Ezekiel 4-7: Will We Change?

“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Disaster! An unheard-of disaster is coming. The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. It has come! Doom has come upon you—you who dwell in the land. The time has come, the day is near; there is panic, not joy, upon the mountains. I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you; I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will repay you in accordance with your conduct and the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that it is I the LORD who strikes the blow. - Ez. 7:5-9 NIV
I read these words and I am frightened.  Frightened for our country, frightened for myself.  Frightened because of what I see around me and frightened because I'm not sure I can even recognize the gulf that separates what God desires or requires of me from what I truly am.  There is none righteous, no not one.  And, although I know my sins have been covered by the blood, that does not excuse my conduct or give me license to do as I please.  If we're really truthful, all of us, have become idolatrous and this nation has lead the whole world into idolatry.  We've made and made and made; consumed and consumed and consumed.  We have squandered our prosperity and it has brought us nothing but grief.  Sometimes, I pray for it to all be wiped away so I will have nothing to depend on, nothing to lean on the but Lord. 

I once had a friend who sold almost everything he had but a few clothes and books.  He kept his clothes in boxes and slept on the floor.  He was trying to follow the Lord and wanted nothing to be in the way.  I wonder, did he succeed, or did the materialism of the world overwhelm him in the end as well.  I guess the question now is, 'Will God look on us with pity or will he repay us for our conduct and detestable practices?'  Is it too late for us to change our ways?  Are we buried so deep in everything we think is necessary for life, that we can't crawl our way out to God's realm?  Even if it's not too late, can we, will we change?

2010 Post - Ezekiel 4-7:  The End Has Come