Daily Devotional. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied (have grown) more than the nations (the churches) that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments (as I have Judged) of the nations (churches) that are round about you; Therefore thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations (nearby churches). Ezekiel 5:7-8. Israel was the most blessed, prosperous nation in the area. They were growing, and growing AWAY from the Lord. And they didn’t listen when God judged sin in countries around them. They were sliding into even greater sin and God was going to publicly punish them for their rampant sins. They were not listening to the prophets, (preachers), call out for them to turn from their wicked ways. They were supposed to be a Blessing to the world around them, instead, they were using all their Blessings on themselves, getting comfortable in their sins, and hiring preachers to tell them they were blessed in their lifestyle, and in good with the Lord. Are we churches in America generally in the same boat today??? Try this for size. Your church is growing, in numbers of people in your church. You get the warm fuzzies when the band plays, (a piano, to full orchestra), the lights dim and some people get saved. Really great Sunday morning preaching, close to a full house. Sunday night a solid 25% show up, and Wednesday night about 10% are there. Does your “time of prayer” go longer than 5 minutes? The Lord Blessed the church greatly in the book of Acts. We all like to say we are blessed today. When we compare ourselves to ourselves, we look great. How do we look when we compare ourselves to Christ and His early church? HE, is our example. Can you compare, and, Be Blessed?
