April 6, 2013

Ephesians 1 - Make it Personal

2 - Grace and Peace to you!


A greeting. Do I wish grace and peace upon the soul and day of every other person I encounter?





Confess - more than likely, I do not aknowledge people. I am indifferent to the quality of the day they are having, or I'm so focused on my own agenda or objective that I fail to see them at all. Indifference to others is wrapped in self, not wrapped in Christ.
     Jesus, while on earth, was limited. He had a human attention span, linear time, the ability to only be in one place at one time. He was limited by his need for sleep, eating, drinking and other physiological factors. He had human emotions, and the humanity of becoming overwhelmed by the pain of others - when he wept about the death of Lazarus. YET - He stopped. He saw. He listened. He noticed others' lives and pain. He took the time to eat with them, talk with them, listen to them. He took the time to let children crawl into his lap and just be held. And now - the ressurrected Christ is no longer limited by humanity. He is not limited by human attention. He is not working in only one place or time. He is eternal, He is omnipresent, He is ever listening, knowing and loving His children. He is omni-available. He is ready and equipped to handle any person's pain and ugliness, no matter how ugly, no matter how painful. Hallelujah!








3-Praise to God the Father! You have blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.



God this is so much bigger than me, than my twenty-seven years, than my lifespan on the earth as a human being. You have blessed me with Spiritual, rather than carnal, blessings while YOU ARE in Heaven - so much higher are your thoughts and your ways. I certainly do not recognize, call on, or utilize my spiritual blessings in the fullness that you intend. I do not open the gifts you lay at my feet, or inject into my life because my big fat SELF is getting in the way. I do not even understand what you mean by EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ. Open my eyes, and teach me your decrees.




4 - You chose me, in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in your sight.




Predestination is a deal breaker for so many people who hear the gospel. Mentally, it often is for me too. Satan & his team whisper to me - you're unworthy. Why would the God of the Universe ever choose you to be part of his plan? why would he choose you, and not everyone? what is special about you? do you think you're better than others? that's offensive and ugly. Satan even uses phrases tossed on me my whole life to echo and confuse me on this point. Stuck up snob (this is the G rated version). Holier than thou. Fed with a silver spoon, etc.


Our culture, while striving incessantly for earthly riches, priviliges and power, simultaneously denounces and demoralizes the same things.




But I fix my eyes on Jesus. In Ephesians 1:4 - I fix my eyes on 2 words: IN HIM. I -whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, in charge, or an underling, a priviliged princess or starving street urchin - could never ever stand holy or blameless in front of God, unless I was completely wrapped up, covered over, and transformed from the inside out with Jesus Christ. Only the Holy, Ressurrected Son of God who paid for all the things I've done wrong and claims me as His own could present me to God the Father as holy and blameless. That's the only status, privilige, wealth & power that will ever, ever matter. And Thank God, it has nothing to do with any decision, excepting one, that I will ever make. And that decision is simply believing that Jesus is who He claims to be.




I FINALLY have a college degree. I spent seven years in three colleges. Post-secondary education is called a blessing! a springboard! a necessity to survival in a global economy. However, the foundation upon which the vast majority of the post secondary education community stands is SINKING SAND. In some upper level high school and college classes (often labeled "the humanities"), I have been taught that I am a Christian because of the behavior I have learned from my parents, which they learned from theirs and so forth. I learn that my choices and behavior are all a result of my culture -which is made up of many earthly components, none which include a Living, Active, Sovereign, Personal, Transforming Creator.




But You say:


I chose you before the earth ever existed.


I had you in mind long before your college professors' professors' professors had learned their ABC's.


STOP conforming to the thinking of the world, and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. [which only comes by and through ME]


Stop worrying about fitting in and sounding smart and sounding educated with common thinking.


STAND FIRM.


Your heart is mine. It is unique, it is strong enough to be changed by me, and it is needed for the purposes of my Kingdom.




And Jesus, that's enough for me. You are enough for me.




vs. 5 - He predestined us to be adopted as his sons [and daughters] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.


You are not an impersonal God making business decisions in a holy corporation. You want to be my father, because it gives you pleasure. It makes you smile. You are big enough to know tiny me, and delight in the fact that I am your child. Thank you God.










The Fall of Man
Genesis 3:1-6

Now the serpent (1) was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.  He said to the woman, 
       "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  (3)
       The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
    "You will not surely die, " the serpent said to the woman, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (4)

    When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing tot he eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

God had perfection set up for his children in the Garden of Eden.  One decision introduced sin, separation and alienation from God.  One bite.

What can we watch for as we are offered forbidden fruit that may take us down an entirely different path than we wanted to go?

   1)  Satan comes in disguise.  He is beautiful. He is sly.  He never offers temptations as what they truly are, but will deceive and insinuate and accuse with a lovely, flattering tongue, and shiny, desirable sin.

2)  Satan tries to convince us that we deserve it, and it won't hurt anyone.  In Genesis, he "insinuates a falsehood and portrays rebellion as clever, but essentially innocent, self-interest"(NIV Study Bible commentary).   He tries this with Eve, he tries it with us.
    When weighing a decision, the moment that entitlement and the excuse "It won't hurt a thing" enters our mind, all red flags should be waving.

3) Satan causes Eve to doubt God's word.  The moment we start to buy into worldly philosophy of any kind that goes against the Word of God, thinking maybe we misunderstood, misinterpreted, or were taught by our Church leaders to believe something that isn't modern enough for today's world, we are on his hook.  
      I believe we have to make three commitments when it comes to God's word. First, we must read it, and study it, and know it well enough that the spirit can prompt us with it when we are at a crossroads wondering which is the path of temptation and which is the path of righteousness.
    Second, we have to believe that God knows what he's talking about.  He is the designer of the Universe, He is the designer and arranger of all matter.  He is the creator of Science.  He may not have revealed every detail to us in His Word, but we better believe that His understanding of the world, our human relationships and all the workings of the universe far surpasses any thought, theory, even "scientifically proved facts" that the human brain could individually or collectively conclude. And with that understanding, we need to submit to the commands and revelations He did reveal, and trust Him with the details we don't understand.
    Third, if we don't know the answers, we have to have the tenacity, the resourcefulness, the courage to seek answers from the Word.  The moment we believe human wisdom is truth without checking The Truth, we are gullible and complacent fools.
        I'm the first to admit, sometimes I earnestly seek answers in the Bible, and come up gasping for air and thinking, huh?   If this happens, I have to seek guidance from godly leaders who have shown the fruit of the spirit in their lives consistently are living by God's word.  The fruit proves to me that these leaders know God and know His word, and can be trusted to point me in the right direction.

4) Satan accuses God of having unworthy motives. He brings a full attack from all sides.  He attacks our thoughts and emotions, he attacks God's word, He even has the audacity to attack God Himself.  Just like a lawyer sometimes needs to destroy a witness's credibility, Satan attempts to destroy God's credibility.  Fortunately for us, actions always speak louder than words.  Satan proves himself a liar and a destroyer every time, while God's compassions NEVER fail.  Everything He does from Genesis to Revelation, and in our own lives, sings a sweet melody of redemption and love every time.

     Just like we are trained to drop everything and get out of the building in a fire drill,  we need to build in fire alarms in our brains, and be open to the spirit to set them off.  Watch out for Satan's tactics.  He's not very original, and he keeps trying the same things over and over.  Just like a coach can spot patterns in an offense, we need to spot Satan's plays, and set up our defense to stuff Satan before he convinces us of his lies. The good news is, through the blood of Jesus, we are already on the winning team.  Satan is vanquished and Jesus is King.  He's just trying to lead us astray.

1 Timothy 6:11  
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.