Basic Truths | Finding God in Everyday Life

  We traveled to the Holy Land several years ago. While we were there, we took a trip to the Dead Sea. It is one of the lowest places on the planet. There is no outlet from the Dead Sea. The water that comes into it from the Jordan River eventually just evaporates, leaving behind the salts. As a result, the Dead Sea is so salty (almost ten times more than the ocean) that no fish, vegetation, or any other life can survive in it.   Continuing from my last post regarding Ezekiel 47:1-12. The river flowing out from the temple eventually flows into the Dead Sea. “When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the water flows” (Ezekiel 47:8-9). This illustrates the difference between the works of man and the works of God. From a purely human perspective, the river flowing into the sea should just make it a little less salty. It takes a miracle to turn the salt water into fresh.   When we face difficulties, we a...

  I grew up in New Jersey, not far from the beach (or the shore, as we call it up there). The ocean can be a little cool, even in the summer, and the waves can be rough, but that’s part of the fun of it. I’d start out in shallow water and then gradually work my way out to where I could catch the waves before they broke. Other people liked to stay at the water’s edge, just getting their feet wet except for when a big wave came in. They had fun but it didn’t seem to me that they were really immersed in the ocean experience.   Ezekiel was given a vision of a river coming out from underneath the temple and traveling all the way to the Dead Sea (Ezekiel 47:1-12). The water at first was only up to Ezekiel’s ankles. As it went on, it gradually got deeper, first knee-deep, then waist-high, until finally it was too deep to wade in but could only be swum in.   There are varying interpretations of Ezekiel’s vision. The river is often thought of as the grace of God, won by th...