Unrelentingly Full of Mercy and Grace and Love

There are times and seasons and moments that I would rather have never existed..... at the hands of others I became like the dry bones Ezekiel speaks of ... void of life.... I was like a vapor traveling through the minutes and the days and the weeks and the months and the years of life unconnected .

Ezekiel and God.... uhm

Ezekiel 37:1-14 (The Message)
Ezekiel 37
Breath of Life
1-2 God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun.
3 He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "Master God, only you know that."
4 He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!'"
5-6 God, the Master, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!"
7-8 I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them.
9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, 'God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!'"
10 So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.
11 Then God said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they're saying: 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there's nothing left of us.'
12-14 "Therefore, prophesy. Tell them, 'God, the Master, says: I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! Then I'll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you'll realize that I am God. I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it. God's Decree.'"


There were those who said these bones of mine wouldn't live... wouldn't thrive... couldn't.... too far gone. They were wrong... and I came to life... and He attached to me strength and put upon me grace and covered me with mercy and filled me with Himself.

This passage is precious to me....For I too can see a battlefield stretched out before me with bones on every side..... But I am not like those who have no hope..... That I walk where I walk screams forth hope....

There has been something on my heart for weeks now... something I have hesitated to write about but I come this morning to make an attempt. Please bare with me as I don't think this will be my most eloquent piece..... Leaving specifics alone... I share this..... I was one who lacked a conscious.. I was one who was completely void of attachment to humanity..... I was a skeleton of a person.... walking .. talking skeleton but that was all....

I have wondered about those who we hear about in the news... murderers ... destructive fringe elements that walk our streets and harm innocent people.... where some might think how can they do that... I don't think that at all... I know..... We cannot ascribe reason or process such things with a rational mind...

I am trying to get somewhere and don't know how ... except right now I am just going to take the plunge..... I am stirred to a place of sight and passion and longing..... There have been those that have fought for me.... fought for me to get to where I walk today...... there are those who laid their lives down and then laid their lives down again and again and again... and sacrificed holidays.. and sacrificed sleep night after night after night... those that laid down schedules and laid down their agendas and picked up God's.... and fought.. and fought... when I couldn't .... they did and they did time and time and time again..... and I am moved to a place these past weeks to look up and see God and receive from Him this same heart..... for the wounded... for the broken... for the ones that were left behind.... but not just the victims of the things that happen that we wish we didn't have to know about but for the ones who act upon others and commit the most horrific betrayals of humanity.

I have seen it... bit by bit the Father has wooed me to a place to see ..... He has gently and quietly walked me beside stilled waters and asked me to receive His heart.... He has held my hand and leaned over me so that in His shadow I have rested and He has sheltered me and in His tower I have received strength and He has presented to me His case...........He has sat with me and gently abided with me and looked into my eyes and I into His and I saw.... I saw His passions.... His heart... His people... He does not see abused and abuser... He sees those His son died for... He does not just received the child ... He receives the molester.... He does not just receive the tortured... He receives the torturer..... He does not just receive the raped... He receives the raper...... He does not just receive the murdered ... He receives the murderer... our Cross is THAT big.... and I can write this.... I mean no harm to the victims...oh God knows to the depth that I mean no harm by writing these words.. but I must I must write them.... I mean no lack of understanding.. if only you knew..... but the perpetrators' sin is no greater than my sin..... their need is no less.. their depravity no more.....

The cross.... upon which He died.... His blood shed .... His forgiveness spoken ..
Luke 23:34 (The Message)
34-35Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; they don't know what they're doing."


And my heart has come to a place where the hope that I have I give... and the life I have I give... and I know that I know that I know that there is not a human being too far gone that God can not reach.. there is not a mind too broken.. there is not a heart too dark that God can't touch.... our God is huge and His royal Father's heart is strong and passionate and is arising for His sons and daughters.... He will speak life into the bones of mankind.. to the broken.. to the lost... to the crazy... and in turn... there will arise an army of believers unlike the world has ever known... whose eyes are solely fixed on their creator.. who not just created them in their mother's wombs BUT recreated them and built them back up and stood them on their feet and breathed back into them the breath of life... and we will walk forward an army filled with the passions of God and the love of God that in the darkest of times will break forth with light and healing and hope and victory....... Because that is who our God is... He is determined and deliberate and in love... fully and unrelentingly full of mercy and grace and love.....