If you don’t know, The Incredibles is a Pixar animated movie about former super-heroes and their children. Dash was the youngest, a little guy who could run so fast that he could run across water. Cool! Very cool!
I want to run as fast or faster than Dash. And maybe someday I will.
- Ezekiel 1:14 (NASB95)
And the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning.
I am going to comment again on my amazement as I read through God’s Holy Book, the Bible. It looks like I am going to be able to complete my scheduled reading on time this year albeit a year late. Explanation – It is taking me two years to get through the Bible this time around.
The reason I mention this is to reinforce that it is okay if you don’t make it in a year. The main point is that a continual, disciplined reading of the Bible is vital to knowing our God and the words he has had written down for us.
Have you ever read the Bible in its entirety? Not trying to be too negative, but I cannot imagine that conversation with God in heaven as I try to explain that as a follower of his for however many years on Earth, that I never took the time, never saw the importance of reading his entire book.
Sometimes the only Bible that people get is on Sunday morning. Or we have “church sign theology” where we grab cute phrases that may or may not be grounded in Scripture.
We also like our favorite swimming holes, favorite texts that warm our hearts but neither call us to service nor cause us to bow down in amazement and wonder before our Savior.
My point is not to make you feel guilty, although you should if you are not taking time to read God’s Holy Book while still on the planet.
My point is that if you are not reading the Bible then you are missing it.
Ezekiel is a hard read, wading through all the various imagery and lengthy descriptions. But even without understanding all of that, you have to be impressed with the majesty of God.
Let the words draw you into the story and the picture of heaven that unfolded before Ezekiel.
The heavens were opened …
- Ezekiel 1:1 (NASB95)
Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
Can you imagine this scene …
- Ezekiel 1:4 (NASB95)
As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire.
And this one …
- Ezekiel 1:13 (NASB95)
In the midst of the living beings there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing from the fire.
“Causing consternation among them” – Picture these people after the Holy Spirit plunks Ezekiel down among them after his vision. Have to chuckle a little.
- Ezekiel 3:12–15 (NASB95)
12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me, “Blessed be the glory of the Lord in His place.” 13 And I heard the sound of the wings of the living beings touching one another and the sound of the wheels beside them, even a great rumbling sound. 14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong on me. 15 Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Chebar at Tel-abib, and I sat there seven days where they were living, causing consternation among them.
He was the pastor of a large church and his point was that they were concerned with ministry here and now and not pie in the sky.
Who says that we have to choose between now and forever?
God certainly doesn’t …
He calls us to live in view of now and eternity. Love your neighbor, live in view of the throne of God. We will one day give an account of our lives.
As a student at Moody Bible Institute, I came to realize that the Bible is so much more specific than I thought it was and that lesson has never stopped. This thought was, by the way, echoed by about everyone I knew. How did we come to that place? Because we were forced to examine the whole Book.
I don’t know about you, and I am not saying it will happen, but personally I am looking forward to running as fast as a lightning bolt and sitting on the clouds and playing my violin when I get to heaven.
Is that how it will play out? I don’t know, but I do know God, and whatever his plan is will cause me to worship him for the rest of eternity.
I praise you Mighty God, Ruler of Heaven and Earth!
