The past couple of weeks I have been reading through Jeremiah, Lamentations and Ezekiel. Just some light summer reading before heading back into teaching…

As I cruise through Ezekiel 37-39 I am thrown back to my high school days. Those were the days when I had everything figured out. The Rapture, Israel, the Church, all of it. I could predict when Russia was going to invade Israel…

Life was so much easier when it was so doggone predictable! Then, Russia blew up, the Rapture didn’t happen, and the world got more complicated.

But somewhere along the line I actually read past Ezekiel 39. Who knew there were more chapters? Who knew there was such a thing as context?

And as I am reading again about the glory of the Lord returning to the Temple… a temple built by God… and what had left the building at the beginning of Ezekiel was now returning…

Okay, I still don’t know what in the world this is all talking about… and I am done predicting. (Although, with that earthquake on the East Coast yesterday… 😉 )

But as I read through the description of the glory of the Lord returning, and thinking about the context of an entire book where the glory has been gone so God could deal with this mess in Israel, I have felt that longing for the return of the glory. As I read this return of the glory in Chapter 43 there is a rejoicing in my heart! What God had pulled back is now returning! I am thrilled for Israel in this story!

And there is a hunger in my heart.

9/11’s tenth anniversary approaches. When it first happened, I knew this wasn’t just about America. It was something about the American church. And now as this anniversary approaches, there is still a strong stirring in my heart that there is still something to hear from the Lord about the American church. Not America. It’s not the people of God.

But the church needs to have their ears open. The Spirit wants to speak. There is a sense of anticipation.

And 9/11 falls on a Sunday this year. What better opportunity to actually STOP… and listen?

I may not have the end of the world figured out, but I do have a greater sense of hunger for the Spirit to do something new.