Today's encouragement comes from Ezekiel 47:12b, where we read these amazing words:
"They [the trees] will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine."The first part of Ezekiel, ch. 47, is remarkable—one of my favorite sections of the Bible. The expanse of the New Covenant church, and the spread of Jesus' gospel of grace are all in view here. This is all happening today. Christ dwells in the "sanctuary," (the church). The church, through the Holy Spirit's application of the gospel, feeds, nourishes, and heals the world. And, in time, the "knowledge of the Lord covers the earth, as the waters cover the sea.” (Cf. Hab. 2:14.)
Let us be thankful that the God of heaven has *not* abandoned His fallen world, or the people therein. He has left His colony, the church, here. As the Body of Christ, let us be "feeders" and "healers" of the whole earth—through the preaching of the gospel of our Redeemer’s free and abundant grace.
[Puritan quote of the day: "Grace continues and increases.” —Richard Sib-bes, in "Glorious Freedom"]
