come to life

"The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"  i said, "O Sovereign Lord, You alone know." ... this is what the Sovereign Lord says to these dry bones; I will make breath enter you and you will come to life." -ezekiel 37.1-5 (ish...)

this passage has been coming to mind a lot lately. like all morning actually. i've read the story a few times to myself, asking God, "what do you want me to learn? why are you showing me this today?"

...

a few years ago, i was sitting in class at university of arkansas; a psychology class on child development and nothing unusual was going on. our teacher was lecturing and i was taking notes. i usually sat in the middle of the room, this was a big class, like 150 or 200 students in a smallish auditorium, and (being easily distracted) i liked to look around at my classmates during lecture. i looked back down at my paper to take a few notes and when i looked up it was like i was dreaming all of a sudden, even though i was wide awake. i held my breath because the room was transformed in front of my eyes, i wasn't looking at my classmates, i was looking at headstones, like i was in a graveyard. i blinked and the vision was gone, and the thought popped into my mind, "there are so many lost people in the world... it seems impossible." i've never forgotten it.  it was weird.  nothing like that has happened to me before or since.

...

REJECTAPATHY.ORG

relevant magazine, one of my favorites, had a big article this month titled "Reject Apathy."  it talked about the way the church has been reaching out to impoverished people/nations, and how it has been lacking.  most of the article is an interview with rick warren discussing a new program he and his wife are launching called P.E.A.C.E. (http://www.crossroad.to/charts/millennium-goals-peace.htm )  and im not gonna lie, it makes me so joyful to hear the things he has to say! i mean, global poverty is insane.  its so hard for me to understand how someone can live on 68 cents a day or even less than $2 a day.  that thought is overwhelming and i have no idea what to do about it, so what do i do?  and its like, i want people to know about Jesus, but i dont just want to tell them about Jesus and then see them continue in generations of poverty and death from curable diseases...  rick warren points out that (for people he met in africa) a good hospital might be a 3 day walk through the mountains, a pharmacy (that might only have a bottle of asprin on the shelf) might be a days walk away, but a church is never more than ten minutes away.  

okay, so now think about the church as a functional outreach, providing medical care, education and a place to hear about eternal life.  i think this is a great solution and if the church takes hold of P.E.A.C.E. like they took hold of purpose driven life, we're going to get to see God do something great in our lifetime!  

...

every (impossible) task is in God's hands.  i want to trust him and be faithful.  

love.

the article i read: http://www.mygazines.com/issue/353/45