army.

Ezekiel 37
¹ The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³ He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

⁴ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

¹¹ Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

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so i asked God how i should start this blogpost, and he showed me this passage. spot on.

i was in the train station some time the past week, coming home from work, when i realized how broken we all really are. just observing the rushing people in the station made me realize how fully imperfect we all are. i grew up thinking my father was perfect, and i thank God my image of a father was kept from being tarnished--even so, i look at my own broken life and can't help but feel helpless. how about those who grew up in abusive homes, separated parents? kids who wanted to stay out as long as they could just so they could spend as little time at home as possible? and that's just one of the many issues plaguing our race as the clock ticks by every moment. it's so...helpless. i felt so helpless. and imperfect.

then i saw a human tide of crippled, helpless, broken people, holding crutches, lifting hands. and God said to me: "this is my army." and at first i was taken aback. not even sure if i heard right. and then i realize that He's right. if that were true, then every one of us could be in this army. because every one of us is broken. we all are crippled. so we all qualify to be in His army.

v¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

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somehow, out of this mess we've all gotten into, God has triumphed. We will all come to life.

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Brian and Jen Johnson - I was Created to Worship