as the head or man bothering me. I think of “fun fun fun until daddy takes the T-bird away.” Beach Boys utter those words I believe. Suppose it’s the gift of serenity which is peace when we refuse to connect to the body. Maybe we have a seed of peace and it needs the cycles of life in the church to nurture it when we decide no structure, order or discipline for me.
Trevor Hudson writes; ” There is no lasting peace without effort. But when we do what we need to do, like a seed hidden in the soil, the gift of peace begins to germinate silently and then bursts into flower in our lives and finally begins to bear fruit.”
I think prayer is the key. I find It very difficult to pray the heart of God for His Body, the church. Lot easier to pray my want list that gives sway to my idle charm. Unbelief relieves pressure points and sends me scurrying along my way to satisfy my needs and block out the rest.
Bones so dry they don’t remember they are bones. Mirages flesh the bones and emotions trick the brain to believe they are alive with love fire. Watch it dry bones or the wind flame may burn your flesh and leave a stench.
“Unbelief relieves pressure points and sends me scurrying along my way to satisfy my needs and block out the rest.” This comment of Sara’s makes me think of the times I have heard of unscrupulous horse trainers who know their racehorse has a leg/ankle injury, mask or block the pain with drugs just to try to get one more ‘win’ out the animal. The poor horse runs around the track like not a thing in the world is wrong, no cares, just feeling good and wants to run. Somewhere in the race it makes a bad step or steps in a hole and ligaments tear/ bones break but the horse keeps running with the leg flailing in the wind without any notice that he is running on three legs. This reminds me of Sara’s other comment, “Mirages flesh the bones and emotions trick the brain to believe they are alive with love fire.”
Sometimes the horse falls injuring or killing the jockey and others nearby in the race. If he does make it past the finish line, it is only to be ‘put down’ or destroyed after the race and carried off in the horse ambulance.
So it seems blocking things from the mind that are vital and important is not wise. And
also, what can a bone do anyway without a working ligament or tendon connected to it?
Debi, your horse illustration makes my point very well: I imagine that is why the Word of God makes it so clear why the body of Christ needs all the parts. Great when they can work together.
I Corinthians 12 has much to say about the body parts.: 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
Yes Sara, you are right about needing all the body parts. And building on the scripture you quoted, Ephesians 4:15,16 has this to add: “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
Rena,
The picture of the strong oak tree here, sure brings today’s devotion in my “Jesus Calling” devotional book, by Sarah Young to “life”. Read with me today’s devotion:
“As you listen to birds calling to one another, hear also My Love–call to you. I speak to you continually: through sights, sounds, thoughts, impressions, scriptures. There is no limit to the variety of ways I can communicate with you. Your part is to be attentive to My messages, in whatever form they come. When you set out to find Me in a day, you discover that the world is vibrantly alive with My Presence. You can find Me not only in beauty and birdcalls, but also in tragedy and faces filled with grief. I can take the deepest sorrow and weave it into a pattern for good. Search for Me and My messages, as you go through this day. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with you whole being.”
…and I used yesterday’s devotion to give thanks for the beauty of nature…It is one beautiful day weather wise and it didn’t take much to stand and praise God who created it all!
Some attribute this quote to Chauce,r however the truth of it is universal among all peoples. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.”….which interpreted means great things can come from small beginnings. In the Scriptures Zechariah 4:10 says, “Do not despise the day of small beginnings.” It may be a tiny acorn now but behold a mighty oak in years to come.
Sara’s comment above, “What about no day of the week church? Whoop whee! No connection to the body with Jesus as the head or man bothering me” …made me think of this chorus that many sing that goes like this: ‘I’m like a tree, like a tree, I’m like a green olive tree in the House, in the House of the Lord…’. Looking at the oaks in the picture above, you can tell that they have been planted there for a long time. That’s why they are established. If they had been yanked out and moved around constantly they would have remained in a state of stress and never put down a good root system. Maybe they would eventually just die. It really is vital to Life to be planted in the House of the Lord.
-Tilda Norberg writes in “Gathered Together”…”We are saved, redeemed, and born again not just once but repeatedly throughout our lives as we are invited to grow in grace. This growth continues whether we are old or young, renegade or saintly, overtly suffering or feeling pretty well.
We can trust that God is always inviting us to the next step in our growth and healing, even at death. At every stage, age, and circumstance in our lives, God nudges us to grow and change.”
So thankful that God left a structure in place for our growth just as He left the soil, water, sun and pattern for the strong oak to grow and thrive.
I am thankful also…and I love the encouraging quote.
I read a quote somewhere today that said; The mighty Oak was once a small nut that stood its ground! Had a picture of an acorn with it! Made me pause and think how small in the right soil may turn big!