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The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. He led me around among the old, dry bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground. —Ezekiel 37:1-2
Ezekiel saw a massive valley of dry bones. What a picture of today’s Church—disconnected, dry, divided, and dead! The once-powerful army of the early Church has disintegrated into a fractured, feeble graveyard of spiritual relics. Now must come the breath and life of God! Someone once said, “God does not breathe on anything that is not connected.” As believers in the Church of Jesus Christ, we must come back into relationship with one another, crossing racial, denominational, and even national lines of boundary. In Ezekiel, the connecting together of the dry bones brought muscle, tendons, breath, and balance back to the body. Then the revived body stood upright, a great army filled with the Spirit of God (Ezekiel 37:10). How easy it is for the Church to become disconnected by economic status, race, or educational level. James corrected the believers who were favoring the rich over the poor in their congregational seating arrangements (James 2:3). The “royal law” tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 19:19); thus, the Church must provide for the daily physical and emotional needs of others. There can be no favoritism in extending the love of Christ to one group of people over another. You cannot live disconnected from the rest of the Body of Christ. Look around, hook up, get involved, and feel the precious breath of God invigorating and empowering you!
Suggested Reading:
Ezekiel 37:1-38:23
James 1:19-2:17
Psalm 117:1-2
Proverbs 28:1