MercyMe – Even If

The big idea from Ezekiel that I am picking up today is that sometimes God calls upon us to deliver the hard message– the message that is difficult to deliver. Perhaps we must confront a friend or admonish someone. A part of what it means to live the disciple’s life is having the courage not to put off these responsibilities when they come. Ezekiel is a good example of someone who was willing to deliver the hard message.

And he said to me, “Son of man,^[i] stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. – Ezekiel 2:1-3  ESV

So what is the hard message about being or not being a disciple?

This was one of my readings today.

 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. – Hebrews 6:4-6  ESV

It would seem that the Hebrew writer is giving me a pretty hard message. It would seem that holding Jesus up to contempt could be my crime. By contempt – meaning that I would be nailing Him to the cross again.

“they tear him out of the recesses of their hearts where He had fixed His abode and exhibit Him to the open scoffs of the world as something powerless and common” [BLEEK in ALFORD].

As a disciple of Jesus, I abide in Him, hear and obey His voice. There is not a falling away to the point where the branch is dead and needs to be broken from the tree. Imagine if I were though. Even so, if I became like the fig tree that did not produce fruit, God’s grace can reclaim even such a hardened rebel. The impossibility is more in line with me knowing once the power of Jesus’ sacrifice and then rejecting it, I could feel that I have past by hope, except by a miracle of God’s grace.

This hard message reminds me everyday to be walking in all the experiences God has given me and to not cease in abiding in them. By abiding in them I will not fall away.