Tuesday, February 25, 2020

EZEKIEL BREAD

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 4-6

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

 

Bread is being cooked over a fire in Nazareth. The only recipe in the Bible is in today’s reading. Ezekiel bread can be purchased at many health food stores across the country such as “Goodness Me” in Ontario, Canada. Of course one can bake their own fresh bread with this recipe.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

 

Key Verse: Ezekiel 4:9

Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it.

 

Baking bread is the third of four visual object lessons Ezekiel was to preform in order to increase the impact of his message. Getting people to pay attention is more than half the battle in successfully communicating. Ezekiel was making sure that people who would hear him or read his words would know that the coming total destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple of God did not take God by surprise and that God’s purpose to bring His people to repentance would become a fact in history. Following the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people would never again fall into such evil practises which they had committed during the times of the Judges and the Kings. They learned very hard lessons! How would it be known that they had repented? Ezekiel 6:9 states that “They shall loath themselves for the evils which they have committed.” True repentance produces a loathing for sin!

Three times Nebuchadnezzar took captives to Babylon from Jerusalem. Daniel came to Babylon in the first wave, Ezekiel came eight years later. Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem during this time, and finally the prophecies of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel were fulfilled 11 years after Ezekiel was taken to Babylon. By the time of Jerusalem’s destruction, Daniel had already been in Babylon for 19 years and was well established as a leader in that empire. Jeremiah was taken by force to Egypt by some of the leaders of Judah who survived the Babylonian siege.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, grant me daily the grace to repent! May I have a constant sense of true repentance, so that I will loath my sin and cry out strongly to You in my repentance and pray for repentance to take place in people’s hearts everywhere. Like Daniel and others in Babylon, I get Ezekiel’s message, and I pray that You will enable me to live a holy life before You and before people. I ask this in the Name of the only One who always lived a holy life, Jesus Christ (Messiah). Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

It was at least 25 years ago that we actually baked Ezekiel bread live on the 100 Huntley Street telecast. Rev. Val Dodd, who had at one time been the executive chef for the Holiday Inns in Toronto, had joined our staff team, and we took a page from Ezekiel’s book. Television is, of course, a visual medium of communications. We’ve never been as radical as Ezekiel in such graphic visuals to support his message (like laying on one side and then the other for many days). I think such a visual would have increased the number of people watching. In fact, the entire country would have been aware of the show. I’m not recommending this to the current leaders in Crossroads Christian Communications Inc., but I do recommend powerful visual aids wherever possible. The more people watching means that the seed of God’s Word will fall into more good soil and will produce good fruit in more precious lives. One rather conservative pastor who pastored a church nearby said in reference to the Crossroads telecast and my somewhat radical approach to communications, “We should not try to be entertaining, we should just preach the Word!” True, but if we don’t get the attention of those who would not otherwise watch, how will they hear the “Word!” I would venture to say that Ezekiel was most entertaining. His ratings were really high, probably 100% of the people along the river Chebar watched him and got the message!

Yours for communicating in such a way that many more people “Get the Message!”,

David

16 thoughts on “Tuesday, February 25, 2020

  1. Lord God, we are all accountable to You, individuals as well as nations. Please help us to truly get right with You and stay right with You. I do thank You for making the way for us to be forgiven, for the cross where You took our sins on Yourself. Please forgive us of all our sins, and help us to obey Your voice within that tells us to do the right thing.
    Please help the people of our country as well to do the right things. Help us to take seriously the founding principles of Canada – the rule of law and the supremacy of God. Please have mercy and turn our country to You, Lord, in Jesus’s name, amen

    • Amen to that,Rob.We have been forgiven and we will spoend our lives trying to repent while His holy Spirit cleanses us from within,even if we are unaware of it,to make us ready for His kingdom….those who have accepted Jesus as Lord.God bless
      hilippians 1:6 New International Version (NIV)

      6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

    • Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer; it speaks to every aspect of our lives, Thank you Lord, thank You Lord for this wonderful prayer;Thank You for the forgiveness of all our sins, in Jesus Name we pray amen amen amen

    • Thank God today for His word that gives me comfort and direction in times of distress. Moses spoke to Israel in the midst of their trials to do 3 things:
      1. Do not be afraid
      2. Stand firm
      3. See the salvation of the Lord
      Exodus 14:3
      I trust in these words today. My war room is my prayer closet where battles are won and I will praise His name in the midst of my battle. My weapon is a melody. He is the same God on the mountain top as He is in the valley. Praise God!! I ask for prayers for my 25 year old son, Sheldon, first to return to God and secondly for test results on Friday, for cancer. Cancer is only a word that Satan uses to scare us but that wall of fear has crumbled as I stand firm trusting God. Satan is defeated!!

      I continue to pray for revival within our great country. Today I lift up the community I live in that the strongholds be exposed and for opportunities to share the message of salvation to see greater numbers saved. Acts 2:41, Acts 2: 47b

      I also agree in prayer with Rob for those in who serve in the justice system that they will be agents of true justice for all. Pro

  2. Here is the movie Daniel which I have enjoyed each time I watched it.It helps bring the bible into perspective….Well,I’ve been searching Youtube for about an hr and it appears Daniel the movie has been removed or replaced with a documentary.I tried.
    God’s feelings were badly hurt by His own children turning their backs on Him over and over so He had to show them the results of ’embracing evil’.They abused their ‘free choice’ beyond fairness.Just picture God as a loving human parent,hence,’God-the Father’.What else could He do.We may not be far from a final severe chastisement.Many believe we are near the end now but it has to get much worse than it is now…and we are still mostly insulated from the worst of it here in North America,so far.
    No One Dies

    May you dream of summer’s sweet breeze
    When days bygone turn back the years,
    So you can visit those who you please
    Til you return as the dawn appears,
    Then may happiness bless your day
    As the dream makes you realize,
    That all God’s children who obey
    Will reunite where no one dies.
    (GW)Bill Marshall/20 March, 2016

  3. Starting to understand why God came to earth as a human. People would worship such a human rather than inanimate objects, I believe, and then they could spread the word, like has been happening ever since. Just my thoughts….

    “I asked God for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn to serve. I asked for health, that I might do great things; I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for wealth, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might earn the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
    I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for, but all I hoped for. Despite myself, my prayers were answered. And I am, among all men, most richly blessed.” by An anonymous Confederate soldier

    Are You Washed in the Blood/I’ll Fly Away, Alan Jackson
    https://youtu.be/SDqTENtNvKQ

    May God bless all believers. Going to try baking some Challah as husband has to go gluten free. Hoping to find a super recipe online. Will ask God to guide me to one. Blessings.

  4. Lord please remove this itch from me, tell me what is the allergy from, bless choir tonight;bless the celebrations of Shrove Tuesday, Thank You Lord for the community meal last night, wonderful fellowship; bless all who cook; bless the Pastors in Jesus Name we pray amen amen amen

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