Ezekiel 15
Live with Purpose!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, June 19.
You are designed to live your life with purpose. From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus called people to live their best lives for the glory of God, which He believed could only be done when we live according to God’s creative intent and for His salvific purposes. Jesus warned about becoming like salt which has lost its saltiness (Matthew 5:13), or like a light which was hidden under a basket (Matthew 5:15). In John 15:5-6, Jesus illustrated this point by connecting Old Testament imagery about Israel being God’s vine, “I am the vine, you are the branches; … If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” Imagine that you were designed to produce choice fruit, abundant and eternal, only to find yourself withered and discarded because you stopped abiding in the One who created you for this very purpose.
The One who designed you is inviting you to return to Him, finding meaning and value in His creative intent for your life, and living with purpose every day. The danger of not heeding God’s call has always been straight forward, as Ezekiel 15:3-5 describes of a useless vine:
Can wood be taken from it to make anything, or can men take a peg from it on which to hang any vessel? If it has been put into the fire for fuel, and the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then useful for anything? Behold, while it is intact, it is not made into anything. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it still be made into anything!
God bless you!
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YOUTUBE:
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