My Favorite Passage – The Saturday Morning Post by Pastor Ted Stahl

It’s December 26^th, late in the evening. I’m sitting in the emergency room at Shore Memorial Hospital. One of the tubes coming out of Melissa’s kidney had gotten blocked. Infections, holes, 4 units of blood, and a trip to Philadelphia Hospital, brings us back to Shore Memorial, and now it’s Saturday. Sitting there on Monday, I had no idea what this week had in-store for me and my family. Numerous Bible verse flowed through my head this week. The one that I thought about the most is, possibly, my favorite passage from God’s Word. The passage is in Ezekiel chapter 16…

“And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.” – Ezekiel 16:3-8.

This passage paints a beautiful picture of where we started, and where the Lord has brought us. Other Christians are on this same journey, but we are all at different points. If you want to make a New Year’s resolution, one that is worth keeping, then treat others as God treated you in these verses. Let 2012 be the year that we lift up a brother or sister. Make them yours. Let’s help them grow in the Lord.

Peace. (1John 3:16)