There is always hope!

“Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.” (Eze 37:11-12 AV)

Just when one thinks that all things are hopeless, it could get worse.  Yet, as bad as it can get, nothing is beyond the God of ‘possible’.  This vision of Ezekiel is calls the vision of the dry bones.  These bones were dry, without flesh, and bleached by the sun.  Beyond any hope of ever coming to life again.  As Ezekiel was instructed to do, he gazed upon these bones.  The LORD built flesh upon those bones.  When they were fully formed men, He breathed the breath of life into those bones.  These bones represented and will represent, the spiritual condition of the nation of Israel prior to the coming of Christ.  If the LORD is able to spiritually resurrect a dead nation that had rejected Christ the first time around, surely, He can resurrect a nation that once was the center of Christianity!

Our churches have tried promotions and programs.  We have tried one new cutting-edge idea after another.  What we have never consistently used in the furtherance of the gospel is faith!  Ezekiel, and by extension Israel, are asked to do is believe that in the driest and deadest of all conditions, God can and will resurrect His people!  We have to have an enthusiastic faith that shows to the world there is life!  We are not dead!  God can turn around the absolutely impossible!  Think about it!  Science can 3D print inanimate objects.  It can create simulated life.  What it can never do is create life from nothing.  This is and always will be an only God thing!  Several years ago, my son and I came across human remains while hunting in the woods.  There were bleach white.  The poor soul’s clothes including his sneakers were still there.  It was as if he simply laid down to take a nap and expired.  I remember the bleach white condition of his remains.  What a sight it would have been had the LORD resurrected this poor fellow back to a condition better than he ever was before!

If God can do this with Israel, surely, He can do this with a life or a church!  We just have to see the possibility!  We just have to see the God of the impossible doing the impossible!  There is hope as long as the LORD lives!  And He always will!