When God Speaks

Sorry that I have not been faithful in posting here regularly as of late.  I would like to say that I am just so busy that I haven't had time to post all the amazing things that God is doing in my life, but in reality the past few months have been difficult.  I have been sick a lot (typical for a winter but especially so for my weakened and susceptible immune system) and I have really allowed that sickness to leave me discouraged & honestly guilty.  I know that guilt sounds like a ridiculous reaction to illness, but since I quit my job at the doctor's office primarily to improve my health, every setback in that area leads me to feel like I have failed:  I should have just persevered at my job and not put my family under the financial strain that has come from quitting.  Now, in reality I am 100% sure that I am where God wants me, and I also know that hubs prefers where I am now to where I was then, but still, that is one of those areas where my faith fails when it is tested. 

In addition I have dealt with some spiritual apathy.  Though I have mostly been consistent in times with the Lord and I am constantly surrounded by people seeking the Lord in ministry, I started shifting to my default sin mode: relying on my own "strength" and feeling like I can do these things based on my "wisdom" rather than the Lord's.  I've been going through the motions, and honestly feeling detached and distant from what God is doing and who He is. 

I used being out of town a little over a week ago to get me out of my "habit" of daily time with the Lord and before I knew it over a week had gone by without dedicated time with Him (I am learning that I have to make a distinction between Bible study planning & prayer meetings & personal time with the Lord).  So yesterday morning I got out my Bible & devotional book to "catch up" on my readings and devote some time to prayer...and God met me there!  I think as believers we over complicate what it is to hear God speak to us and try to push the promptings of the Spirit to the background as errant thoughts, but when we go to meet with God, He will be there and speak to us!  And what He said to me at the beginning was not something I wanted to do.  He told me to devote that day to Him and turn off the "noise" that I normally default to. 

If you know me fairly well you know that I love my entertainment.  I love TV--it's almost always on in the background just b/c I don't want the house to be quiet when I'm at home and I always like to multi-task.  I also LOVE the internet...blogs in particular.  My Google Reader is bursting with new updates every single day and I have not been able to just ignore those.  I love books & magazines reading at every opportunity.  I love stupid computer & internet games that do nothing but waste my time!  In other words, my life is full of meaningless distractions that I allow to consume every day of my life.  It's crazy b/c I always get this feeling that I will "miss out" on something--some joke or article or recipe--if I don't read, watch, and listen to everything that is available to me.  (I often call myself and information hoarder--along w/the stuff hoarding).  Another revelation from the Lord over the past few days is that I am much like Eve in the garden of Eden desiring the knowledge of good & evil--and I haven't had a filter but have equally (unequally leaning towards the world) been wanting to know both the things of the Lord & the things of the world.

So God told me not to consume my day with those things.  And I started to try to brush that thought away:  "I only need to do that for the morning" "I can't not check my email!" "Maybe just not the trashy shows but the Turner Classic Movies are ok?"  After much metal waffling and debating I agreed to obey the Lord in this for my entire day until time with my husband in the evening.  So yeah.  Agreement to obey.  And do you know the first thing that I thought next?  "I need to tweet about devoting today to the Lord so people will know why I'm not online!"  (HELLO PRIDE!)  Thankfully God showed me the ridiculousness of that thought & I refrained, but I immediately then started thinking about how I would blog about it and all the things that I was doing.  Ridiculous!!!  All. Day. Long. I found myself mentally teaching about this experience and explaining it to others.  I am by nature a teacher and I really do learn more from the Lord when I am leading a Bible study or discipling someone, but God was very obviously telling me that was not the point of the day.  (I did consider not posting about this at all but I feel that the Lord does want me to give Him glory by sharing what He is teaching me)  So here I am in the kitchen, constantly trying to give this prideful attitude over to the Lord and open my heart to Him but I could not shut off these ridiculous prideful self-glorifying thoughts in my head.  I had brought my ipod dock into the kitchen w/some praise songs and a few sermons I had been needing to listen to and I finally started singing along with some of the praise songs when God revealed it to me:

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GLORIFY OURSELVES WHEN WE ARE OCCUPYING OUR MOUTHS & THOUGHTS WITH SINGING PRAISES TO GOD!!!

 How cool is that?  I mean literally, when I was singing praises to the Lord I could not focus my thoughts on myself.  But that is definitely a discipline.  If I stopped, my sinful mind would go right back to me.  But those moments of focus on the Lord were so precious!

I'm not going to share everything God said to me in that time, but He definitely spoke in that day.  He revealed so much about how very deep my pride goes.  He showed me my selfish motives in what I pray for.  My desire for glorification in ministry.  The fact that I care too much for people and not nearly enough for Christ.  These kinds of revelations are so painful but praise be to God who is patient and willing to speak to us if only we will listen!! 

In closing I want to re-post this hymn, the lyrics of which are a prayer that I NEED to pray & apply every day.  God wants to speak to us but how rarely are we willing to turn off the noise and listen to Him!

Speak, Lord, in the stillness, 

While I wait on Thee; 

Hushed my heart to listen

In expectancy.

Speak, O blessed Master, 

In this quiet hour, 

Let me see Thy face Lord,

Feel Thy touch of power.

For the words Thou speakest, 

"They are life" indeed; 

Living Bread from heaven, 

Now my spirit feed!

All to Thee is yielded,

I am not my own; 

Blissful glad surrender,

I am Thine alone.

Fill me with the knowledge

Of Thy glorious will; 

All Thine own good pleasure

In my life fulfill.

~Emily May Grimes

Today I was able to hear a good friend preach a thoughtful and sensitive sermon on one of the hardest issues that Bible-believing Christians deal with today: homosexuality. 

I highly recommend listening to the podcast here:


http://www.bridgesh.com/2011/01/question-1-homosexuality/

The Waiting Game

Sorry for my prolonged absence over here! I have so many things I want to post--ministry updates, the lessons I write for Bible study, and a study guide for the book that we're going through--but sometimes living life gets in the way of writing about it!  Go figure ;)

One of the most special gifts that I received for Christmas was a copy of Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest daily devotional journal that my dad went through over the past year and filled with messages, notes, and prayers for me.  This year I am going through that book & his notes as part of my own devotional time. 

The entry for today was on the discipline of waiting on God referencing John 13:37

"Peter said to Him, 'Lord, why can I not follow You now?'"

How much does that statement hit home?!?!  In our culture, everything is so instantaneous that I don't believe we know how to wait.  If a line is too long we jump in another or go somewhere else.  If we are having a hard time at our jobs we quit.  If a relationship is difficult we end it.   We have fast food, Netflix, "on demand" channels & DVRs, microwaves...every convenience to give us what we want right NOW.  I'm not saying that all these things are inherently bad, but that they reinforce a culture of impatience. 

Chambers says:

"When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don't fill it with busyness, just wait. ...  Never run before God gives you His direction."

That is such a hard thing to do.  In the Abide in Christ book that I'm going through with the girls I disciple it lays out our only real responsibilities as believers:  "to yield, to trust, to wait." As we discuss that I've asked each girl which one is hardest for them.  The answer varies, but for me, the hardest is always the waiting.  I feel like I can yield things to the Lord and trust Him for a time, but as I start to grow uncomfortable and impatient I always try to take it into my own hands. 

The best example in my life from a time when I learned to trust Him was last year as hubs & I were going through the process of changing my career.  There had been several times over the years when I was dissatisfied with my former job and wanted to leave, but it wasn't the right time.  I stuck with it until last February when I knew that a change had to take place, but had no idea what that was. We tried to make our own options happen--to find the perfect job quickly & on our own.  The months went by and finally God provided exactly what He wanted me to do!  It's crazy because the policy changes & new business that have made it possible for me to do ministry through GSN partnering with Campus Crusade did not exist a few years ago.  If, in my impatience, I had chosen to leave my job when I first wanted to, or even within those first few months of questioning, I would have settled for less than God's best.  By waiting--as hard as it was--He provided EXACTLY what I had always wanted to do--what He had called me to. 

Now, that is one example in my life when I did this right--the majority of the time I am so controlling that I just try to make things happen how I would like to see them go--and I am the queen of "busyness" for sure.  But what a comfort we have to know that God knows what is best and wants just that for our lives!  We just have to learn to wait!

Active Passivity

For the past few months God has entrusted me with an amazing group of godly young women to lead in Bible study.  Joining in with this new group was scary for me (and them)--I had thought that my days of leading college Bible studies were over...but when Patrick & I began to pray about a career change for me, God provided the amazing opportunity to work on a part-time basis with the Campus Crusade for Christ staff team and lead this amazing group of young ladies! I prayed all summer long about the girls in the group--specifically that God would make them teachable and provide opportunities for us to grow close as a body of Christ.  I was looking over my prayer journal recently about entries around the time that this decision was made.  I wrote this entry on what my attitude should be based on I Cor ch 1- 3 (which I actually re-read today):

How should I start this group?

• not with superiority of speech or wisdom 
• determined to know nothing except Christ crucified
• with them in weakness, fear, and trembling
• to demonstrate the Spirit & power, not persuasive words of "wisdom"
• seeking to help them rest their faith on the power of God, not the wisdom of men

I continued to pray all summer long for the Lord to prepare my heart, keep me humble, and focus on turning them towards Him rather than trying to get glory for myself (one of my bigger sin issues).  I also prayed specifically for the Lord to provide specific things in common with the girls to provide a more natural transition--and God did this in amazing ways!  Seriously, I have something unique in common with each girl in the group that I feel like God divinely ordained to make this ministry fruitful and unifying to glorify Him.  It is so amazing to see how in just a few short months they are pouring our their hearts to me and one another--a true picture of unity in the body of believers--and through that they are pouring into other students in Crusade and on campus.  AMAZING!

But the crazy thing is, despite everything God has done, the majority of my prayers about this group contained the phrase "I'm scared."  I knew that God was directing me to serve in this way, but the group of ladies that I have are seniors, so firm in their walks with the Lord, and have also had several leaders of their group over their time in college.  In reality, I had not walked closely with the Lord on a consistent basis since I graduated college.  Time with Him was sporadic and out of duty rather than desire.  Going in to this semester I was keenly aware of my failings (you can read about that here) and the knowledge that I was no longer the Religious Studies & Philosophy major--full of Bible trivia and theology and all the "right" answers.  I had struggled with severe depression when my ideas of what the future would look like came crashing down; I had spent lots of time in a secular (but still very "bible belt") environment which taught me a LOT about what non-believers or those who are not actively pursuing the Lord need to know (and you know what?  it's not a bunch of big theological words) but in which I also cared maybe too much about "fitting in" (seriously?  am I in jr. high again?) than walking with the Lord.  I also struggled a lot for the first time with full-blown materialism and "stuff" lust as well as the desire to brainlessly zone out in front of the TV and magazines.  So yeah--a very different place than I was in while in college.  Just kinda a mess.

Then I started the 90 day Bible challenge (which I technically failed once I got to the New Testament--not yet done but still working on reading the Bible through in large chunks)  and do you know what?  When you spend time with the Lord--He works in your life!!  Crazy right??  Who would have thought that a relationship would be strengthened by regular time together?? God has taught me a lot through this for sure (which I will summarize when I'm through!).  On top of that, in Bible study we've been studying the book of Ephesians as a group (which I will be posting about and actually posting our lessons soon) and then as I meet one-on-one with each of them every other week for discipleship we are reading Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray (one of my favorites!).
 I feel like what I am learning most through all of these is our need for utter reliance on the Lord.  I feel like it can be summed up by the oxymoronic phrase "Active Passivity."  As we study John 15--the parable of the vine and the branches as a picture of our relationship with the Lord--we see the need for complete dependence on the Lord.  We can't do anything to make the vine (God) sustain us--by His plan, that is His role which is accomplished through the Holy Spirit.  But if we disconnect from the vine we whither and die.  Also, we cannot bear fruit of ourselves--have you ever seen a branch lying on the ground and just start flowering and sprouting fruit on its own?  Of course not!  Yet somehow we expect to do that.

This concept is so hard for us to grasp in many ways I think b/c of our cultural values.  Have you ever heard the phrase "If you want something done right you've got to do it yourself"?  Definitely not biblical--yet independence & self reliance are things we seem to aspire to above all.  Ultimately we cannot do anything for God.  Just like the branch, we are merely a vessel through which the Lord chooses to work and bear fruit.

So where does the "Active Passivity" come in?  Our role/activity is submission:  yield our life to the Lord, trust Him to accomplish what He promises, and wait for Him to work.  We have to actively do those things.  Yielding our direction & goals for life does not just happen when we pray one unbelieving prayer "Lord control my life" then push it aside and continue on in our own way.  I think one of the best examples of taking steps of faith to yield, trust, and wait is in Mark 9: 17-29, the story of the centurion asking Jesus to heal his son.  Verse 24 says "Immediately the boy's father cried out and began saying, 'I do believe; help my unbelief.'"  That prayerjust acknowledges our desire to take these steps of faith, yet our inability to actually make those attitude changes happen.  Over and over and over again we must pray "I yield my life to you--help me yield my life to you" and take every doubting impatient thought captive and pray this prayer and then wait for Him to work.  I think that--the waiting--may be hardest for me (though none of them are easy b/c I think my plans are better...).  It's just that waiting for the Lord's timing requires patience, and we are used to getting what we want NOW.  And honestly I think we (definitely I) just don't actually expect God to work.  When I was praying about being entrusted with this group, I was praying for the Lord to work, but the sense of fear really overcame me.  I did not truly believe that God would work in this situation--yet He did and continues to do so by His own power--not by my power or anything I say or do.

So that is one of the huge lessons of right now.  Honestly, it's abstract and difficult for any of us to grasp or even desire b/c it just doesn't seem real, but there is such freedom in coming to the acceptance that ultimately it's not up to us to cause growth or to bear fruit. I pray (and ask you to pray) that we will continue to internalize this lesson, seek to truly abide in Christ, and yield our lives to bear the fruit which God has called us to produce.

Trust and Obey

**disclaimer--please do not feel that this post is intended to guilt you into giving to my ministry.  I just need to work some of this out for myself and share what God is teaching me**

Tonight I lay in bed for over an hour.  Mentally calculating the things I need to do tomorrow and focusing on the fact that I have not been obedient to the Lord.  And as I lay there and prayed for the Lord to clear my mind and help me sleep, I got these horrible pains in my legs & hips, and also got the hymn "Trust & Obey" stuck in my head.  I wrestled with it for about 30-45 minutes and the song just got louder and the pain just got worse until I realized, I am supposed to do this NOW.  No more putting it off. Do you ever have a time when God is clearly impressing on your heart something that you are supposed to be doing, yet you fight it with all your might?  As I have been growing in the Lord over the past several months of ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ, I have been struggling with those things.

One of the primary areas in which I am struggling is the area of raising financial support in order to do vocational ministry.  It shouldn't be such a scary issue for me.  The monthly amount I need to raise is not large and I have been raised by parents whom God has consistently provided financially for in this way for over 30 years!  I know that God will provide--that has never been a question in my mind.  But I really struggle with guilt.  I gave up my job to do this in an economy where people are struggling to make ends meet--I had to leave that job due to health reasons, but I potentially could have found a "traditional" job to provide a steady income.  Yet that is not what God has called me to do.  He clearly provided a need and an opportunity--in the past three years, Global Service Network was founded which has allowed me the freedom to partner with Campus Crusade for Christ on a part-time basis, and to serve immediately on campus without having to raise all my financial support in advance.  This would not have been possible for me to do when Patrick & I first got married!!  At the same time, the need for women staff members on WKU's campus is dire!  Even with my part-time responsibilities, a need is being met for which God chose me.  There is no question in my heart that this is what I am supposed to be doing so why do I doubt the means by which I have to go about making it my "job"? 

I guess because this is not the convential way people do things.  I mean, it's fairly regular for students to raise money for a mission trip--but when it comes to living that way...it's just not what you see all the time.  And I have seen some very negative attitudes towards this lifestyle in friends and former co-workers.  Basically the viewpoint that doing this is lazy--not much better than welfare.  And those types of attitudes & comments have really cut to my heart.  There is no question about it--God has blessed Patrick & me financially.  We have sought to be good stewards of our money, but He has done things that no one can, so I feel guilt about that, and just about asking. 

But as I've been praying for the Lord to give me peace about this I've seen Biblical and cultural examples of this type of lifestyle-though many people aren't aware of them.  I realized (weirdly for the first time that I really grasped it) that a large part of tithes in a church that pays it's pastors go to those pastor's salaries...they are given as offerings from the church members for the Lord to provide for the ministers.  People take up money for causes all the time--fundraisers for schools, illnesses, endangered animals, health issues--and people gladly give to support something that they believe in.  And of course the apostle Paul took up financial gifts for his missionary journeys (mentioned throughout the letters but esp. II Cor. 9) and when Jesus sends out the seventy laborers in Luke 10 He instructs them to take what is given--depending on others with the affirmation that "the laborer is worthy of his wages (Luke 10:7).  I'm just praying to hold fast to these truths and trust the Lord to provide. 

Please pray for this ministry and for the Lord to continue growing and stretching my faith!  God is doing AMAZING things right now--the girls in my group are growing by leaps and bounds!  I have seen unity & vulnerability in this group come about within a matter of weeks and it is clearly something that only the Lord can do--and they are pouring out of the overflow of their hearts--serving in churches, in Crusade, and with the students in their classes.  But with growth comes growing pains!  We have dealt with some intense spiritual battle, brokenness over sin and where we need to be as opposed to where we are.  We are stretched and pulled as we ultimately seek to learn what it truly means to Abide in Christ--to yield our lives to Him, trust His leading and plan, and wait on His timing because He promises to work.  We have a women's panel this Friday night with several godly women in different stages of life prepared to answer questions about walking with the Lord--please pray that several students will show up--specifically freshman and ladies who are young or struggling in their faith.  Pray that God will move as we discuss what it means to be a woman of God!

And as I finish writing this and a few letters, the pain in my legs is subsiding...Trust & Obey!

helpless

I am drained.  emotionally.  physically.  exhausted.  continuously bursting into tears--i know that the things that are making me cry are real things, but they shouldn't be affecting me the way that they are.  I'm tempted to break into the Prozac that I went off of several months ago just to get through this week, but I know that in reality I need to rest in the Lord, turn these things over to Him, and trust that He is in control.  I'm not depressed--I'm just weary. 

I try to do everything on my own strength, and the reality is that I don't have much strength compared to a normal person, much less compared to my Lord & Savior!  So why is it so hard to trust in Him to take care of the things that concern me?? 

I'm going through one of my favorite devotional books with the girls that I disciple--it's Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray.  The book basically goes through what it means to truly abide in Christ from John 15:1-12.  My favorite verses from this passage are verses 4 & 5:

4 Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  5  I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 

 I think it's one of those sayings that we hear a lot and don't quite grasp the meaning, but it's right in the text.  The vine & the branches are, in essence, one plant.  But each have roles--each branch springs from the vine.  The branches find their source of life, nourishment, and support only by being completely attached to the vine.  It is from this source that the branch gains the necessary components to flourish, grow, and bear fruit.  No matter how fruitful a branch may be, if it is cut off from the vine it will wither and it and it's fruit will die.  In the same way, if the branch is not there, the vine will not produce fruit. 

In the past week or so I have allowed the craziness of life to separate me from my vine.  It's ridiculous really how quickly that separation can come about.  I've let me time with the Lord which had been so life-giving sit on the back-burner.  It's not that I have completely lost touch w/my faith in a week, but I've learned that if I don't seek the Lord CONTINUALLY I try to rely on my strength--I am a cut off branch, lying on the ground, trying to bear fruit that is only dying.  And I'm out of strength.  There is no more life in this branch to draw from b/c as a cut off branch, that nourishment and sustenance that may remain from my time attached to the vine will be used up quickly--and once it's gone there is nothing left.  Thankfully we have a gracious God who allows us to reattach.  I just hope I will learn once and for all not to detach again!

So now I am turning these things over to the Lord, and turning back to Him.  I can't do it on my own, and I sure don't want that pressure!  Praise the Lord for giving us the strength to sustain us.

In other news, I got so behind on my 90 day challenge last week that catching up before the month is over will probably not happen :(  BUT it has still been an amazingly worthwhile exercise and reading the Bible in 100 days still feels like quite an accomplishment!

 

"Then you will know that I am the Lord": thoughts on Ezekiel

Well, I'm in my last month of the 90 day Bible challenge and I can't believe I"ve made it this far!  I got behind in Isaiah and have somewhat skipped over it since we are studying it in BSF but I'm reading a few chapters of it each day to still be able to have done the whole Bible in 90 days (I would have been kinda bummed out to not complete the whole thing...) Today I will be reading through the books of Daniel & Hosea, but I wanted to stop and talk about Ezekiel a little bit.

Of all the prophets, I think this has been my favorite so far.  The ways that God instructs Ezekiel to act out His message are just crazy!  He eats a scroll, acts out a nighttime escape, shadowboxes, gesticulates, builds a model Jerusalem, lays on his left side for 390 days and his right for 40 days (while bound by cords...), and heartbreakingly does not mourn the death of his wife under instruction from God.  Just wild stuff.  The setting is in the Babylonian era in the early 500 B.C. era--in the midst of the exile of Isreal & Judah and their punishment and scattering among the nations.  (I'm definitely not an O.T. scholar, so forgive me if I got any of that wrong).  Ezekiel has graphic visions of heaven, God's glory, and heavenly beings, as well as the new temple. 

Of all of that though, what stuck out to me the most was the emphasis on God's glory, His name, and His reputation.  The great thing about reading through this so quickly is that it is really easy to pick up on themes & common phrases, and in this book more than any I have seen that repetition.  There is a lot of "I, the LORD, have spoken" phrases and "It is not for your sake, but for the sake of my holy name" but the one that is most repeated is "Then they will know that I am the LORD" (or some derivative of that--sometimes "you", sometimes "the nations", etc...). 

I actually went through and underlined each instance of this statment and from the first time I noticed it (in chapter 6) through it's last appearance in ch. 39, this phrase is repeated 64 times!  That's right, 64 times in 33 chapters (actually fewer chapters b/c some of the visions did not include it...)!  So why is this so imprtant?  Well, it obviously shows that God's glory and reputation is of utmost importance to Him, but I thought that the context of these statements show very important aspects of God's character.  I'm not going to go through all, but I want to examine some of the verses with this statement and what they say about the Lord.  (all quotes from the NAS version)

7:4 "For My eye will have no pity on you nor shall I spare you, but I shall bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will know that I am the LORD!"

12: 15-16 "So they will know that I am the LORD when I scatter them among the nations, and spread them among countries.  (16) But I shall spare a few of them from the sword, the famine, and the pestilence that they may tell all their abominations among the nations where they go, and may know that I am the LORD."

13:9 "So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations.  They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am the LORD GOD."

13: 21 "I will also tear off your veils and deliver My people from your hands, and they will no longer be in your hands to be hunted; and you will know that I am the LORD."

16:62 "Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD."

17: 24 "And all the trees of the field will know that I am the LORD; I bring down the high tree, exalt the low tree, dry up the green tree , and make the dry tree flourish.  I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will perform it."

20:11-12 "And I gave them My statutes & informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live. (12) And also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them."

20:38 "and I shall purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I shall bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Isreal.  Thus you will know that I am the LORD."

20:42 "And you will know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, when I bring you into the land of Israel, in to the land which I swore to give to your forefathers."

20: 44 "Then you will know that I am the LORD when I have dealt with you for My name's sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the LORD GOD."

 22:15-16 "And I shall scatter you among the nations, and I shall disperse you through the lands, and I shall consume your uncleanness from you.  16 And you will profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am the LORD."

23: 49 "And your lewdness will be requited upon you, and you will bear the penalty of worshiping your idols; thus you will know that I am the LORD GOD."

25: 17 "And I will execute great vengeance on them [Philisita] with wrathful rebukes; and they will know that I am the LORD when I lay My vengeance on them."

28: 25-26 "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall manifest My holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they will live in their land which I gave to My servant Jacob. 26 And they will live in it securely; and they will build houses, plant vineyards, and live securly, when I execute judgments upon all who scorn them round about them. Then they will know that I am the LORD their GOD."

 29: 6 "Then all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the LORD, because they have been only a staff made of reed to the house of Israel."

34: 27 "Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit, and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure on their land.  Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them.

36: 11 "And I will multiply on you man and beast; and they will increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly and will treat you better than at the first.  Thus you will know that I am the LORD."

 36: 23 "'And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.  Then the nations will know that I am the LORD' declares the Lord GOD, 'when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight'."

36: 36 "Then the nations that are left round about you will know that I, the LORD have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolate; I, the LORD, have spoken and will do it."

39:7 "And My holy name I shall make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I shall not let My holy name be profaned anymore.  And the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel."

 39:21-22 "And I shall set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.  22 And the house if Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward."

39:28 " 'Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. 29 And I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,' declares the Lord GOD."

So...lots of verses but ultimately I feel that the point is that the Lord uses His power to show that He is (the only) Lord/God.  Israel has repeatedly abandoned God.  They have sought after the idols and customs of other nations, they have defiled the temple--basically they have broken the heart of the Lord.  I think this is pictured best in chapter 16 with a story of Israel as a harlot who has abandoned her first love.  God is a jealous God and does not allow for His people to serve another--therefore there are consequences to that sin and Israel is sent into exile.  Removed from the promised land and given over to the nations who they have sought after instead of the Lord.   During this time God removes those who have corrupted His people--the evil rulers (ch. 11) the false prophets (ch.13), the Idolatrous elders (ch 14) and sinful individuals (ch 18).  He also punishes the other nations who have seduced His people.  But He leaves a remnant of faithful (6:8-10) who He will restore to His good favor and with whom He will make an eternal covenant.

In the "will know that I am the LORD" statements we see examples of His power shown in particular ways.  He is powerful in that He will punish and destroy sin, unfaithfulness, idolatry, and the profaning of His name.  He is so powerful that even inanimate creation knows that He (and only He) is the LORD and controls all life.  He is powerful in the fact that what He says comes to pass.  He is powerful in mercy--He deals with us to bring glory to His name even when we deserve destruction.  His dealings with His people are so powerful that they are a witness to all nations.  Power in destruction.  Power in redemption.  Power in glory.  Power in creation.  Power over the nations.

Some people struggle with the idea that God is most concerned with the sake of His name--His glory--rather than our lives, but I find amazing freedom in this.  If it were just about our actions, why would God want to forgive our unfaithfulness?  If He were only concerned with our happiness, creation would be in utter chaos, because the total pursuit of personal happiness often causes pain and suffering to others--His concern with His glory means He is just in consequences to sin and unrighteousness in the world.  I'm struggling with verbalizing what I want to say here, but the fact that He is most concerned with His glory assures us that He is in control of what is going on in the world.  All things work together for the good--it may not be the "good" that we have in mind, but it is ultimately to bring glory to Him.

That may have made no sense whatsoever, but ultimately the question is, what is going on in your life that you and others might know that God is the Lord?