“And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate My holiness before their eyes.”

Ezekiel 36:23

Reverence flows from the mouth of the One who created life. He ignites light. Cherishes life. Cultivates it. Awakens it.

For He Himself is the Light of the world.

His Name is holy.

His Name is life-transmitting.

Worthy of our reverence.

In the meadows where flowers grow the Gardener knows the timing of the sun. He knows the scheduling of watering as rain collapses from the clouds He’s holding overhead. He’s a nurturer. A developer. A Creator and the life giver.

When God breathes out to fashion creation, everything touched by Him awakens. Fully. Radiating with life and color. Light and splendor. Beauty. Artistry.

There is no degradation of life in God’s voice.

There is no hiding of light.

He does not chastise what flows from His Spirit.

He empowers it.

But there is a degradation upon death He asserts.

God curses evil and abhors lifelessness.
God obliterates anything impure.

Crushing any word that speaks against His Word and against His Name.

Because He created us to thrive in life. Our joy is His priority. And it’s tethered to us honoring Him for who He is so we can connect to Him fully for who He is.

God tears down anything that undermines holiness and profanes His Name. Jesus is coming again to destroy all that is antagonistic towards a good and perfect world.

But He uplifts anything that exalts His Name.

So that His glorious Name may resound in the earth.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven..” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:14-16‬

God wants the world to see you shining His light.

It’s how He transmits His Spirit and beckons salvation.

Jesus needs us to shine His light from within us so thay others can be saved.

But Israel let their light stop shining… And God is bringing judgment upon them for their darkness. Because they are failing to be a display of Yahweh to the other nations.

In Ezekiel, Yahweh speaks to the people of Israel proclaiming judgment because of their turning away from Him and seeking other gods, forsaking Him as their God.

“I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices.”‭‭ Ezekiel‬ ‭7:8‬

It’s important to understand a pure and holy God cannot ignore injustice.

The greatest injustice of all is the degredation of God’s holy name. He alone is holy and worthy of honor. When you turn away from Him, you invite turmoil and devestation into your life and that creates a bad witness to others who are confused why you are living so treacherously although you claim to trust in a holy God. Sin is not a good look. It distorts God’s name when His people live a life that does not line up to Him and His character.

When you profane His name, you profane His entire trinity. You invite devestation upon yourself.

His “about to pour” promise in verse 8 was upheld to Israel in their various calamities over time. Exile. Persecution. Famines. Droughts. Slavery. Etc. Altogether culminating in one final blow… on the body of Jesus.

This is the epitome of love…

Oh what love the Father has for us that we should be called children of God!

He rescues us from the wrath and puts a new spirit in us… so we do not have to live against Him. In fact, it’s unnatural to. We become holy from His holiness imparted to us.

It’s the lavish and radical love of God…

That God would insert a layer of abosorption in front of us so that we don’t have to consume His wrath…

Jesus came to consume all of this wrath promised.

Jesus says in His teaching on the sermon on the mount, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17

Jesus fulfills every law in the Old Testament that God laid out before the Israelites to follow… in His one holy being. And through His one sinless death. Crucifying sin forever. If we would receive it… receive it precious ones, and live life fully alive and vibrant! He has so much more for you!

It’s the essence of God’s outrageous mercy.

It’s not that God chose not to give us what our sin deserves. He gave it. Wrath cannot be undone. It had to be spilled upon something.

It’s that God gives us what our sin deserves by laying it on His own self… His own entity suffering abuse at our own iniquities.

For His namesake and identity to be upheld.

God will not stop being a pure and good God just because Israel cannot uphold their oath. God still upholds His.

“And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.” Ezekiel 36:23

This vindication begins with Yahweh stepping in to save Israel in part from oppression. However, they would see more oppression still to come. Even up to the point of Jesus’ birth where Israel is under Roman occupation. So this “vindication” God is speaking of culminates in Jesus’ death.

Jesus is the vindication.

Jesus is the Savior of God’s people.

Jesus is the redeemer from all oppression.

Not in their temporal lives, but in the eternal.

It’s important to understand the contrast of debauchery and purity.

The intensity of God’s goodness is only seen by the complete and utter travesty He forgave. Sin repulses a holy God. He is just in every way for being disguisted by it. This is His posture in Ezekiel and the prophetic books of the Old Testament. And for all time. God does not change. Evil revolts Him.

Why would we expect that a holy God would be anything else but appaled by sin and evil?

His disdain is more than understandable.

It’s a natural response for a holy being who’s seeing unholiness oozing out into the creation He first made like an oil spill in the bluest ocean waters.

God does not delight in devestation.

He loves you!

And He longs to see you whole and flourishing in satisfaction if you would turn to Him!

So we see Him outrated and rightly so.

I want a God who is outraged by evil, because that tells me He will fight to eradicate it. So I don’t have to live in it. Nor have it affect me any longer. Because of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit indwelling me to extract every sin that assails me. And He does… we grow because of Him slaying darkness.

God is pure and good because He hates evil.

“The Lord tests the righteous, but His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” Psalm 11:5

“O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 97:10

God is so humble and kind even in His repulsion, He is willing to be killed by the very enemy He hates so that He can eradicate it forever.

Jesus died via pangs of death… so that He could triumph over death… forever.

Our deliverance is found in the propitiation of Jesus… His choice to lay down His own life, and inhale all of the wrath of God for us.

The wrath of God was never erased. Make no mistake. It was fully unleashed… just not on us. On Jesus. The One who drank the cup of the wrath of God for those who would believe in Him and follow Him as Lord and Savior.

“Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

I love how this passage describes Jesus. He’s so in control of the situation and confident of what He is doing. He didn’t let Himself be killed. He laid down His own life… despised the shame! Revolted it! Destroyed it! For the joy before Him! He was joyful taking on the wrath of God… there was no shame in such a shameful death… because He knew what He was doing and where He was going. To the right hand of God. Where we will one day reign with Him because of His death.

Jesus is the most selfless loving being you could ever know… willingly subjecting Himself to His own torrential wrath for you.

Receive His love and begin an intimate relationship with Him… and let everyone around you so be changed from His light indwelling you.

Jesus is the light of the world.

Jesus is not afraid to illuminate the darkness.

He shines forth with goodness, so that what’s dead can disintegrate, and what’s awaiting revitalization can rebirth. When Jesus dawned upon the earth, He carried this light of rebirth to His people.

In John chapter 1 Jesus is introduced as He begins His ministry. It says, “In Him, Jesus, was life, and the life was the light of men.”‭‭ John‬ ‭1:4

‬Jesus Christ Himself is the light of the world needed.

Emmanuel.

God with us.

I love His affection towards us to come close and inhabit a world so broken from the fall. He wanted to rescue us. So He didn’t have to be without us… Jesus Your heart is beautiful. Thank You for Your love.

“Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”‭‭ 1 John‬ ‭5:12

Life makes you light up. You can’t help it. And it’s beautiful…. God meant for it to be. To reflect and glimmer His attributed in a world longing to glimpse a taste of Heaven. The light of Jesus in you beckons them to know Him too in relationship. Don’t cover your light…

Again I go back to Matthew 5:14-16 which speaks of highlighting God’s light in the world…

I feel the Lord wants us to remember this right now… amidst a world that grows increasingly opposed to Him in these last days…

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:14-16‬

SHINE your light!

Don’t hide it!

Lest the world miss seeing Jesus they’re waiting to see.

People see Jesus in you.

Shine the light Jesus Himself planted in you… He planted it on purpose. Let it grow.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Hebrews 12:1

Keep running the race!

When you say yes to Jesus, you began a new path and that path is marked with purity. Righteousness. Virtue. Honor. New thoughts. New choices. A new spirit that empowers you to make the right choices.

There is no excuse for habitual sin in the life of a believer. You are not the old version anymore.

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans 6:1-2

Now you are the new, spirit-filled version cleansed and holy.

Able to walk out the path God instructs.

You contain the capacity to say yes to Jesus’ prompting of good in your spirit.

Infused with a new power source to soar. And it’s liberating. Invigorating. Giving you happiness like you never had before… Jesus is the best life there is. Paul went from being a murderer to a rescuer all in one encounter with Jesus. He is all you need to transform.

Now He says… grow. Change. Glow. Awaken in rebirth into the new man you’ve become.

Where the spirit moves, that’s where God’s wooing you into a greater encounter of Him. Don’t stop the Holy Spirit when He shows up how you didn’t expect. Welcome Jesus into your life and radiate Him…

the earth is a floodlight

shining up to Heaven

when you pour our Your spirit

upon us

glowing here in the rivers

flowing by the light

of the world

Jesus You are

the light of the world

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world… To all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
‭‭John‬ ‭1:9,12‬