Ezekiel Ministry – Devotions

 “Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.” 1 Corinthians 15:28 In building our worldview, we need to ask the question. Where is the person’s authority to make such a claim? If we are building a Biblical Worldview, we must look to the Bible for our authority. This is the entire Bible, the Old and New Testament. Today it seems that people feel that the Old Testament is out of date. If we don’t read and study the Old Testament, we are missing the entire story of God and His dealing with mankind. This scripture tells us that God is the authority over everything. He is the authority because He made everything in the world. If we are building our world view on listening to a person and following his advice, we must be sure where his authority comes from. Just because a person has a PhD does not mean that he is the ultimate authority on a subject. Today there is so much information coming at us from all angles. We have TV, social media and the internet. We have one preacher telling us one thing and the preacher down the road is telling us another thing. It can be so confusing. This is why our foundation must be strong. This is why we need to have a Biblical Worldview that is built on God’s Word. In my years walking with God, I have read the Bible through many times. I have studied God’s Word. I have been to Bible College. I feel that at times that I know God’s Word and I feel that I have a Biblical Worldview. Then I read […]

“But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction.” Jude 10 This scripture in Jude is talking about the false prophets in the church. They don’t think; they just act on their feelings. They do whatever feels good. They don’t have a firm foundation. Jesus tells us, “But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (Matthew 7:26-27) If we don’t build our foundation on Jesus and the scripture, we will fall. This is the reason that we need a Biblical Worldview. This worldview does not come by feelings. It comes by study and prayer. It comes by asking questions. Paul tells us, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.” (Ephesians 5:15) We become wise by asking questions. ASK is an acronym to help us remember what questions we should ask. A – Authority: What is this person’s authority to make such a claim? S – Starting Point: From what starting point is this person looking at the world? K – Knowledge: How do they know what they claim to know? When we can ask these questions, we are on our way to building a Biblical Worldview. More to come on these questions.

“I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 4 “There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many a grave evil, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them.” (Theodore Roosevelt) We are in a culture war and we have been in this war for years now. The problem is some of us have had our heads in the sand and we could not see what is happening in our nation. We have taken God out of our nation. We have told God that we don’t need Him to take care of us anymore; we know more than God. If you cannot see what is happening in our nation, Satan has blinded you to the truth. We have churches telling us that because of God’s grace we can live immoral lives and then we can go to heaven. Every day we see shootings and death in our cities. What can we do about what is happening? We can become involved in this war. At times we have to fight. No way around it. At some point, every one of us must confront this downward trend that is happening in our nation. You can face difficulties head-on, or you can run from them, or ignore them until they consume you. But no one escapes conflict. No one. One way that we can fight this culture is to develop a Biblical Worldview and share that worldview with others. This war is a life or death conflict. This war is a serious matter. “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, […]

“Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.” Jude 1:3 God has entrusted us with His wonderful Gospel. The last thing that Jesus told us was to go into all the world and make disciples. “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) This command tells us to teach these disciples to obey all God’s commandments. How are we going to teach these new disciples if we don’t know what we believe? If we don’t have a worldview. Working out our worldview will help us be able to defend our faith in God. Worldviews shape and inform our experiences of the world around us. Like spectacles with colored lenses, they affect what we see and how we see it. Depending on the “color” of the lenses, some things may be seen more easily, or conversely, they may be de-emphasized or distorted—indeed, some things may not be seen at all. Worldviews also largely determine people’s opinions on matters of ethics and politics. What a person thinks about abortion, euthanasia, same-sex relationships, environmental ethics, economic policy, public education, and so on will depend on his underlying worldview more than anything else. As such, worldviews play a central and defining role in our lives. They shape what we believe and what we’re willing to believe, how we interpret our experiences, how we behave in response to those experiences, and how we relate to others. Our thoughts and our actions are conditioned […]

  “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves.” Matthew 10:16 In this scripture Jesus is telling us that we have to be shrewd. Shrewd means that we need to be clever, discerning, have awareness. Unless we understand what we believe how in the world can we be shrewd? How can we win people to God unless we know how other people think? We need to have a Biblical Worldview, but we need to understand other worldviews. This is a list of some of the other worldviews. Naturalism: there is no God; humans are just highly evolved animals; the universe is a closed physical system. Postmodernism: there are no objective truths and moral standards; “reality” is ultimately a human social construction. Pantheism: God is the totality of reality; thus, we are all divine by nature. Pluralism: the different world religions represent equally valid perspectives on the ultimate reality; there are many valid paths to salvation. Islam: there is only one God, and He has no son; God has revealed His will for all people through His final prophet, Muhammad, and His eternal word, the Qur’an. Moralistic therapeutic deism: God just wants us to be happy and nice to other people; He intervenes in our affairs only when we call on Him to help us out. Each of these worldviews has profound implications for how people think about themselves, what behaviors they consider right or wrong, and how they orient their lives. It is therefore crucial that Christians be able to engage with unbelief at the worldview level. Christians need to understand not only what it means to have a biblical worldview, but also why they should hold fast to that worldview and apply it to all of life. […]

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 This scripture tells us to let God transform us into the person that God wants us to be. To be transformed we need to change our way of thinking. Changing our thinking comes from developing our world view. Most people don’t have a world view. A world view is the set of beliefs about fundamental aspects of Reality that ground and influence all one’s perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing. One’s world view is also referred to as one’s philosophy, philosophy of life, mindset, and outlook on life, formula for life, ideology, faith, or even religion.  As the word itself suggests, a worldview is an overall view of the world. It’s not a physical view of the world, but rather a philosophical view, an all-encompassing perspective on everything that exists and matters to us. Our world view is so important to our life and how we live our life. It is not our pastor’s, our friend’s or even our spouse’s world view; it must be our world view. I believe that unless we have a world view, we are easily lead away by false doctrines.  I know in my life every time I start to write on a subject, God speaks to me and asked the question, what do you believe about this subject? It takes work and time in prayer to know your world view. In the world we live in, unless we have a world view, we will not be stable in our actions or our thinking. We will have no foundation.  

“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.” Colossians 2:6-8 “Billy Graham passed away February 21, 2018. Many news items reported on his death and paid tribute to this great evangelist. One headline really stood out to me: There will never be another Billy Graham, because the world that made him possible is gone. This was similar to what Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson stated during his short tribute to Billy Graham. He basically just preached the Bible. In America at the time, that was enough. People stopped him on the street to shake his hand. We live in a different country now, but Billy Graham never changed.” (Ken Ham) Yes, our world has changed; the world that was part of Billy Graham is not the same. God has not changed and the Gospel message has not changed, but the way we reach people for Jesus Christ has changed. As this scripture says, don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense. This is what is being preached too many times from our pulpits. Our churches are preaching a gospel that is either not true or is filled with half -truth. I don’t have all the answers to how we reach this new generation. I do have a burden for learning and being open to God and what He is telling us. We do need a […]