The Chariot comes down (or Ordination)

Last Sunday evening I experienced by faith what Ezekiel experienced by sight in Ezekiel 1 and 2—I was ordained into the ministry and installed as Assistant Pastor of Christian Education at Covenant Presbyterian Church with primary duties to serve as headmaster of Covenant Christian School. Unlike Ezekiel, I'm no longer a mere 30 years old (Ez. 1:1) and, unlike Ezekiel, I hope that my ministry will not be "to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me" (Ez. 2:3).

It is intimadating with being charged to be truthful to God's Word, to live a pious life, and to minister faithfully to God's people. But Ezekiel's vision gives hope.

Ezekiel saw God's very presence symbolized as the chariot, which was a way of showing Ezekiel the Holy of Holies, the Holy Place and the courtyard. I believe that Ezekiel's experience is a pattern for all ordained men. God comes through the ministry of men and sets those being ordained apart to share his Word. Like Ezekiel we are drawn into the holy presence of God and told to eat his word and then share it with His people (Ez. 3:1-2).

Ezekiel's vision also gives hope because it was God who set apart and it was God, through his Spirit, who lifted Ezekiel up and brought him to the exiles (3:15). May the same Spirit make me a "mini-Chariot" of God's presence to the world.

(Picture is of me on the left, Dr. Phil Stogner, a church planter on Daniel's Island near Charleston, and Rev. Eric Dye of Covenant Presbyterian Church.)