December 3, 2024 - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, December 3.
Have you ever been to Pittsburg? No, not Pittsburg, Pennsylvania - Pittsburg, Texas! It’s an East Texas town with several “claims to fame”. It’s the headquarters of Pilgrims Pride Chicken, the birthplace of car racing great Carroll Shelby, and the location of a very unusual flying machine - the Ezekiel Air Ship. You can view a replica of that odd aircraft in a museum in Pittsburg, just down the street from First Baptist Church (where Bo Pilgrim was a deacon).
Burrell Cannon was an East Texas Baptist preacher in the late 1800’s. But he also had a passion for engineering and inventing. He decided to build a flying machine based on the one described in the first chapter of the book of Ezekiel. You know the one. The King James Version describes its “four living creatures” and the “wheels within the wheels”. Legend has it that Cannon’s creation actually flew in 1902. That’s a full year before the Wright brother’s historic flight. Interesting little story. And another weird Texas trivia fact - of which there are many.
Ezekiel was given a rare opportunity. In his vision he saw not only the odd “airship”, but in verse 26 we read “High on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw what appeared to be from his waist up a glowing metal, as if full of fire, and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it I fell facedown.
And so it appears that Ezekiel, like Moses and Isaiah before him, was given a glimpse of God. What a worship experience! But why did God give Ezekiel this experience? Was it only to bless him? Was it to give him a warm, comforting feeling? Sometimes we evaluate our worship experiences that way, don’t we? Were we blessed? Were we comforted? Were we pleased? But the Ezekiel story ends with God giving Ezekiel a command to serve. The same was true after Moses saw God in Exodus 33. And the same was true when Isaiah - in chapter 6 - saw the Lord “high and lifted up, seated upon a throne”.
I hope that you have some wonderful worship experiences this holiday season, moments that bless your heart. But I hope you are also inspired to deepen your spiritual journey, to enhance your relationship to God, inspired to serve. When Moses saw God, he received the Ten Commandments. When Isaiah saw God, he said, “Here am I, Lord, send me”. And when Ezekiel saw God . . . he fell on his face.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
