{"id":11016,"date":"2020-08-20T20:00:13","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T03:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ezekiel-31_1-18-copy-2\/"},"modified":"2020-08-20T20:16:42","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T03:16:42","slug":"ezekiel-35_1-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ezekiel-35_1-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Go Of That Grudge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ezekiel 35:1-9 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 oop! sorry for the missing chapters!<\/p>\n

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Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s passage is Ezekiel 35:1-9.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Ezekiel 35:1-9 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The word of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0came to me:
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir; prophesy against it
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolate waste.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will turn your towns into ruins and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the\u00a0LORD.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“‘Because you harbored an ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity, the time their punishment reached its climax,
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign\u00a0LORD, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and cut off from it all who come and go.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will fill your mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will make you desolate forever; your towns will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the\u00a0LORD.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-9: \u00a0In these verses the Lord gives Ezekiel a message for the nation of Edom, whose nickname is \u201cMount Seir\u201d.\u00a0 The message is that because the nation of Edom, who \u201charboured an ancient hostility\u201d (v5) against the Israelites.\u00a0 What ancient hostility is the Lord referring to here?\u00a0 Keep in mind that the founding father of Edom was Esau while the founding father of the nation of Israel was Jacob, Esau\u2019s twin brother.\u00a0 Esau and Jacob had one of the most infamously hostile sibling rivalries in the Bible.\u00a0 This hostility would be passed down from generation to generation after Esau and Jacob, leading to a bitter rivalry between two nations, the Edomites and the Israelites.\u00a0 Because of the grudge that the Edomites harboured toward the Israelites, the Edomites \u201cdelivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity\u201d (v5).\u00a0 In response to harbouring this grudge, God would give the nation of Edom over to bloodshed as well (v6), turning Edom into a desolate waste (v7), not to be inhabited again (v9).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Do you hold \u201can ancient hostility\u201d or a grudge against someone?\u00a0 Often we think that, by holding a grudge (an \u201cancient hostility\u201d), we can punish that person who hurt us and hurt them back by not forgiving.\u00a0 In reality, however, whenever we hold a grudge against someone, often it is we who end up suffering more than anyone else.\u00a0 As the saying goes, holding a grudge and staying bitter is like you drinking poison and expecting the person you\u2019re mad at to die from the poison.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t hold a grudge against someone without hurting yourself significantly in the process.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Like the nation of Edom, when you hold a grudge against someone, your life eventually becomes \u201cdesolate\u201d (i.e. dismal and empty) and \u201cuninhabited\u201d (i.e. devoid of life, joy, and hope).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of hanging on to that ancient hostility, the much better, healthier thing to do is to ask God to help you to let go of the grudge and to forgive.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0In doing so, you allow new life to fill you and those around you.\u00a0 Is there someone you need to forgive?\u00a0\u00a0Is there a grudge you need to let go of?\u00a0 God is here to help you forgive and let go of the grudge.\u00a0 Ask for His help today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for showing me today that I can’t hold a grudge without hurting myself badly in the process.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want my life to be desolate, dismal and empty due to unforgiveness.\u00a0 I want Your love to fill my life.\u00a0 So please help me to let go of every grudge and to forgive those who hurt me.\u00a0 Thank You that in letting go of grudges, I\u2019m setting myself free in the process.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ezekiel 35:1-9.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

On verses 1-9: \u00a0In these verses the Lord gives Ezekiel a message for the nation of Edom, whose nickname is \u201cMount Seir\u201d.\u00a0 The message is that because the nation of Edom, who \u201charboured an ancient hostility\u201d (v5) against the Israelites.\u00a0 What ancient hostility is the Lord referring to here?\u00a0 Keep in mind that the founding father of Edom was Esau while the founding father of the nation of Israel was Jacob, Esau\u2019s twin brother.\u00a0 Esau and Jacob had one of the most infamously hostile sibling rivalries in the Bible.\u00a0 This hostility would be passed down from generation to generation after Esau and Jacob, leading to a bitter rivalry between two nations, the Edomites and the Israelites.\u00a0 Because of the grudge that the Edomites harboured toward the Israelites, the Edomites \u201cdelivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity\u201d (v5).\u00a0 In response to harbouring this grudge, God would give the nation of Edom over to bloodshed as well (v6), turning Edom into a desolate waste (v7), not to be inhabited again (v9).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Do you hold \u201can ancient hostility\u201d or a grudge against someone?\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11016"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11089,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016\/revisions\/11089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}