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In Part I of this article is a commentary by the Daily Signal who said the following about its author: “Kenyn Cureton serves as the vice president for Christian resources for the Family Research Council. Previously, he served as vice president for church ministries for over 12 years.” Part II provides some additional Scriptural verses that may help refine and frame his useful insights into a commentary on what life is all about and how everyone on earth with no exceptions could “have it all.” If that seems farfetched, there is no hook like ‘take out your credit card to pay’ to ‘learn the secret.’ The insights are free to the reader.
Cureton’s “Hope Restored” begins with certain Biblical passages with commentary, while Part II will provide other Biblical insights that help complete a keen topic that will deliver as well as link to the headline message in full.
Part I
Commentary
Hope Restored
(Anton Petrus via Getty Images)
It has been said that a person can live about 40 days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for a few seconds without hope. For Good Friday, I am reading Ezekiel 37 in the Stand on the Word Bible Reading Plan. How providential! Because Ezekiel 37 is about hope restored.
In Ezekiel 37, God’s people had raised the white flag of surrender, and admitted in verse 11: “Our hope is lost…” They had cause for discouragement. Their nation had been invaded and taken over. They had been ripped out of their homeland. Now they were exiles in a foreign land, objects of shame, scorn and humiliation.
Slip into their sandals and consider: Gone was the city of David. Gone were the city walls and the king’s palace. Gone was the Temple, the place of God’s presence.
All of it was gone! For these people, it was as if someone had gone back to the book of Genesis and torn their history right out of the Bible. No wonder they sighed: “Our hope is lost.”
In response to His people who had given up hope, God had a word for Ezekiel to deliver. Once again, God gave His prophet an unforgettable vision. In a vast valley, as far as the eye could see in every direction, God showed Ezekiel a landscape littered with sun-bleached, dried-out bones scattered everywhere. The emblem, the symbol, the certificate of death. Ezekiel saw a fallen army of skeletons. Maybe a skull in a helmet over here, a bony hand clutching a rusty sword over there. And these bones appeared to be dried out, desiccated, picked clean by scavengers, bleached white in the scorching Judean sun.
Then God told Ezekiel to preach to the bones (v. 4). Ever the obedient servant, Ezekiel did so, and the result is nothing short of miraculous. For while he preached, he heard the noise of those bones rattling and scraping together (v. 7b). And before his very eyes, skeletons were fitted together, bone to bone, then sinew and tendons, and finally, these reconstituted skeletons were clothed with flesh (v. 8). At long last, Ezekiel had the rare commodity of a congregation that responded rightly to his preaching!
But there was one problem, they were still dead. They looked a lot more alive than they did when they were just dry bones scattered around in the desert sand, but there was no life in them (v. 8b). Consequently, God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind, in Hebrew the ruach, literally the breath, wind or Spirit (v. 9). Ezekiel once again did as he was commanded, and God breathed into them the “breath of life.” This is much like He did in Genesis 2 with Adam, but with one difference: this was a “re-vival,” a “resurrection.” They were alive once, then they died, now they were alive again. So, a vast army now stood in the place of scattered skeletons.
Then God gives Ezekiel the interpretation (v. 11-14). In 37:11, God quotes the people. They believed that there was no hope, bones were dried up, cut off, as good as dead. Indeed, they were. But God told them (v. 12-14) that He Himself would raise them up, as it were, from the dead. Furthermore, He would bring them back to the land and put His spirit within them. And that would renew their hope. From the benefit of our historical vantagepoint, we know that prophecy has been partially but amazingly fulfilled with the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.
But this passage also has application for us when we have lost hope.
After the crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples were discouraged in what must have seemed like an impossible situation. When Jesus died on that cross and was buried, their hope died and was buried as well. Indeed, the two sad disciples on the road to Emmaus verbalized it: “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21).
But then the risen Lord did something fascinating for His group of “spiritually scattered skeletons” in John 21:22: “He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Fast forward to the Day of Pentecost, when the wind blew, the fire fell, and the Spirit filled them, and we witness how these fearful followers became lions for God! In the presence of the risen Jesus, and now with His presence in them, they experienced their hope restored. Instead of spiritually scattered skeletons, God now had a great and mighty army that proceeded to turn the world upside down for Christ as they marched through the pages of the book of Acts and beyond!
Consequently, Ezekiel 37 and Resurrection Sunday is a reminder that nothing, I repeat, nothing is impossible with God. God is the master of bringing possibility out of impossibility, of literally bringing life out of death! When you find yourself losing hope, go ahead and raise the white flag of surrender, offer the dry, scattered bones of your impossible looking situation to the God who speaks new life, who breathes fresh hope, and watch Him do the impossible. When you find yourself losing hope, He not only restores our hope, He is our living hope!
Originally published by The Washington Stand.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
— Kenyn Cureton | Kenyn Cureton serves as the vice president for Christian resources for the Family Research Council. Previously, he served as vice president for church ministries for over 12 years.
Part II – Additional Information with More MHLivingNews Analysis and Commentary
1) “Our hope is in the Lord who made heaven and earth” is a phrase from Psalm 146:5-6. It underscores, and thus supports a key point made by Kenyn Cureton. The meaning of that phrase is simple. The God who created the universe can do almost anything. ‘What?’ some might think, ‘I thought God could do anything.’ God cannot do evil. He can’t do something contrary to the Creator’s nature, which is love, justice, mercy, and goodness. Some Scriptural verses will help illustrate.
Numbers 23:19:
2) That said, brace yourself for what might think is ‘bad news’ before you get more ‘good news.’
3) God is not Aladdin’s lamp. There are no magic words that need to be said while you rub against a lamp (or anything else) in order to get three (or any other number) of wishes granted.
4) More specifically, millions have been inaccurately led to believe that a few words are said and then you are ‘once saved and always saved.’ That’s not true. Those words are found no where in Scripture, in the “Old” or “New” Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures or the “New Testament” Christian Scriptures). To illustrate.
2 Timothy 2:12:
This verse states, “If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us.” This implies a conditional relationship between endurance and reward, rather than a guaranteed, unconditional “once saved always saved” doctrine.
2 Timothy 2:13:This verse further emphasizes the idea of faithfulness, saying, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” While God’s faithfulness is unwavering, the verse highlights the believer’s responsibility to remain faithful.
The earliest articulation of this [once saved, always saved] doctrine is generally attributed to John Calvin in the 16th century…
6) Back to a headline point elaborated on in this article. As we have seen in Part II, God can’t do what is contrary to the Creator’s nature. That said, it may be a clearly way to grasp the truth being taught is that ‘nothing GOOD is impossible for God.’ Some examples follow.
Luke 1:37 states, “For with God nothing will be impossible.” This verse is often interpreted as a powerful declaration of God’s limitless power and the possibility of miracles, even in seemingly impossible situations. It’s a reassurance to Mary, the soon-to-be mother of Jesus, after the angel Gabriel reveals the miraculous conception of Jesus.
Another Biblical insight from Gemini.
In the Bible, Genesis 18:14 says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son“.
- God tells Abraham and Sarah that Sarah will have a son in about a year.
- Sarah is 90 years old and her husband is approaching 100.
- Sarah laughs in disbelief, but God reminds her that He has the power to do this.
- God calls Sarah and Abraham to believe that He will do something seemingly impossible for them.
7) Most would not think that it is possible for a 90-year-old woman to naturally have a child. Nor would most think that a virgin could have a child, which is the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth celebrated at Christmas.
8) God can do anything that is not contrary to the Divine Nature. But perhaps more typically, God gives us the grace and skills to do what is necessary to live a good life. The son of God, Jesus Christ’s, sacrifice on Calvary, gives us the key to unlocking an eternal life filled with joy, in a heavenly place where there are no tears (nor sorrows). Heaven is the opposite (in a sense) of hell, where there is an eternity of eternal suffering apart from the love of God. God gives us everything that is needed to be with him in heaven. Hold those thoughts as you ponder the following.
Imagine the poorest man, women, or child anywhere on earth at any time in history. That ‘poor’ soul could through God’s grace spend eternity in heaven, a place where the financial or other ‘poverty’ of the past would forever be left behind as a mere memory.
The richest man or woman on earth could experience a seemingly great life on earth, but if they are not ‘right with God,’ if they freely reject God’s will and ways, they could find themselves in hell for all eternity.
Revelation 21:4:“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away”
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Revelation 14:10:
This verse describes those who worship the beast and its image as “drinking the wine of God’s wrath” and being “tormented with fire and sulfur”.
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Revelation 14:11:This verse reinforces the severity and duration of the punishment, stating that “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever”.
9) To learn more, see the following or the linked reports.
God didn’t need creation, which believers say the Almighty predates. Why did God create? Out of pure love. Why does God save? Out of love and mercy.
This life will have imperfections and limitations. But the way to obtain eternal happiness and joy is to keep one eye on what’s to come, while doing what is necessary to cooperate with God’s grace and will in this life.
Human law has limitations, as those in the trenches of fighting for the rights of those who want affordable housing and manufactured homeowners already know. Drifting away from God in society has arguably contributed to the problems our society has today. Easter and all holy days are good times to reflect on how very different the world would be if more people understood, embraced and practiced the revealed teachings of God.
Wishing the blessings of Easter and these holy days to all. “We Provide, You Decide.” © (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, lifestyle news, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.)
(See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHLivingNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing. For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
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