Exiles

One of the friends I met up with the other day reminded me of a tape I had of some teaching by Martin Scott that he gave at the Target Europe Event in Portsmouth in April this year. This morning I listened to it again. His teaching was based on Ezekiel 24:15-21. He spoke of Ezekiel being in a place of exile and mourning not for his own loss but of the loss of the nation and the future generations. God was going to destroy the sanctuary in which the Israelites took so much pride. WOW!!

I guess that's why so many of us feel the way we do. It's like being in exile, in a foreign place feeling a bit lost and not quite knowing what to do or where to go. It would be so easy to think 'Wouldn't it be good to have things back the way they used to be?' and even praying that our church would have a revival so it would grow again. But it is not a time for hankering after the old ways but of mourning that we have had to come to this point of exile so God can reclaim His church. It's like having a great big ache deep inside, like mourning for a loved one. We have to accept that the old ways have gone and that God is wanting to make all things new. Sorry if this all seems a bit pessimistic but I guess I'm feeling like I'm in exile, not quite fitting in where I'm at, in a place I don't quite understand but knowing I'm going to a better place but don't know yet just when or how or what it will be like.