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EZEKIEL

  MEANING OF NAME: God is strong or The Man God strengthens STORY IN BRIEF: Ezekiel, son of Buzzi, like Jeremiah, started first as a priest, but later had the calling of a Prophet at age thirty. He served in the Temple of Jerusalem that was later destroyed by the Babylonians. In the midst of events, God warned that the desire of his eye would die. And after his wife died, he was disallowed from publicly wailing - a sign of how Israel would suffer in the hands of their captivators without lamenting.  While in exile ( in Babylon by the River Chebar), the Prophet, also an artist, made a model of Jerusalem city, laid prostate and always prophesied over it. He either used symbols or demonstrations to deliver his messages. Ezekiel acted strangely because of the strange nature of his visions; he would either cut his hair and burn it, or he totally went dumb for a period of time. He had two major metaphorical visions where God - Israel's husband, was betayed by his wife after He had g...

THE GREATEST WEAPON !

  “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds…. “ 2 Corinthians 10:4 KJV As christians, we are not improverished of ammunitions with which to withstand the enemy and his wiles. Yet these weapons are variably effective. There is, therefore, the need to look into the nature of each of them and reasonably determine the most productive. According to Paul, in the preceding scripture, our arms are not physical; prayer, praise/worship, faith, obedience and Light, are all rather abstract though results-yielding. Now, which of these does satan fear most? Let us find out from the following paragraphs. Prayer is a good arm. It transforms both on the inside and on the outside of us. But if prayer is a request, then satan can pray too; he got far into God’s presence, requesting of His permission to try Job. He demanded of The Lord to sift Peter like wheat. Thus, prayer is not satan’s most-feared ! Afterall, he too can pray to God. D...

SPIRITUAL DISTANCE

  “… They honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” Isaiah 29:13 Why would a miniser’s relation be downtrodden while this same minister ably delivers others outside his family? Why would a virtual participant be positively touched while those in his physical presence are left unimpacted? Could it be that one’s faith is stronger than the other’s? If ” YES “, how possible is it that those that are rather physically far from God’s servant can have stronger faith than those present in his immediate circle? Beloved, the simple reason for all these oddies lies in ” SPIRITUAL DISTANCE “. Whereas PHYSICAL DISTANCE has to do with the space between physical bodies, SPIRITUAL DISTANCE refers to the distance between Spirits. The two do not yield same profit(s). One that is physically close but Spiritually far accesses only physical benefits from the other; the person that is spiritually close, whether physically present or not, stakeholds all things from his or her partner. ...

RIZPAR




Rizpar was one of Saul's concubines. She stood and witnessed the gruesome murder of her two sons -  Armoni and Mephibosheth. 

More disdainful to her is the fact that the two were not burried; they were left to rot contrary to the prevalent tradition of burrying the dead within the next 24hours. 

With sorrow, Rizpar spent days and nights with the corpses ensuring that they were neither swamped nor dragged away by any animals. Soon enough, King David noticed her discomfort, and was moved by her attitude; David ordered for the burrying of Rizpar's sons, the remains of their father, Saul and that of Jonathan.

BACKGROUND: 

Joshua promised that Israel would be at peace with the Gibeonites. But Saul broke that oath, killing as many Gibeonites as he could in his time. In retallating, the Gibeonites asked David for seven of Saul's son whom they murdered in the presence of Rizpar.

LESSONS:
 
1. Customes can be broken; protocols are skipable. If only we consistently remain loyal and faithful to God, our expectations will be met. 

2. God never asked David to release Saul's sons to the Gibeonites; the Bible does not record anywhere that rain finally fell because David positively affirmed the request of the Gibeonites. But like Virginia Owen indicates in her book, " Daughters of Eve" , it is clear that God takes pleasure in honourable burial so He swiftly responded to the prayers of the people following the burrying of the Suals.

BIBLICAL HISTORY ON BURIAL:

In Bible times, the dead were burried soon after they died; it never took more than twenty four hours for people to burry their dead. First, the corpse is washed and smeared with good smelling preservative ointments. Mourning which could span seven days following the burial was done, sometimes, by professionals too. The corpse was burried in a cave or a tomb. And every other relation of this person was buried in that same tomb.  

REFERENCEE SCRIPTURE:

2 Samuel 21: 8- 14, John 11: 17, 39, 44., Genesis 49:29-32, Jeremiah 9:17, Matthew 9:23, 

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